Why are we ignoring the biggest facts about COVID-19?

It’s hard to believe that we are over a year into wearing masks and suffering from lockdowns due to Covid-19. A meta analysis of 34 epidemiologic studies done on 7/29/2020 showed that in patients with severe/fatal COVID-19, the most prevalent chronic co-morbidities were:
- Obesity (42%)
- Hypertension (40%)
- Diabetes (17%)
- Cardiovascular disease (13%)
- Respiratory disease (8%)
- Cerebrovascular disease (6%)
- Malignancy (4%)
- Kidney disease (3%)
- Liver disease (2%)
All but the respiratory disease may have a metabolic component to their illness. Similar studies were coming out as early as March/April of 2020 when all this began.
My question is why haven’t we been told that the best way to combat the symptoms of Covid-19 is to fix metabolic disease that is occurring at rampant rates in this country?
A patient of mine reminded me of a study by Joana Araújo et al who reviewed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2009-2016 showed that less than 12% of the United States are metabolically healthy. 88% of people had at least one of these 6 factors which are symptoms of metabolic illness. Three or more means that you actually have a diagnosis of Metabolic Syndrome:
- Waist Circumference of 40” in Men or 34” in women
- Fasting Glucose > 100mg/dL
- Blood Pressure > 120/80
- Triglycerides >150mg/dL
- HDL <40 mg/dL in women and <50mg/dL in men
- Taking any related medication.…
Metabolic syndrome leads to those conditions that affect the outcomes of COVID-19. A study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA) and led by researchers at Tufts University, used a mathematical simulation to estimate that possibly 64% of COVID-19 hospitalizations could have been prevented if Americans did not suffer from four major cardiometabolic conditions. The conditions were obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and heart failure, in that order.
At the Chung Institute Center for Metabolic Healing, We have seen metabolic healing in as little as 2 weeks. The foods you eat are not hard. That is the easy part. Real foods, proteins, veggies and some fruits. However, emotions, habits, psychology, past teachings, addictions, wrong information and 10-20-30-40 years of eating a certain way may be difficult to change.
Many of you have heard the 80/20 rule or the Pareto Rule, which suggests that 20% of your activities will translate to 80% of your results. May I suggest that the 20% is the foods that you eat. Doing these things will result in an 80% change in your metabolic health.
- Get rid of Refined Sugars
- Get rid of Refined Grains
- Get rid of Seed and Vegetable oils (note: Coconut and Avocados are fruits)
One last thing, it is well known that a low Vitamin D3 level is a significant marker for metabolic syndrome as well. Taking the supplement will certainly help raise levels, but eating the right foods will accelerate that process. Those 4 conditions may have led to 64% of poor outcomes, add the low Vitamin D3 factor, and it would probably have raised the number much higher.
Take care of yourselves and your loved ones. Get rid of these inflammatory foods and you will be trending in the right direction! If you need help, please reach out to us!