No insult taken. I am trying to avoid the mistake of looking for a black or white conclusion: either I should be worried (and do something about it) or I shouldn’t be worried (and I shouldn’t do anything about it).
Being afraid of monsters under my bed falls into the category of “don’t worry about it”. There is no level of effort here that has a return on investment. (Okay, maybe I should look under the bed once).
Being afraid of catching the flu falls into the category of “it depends”. If catching the flu might kill or permanently injure me (I don’t think so) or provide a vector for being flu into my household where vulnerable people might catch it and die (again no), then there would be a payoff for some significant effort. If the downside is a 2 week inconvenience (my situation), then less effort is warranted… but not “don’t worry about it” I’d argue.
Being afraid of Covid where there are many reports (see papers below) of healthy people having long lasting illness (and perhaps permanent negative changes in physiology), and where repeated exposure seems to increase risk to me, and the risk to my family for bringing the virus into my house…this clearly falls into a category where a higher investment of infection avoidance will be a good investment. In my opinion, of course. This conclusion does not flow from a certainty to catch Covid or that having caught Covid I would definitely have long term negative consequences…but rather because of risk: uncertainty of probability combined with known very bad things have happened to many people. I cannot agree without new data that ignoring Covid is a rational decision.
So what to do? For me:
- It definitely means doing all the things I’ve learned to do to be healthy and resilient (and avoid being frail and vulnerable). Sunlight. Sleep / stress, hydration, movement, nasal breathing, saline sinus rinsing, careful dosing of rapamycin to avoid immune issues, progressive overload without over stressing the system (all stresses considered), avoidance of wasteful stresses (smoke, alcohol, sleep deprivation, etc)
- it doesn’t mean never leaving the house or always wearing a mask or strictly avoiding the gym and other public places. I will be more careful about hand sanitizing at the gym even if that only works for non airborne viruses.
- It might mean staying on top of vaccines (I’m still pondering this one). I had the first 3 shots only.
- It definitely means rapid testing for Covid with any illness in my house (tests on hand)
- It does mean wearing a mask while using public transportation/ air travel (or if I am sick or caring for sick people). I will generally avoid large indoor or nighttime crowds (sunlight is a good disinfectant).
- it does mean being careful about sleep disturbances…if I have poor sleep a few nights in a row I will be more cautious.
- It definitely means responding aggressively to an infection. Sunlight. Melatonin. NAC. No hard exercise or over eating or alcohol. Some easy movement outside will be useful.
- it does mean being diligent about cycling my growth / autophagy efforts to build resilience to acute infection and reduce chronic inflammation. Even though my hsCRP has always measured as very low (.2-.3) I found amazing benefit in reducing chronic inflammation by doing a fasting mimicking diet. After 3 months the benefit is gone so I will repeat every 3 months (my next kit is in the mail).
Here are some recent papers which have influenced my thinking.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-022-00846-2
“ Long COVID is associated with all ages and acute phase disease severities…”
“ At least 65 million individuals around the world have long COVID, based on a conservative estimated incidence of 10% of infected people and more than 651 million documented COVID-19 cases worldwide1; the number is likely much higher due to many undocumented cases. The incidence is estimated at 10–30% of non-hospitalized cases, 50–70% of hospitalized cases2,3 and 10–12% of vaccinated cases4,5. Long COVID is associated with all ages and acute phase disease severities…”
“ Long COVID is a multisystemic illness encompassing ME/CFS, dysautonomia, impacts on multiple organ systems, and vascular and clotting abnormalities. It has already debilitated millions of individuals worldwide, and that number is continuing to grow. On the basis of more than 2 years of research on long COVID and decades of research on conditions such as ME/CFS, a significant proportion of individuals with long COVID may have lifelong disabilities if no action is taken. Diagnostic and treatment options are currently insufficient, and many clinical trials are urgently needed to rigorously test treatments that address hypothesized underlying biological mechanisms, including viral persistence, neuroinflammation, excessive blood clotting and autoimmunity.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-023-01640-z
“ Although COVID-19 was initially considered an acute respiratory illness, recent evidence suggests that manifestations including but not limited to those of the cardiovascular, respiratory, neuropsychiatric, gastrointestinal, reproductive, and musculoskeletal systems may persist long after the acute phase. These persistent manifestations, also referred to as long COVID, could impact all patients with COVID-19 across the full spectrum of illness severity.”
