For more than two months now, our country has been shut down in its efforts to lessen the impact on our nation's hospitals with the projected millions that were going to be deathly ill or die from the covid-19 virus. This was soon changed to stay at home and then safer at home, because as it turns out most hospitals were not overrun by any stretch. In fact, the data to date (fewer than 300,000 people world-wide have succumbed to covid-19) has not supported such Draconian measures, as the dire forecasting of millions of deaths did not occur. With all that said, it has become abundantly clear where the true epidemic lies, and that is with our own poor health which ultimately impacts our immune system's ability to fight off viruses, specifically those living with co-morbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and other diet-related diseases - which may also affect some young and middle-aged individuals who may have these pre-existing conditions not yet diagnosed.
As discussed earlier, those suffering with diabetes and obesity complications live in a constant state of inflammation surging throughout their bodies, and when a virus like covid-19 comes into the picture, the immune system in its attempt to fight off the virus, instead suffers a cytokine storm in its efforts to rally the immune system to fight it off. The end result in these scenarios often leaves these people on ventilators for extended periods, and in some cases death.
The Emerging Science Connecting Glycemic Control to Improved COVID-19 Outcomes
Abnormalities of innate immunity are classically seen in both obesity and type 2 diabetes, with marked elevation in circulating cytokines such as IL-6, serum ferritin, and CRP (C-reactive protein) which may lead to the release of TNF and IL-1, resulting in the cytokine storm seen in the end stage of COVID-19. These are precisely the cytokines found to be elevated in patients with diabetes succumbing to Covid-19 infection.
If nothing else, the covid-19 virus has exposed where our attention truly needs to be devoted: a renewed focus on the true nature of metabolic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, and how those conditions can be modified and in many cases reversed with eating real whole foods, thereby boosting our immune systems. Nina Teicholz, in this Wall Street Journal article exemplifies and espouses this message that must be given our attention:
The coronavirus has added a brutal exclamation point to America’s pervasive ill health. Americans with obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other diet-related diseases are about three times more likely to suffer worsened outcomes from Covid-19, including death. Had we flattened the still-rising curves of these conditions, it’s quite possible that our fight against the virus would today look very different.
So there you have it. Yet again, mainstream doctors and the media missing the mark in terms of where the true ‘pandemic/epidemic’ lies: Understanding why susceptible people (especially those with diabetes, obesity & hypertension) get seriously ill and/or die from viral diseases. Part of the solution is to seriously examine our nation’s food guidelines, and to examine the relationship susceptible people have with this and other related viruses.