There are so many unanswered questions - so much uncertainty. The numbers of the loss of life being reported around the world daily due to COVID is alarming and a great sadness, as is the loss of any single person’s life, from any cause.
Why does COIVD-19 affect people so differently? How is it that some people can be completely asymptomatic and unaffected while others have a nasty flu like illness with some going on to need intensive care and even die from it?
Why are there populations in Northern Italy with thousands of deaths and mortality rates much higher than other European countries?
Could air pollution be contributing to higher death rates in certain cities and countries? Has chronic exposure to air pollution done more damage to health than we believed possible? The WHO estimates there are 7 million deaths per year related to air pollution. Have our bodies been forced to use up essential reserves of antioxidants on a daily basis to cope with polluted air and toxicity in our environment? Is it then plausible that an infection with COVID-19 is the last straw that breaks the camels back, especially in vulnerable people with cardiovascular and respiratory disease, high blood pressure and diabetes?
Why is it that people with pre-existing cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and diabetes belong to the most vulnerable? Is it because they all have underlying metabolic syndrome characterised by chronic inflammation? Is their bodies inflammatory response to kill the virus working in a dysfunctional way resulting in the “cytokine storm” we see later in the illness - resulting in intensive care, death or the long term problems we are starting to see in those who survive?
Could it be that our bodies as electromagnetic fields of energy (the very essence of our nervous systems) are showing breaking points with chronic exposure to increasing high levels of electromagnetic smog? Are there increased severe reactions to COVID-19 in areas of the world where there is intense and high electromagnetic exposure? Are these affecting the very sensitive DNA in the mitochondria (powerhouses) of our cells - which we know decrease in number with age - resulting in increased vulnerability to COVID-19? Should more research be done before the roll out of 5G and should we be able to have a say?
Is chronic stress, being “switched-on” 24/7, disrupted circadian rhythms, sleep deficits and pushing our bodies to the limit over extended periods of time fuelled by upping up our consumption of caffeine and sugar - resulting in our bodies not being able to cope with this virus?
Are our bodies now spitting the dummy after years of being “nourished” on preservatives, additives, colours, pesticides and herbicides, empty calories and highly processed food? Is this being reflected in the younger normally “healthy” people in our population with no known vulnerability, who are very unwell or die from COVID-19 in certain populations?
It is still early days and there are more questions than answers. I do however believe, that it is time to take a very close look at how our environment and lifestyles are truly affecting our health. It is time to invest more research and funding into exploring how health and lifestyle medicine can better equip our bodies to dealing with exposure to pathogens and to accept and implement the knowledge that already exists.
Pathogens will always exist. Our health system is straining to “manage” the increasing levels of chronic disease present since the industrial revolution, many of which are proving to be preventable and even reversible with lifestyle and environmental change. This approach has been slow to take off - I can only guess because it is the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries combined with politics that have dominated research, guidelines and policy.
So while fear and panic have millions of people hoping and waiting for a magic cure or vaccine, I think we should be doing much more to encourage a more empowered approach parallel to this, focusing on supporting our innate immunity on a mass scale.
