COVID-19 and "The Elephant In The Room"
Dr. Aseem Malhotra has long been an advocate against “Chronic Metabolic Disease”: Obesity, High Blood Pressure, Type 2 Diabetes, Smoking, and Cancer. With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping through the world, he sees that addressing these chronic conditions is more important now than ever. According to Dr. Malhotra’s analysis of COVID-19’s victims in Italy,
“The average person who died had at least 2.7 chronic conditions . . . In Wuhan, more than 60% of the people who suffered major complications (and, tragically, many of these people died) had Type 2 Diabetes or High Blood Pressure.”
Chronic diseases, especially these metabolic diseases, already swamp hospitals and health care systems, competing with acute cases of diseases like COVID-19, and recent studies have shown that Type-2 Diabetes and other Chronic Metabolic Diseases actively suppress the body’s immune response and make people more vulnerable diseases (read more at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30174303) .
But, says Dr. Malhotra, this link is actually good news! Type 2 Diabetes and other Chronic Metabolic Diseases are reversible, which means reducing one’s vulnerability to COVID-19 is possible! Dr. Malhotra gives three key steps to keeping yourself safe:
Eat well! According to Dr. Malhotra, “the problem with obesity and excess body fat is really ultra processed food.” Especially for those of us who are more home-bound than ever, now is the time to start cooking with whole foods. In the words of CrossFit founder Greg Glassman, eat “meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar.” (Greg Glassman, “What Is Fitness?”)
Be Active! Take a walk, join an online fitness community, or blow the dust off that elliptical in the basement! Dr. Malhotra cites a warning to the UN that, if people stay inactive for a three month period (which is not unlikely given the widespread closures and Stay-At-Home orders) the death toll of COVID-19 could increase by 7000 in the UK alone!
Sleep! Now that many of us are working from home, we can finally catch up on our sleep debts! Dr. Malhotra suggests getting 7-8 hours of sleep minimum to keep your body’s immune response at peak speed to fight off any illnesses you may come across!
No doubt this is a scary time, but with these three steps, there is hope for every one of us! Type 2 Diabetes has been shown to be reversible in as little as 6-8 weeks with dedicated nutrition and exercise. Using Dr. Malhotra’s advice, we can all use this scary time to take control of the things we can: ourselves.
