Build Your Immunity Against Pandemics by Remaining Younger Longer: Two Ways to Do So

INTRODUCTION

I am often asked Don – when will you tackle the Covid crisis? Is there a REAL wellness angle that could mitigate the risks of this condition? What can individuals and what can societies do to prevent or mitigate future pandemics?

I think there are two approaches that should be highlighted that are ignored or barely mentioned by WHO, CDC or medical experts. No, I’m not thinking about ultraviolet light or taking bleach or other disinfectants. Contrary to the President’s proposals, neither of my strategies involve ultraviolet light or the ingestion of cleaning products.

STRATEGY ONE: ATHLETIC

The first suggestion involves the REAL wellness dimension of athleticism – exercise and nutrition. Fitness and diet reforms, as part of a broader personal commitment to well-being, represent an opportunity to reduce one of, if not the most dangerous, comorbidity of a pandemic—age.

While early death is imperative to prevent old age, the comorbid factor that makes old age such a risk in pandemics is frailty combined with longevity. Staying younger longer (ie less frail) through optimal nutrition and exercise is as sound an investment in your future as there is.

Premature frailty is a great danger – so everyone should strive to become as physically fit as possible. More is possible than most Americans realize. You can do it yourself—no federal, state, or local support required; no doctors need to be consulted. Don’t ask what the healthcare system can do for you; Ask what you can do to reduce your need for healthcare.

In addition to age, the main risk factors that make people susceptible to the corona virus are obesity, heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes. These and other risks are related to the other hallmark of athleticism—the foods you eat.

Anyone lucky enough to live long enough to be eligible for Medicare, Social Security, and theater rebates eventually becomes frail, no matter how careful the diet, no matter how ambitious the fitness routine. But it’s better to keep dips to 80 or 90 in check than 60 or 65. If you get it right, with any luck you’ll find that 80 is the new 39. Well maybe 69.

Adults 65 and older make up 16% of the US population but 80% of COVID-19 deaths. Mortality rates for those over the age of 80 who contract the Covid virus are five times the overall global average. Additional risks at this age come from neglect in care settings, increasing poverty and stigma associated with discrimination and isolation.

Getting as fit as possible with exercise and optimal nutrition are the two initiatives you can take that have not been encouraged this year of the Covid_19 pandemic. Find out how you can participate in the sports you love or activities you enjoy — while also becoming an expert at choosing and enjoying whole foods, plant-based eating — or other eating patterns that require more thorough nutrition Exams that you think are the healthiest and most comfortable.

Also, pay attention to other lifestyle arts, especially resilience, positivity, an active social life, community engagement, your personal freedoms, critical thinking, and anything else that fosters exuberance, love, purpose, and happiness.

Boost your immunity now – it will protect you later. Try to get and stay in top shape for as long as possible. The next pandemic will likely be more damaging than this one. If you are lucky enough to grow old, you will enjoy being old more and probably longer. This relieves your relatives and society.

STRATEGY TWO: DON’T EAT ANIMALS

Viral infectious diseases caused by eating animals are called zoonoses. They are not always due to consumption of exotic animals in live markets like Wuhan, China, but are traced to domestic farm animals. Such transmissions cause measles, tuberculosis and AIDS. Michael Greger, MD, author of how to survive a pandemic identifies the consumption of food poisoned in concentration camp-worthy slaughterhouses as the main source of pandemics.

Livestock (beef, hogs and poultry) are bred, raised and killed in what are known as concentrated animal feed plants (CAFOs) or factory farms on an industrial scale. Thousands of genetically similar animals are packed into unsanitary cages, pressed body to body. This leads to disease due to the extreme stress on the animal’s immune system. Factory farms are ideal environments for viruses and other pathogens that mutate and evolve to spread to human populations. (Source: Matt Wellington, US Public Interest Research Group.)

The proposed idea is to encourage changes in the nation’s dietary preferences to drastically reduce or eliminate the consumption of beef, pork and poultry.

This will take decades, if not generations, but a trend in the desired direction is already underway and should be encouraged.

Large animal protein companies, including Smithfield, Cargill and Hormel, among others, are recognizing the need to deviate from current practices.

SUMMARY

Boost your immunity to pandemics and other calamities with a REAL wellness lifestyle. Strengthen your resistance to the foibles of long life with exceptional attention to athleticism. Being in top shape is invaluable at all stages of life, but even more so (thanks George Orwell) in recent years. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo described the current pandemic as a metaphor in a speech at the virtual Democratic National Convention, suggesting that A virus attacks when the body is weak and unable to defend itself. While the governor was referring to the corporation, it is also true that only a strong human body can fight off a virus.

Strong bodies of all ages, including perennials and evergreens of impressive longevity, are more likely to thrive and thrive when the next pandemic arrives, which could be even more damaging than this one.

Much luck. Live long and well.

Thanks to Donald Ardell