Over 15 years ago I made the conscious choice to pursue my career in exercise science and nutrition as a means to contribute to the greater good. I realized the most straight forward and effective way for me to improve others health and well-being in addition to extending their longevity was through the most basic principles: daily physical activity, whole foods-based eating, and mindfulness practices. This very belief is at the core of how I have coached my clients since the very beginning. I honestly believe that a lot of the chronic diseases, ailments, and discomfort that people struggle with all come from their own lifestyle choices. If we choose to treat our bodies and minds with care and respect, we can lead a healthy, vibrant, and fulfilling life.
Over the past couple months COVID-19 has completely uprooted our daily lives. It has taken the lives of many, closed down countless businesses, and has left us afraid to be within 6 feet of others, lysoling and bleaching everything, and overall being extremely concerned about the health and safety of elderly loved ones and those with underlying health conditions. What it’s also done, is reinforced the notion that living a healthy lifestyle… getting enough exercise, eating healthy food, sleeping enough… can save your life on a much more immediate basis than the abstract “over the long haul” thinking of the past.
Since this disease is very new there is not an array of available data to pull from. However, the CDC has extracted from the US hospital data that many of the sickest Covid-19 patients also had underlying medical conditions. Seventy-eight percent of all people put into intensive care for Covid-19 in the US have had an underlying condition like diabetes or heart disease: 32 percent had diabetes, 29 percent had heart disease, 21 percent had chronic lung disease, and 9 percent had compromised immune systems.
According to another study of 45,000 confirmed cases in China, fewer than 1.0% of healthy people who contracted the COVID-19 virus died from the disease. But that percentage increased to around 6.0% for people with cancer, hypertension or chronic respiratory disease, 7.3% for those with diabetes and 10.5% for those with cardiovascular disease. Patients who were 80 or older were also at increased risk, with 14.8% dying.
Most people who get sick with COVID-19 experience a local infection in the cells that line the airways in the lungs. This infection triggers an immune reaction that will eradicate the virus and allow for recovery. The typical symptoms may include fever, cough and shortness of breath, but they are temporary and usually a week to 2 weeks later completely recover. However, the elderly and those with underlying health conditions may have a dysfunctional immune system that leads to an uncontrolled immune response to the virus. This can lead to pneumonia, and then severe lung damage from pneumonia can result in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which in turn can cause septic shock. ARDS and sepsis are the primary causes of death in people with COVID-19.
If the mere thought of a possible heart attack or stroke isn’t enough to get people to rethink their diet and lifestyle choices, maybe a deadly pandemic will ignite this fire for change. Substantial evidence proves that 30 minutes a day of exercise, practicing 10 minutes of mindfulness, and eating a whole food-based diet can prevent, and in some cases reverse, medical conditions like hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and autoimmune diseases. In our current situation (or a similar one that could arise in the future), not having these medical conditions can help protect you from possible death from a global pandemic like COVID-19.
I encourage you to reflect back on the last couple months and use this scary and alarming situation to raise awareness to the bigger problem that many of us have been ignoring for decades. Our general lack of desire or motivation to treat our bodies with respect by exercising daily and eating nutritious foods. How can we expect our body to defend us from dangerous pathogens if we don’t arm it with the very basics that help it operate at top speed? It’s like expecting a Lamborghini to drive well on regular unleaded fuel, it’s just plain madness.
Here are 3 simple goals to focus on to help boost your overall mental and physical health, both during quarantine and beyond:
Exercise for 20-30 minutes daily. That can be a walk, run, yoga video, dancing, weights circuit, whatever gets you moving.
Practice 5-10 minutes of mindfulness. That can be lying down and listening to soothing music, taking and focusing on deep, slow, deliberate breaths, following a guided meditation, or going through some daily stretches.
Focus on filling your plates with fruits, vegetables, high fiber whole carbohydrates, quality fats, and organic meats. Minimize sugar, alcohol, and processed foods.
It doesn’t seem like a lot, and that’s because it’s really not in the grand scheme of things. It’s just a matter of changing our mindset and instead of looking at it as work or just another thing we should do, think of it as a gift that you are giving to yourself and those close to you. I promise these few steps will make this quarantine much more bearable and help you be better prepared for future viruses and the next wave of COVID-19 that is bound to cycle around again.
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