What's Your Post-Pandemic Plan?
From eNewsletter 6/7/2021
DID YOU KNOW it is never early or too late to adopt a healthy lifestyle? Two new studies in those 80 and older and those 3 and under prove it. A new study from PLOS Medicine in adults aged 80 years and older shows that starting to adhere to healthier lifestyle habits even at that advanced age or later is associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment. A second study from Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics found that when health workers were trained to promote infant healthy feeding practices to pregnant women, their children consumed less fats and carbohydrates at 3 years of age and had lower measures of body fat at the age of 6. The study is the first to show that the roots for obesity start in the first year of life, after mothers stop breastfeeding.
Single Edition Newsletter for June 7th Our paid edition includes 8 segments that aren't in our free version:
Well Connect Feature: Headache, Migraine Update.
Intelligently Active: Physical Activity Depletes What Minerals?
Mythbuster: Is Icing an Injury Necessary?
Brand Buzz: New Allergy Complex | Cauliflower Tortilla Chips
Green Lifestyle: How Pollution Fared During the Pandemic
Recipe du Jour: Two Homemade Dressings
Wild Card: Teen Girls Benefit Greatly From This.
eInspire: Quote from Helen Keller
Buy Today's Paid Members Edition for $0.99
Buy One Year Membership for $79.99 *Guest Area password: discount2018
New Products! Three new gummy supplements from Pure Encapsulations: Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Zinc.
Food Intolerance Testing Dates Available We have two spots open for Saturday, July 17th. First come, first serve.
UPDATE: Our COVID-19 Vaccine Opinion This document was updated June 7th
Virus Prevention And Treatment Vaccines will minimize COVID-19 related mortality and hospitalizations, but SARS-CoV-2 is not going away, as evidenced by its ever-mutating variants. Moreover, SARS-CoV-2 is not the only virus we fight. There are influenza (flu), norovirus (stomach flu), adenovirus (common cold), and four other coronaviruses (common cold), among others. We highly recommend continuing your immune support. For more information, refer to our Prevent and Fight Viruses 2.0 Protocol.
COVID-19 Condition Monograph For those interested in conventional and integrative treatments for COVID-19 with over 250 references, this is our COVID-19 Condition Monograph.
Post-COVID Syndrome (PCS) If you, or someone you know, has PCS, we provide individualized consultation or our Post-COVID Syndrome Action Plan. Paid yearly NCI Well Connect members can access it for free.
PREPPING FOR THE FUTURE
Steve and Bonnie: It is paramount that we implement plans for the future. Here are some goals to shoot for.
Short-term
It is critical that we implement dramatic public health preventive measures immediately. Aside from the devastation the pandemic created, there is also research showing that prior to the pandemic, compared to previous generations, members of Generation X and Generation Y showed poorer physical health, higher levels of unhealthy behaviors such as alcohol use and smoking, and more depression and anxiety. If we don't find a way to slow this trend, we are potentially going to see an expansion of morbidity and mortality rates in the United States as these generations get older. Not to mention that we will be even less prepared to fight off future pandemics, as witnessed by the fact that pandemic death rates were 10 times higher in overweight or obese countries like the United States.
COVID-19 also opened the door for us to address a problem that has vexed the medical community for decades: the overtreatment and unnecessary treatment of patients. On one hand, the pandemic caused non-COVID-19 patients who were forced to, or chose to, avoid tests and treatments for various illnesses. On the other hand, in cases in which no harm was done by delays or cancellations, medical experts should reevaluate whether those procedures are truly necessary. Numerous studies have shown that overtreatment causes unnecessary suffering and billions of dollars in unnecessary health care costs. One example that has already shown its mettle is at-home colorectal screening versus colonoscopy: the at-home FIT or Cologuard colorectal tests are not only immensely cost-effective, but minimize thousands of side effect/injuries that occur every year from colonoscopies.
Medium-term
As much of America returns to its pre-pandemic ways, infectious-disease experts and an epidemiologists agree that a major surge of COVID-19 is possible this fall and winter. While we do not know for certain, this forecast is partly suspected as the seasonality of the SARS-CoV-2 virus will be the new norm. While cases and deaths will continue to fall in the United States over the summer, the infection rate may rise again in the fall and could be significantly higher by winter. Epidemiologists blame this on falling about 30% short of total vaccination target of 80-85% of the population. In our opinion, the real reason is that most Americans will still be woefully vitamin D deficient. Maintaining optimal vitamin D levels and sticking with your infection prevention protocol is recommended.
Long-term
The real question is how long does immunity last in those who are vaccinated and those who contracted COVID-19 infection? Most experts, including ourselves, agree that we're not going to be in a world free of COVID-19. But even if people don't have 100% or 95% protection against the variants that will probably spread around the world, the illness will not be as bad.
The pandemic taught us that an ounce of prevention is still worth a pound of cure! 73% of people hospitalized for COVID-19 had at least one underlying chronic condition, and rates of hospitalization increased as the number of conditions increased.
Locking down the entire country should be shunned if another pandemic arises. Protect the most vulnerable, wear masks in public, social distance, but the effect the lockdown had is immeasurable and will take decades to quantify.
Optimizing physical, mental and emotional, social, dietary, sleep, genetic, blood type, and dietary supplement health should all be part of your long-term goals. If you followed our COVID-19 prevention protocols during the pandemic, you understand the importance of immune support, optimal dietary choices (especially minimizing added sugars), and much more.
If there was anything positive that came out of the pandemic, it allowed us to rethink our priorities and what is truly important to us. Aiming for higher life satisfaction is linked to 21 positive health and well-being outcomes, according to a first-of-its-kind study in The Milbank Quarterly, including:
26 percent reduced risk of mortality
46 percent reduced risk of depression
25 percent reduced risk of physical functioning limitations
12 percent reduced risk of chronic pain
14 percent reduced risk of sleep problem onset
Eight percent higher likelihood of frequent physical activity
Better psychological well-being is based upon several indicators including higher: positive affect, optimism, purpose in life, and mastery; as well as lower: hopelessness, negative affect, perceived constraints, and loneliness.
And Finally...
The wonderful thing is that you are already putting into practice many of these optimal habits. Continue to work on optimizing the areas that need work, but do it within the construct of positivity, not stress and anxiety.