If you’ve been one of those fortunate enough to be able to work at home during the pandemic, you’ve probably been glued to your chair for eight or more hours a day. At least at the office you might have been able to walk around from desk to desk, or take the stairs, or take a walk at lunch.
Whereas at home, our concierge doctors are guessing that you get very little chance to move at all. And that could be detrimental to your health.
Let’s face it—this has been a lousy year. We’ve either lost or postponed so many of our normal pleasures, it’s no wonder that we’re feeling deprived. But our concierge doctors have a prescription that can help cheer you up: chocolate.
And ‘tis the season for it, after all. Not to mention that, as we’ll explain below, it can be healthier than eggnog, frosted cookies and cakes, and all the other sugarplums we’re inclined to consume this time of year.
As Florida closes in on the unenviable milestone of nearly a million confirmed cases of COVID-19, our concierge doctors wanted to share a bit of good news. We’ve mentioned before how critical it is to wear face masks in public to help keep others from becoming infected. People can be contagious for up to two weeks before they begin to show symptoms, which accounts for the rapid spread of the disease.
Now a new scientific briefing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirms what researchers had long suspected: Masks protect the wearer as much as those around them. The revised guidance, released late last month, cites several studies. These show masks reduce the risk of contracting the virus by up to 79 percent.
The annual Great American Smokeout is set for this week, November 19. So our concierge doctors thought this would be a good time to look into what we know about the combined effects of smoking and COVID-19.
This is especially important because there has been some confusing information on the effects of cigarette smoking on the disease, with some early reports even suggesting that cigarette smokers who contract COVID-19 actually fare better than non-smokers. Subsequent studies have found the opposite: that smoking increases the risk that the virus causes more damage in smokers.
As we head into the holidays, our concierge doctors are concerned that pandemic fatigue might tempt people to throw caution to the winds and just celebrate, starting with Thanksgiving.
The fact is, we’re all fed up with the “new normal.” People want more than anything to return to the way our lives were before this scourge attacked the world early this year. Pandemic fatigue is not only real, it’s totally understandable.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends all adults and children older than six months receive a flu shot by the end of this month. The CDC says it takes at least two weeks for the vaccine to become effective. Then it won’t reach its peak effectiveness until another week after that. And children who are being vaccinated for the first time need two vaccines spaced a month apart to become fully protected.
Therefore, our concierge doctors suggest you get your flu shot for the 2020-21 influenza season as soon as possible. While there have been scattered reports of shortages around the country, The Washington Post recently reported a record number of flu vaccine doses—between 194 million and 198 million—have been ordered. Because the vaccine is shipped in stages, more is on the way.
Our concierge doctors note the stress resulting from the coronavirus pandemic affects large portions of our population. This has manifested in many ways, including a sharp increase in insomnia.
Even without the pandemic, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimates that between 30 and 40 percent of the population experiences insomnia regularly. A 2005 National Sleep Foundation (NSF) poll showed more than half of respondents reported experiencing insomnia at least a few nights a week in the past year. Thirty-three percent said they had insomnia every night or nearly every night for the past year.
And since the advent of the pandemic, prescriptions for sleep medications are up 15 percent, according to pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts. The UCLA Sleep Disorders Center reports insomnia complaints have soared 20-30 percent.
We’ve heard a great deal lately about how those with chronic conditions—diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity—are more likely to become sicker when exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. Even leaving aside the coronavirus, many individuals have thought that having multiple chronic medical conditions such as those or others (cancer, asthma, coronary artery disease, and so forth) doomed them to a premature death.
But our concierge doctors have recently come across some good news for those people. It turns out that healthy lifestyle habits can overcome multiple types of chronic conditions and help extend your life.
Our concierge doctors absolutely recommend a diet high in vegetables, especially leafy greens, for optimal health. But a new study released this month highlights a problem with this otherwise beneficial food: E. coli.
The report, published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, found leafy greens are a common source of food-borne illnesses. It notes that they’ve been implicated in 40 outbreaks of a serious strain of E. coli between 2009 and 2018. These outbreaks resulted in 1,212 illnesses, 420 hospitalizations, and eight deaths.
While many of our old pursuits and gatherings have been curtailed in the past few weeks due to the pandemic, one place we’ve been able to find solace as well as exercise has been in nature. And now that the stay-at-home restrictions are easing, and summer’s here in all its glory, we’ll no doubt be spending even more time outdoors.
