Dietary and Wellness Suggestions from Health Experts for Covid-19
About 200 of 330 Americans are experiencing a lock-down right now. Only in a few states are people allowed to live life per usual. For most American citizens, it's orders to stay at home, and that means being at home for very long periods of time, given that over 30 million are unemployed right now. One of the biggest issues here, that people aren't really thinking about in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, is that this novel virus didn't replace any other illness or condition. It's simply in addition to everything else.
This means heart disease, hyperglycemia, high blood pressure, and myriad other health concerns are still actually concerns. In fact, the experts warn that these are even larger concerns now that we're dealing with a pandemic and so many people are staying at home. While hospital visits for Covid-19-related symptoms are dropping, more and more people are ending up in hospitals, particularly emergency rooms, for a spate of other ailments, most of which can be easily prevented.
So while there are many experts out there helping to spread the word about social distancing, hand washing and facemasks, there are other medical professionals out there beating the drum loudly for general wellness and preventative care. While their alerts are being drowned out by the coronavirus concerns, the message is still out there. Hopefully more will hear it, as preventing the virus doesn't mean much if you end up having a heart attack or stroke during this pandemic.
To help improve general wellness during these times, medical professionals are urging a few simple lifestyle changes to help out in everyone's day to day lives.
Take it Easy on the Sugar
One of the main things medical professionals warn is that people need to relax on their sugar intake. Sitting around at home, and with grocery stores hurting for stocked shelves, sugary treats are always something someone can find. This sort of food is very tasty, but also very harmful. Sugar in the blood stream needs to be forced into the body's cells by insulin, created in the pancreas, and an abundance of this sugar leads to too much insulin production, which could affect the body's ability to produce insulin, resulting in diabetes.
Not to mention that sugar, or simple carbohydrates in general, lead to inflammation. Inflammation is a serious concern for other illnesses, especially the coronavirus. If you're eating a diet that's conducive to a high inflammatory response, Covid-19 is far more likely to give you complications like pneumonia if you do happen to get it. The body simply cannot fight the virus when it's inflamed.
Sacrifice Your Smoking
Everyone could shelter in place a little better if they didn't have to run out every day or so for a pack of cigarettes. Plus, think of all the money to be saved. Though what's most concerning here is that cigarettes are 100% going to cause the lungs to become inflamed. Covid-19 also causes the lungs to become inflamed, along with the rest of the respiratory system. Add the two together, and you start to see why this virus can be so dangerous. In fact, a very high commonality shared among a lot of those dead from Covid-19 isn't just that they were old; it's that they were smokers.
A big issue here is that smokers smoke more when they're stressed, and this is a very stressful time, so in essence smokers are going in the opposite direction of a healthy choice and are putting themselves much more at risk. For starters, they're going out more than other people around other people, and they're more likely to suffer from the virus than nonsmokers.
Get Exercise
Every wellness expert would agree that the body needs exercise. A lot of people worked very stressful jobs before this all started and are now unemployed. So they may be drawing close to $1,000 weekly with their regular benefits and the additional $600 weekly from the federal government. This means millions of people out there are treating this like a vacation and have taken to lounging around all day watching Netflix and just generally loafing.
Get up and move, says the experts. You don't have to go to public parks or gyms to move. Do yard work and plant a garden or mow the grass. Just walk around; move around. Keep yourself busy.
Wellness experts fear that people will continue to get sick during these times, unrelated to the coronavirus. So they're urging people to take better care of themselves.