Vitamin D a nutrient present in a few foods, a hormone that our bodies produce has been long known to impact bone growth, bone healing, and boost immune system function. Hence I am taking extra D3 during this pandemic! The sun alone may not be able to meet our needs and actually, you need time to allow the ‘D’ from the rays to be absorbed into your body. So after sunning, no shower for at least 2 hours! Also, your skin color, time of year, and where you live are critical factors. Check how much you are getting daily and remember always better to get it from foods than supplements. Please if you are under 70 be sure you are getting 600 IU (15mcg)/day. Over 70 increase to 800IU(20mcg)/day. More than 4000IU/day is dangerous. The University of Florida provides examples of foods that contain vitamin D:
3 ounces (oz) of cooked sockeye salmon: 570 IU or 14 mcg.
3 oz of drained canned tuna: 240 IU or 6 mcg.
3 oz of drained canned sardines: 165 IU or 4 mcg.
1 cup of 1% fortified milk: 120 IU or 3 mcg.
6 oz of low-fat vanilla yogurt: 80 IU or 2 mcg.
three-quarters of a cup of fortified orange juice: 75 IU or 2 mcg.
1 serving of fortified breakfast cereal: At least 40 IU or 1 mcg.
1 large hard-boiled egg: 45 IU or 1 mcg.
But I digress, this blog is to share new info regarding Vitamin D’s influence in fighting Diabetes, Hypertension, and Dementia.
Dementia
Long-term studies one over 6 years resulted in mountingevidence supporting the supposition that vitamin D gives our brains a boost. Prevention is the cornerstone of any disease, especially dementia. Those with deficiencies had the highest risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Diabetes
A study, derived from the Nurses’ Health Study, found that daily supplementation of calcium and vitamin D was associated with a 33% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. That’s a big number!
Hypertension/Heart Disease
A study, published in Circulation, followed more than 1,700 individuals (more than 5 years), without any cardiovascular disease to find a significant association in time between vitamin D deficiency and their development of cardiovascular disease.
Variousother studies have also come to the conclusion that low levels of vitamin D may increase the risk of coronary artery or heart diseases.
– best when taking supplements buy vitamin in the D3 form
The latest podcast addresses the big question of immunity to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. You have had the nasty thing and how long before your immunity ceases? ListenUp! Doc Handal shares the latest research and explains the basics of how a strong immune system responds. Have a listen via your favorite source to the COVID-19 immunity podcast.
Viral load exposure versus viral dose exposure – frequent small amounts versus one large exposure – determines how ill you become from exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It has been repeatedly been shown that this will affect the severity of your illness and outcome. Makes perfect sense when you know that the body can start to develop an immune response (mount a defense) if it is exposed in frequent small amounts of a foreign substance (in this case virus) as opposed to receiving a large dose all at once. Time to mount a response can be critical.
Simply put a large exposure to SARS-CoV-2 is more likely to trigger severe COVID-19 and poor outcomes.
An illustration in humans is the cruise ship that left Argentina in March. All passengers wore masks almost all who were positive by end of the cruise were asymptomatic. True evidence that universal masking may result in a higher proportion of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases.
Prospective studies in humans can’t ethically be undergone, but multiple animal studies support this very principle.
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Monica Gandhi, MD, and George Rutherford, MD, of the University of California in San Francisco, postulate that ‘masking’ may act as a “variolation,” exposing individuals to a smaller amount of viral particles and producing an immune response. Further, they write “the initial dose of virus that a patient takes in, is one likely determinant of ultimate illness severity.”
Is the size of the viral load found in a person that determines the outcome?A South Korea-based study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that viral load was no different in asymptomatic patients versus those with symptoms. Our bodies are so very complicated, one simple explanation/process does not apply to all of us.
It must be how you got to that load slowly or all at once. I believe viral load makes a difference, no matter the bottom line –
At present COVID-19 mortality rates is 50% to 62% for adults admitted to the ICU. The hallmark lung findings: dry cough and fever and then pneumonia is not found in everyone. COVID-19 doesn’t always go completely away ad you are back to yourself! It might linger for weeks in some and in others might leave permanent body organ damage.
However, the burden of COVID-19 infection in children was much lower compared with seasonal influenza, with CDC reporting (as of April 28)eight deaths in children ages 14 and younger related to COVID-19 compared with 169 influenza-related deaths in the same age group during the 2019-2020 flu season.
Adults can suffer heart attacks when infected with the SARS Co-2 virus. Not all will have had hypertension or Diabetes Type 2 although these pre-existing conditions are commonly seen in these patients. Often no lung symptoms! This is from a retrospective study within a single health system in New York City.
To re-iterate my advice: You do NOT want to get this virus if you can avoid it. Please follow safe distancing andnot venturing out unnecessarily. Age, as well as other medical conditions, should make you more patient as we all wait for a worthwhile vaccine or at least until medical professionals decide upon the best treatment plans.
This infection is so hard to recognize and treat as in every person the virus acts differently. Is it because of what shape our immune system is in? Hence you have read my recent blog on a current regimen to boost body defenses (immunity) it as well as in the media.
Recall, I mentioned in an earlier blog, certain countries were hit harder – had more cases of this virus and more deaths. Yes, cities given their population density were postulated to have more cases just on that but now think mutations!
I also mentioned in a past blog there were a number of mutations postulated. Clearly now research showsthat COVID-19 mutated early on in the pandemic to create a more transmissive strain: the ‘G clade’, which may also be associated with a higher viral load. Sure enough, that is what was found in patients in Italy. At ‘home’ NY residents had a high percentage of the ‘G clade’ than found in other states.
More news about this very complex virus is that its impact on the human body can last a very long time and leave many with permanent damage to organ function. Some individuals after as much as 50 days are struggling with symptoms. Children with COVID-19 can suffer an overwhelming inflammatory syndrome, a version unique to children, attacking the heart and causing death. Naturally, children with a predisposing condition are at greater risk.
I would like to take an offensive approach and after research internationally and in US literature I want to share a few recommendations that make sense to me. Many medical opinions suggest boosting your immune system in the case. To that end recommendations have included relatively benign supplements*:
Zinc -losenges best -75-100mg/day
Vitamin C -500mg twice a day
Vitamin D3- 1-4000 mg /day
Melatonin, slow-release begin with 3 mg. and increase as tolerated (at bedtime) increase to 6-12 mg daily
Quercetin 250-500 mg. twice a day – an antioxidant, antiinflammatory found in plants
Some individuals have started to monitor with an oximeter (very hard to find to buy as most made in China) to monitor their oxygen saturation. Recall you % drops before you get dry cough and pneumonia.
I have not mentioned in detail, to date, the Hydroxychloroquine drug but its use is for when you believe you are infected. Must be started ASAP, 400mg twice a day then 200 mg twice a day for 4 days. French pulmonologists from early in outbreak to date recommend this medication. Because of clotting seen in many COVID-19 patients, ASA 81-325mg a day is another recommended drug.
*check with your healthcare provider prior to taking any supplements
To stop infected people (some don’t even know) from expelling virus. Even if not sneezing or coughing simply talking sends droplets out.
To help remind you not to touch your face – the SARS-COVID-19 virus can enter your body through nose and mouth (yes and thru eyes). Once in ….
If you are going to get infected better to get it in a small dose – ‘start small’ a low inoculum. This gets your immune system going to stop the intruder-the virus. A small inoculum allows your body to mount a defense and start making antibodies to the virus.
A high sugar diet is well known to cause bodily harm. Effects include making any disease worst, and of course, weight gain, and tooth decay. I would like to blog, however, about the low-grade chronicinflammation that occurs from a persistent diet high in sugar/starch, saturated and trans fat.
Inflammation is natural and the acute response of the body when faced with injury or infection. During inflammation, the body’s immune system activates. It is helpful and normal BUT chronic inflammation is not helpful can result in damage to healthy cells throughout including the gut and cause insulin resistance. A measurable increase in inflammatory markers can be found in the blood following such a diet.
This study scared me; folks having one can regular soda daily for 6 months had an increase of uric acid that causes inflammation and insulin resistance and LDL (bad) cholesterol.
Those having a diet soda, milk, or water did not have inflammatory markers in their blood. Don’t forget the weight gain! Other studies have shown an increased risk of cancers, diabetes, and heart disease from diets high in refined sugars and refined carbs.
Note: Natural sugar, those in fruits, vegetables and whole grains are actually anti-inflammatory. Listen Up! to the podcast from earlier this year on anti Inflammatory diet.
Realize if no insult to the body that requires an inflammatory response to mend, then inflammation will do bad things to the body. Pain, just one negative effect, can result from chronic inflammation
You must by now believe in the mind body connection? Below I point out recent study that sheds more precise light on this matter. Please refer to my post on ‘Why Stress Can Kill’ and then read on.
Mast cells are the immune cells with a key task in inflammatory/allergic diseases. In comes an allergen (peanuts, pollen. whatever) and mast cells let off histamines, hence antihistamines for allergy treatment. There is also a releasing hormone on the surface of the mast cells – a protein known as corticotropin-releasing factor receptor subtype 1 (CRF1). Studies so far in mice show that those that have high levels of CRF-1 have excessive reaction to stress and can develop asthma and other diseases like lupus and IBD. If mast cells have low or no CRF-1 receptors on their surfaces, the mice experience less histamine release and less disease.
Here comes stress released CRF-1 circulating it targets specific immune cells that then release chemical substances that can trigger diseases, including asthma, lupus, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Hope this is not to ‘medicalez’ , but I want to convey what a complicated interrelated system our bodies use.
Cord blood is presently used to treat over 80 life threatening conditions and could potentially treat cerebral palsy, autism spinal cord injury and diabetes to name a few. NOT medical waste, cord blood can be banked and used. This potent and non controversial stem cells source should not be thrown away with the placenta and umbilical cord. Good News – no political or religious issues exist. These stem cells can be used for treatment of genetic disease, immune disease and cancer. Better than bone marrow it is easier to collect and store. Giving back ones own stem cells later in life, as and when needed, insures no rejection from another person’s bone marrow stem cells. Greatest gift for children or grandchildren is to bank cord blood!
A high sugar diet is well known to cause bodily harm. Effects include making any disease worst, and of course, weight gain, and tooth decay. I would like to blog, however, about the low-grade chronic 
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