Eight months into the pandemic, there is still no known medical cure for coronavirus.
But some doctors say there are relatively simple things you can do to lessen the chance of contracting the virus or becoming gravely ill with it if you do.
As shelter in place gives way to re-opening some schools, businesses, gyms, stores, and more, a doctor says ‘here’s something important to think about.’
“Not much has changed with regards to our risk of developing COVID-19 from this Coronavirus," says Dr. Barbara Johnson, a doctor of Integrative Medicine in Blacksburg. "But what has changed is our understanding of how you can potentially mitigate your risk.”
A former surgeon, Johnson now focuses on preventing disease. She says so many studies on the virus have come out in these past few months that we actually can make smarter decisions on how to avoid becoming ill with coronavirus.
In addition to masks, hand washing and social distance, she says the strength of your immune system can also be a factor.
“So, if you're living a very healthy lifestyle and you do not have a lot of oxidative stress, you're going to be able to tolerate the infection a lot better, without serious complications, or maybe even any complications,” says Dr. Johnson.
Oxidative stress is an imbalance in the body, between one set of molecules known as free radicals and another set, the antioxidants. When that’s out of whack it’s easier for viruses to get into human cells and cause infection.
“What you eat can make a difference, when it comes to infection,” Dr. Johnson suggests “avoiding carbohydrates, simple sugars, processed foods, and absolutely avoid high fructose corn syrup. It’s very harmful to the body.”
Not an easy thing to do on the standard American diet, but Johnson says, even slightly elevated blood sugar can be dangerous.
“In fact, what they found from the emergency rooms, was that those who had elevated blood sugar were 10 times more likely to have complications from SARS-COv-2. --And these are not people that were diabetic. These were simply individuals who were found to have elevated blood sugar.”
High blood sugar is sometimes related to lifestyle issues, and if that’s the cause, that means it is something people can change.
Dr. Johnson says studies show, better diet and certain supplements hold promise for prevention of serious infection. She cites research papers published in July 2020 that show vitamin D “directly exhibits antiviral activities, including Sars-COV-2.”
But Dr. Erin Michos, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine says this has not been confirmed in randomized clinical trials, the gold standard for medical information. “The issue is that associations don't mean causation. And so that doesn't mean that treating low vitamin D can actually improve COVID.”
Michos has studied vitamin D for decades, for what was thought to be its potential to mitigate everything from bone loss to depression. But the results did not bear them out in randomized clinical trials.
“There is a lot of biological plausibility about vitamin D and the immune system. That's why this generated a lot of interest. We know that on immune cells, there's vitamin D receptors. So,there is some thought that vitamin D does play a role in innate immunity. Vitamin D has been shown to reduce, proinflammatory, cytokine release from macrophages.” But, she stresses, “humans are different than in vitro or animal studies.”
And while no one is saying at this point, that supplements can alleviate coronavirus, there is some agreement when it comes to lifestyle
“Keep in mind that, living a healthy lifestyle, through diet, through exercise, through good sleep,” as well as supplements, can boost your immunity. In invitro studies, there's some evidence that inflammatory markers go down.” But she cautions, you really have to show, in patients, whether that actually translates to clinically meaningful events.
We may get more clarity on these issues soon. Dr. Micos says randomized clinical trials on Vitamin D’s effect on Coronavirus are underway.
