July 20, 2020

Coronavirus Update 22nd Dec 2021

We’ve all heard that the worst fear is fear itself. With COVID-19, it’s the fear of the unknown.

This is made worse as we try to achieve three strategies:

  1. keep up-to-date with changing guidelines – vaccination, boosters etc
  2. do what is suggested to avoid infection – masks, hand washing, social distancing etc
  3. build our health and immune function in advance, in case we get infected

To help you achieve Goal 3 we’ve named this blog post The COVID Seatbelt Plan to give you and your family an extra layer of protection – just like a seatbelt does.

Wearing a seatbelt does not prevent you having a car accident, but adds to your safety with an extra layer of protection.

The best protection has 3 sides: 1. Vaccination, 2. Minimising Infection Risk and 3. Proactive Health Defence

Strategy 1: Vaccination

We’ll be short. Follow your state government health guidelines.

Strategy 2: Minimise Infection Risk

We should all be doing ALL the things recommended by authorities to avoid getting infected and infecting others.

Infection control includes:

  1. Self-isolating if you have any symptoms, or come into contact with anyone who has any symptoms. Call your doctor or local hospital.
  2. Hand-washing frequently when you are out and about, or in the workplace. Did you know that hand washing is superior to gels as hand-washing washes the virus off your hands. Use soap and water and do it for as long as it takes to sing ‘happy birthday’. But where you can’t wash your hands, use a hand sanitiser gel. Keep some hand gel in the car.
  3. Face-covering (as advised) when outside the home and specifically if you are in any area where transmission is possible (eg inside enclosed places, public transport, lifts etc) wear a mask.
  4. Face-touching is a habit many of us have. Try to be aware of this habit whether you are wearing a mask or not. If you wear a mask, wash your hands before touching or adjusting a mask.
  5. Social distancing. Avoid handshakes, hugs and kisses. Think a thumbs up, wave, smile, elbow-bump or toe tap. We offer our weight loss coaching via Zoom or phone. We also have a range of online exercise classes and can mail our any protein products.
  6. Avoid unnecessary travel. Stay in contact with local health advice on travel.
  7. Socialise outside. If you choose to meet up with friends and family, try to meet up outside. Even before the vaccine rollout, outdoors transmission was probably less likely than being struck dead by lightning. Once you are fully vaccinated, your likelihood of being infected outdoors by anyone (vaccinated or not) is super super low, especially if you are also social distancing (no hugs, handshakes or kisses).

The available COVID-19 mortality statistics tell us who is at greatest risk by age and sex (two things we can do nothing about). Males aged between 70 to 89 make up the majority of the COVID-19 deaths. The next biggest risk factor is whether you have a co-morbidity (health risk) and that’s where Strategy 3 can help.

Strategy 3: Proactive Health Defence – The COVID Seatbelt Plan

This means doing the things that make you less vulnerable (more resilient) should you get infected.

It’s like wearing a seatbelt – these strategies don’t stop you having an accident, but make it less likely that you and your family will suffer or be hurt in an accident. Just as you are crazy not to wear a seatbelt, you’re crazy not to do some simple things to maintain the best health and strongest immunity.

Data suggests that co-morbidities (excess weight, excess waistline, metabolic dysfunction, pre-diabetes, diabetes, high-blood pressure, heart disease etc) seem to increase vulnerability to a worse outcome including higher mortality rate from any virus (including the flu).

You can moderate these risks with targeted, healthy lifestyle changes (like the Healthy Inspirations program) at any age. Sometimes people have these conditions and don’t know as they could be asymptomatic. This means they feel healthy, but aren’t.

Is being overweight or obese a risk? Maybe or maybe not!

Although some studies have ‘associated’ increased risk from carrying excess weight (especially around the waist), it may not be the excess weight that increases the risk, but the condition that is associated with extra weight – insulin resistance. Even relatively slim people can have insulin resistance. It’s also called pre-diabetes as it can lead to diabetes.

Insulin resistance is closely correlated with having a waistline that’s over 50% of your height. Divide your height by 2. Now measure your waist. If your waist is greater than half your height, you may have insulin resistance.

Although insulin resistance is not measured or detected in standard blood tests, it can be deducted from your blood tests. Divide your triglycerides by your HDL. If you score 1.5 or higher, it is highly likely you have undiagnosed insulin resistance (even more likely if over 2.0). Warning! You can be slim and have insulin resistance.

You can have normal blood sugar but have chronically high insulin. Insulin Resistance is not a glucose disease. It is an insulin disease.

As insulin resistance is mainly caused by food choices over many years (not your genes), the most effective solution is to correct your food choices, specifically your carbohydrate load. The fact is that your current body may not be able to get away with the food choices you got away with when you were 20 years younger.

The trick is to learn what is your body’s unique carbohydrate tolerance and what that means in everyday fresh foods that you and your family like. That’s one of our program goals.

Associated with insulin resistance is leptin resistance, and this too may be a risk factor.

Update – New Paper – 6th August 2020

“While most clinicians are aware of the concept of insulin resistance, it is never measured in routine clinical practice and is at most an abstract, intangible and academic consideration.”

Source: paper in Frontiers in Public Health. Coronavirus and Obesity: Could Insulin Resistance Mediate the Severity of Covid-19 Infection?

“…if an association between insulin resistance and COVID-19 severity was established, the next step would be to determine whether strategies to enhance insulin sensitivity acutely (such as carbohydrate restriction) could improve prognosis.” To see paper click HERE.

Here’s the good news!

You may be able to reduce your risks within weeks with some specific healthy lifestyle modifications. The Seatbelt Plan has four steps:

  1. Get some daily sunshine. This can help maintain optimal vitamin D levels. Low vitamin D has been noticed amongst people suffering COVID-19. If you can’t get out in the sunshine regularly consider Vitamin D3 supplementation or ask your doctor about it. Optimising your nutrition has a synergistic effect with sunshine exposure.
  2. Reduce your carbohydrate load. Avoid or significantly reduce processed foods, especially processed carbohydrates and vegetable (seed) oils. You may not know that even some ‘healthy foods’ can trigger elevated blood sugar and elevated insulin levels in many people. We are all different when it comes to how our bodies respond to different foods.
  3. Prioritise protein in all meals and snacks. Protein-based (very low carb) snacks like shakes can be helpful in your weight loss journey. Carb-based snacks can be problematic as they will increase insulin demand and hence the typical ‘anti-snacking’ advice. There have even been some reports of panic buying of quality protein sources (eg meat, fish and eggs) in stores.
  4. Re-build the insulin sensitivity of your muscles with specific exercise. There are specific exercise routines that can be done at any age. These are mainly strength-based to strengthen your skeletal (load-bearing) muscles. They are your body’s sugar sinks and help stabilise your blood sugar. The circuit at Healthy Inspirations has been designed for this goal.

Need advice? Healthy Inspirations provides lifestyle programming to help members learn about their body’s individual carbohydrate tolerance in order to effortlessly achieve and maintain a healthy weight. The team also provide in-centre and online exercise programming that helps build strength, tone and fitness.

Whether you live near a centre or not, give your nearest centre a call to ask for program details. You can register for a free info session by clicking the button at the top of the page at https://healthyinspirations.com.au. These info sessions can be arranged in the centre or via Zoom video chat to your computer.

And… make sure you stay disciplined with Strategy 1 and Strategy 2. If you have any health questions, or feel unwell, please call your doctor or local hospital straight away. Get tested. Do not wait.

Australian government site.