COVID-19 has disrupted our lives in ways that were unimaginable a year ago – and will possibly leave us with scars and lessons for an entire lifetime. Amongst other lessons, COVID-19 has exposed the weaknesses of the curative healthcare system to sort our healthcare problems. It is now evident that this pandemic isn’t going to leave in a hurry – and that we will need to learn to co-exist with it.
Not all people have reacted to the virus in the same fashion – a large majority appear to shrug it off with ease – a small fraction have been hit very hard. Some have needed hospitalisation; and quite a few lives have been lost. The wide range of potential threats – and the seeming uncertainty about where and how it will strike has caused widespread paranoia and fear.
Why do different people react differently to this pandemic? What can we do to guard against it and, god forbid it strikes, blunt its sting
Pasted below is a link to a talk from a young Auckland doctor, Dr Sandhya Ramanathan - spelling out her advice. As we know, New Zealand has been exceptionally successful in its fight against COVID. Her simple prescription - build immunity; reduce viral load; and strengthen lung capacity and respiratory function.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZoBb-ngk5k
COVID isn’t the first super-bug to hit humanity – and will definitely not be the last. Increasing ease and opportunity for overseas travel and a global employment pool has led to the breaking down of country boundaries – making containment much more difficult than it was a couple of decades ago. So this might well be the universal recipe to guard against all the super-bugs that hit us in future.
- Don’t take unnecessary chances – be on guard. The need to maintain personal hygiene, avoid unnecessary physical contact and minimise exposure to crowds is more important now than it ever was
- Identify and strengthen your weak link(s) - systematically assess your highest health risk factors and work on them, NOW!
- Build immunity – the stronger you are overall, the less likely that any external bug can affect you
The first point is about reducing the viral load. It is now clear that COVID is very unlikely to be transmitted through a fleeting encounter with an affected person. It needs prolonged exposure. The virus is heavy and fragile – and is incapable of surviving long on most surfaces. So even the simplest measures of hand and face hygiene, isolation and irrigation of the nasal and throat packages can reduce the probability of getting infected dramatically
The second is about identifying and working on your health risks. Based on the data available so far, only a small fraction of the mortality associated with COVID can be attributed directly to it – these patients usually die of respiratory distress. After the initial surprise, the medical fraternity has geared up and is now able to very effectively fight COVID – with fairly simple tools and, in many cases, at home. This is the case with most diseases that have struck humanity – experience and the learning curve almost always results in simpler, and more effective, medical management. A much larger fraction succumbs to co-morbidities and to other underlying medical conditions that take advantage of the COVID weakened body.
That leads us to the third, and most interesting, point on “immunity”. A year ago, we thought of COVID as the mystery virus that the human race could not defend against. It is clear now that, notwithstanding the large death toll, different people have different levels of defence against the virus. A large number of people are not infected in spite of prolonged exposure; some show no symptoms but high levels of antibodies in their blood point to their recovery from COVID; some only show very mild symptoms and are treated at home; and some need hospitalisation. To understand this wide variation in how COVID affects people, it is important to understand the functioning of the human immune system.
Our immune system protects us against a huge array of external pathogens – in the absence of an effective immune system, even the smallest of infections could kill us. The immune system’s first line of defence is an army of macrophages that engulf and destroy most pathogens that threaten us. This happens automatically, most times before the pathogens even get into our system. This constitutes the “Innate” immune system.
Some pathogens do elude this outer line of defence and get into our bodies. This breach is detected by dendritic cells that then collect information on the pathogen and pass them onto T Cells. The T Cells, in turn, instruct B cells to produce antibodies, or special weapons, against these specific pathogens – weapons that are then used by the macrophages to destroy the pathogens. This constitutes the “adaptive” immune system. The adaptive immune system learns from each experience and stores it into memory – so that it can respond very quickly to attacks from the same, or similar, pathogens in future.
When the pathogens manage to overwhelm both the innate and adaptive immune systems is when medical intervention is needed – starting with oral medication but progressing to hospitalisation as the fight becomes more intense.
This explains the variability in the way COVID affects people – and builds the case for boosting our innate immune system. There is no universal prescription for immunity development. There is enough evidence, fortunately, of what constitute the building blocks. At the core is leading a healthy lifestyle – eating right, exercising in moderation and giving up smoking. Too much exposure is dangerous – but so is too little exposure. Indians returning from long stints overseas find themselves more susceptible to even the simplest of bugs. Nutritional supplements and medication can help – including Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin K, Zinc and natural supplements like amla, ginger, pepper and turmeric. One needs to be careful about not overdoing them, though – and seek guidance of a practitioner before embarking on a supplementation plan.
In summary, we will possibly see a lot of other pathogens over our lifetime – hopefully none as devastating as COVID. It is impossible to predict what will come next – but whatever does, we will have a better chance of overcoming it by building our immunity.
