Radio Naturopath Episode 275: The President Has COVID-19; Overweight/Obesity and COVID-19 and Risk Reduction

President Trump has contracted COVID-19. As is often the case when a president falls ill, there seems to be some confusion and protection about the president's actual health status. I wish him well and a full, speedy recovery, and same to the at last count 22 White House staff who have also contracted the virus. I expect there will be more. But I believe that the President and all of his staff and advisors behaved irresponsibly. In the time of a pandemic, or in any crisis or situation where there are leaders, it is incumbent upon the leaders to set a good example. By not wearing or requiring masks, by holding outdoor and indoor events without masking or social distancing, the president and his staff put countless people at risk. This virus is mild to most and deadly to some, and when anyone contracts it they don't know which they'll be. I believe that the Trump administration set a poor example for the American people in not taking COVID-19 seriously, and now that the president and many of those around him have shown that their actions definitely result in contracting the virus, they need to change their approach. From a public health, leadership, and human standpoint, the Trump administration has failed to set a good example for the American people. This is NOT how to lead. They should have been masking, encouraging and modeling physical distancing, and following the science. Let's hope that going forward they change their ways. 

Also, it is unfortunate to report that overweight and obesity contribute to the outcome of COVID-19. People with obesity are more than 2x as likely to be hospitalized, have 75% greater risk of going to the ICU, and 48% greater risk of dying. This does not mean that ALL overweight/obese people will have severe disease, but a greater percentage. I talk about ways to mitigate the risk using basic health practices, eating whole foods, hygiene, and supplementation. 

Radio Naturopath Episode 273: COVID-19 and Variolation, Iodine and COVID-19, High Fiber Foods for Health

There have been more developments in COVID-19. This week, I talked about the concept of variolation. This is taking from hundreds of years ago where practitioners in the East either powdered dried smallpox scabs and blew powder with a pipe into people's noses, or took fluid from smallpox vesicles and rubbed it into the skin of patients, so that they developed a few small lesions on their skin. In both cases, patients would experience mild illness and then immunity. This is before the process of vaccination was discovered. This process is called "variolation" because smallpox is caused by the variola virus. Well, two physicians, Monica Gandhi, M.D., and George Rutherford, M.D., wrote a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine describing this process, and assert that mask-wearing contributes to variolation. They describe several settings, including factories and cruise ships, in which there was mandatory masking and the vast majority of people got asymptomatic or mild cases of COVID-19. This is very promising, because if there is finally universal mask wearing, more of society can be reopened.

I also talked about a UConn study in which it was found that if people gargle with a 0.5% solution of povidone-iodine for 15 seconds, any COVID-19 is inactivated. This makes it possible that gargling and nasal rinsing with this low concentration of povidone-iodine could significantly slow down rates and severity of infection. This was studied intentionally to help people in the dental industry, where aerosolization of oral fluids is a feature of that work. 

I also talked about some high fiber foods that are good for you!

Radio Naturopath Episode 265: Richard Redfield and Masking, Stay Hydrated in the Heat, Menopause 2020, Part 1

It's like Ground Hog Week! This week, I quoted Richard Redfield, the director of the CDC, who said that if we all wore masks, we could get a handle on this virus in about 2 months. I keep repeating it, but it's important. I went on to remind people that it's hot and they need to hydrate. Then, as requested by a listener, I started on my latest information about helping with menopause symptoms. There's so much to discuss that I'm going to continue next week!