Protect yourself from Covid—vaxxed or unvaxxed

In April of 2020 it became clear to me there wasn’t going to be much information about how to protect yourself from Covid outside of masking, distancing, and eventual vaccination. I posted a bit about how exercise can help prevent infection with respiratory pathogens and how exercise can increase the efficacy of vaccinations in active individuals. That is playing out now in studies.

I hoped there would be similar information from our public health bureaucracies. It hasn’t happened, even though there is now quite a lot of peer reviewed information on ways to prevent infection and bad outcomes after infection.

I’m no longer operating under the illusion many people care to take an active role in their health and safety from Covid. But I feel obligated to share this information you likely won’t hear elsewhere in the hopes that a few may benefit. Without further ado, here are a few ways the unvaccinated and the vaccinated can protect themselves from infection and bad outcomes if infected.

1) Get some exercise. It can reduce the chances of being infected and of being hospitalized, etc.

https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2021/07/21/bjsports-2021-104203

Another study.
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/55/19/1099

2) Eat healthy!
https://gut.bmj.com/content/70/11/2096

Diet is also a major cause of comorbitities responsible for a large share of preventable hospitalizations.

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.120.019259

3) Get to or maintain a healthy weight.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-05-bmi-positive-sars-cov-.html

And:
https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa1257/5897045

The risks from obesity for poor outcomes are pretty well known so no more on that.

4) Stay hydrated. This one hasn’t been studied a lot yet, but many believe it may be one of the most overlooked causes/associations with Covid.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7467030/
Chronic dehydration causes increased ACE2 receptors in the respiratory system likely leading to increased opportunity for infection. Dehydration is known to be a risk factor for ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome). Dehydration can lead to cytokine dysfunction, one of the main problems with severe Covid infections.

5) Get enough sleep!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7670170/

And:
https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/early/2021/03/03/bmjnph-2021-000228

6) Move to a higher elevation. Throwing this one in for fun!
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0245055

Except for #6, these mitigations are affordable, easy to implement, and will benefit you in more ways than just prevention and lessening severity of Covid. They will protect the vaccinated and the unvaccinated and also lead to decreased transmission, making things safer for everyone. Try them. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

If anyone has any other ideas I’d love to hear them. @CenterField, this is the thread I mentioned earlier today when discussing needing more practical mitigations against infection and severe disease than just vaccination. I believe beating Covid is going to require a systems approach and these parts of the healthy immune system have been ignored too long. Covid is a lifestyle disease—I believe it’s time to address those lifestyles.

 

@557 Excellent post. I couldn't agree more. A healthy lifestyle not only decreases your odds of catching the virus like 557 said by enhancing your immune system, but also improves your prognosis if you do catch it.

I'd add that if you do get infected and you are in a risky group (due to your age or high BMI or co-morbidities), see immediately your primary care provider and ask for a referral to one of the infusion centers for a monoclonal antibody cocktail. You'll get it for free and it will make a huge difference in your prognosis.

See this website. Scroll down and you'll find a link to enter your zip code and find the nearest infusion center:

https://infusioncenter.org/infusion_resources/nica-monoclonal-antibody-therapies/

Also be attentive to the availability of antivirals by the mouth that you can take at home, once the FDA approves the first one, which should happen in a few months. The first one likely to get approved - an application has been filed already - is called molnupiravir. Two others are finishing phase III.

Another good idea, if you find them (not so easy but I did find 10 tests for my family) is to have at home some kits for the rapid antigen tests now available from pharmacies (e.g., BinaxNow, when in stock. If you get an upper respiratory infection, you can get a preliminary result in 15 minutes at home, to try and differentiate between Covid-19 and any other viral infections. The test is not as precise as an RT-PCR but it helps as a preliminary screening.

Finally, do know that nowadays, good quality, Made in the USA, N95 masks are available everywhere including from Amazon.com, and they cost less per day (if you wear a new one each day) than you likely spend on coffee.

Vaccinated or unvaccinated, you should wear an N95 mask in indoor situations and some outdoor situations (e.g., very crowded event like a sports stadium).

If you have kids age 5-11, this thread might help with your decision-making process to decide whether or not you want to vaccinate your kids:

http://www.politicalforum.com/index...our-5-to-11-y-o-kids-against-covid-19.593837/

 

Good post.

For some who are at optimum weight, eat relatively healthy, get moderate exercise but have underlying medical issues, if they take an active interest in their health, they have other options. And not all of them are commonly known, nor commonly promoted.

Long before COVID was on the horizon, addressing certain factors that are a part of a multiple autoimmune situation, certain recommendations were made by a nutritionist who promoted natural methods.

Beet Root for oxygenation of the blood.
Quercetin as an antihistamine for protection of the nasal and sinus passages
Diatomaceous earth for elimination of parasites
Turmeric curcumin for inflammation
Riboflavin for healthy tissue and red blood cells.

There are others, depending on the underlying conditions. But all of them can act as deterrents for COVID.

 

I know quite a few people who used quercetin. Thanks for the information.

 

Quercetin as a zinc ionophore + Zinc + Vit C have some limited evidence of benefit. Given that Quercetin is virtually harmless, why not?

Four other drugs that maybe have a small benefit are aspirin, melatonin (these two reduce inflammation and modulate cytokines), famotidine, and fluvoxamine (both seem to have some antiviral effect).

None of the above is earth-shattering. They are more in the sense of "maybe some small benefit but no harm, so why not?" (although fluvoxamine is richer in side-effects but still pretty safe).

What is known to work from randomized controlled trials, are remdesivir (very tiny effect but measurable; only available by IV infusion in hospitals); dexamethasone in case of severe, hospitalized patients (definitely works); monoclonal antibodies for initial treatment of patients at risk (certainly works); and molnupiravir (very promising because it can be taken by the mouth, at home - it's a 5-day course; cuts hospitalizations and deaths in half - an FDA EUA seems imminent).

Oh, and vaccines work. Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine do not.

 

It is my opinion to add to that that you do not exercise in a facility. There really are no precautions you can take in a facility that will protect you from Covid because exercising actually increases the amount of Covid breathed into the air. Masks are actually not anywhere near as effective as the left lead you to believe and social distancing inside a building with circulating air has been shown to be close to worthless. Exercise at home or outside.

 

Good point. On many levels. Outdoors with sunlight exposure boosts Vitamin D also.

Also UVB exposure is correlated with reduced death rates.

https://www.pnas.org/content/118/1/e2012370118?cct#sec-5

 

Good, I'm glad you finally mentioned Vitamin D levels.

If this "crisis" were about public health, our public health authorities would have been spending their advertising budgets informing the people of what has been mentioned in this thread. Instead they spend all their advertising budgets on pro-injection propaganda. That shows our public health authorities are much more interested in selling experimental clot shots. Their silence about the many harms shown in VAERS confirms their fealty to Pharma.

 

It is certainly clear public health is not a top priority for public health officials. Or for the majority of Americans.

 

It is also believed a colder nose makes people more likely to contract coronaviruses. The immune cells do not work as well in cooler body temperatures. So if you have been out in the cold and your nose is still cold, probably not a good idea to suddenly transition into a space surrounded by lots of people. There is a reason that colds are very seasonal.

 

This is correct.
Wow! You actually said something that is correct!
I'm shocked!

 

This all sounds good and has commonsense behaviours. Except for the plant based diet part.

 

Reducing meat consumption can lead to better health. I don't think you going totally vegetarian leads to better health, just reducing the portion size of meat.
All things in moderation. Too much fat, too much carbohydrates, too much dairy products, is all not good for you.

Now I don't know how much reducing that is actually going to reduce your risk within 2 weeks, but I would imagine it may have longer term effects.

Certainly if you start off with better heart health you will have much better odds of surviving this.

 

Based on what we know about dietary fiber (we are just starting to really understand this) fermentation and subsequent production of short chain fatty acids, the plant based diet makes sense in this context. It isn’t the exclusion of animal fat and protein that is the factor here, but instead the sufficient consumption of dietary fiber. A more animal fat/protein based diet would yield the same results as long as dietary fiber was included along with the animal components.

Sufficient dietary fiber is very important in maintaining a healthy immune system. Specifically, low dietary fiber consumption is correlated with higher rates of COPD, asthma, and other respiratory problems. Also, dietary fiber is known to regulate inflammation and suppress inappropriate immune responses like cytokine storm events.

At the end of the day, the takeaway is to have a lot of dietary fiber in the diet, regardless of other components like meat, dairy, etc. you include in the diet.

 

Here's a short (under 5 minutes) video of the 75th anniversary Gettysburg reunion. It was taken in 1938.

These veterans were all in their 90s, yet take a look at them. They seem healthy and quite spry for their age. And they weren't booked at some hotel. They were camped out on the battlefield.

Really, when you look at all the folks there, as a group they are generally more fit than any random grouping of "just folks" than you would see today. We clearly have lost something we once had.

Posting this just for that observation.

 

That’s an amazing piece of history. Thanks for sharing. I agree, we have lost a lot of healthy lifestyle behaviors.

 

~ As of November 18, 2021, 228 million Americans have received at least one dose of a vaccine—88.5% of the adult population. Estimates show that 103 million Americans - 31 percent of the U.S. population - have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 by the end of 2020 and carry immunity antibodies. [ Reuters ]
This is likely having a positive impact on lowering the risk of infection.

 

So far, the effect is zero.
The whole thing about COVID is to establish digital dictatorship, to trace and record every move of every person.

 

-- I agree 100%. We are sheep duped by our own governments & " news" media .

 

@AlpinLuke,

I think our discussion might fit better here.

The only case I’m aware of where antiviral drug increased or decreased antibodies was in a herpesvirus study (HSV) that showed decrease in antibody levels during prolonged treatment but a rise in antibody levels in untreated recurrence.

Sure, monoclonal antibodies artificially increase antibody levels temporarily. That’s the idea. And they are a great tool. As are antiviral drugs.

But I’m more of a fan of disease prevention than pharmaceutical “cures”. No transfusion centers needed like monoclonal antibodies. No danger drug interactions like Covid antivirals. No potential side effects like birth defects or creation of a new variant. Just free, easy, and with the benefit of reduced all cause mortality, improved mental health, and protection from influenza, and other infectious diseases as well as Covid.

Read my OP in this thread and tell me what you think.

 

@AlpinLuke,

I agree. Covid will be endemic. It already is. I believe it will end up a lot like influenza B. Endemic but less prone to new pandemics like influenza A viruses that can re-assort.

Because Covid is endemic I believe we should encourage people to “fight” it with the tools evolution has bestowed on us. Things like regulation of cytokine events by short chain fatty acids produced by fermentation of insoluble fiber from healthy vegetables in the gut. Things like getting adequate sleep to keep the innate immune system strong enough to prevent Covid infection (and other infections). Things like moderate exercise that has the ability to prevent infection, prevent severe disease, reduce all cause mortality by 40% on top of preventing Covid hospitalization by 226%, increase immunogenicity and efficacy of vaccines (including Covid vaccines), and provided better mental health as well.

We have had these tools from the beginning of the pandemic and they have been mostly ignored. Many times outright rejected by healthcare providers and public health officials. I think we missed a perfect opportunity to promote a healthy lifestyle by leveraging people’s concern about Covid.

I’m a fan of pharmaceutical interventions and vaccination. I use both extensively in my occupation. But I also include diet, exercise, and stress management as well to great effect. We need a systems approach to health. Not one where people’s immune systems are weak and must be compensated for with pharmaceutical interventions that have side effects, harmful drug interactions, and don’t address the cause of disease.

 

I've said several times that SARS-Cov2 is a systemic disease. This means also that it can hit not only the respiratory system, but also not a few other parts of our body. It can even affect the brain. Not only this: a systemic disease is more dangerous for individuals with a body in bad conditions. It's statistically verified that obesity, for example, increases the risk to go to hospital or worse in case of infection of Covid. It's the same for persons with problems to their kidneys, liver ...
Sure, a healthy lifestyle and a good nutrition help to keep our immunity defenses more operative and effective.

Our societies see a kind of medicine mania: it's about finding shortcuts.
It happens the same with dietary supplements. We're so lazy that instead of eating fruits and vegetables we buy those supplements which contain what fruits and vegetables naturally contain ...

There are persons who don’t walk at all, driving their car at any cost, and then they take drugs to help blood circulation [our calf muscles help the blood to go back to the heart, if we don’t walk, I don’t say run, the circulation will not be optimal, with all the problems that this can mean]. Not to talk about those individuals who drink and smoke too much and then they need medical aid about their heart.

It’s not so difficult to walk a bit every day, to sleep well, to eat well, to avoid to drink and smoke too much [it would be better not to smoke] … but we live in a lazy world in a hurry.

 

It’s nice to meet someone on PF that accepts the existence of the innate immune system! I am glad there seems to be better education on this subject in Europe than in the US and other English speaking countries. I believe you folks have always done better with diet from a portion size and content perspective.

Yes, we are all lazy. We do want shortcuts and that leads to more diseases and more severe disease in the long run.

What has really concerned me here in the US is the fact nobody has been informed about lifestyle and Covid. People were told obesity was associated with more severe Covid. But they were not told obesity greatly increases chance of infection and that infected obese individuals are superspreaders that shed viable virons longer at a higher rate (more aerosols) , even being more prone to chronic cough.

Americans are not told diet and exercise (independent of BMI) also greatly impact chance of infection and chance of severe disease. When it’s brought up on PF, most people can’t even accept peer reviewed studies documenting the facts.

It’s very strange to me because in my business I would be criminally liable for withholding proper nutrition, vaccination management, and exercise from my animals. Yet public health and healthcare are withholding lifesaving information from those they are responsible for. Not only is the infection withheld, it’s actively campaigned against by people here on PF. It’s baffling.

Another strange thing is how the US public health entities and healthcare industry act surprised at the systemic nature of Covid you describe. I remember the first time myocarditis associated with SARS-CoV-2 was identified. The media, doctors, and even some researchers reacted with shock! I had to point out cardiovascular damage is very common with viral infections and well documented with influenza in the literature. Even most physicians in the US are unaware over 100,000 fatal myocardial infarctions and strokes occur in the US as a direct result of influenza infection. The CDC does not report them as influenza deaths even though they generally occur within days of influenza infection and the physiological pathway of plaque rupture is well understood.

The same surprise from healthcare in the US (and other English speaking countries) when sequelae like hair loss and neurological effects (brain fog, etc.) were observed after Covid. No surprise from people who are familiar with virology. But when I post about the similarities of these Covid sequelae to influenza and other viral infections, even claimed health care professionals here on PF can’t accept the facts even when published studies are presented.

Like you have said, Covid is/will be a lot like common cold coronaviruses—even asymptomatic common cold viruses induce neurological sequelae not dissimilar from Covid although expectedly less severe as SARS-CoV-2 is a novel virus.

Anyway, it’s refreshing to know at least on the other side of the Atlantic there are people who do understand Covid better than American healthcare does. I hope in your country the public is informed about the very simple lifestyle choices that can protect them from Covid and reduce all cause mortality. I think it would be a shame if the pandemic didn’t leave us with the silver lining of an opportunity taken to inform the public how important and simple lifestyle is in relation to infectious disease.

 

First of all, in continental Europe we find it really curious that a disease can become argument of political confrontation [it would be like to see two parties debating about the existence of the Moon]. A disease is a concrete entity which causes less or more severe problems to the society.

Theoretically politicians are there to deal with social problems ... with the final goal to solve them [or at least to diminish their impact on the society].

Now, I'm not idealist and I do know that politicians think to power. Anyway here they tend not to divide themselves [not too much, political loonies are present also here, don't hope] about general threats like a pandemic [it's the same about global warming: it's difficult to find deniers about EU politicians].

This generates a well different approach: in good substance our governments follow the suggestions of scientists and experts [I do remember to have discussed on PF about the requirement to wear a mask in some situations: it was astonishing]. And at least in this cases also the political opposition follows.

Obviously we are not in paradise and we've got our huge political and social problems as well.

P.S. I wonder if the matter of fact that our healthcare system is almost totally public changes the way politicians approach sanitary problems.

 

I had the same opinion as you put forth here before the Biden inauguration—that the denial of science may be politically motivated along party lines. However, that didn’t turn out to be the case. Here are a couple examples.

First, Biden campaigned on increased testing. He promised a 7 fold increase in testing if he became President. After his inauguration testing rates actually decreased substantially until late Delta and then Omicron. Testing policy did not change with a change in political power.

Second, on masking, the CDC began recommending against N95 quality masks under the Trump administration citing a shortage (that was true initially until late 2020 when these masks were actually in oversupply). After the Biden inauguration the CDC still told Americans not to wear N95 masks, even though hundreds of millions were gathering dust on manufacturer’s warehouse shelves. As European countries were buying N95 equipment quality masks and giving them to citizens who needed them, the CDC was telling Americans NOT to wear N95 masks that were in such massive oversupply manufacturers were laying off thousands of workers, idling plants, and approaching bankruptcy because the CDC wouldn’t let them sell their products on Amazon etc. Hospitals refused to buy them as well, telling their employees there was a shortage when there was in fact a massive oversupply. It didn’t matter if the hospital was run by conservatives or liberals, they all lied to their employees about mask availability.

On masks in general in the US, both political factions were anti science on masks. One denied masks could be effective at all while the other mandated masks where transmission risk was known to be almost nonexistent but was vehemently opposed to mask usage where science showed transmission was most likely. There was definitely political posturing but at the end of the day neither tribe followed the science. Many “scientists” didn’t follow the science ironically enough.

My point is there has been a lot of political bickering in the US. But both parties deny science and public health policy has consistently been in denial of science regardless of political power changes.

I’m not real familiar with all European politics but it appears you have politicians who actually care about people still. I don’t believe even 10% of politicians here care about their constituents.

Even more concerning in relation to Covid, it doesn’t look like the healthcare industry or public health bureaucracies care about health either. Yes, as you say, I’m sure the US big profit model has something to do with it. Nobody in medicine or pharmaceuticals makes money if we prevent Covid hospitalization (or heart disease, diabetes, hypertension) with diet and exercise. If the US would propose a voluntary single payer program with the ability to opt out of benefits and payments (tax) simultaneously I would not oppose it. But if healthcare in the US is opposed to lifestyle prevention of Covid because of profits, they are never going to settle for the pay cuts a single payer system would necessitate.

There has to be more to it than profit though. Some of the PF members most opposed to non pharmaceutical mitigation are from countries with public healthcare systems. Maybe in those countries it’s even more important to not undercut pharmaceutical interventions because without that profit, even though it’s less than in the US, the public system is unsustainable.

Maybe it’s education as well. It would be interesting to know difference in knowledge about virology and epidemiology between those educated in Europe as opposed to the US. I would not be surprised if Europeans have a better quality education. I must say, English speaking healthcare professionals (with another notable exception that also has Italian European roots) on this board seem woefully uninformed about basics of infectious disease and epidemiology.

It’s interesting to hear from a continental European with knowledge of Covid. Thanks for your replies.