Covid-19, Attitudes and Health. 6th October 2020.
Following the rules of lockdown. Have you? Do you? Do the majority follow them? We get media attention on those who do not. To some extent, people have to make their own decisions and interpretations of the rules according to their own circumstances, after all this is not a totalitarian state. I think the emphasis for each of us should be on taking care of others, following the rules for their sake, or keeping your distance for their sake. As you did this you would automatically take care of yourself. And if someone does not feel safe with your decisions, take their feelings into account and try and adjust your actions for their sake, and allow them to do what they need to do. This means challenging yourself, perhaps your own selfishness, but it also means exerting some self-discipline and compassion. I tend to think that we are a somewhat undisciplined society with too much emphasis on entitlement and self.
Following the statistics of Covid has been frustrating for me. I like to know the detail. The parameters have be changed at various points, adding new variables to the same graphs for example, which in science you just don’t do. Important details have been missing as well. And some statistics just disappeared after a time.
I have also had to search hard to find out that the death rate in ICU has been cut by a third through evolving better treatment, and that dexamethasone is increasing this improvement. Why oh why is this so hard to find? We need to be encouraged.
I was staggered to hear this statistic recently. Of those critically ill with Covid-19 in the UK, 30% were overweight, 31% obese, and 12% morbidly obese, making a total of 73%. The same statistic applies in other European countries including Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. This should be a wake up call, and it reflects the poor health in our society today.
This has lead me to look at our vulnerability to disease. Clearly being overweight is a distinct vulnerability, and being overweight is a fairly modern phenomenon. Fast processed food high in calories and low in nutritional value is a big problem. The Victorians of the mid 19th century used to eat far more fruit and vegetables, and about twice as many calories (nutritional ones), but they worked it off with physical work, and so they were not overweight. Because of the amount of fruit and vegetables they ate, they got the required amounts of vitamins and minerals to support their immune system. It is essentially impossible to do this on our calorie intake today. If you eat a lot of junk food, you might be taking in the calories but not the nutrition.
Being overweight causes inflammation which is the curse of our health today more so than infectious diseases. Inflammation attacks the body, progressively damaging it over a long period of time and eventually causing degenerative diseases, something the Victorians did not generally suffer from. Things like Type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. It also compromises immunity. Auto immune diseases are a modern phenomenon, and cancer is common rather than rare as it was in the Victorian era, and this is clearly linked to diet. Overweight means having white adipose fat (as opposed to normal yellow fat) which secretes adipocytokines linked to inflammation and the dangerous cytokine storm you might have heard about with Covid patients in ICU. Degenerative disease is progressive so you are going to get more ill as you get older. I think this might distort the significance of age alone in the ICU/death statistics.
I am coming round to seeing that we live in a society with many many sick people in it who do not need to be sick. Rather than do something about it for ourselves we seem to want drug fixes and vaccines. The drugs just treat the symptoms though, they don’t fix the problem.
I still cannot find the statistic
which shows how many people have got seriously ill/died in different age groups
who are genuinely healthy, without any medical conditions, who eat healthily,
get the right amount of vitamins and minerals, who are of healthy weight, and
exercise regularly. I suspect, that in all age groups there are very very few,
and any could be expressed as anomalies maybe due to genetic reasons. So, is it time to focus on your health??
