Thursday, March 05, 2020

Is the coronavirus a self-fulfilling prophecy?

I got thinking today about a way to deal with preventing the worse effects of the coronavirus if you end up getting it, which we all likely will in due course.

Good immunity is of course your number one defense to the coronavirus if you end up contracting it (it's a no brainer that you should be doing prolonged fasting, taking Vitamin A, C, D, Zinc, probiotics, etc).

However, a major killer of good immunity is anxiety, which spikes your cortisone levels that can only be sustained for so long before your immunity is shot.

Consequently, if you contract the coronavirus, you will likely have high anxiety given the fearmongering of the media. This will kill your immunity and then you will really get sick—thus, the self-fulfilling prophecy. So perhaps one of the best things you can do—and its free!—if you end up contracting the virus is . . . to chill out.



12 comments:

  1. 1. In other words, if you get coronavirus, don't worry - you'll probably be okay? Tell that to the people with COVID-19 in intensive care units - and in fact inside airborne infection isolation rooms - struggling to breathe even with invasive mechanical ventilation! I guess if they hadn't worried when they first got the coronavirus, they wouldn't have ended up in their predicament? The power of positive thinking.

    2. Not to mention there are at least two forms of the coronavirus: S and L. At the present, S appears to be the original or ancestral form, while L appears to be the mutated form. L is more severe. The only difference is a single change in the virus' genome (i.e. a single nucleotide polymorphism). This in turn reflects the mutation potential of the coronavirus. However it's not like anyone can decide which one to be infected with. And it's possible to be infected with both.

    3. That said, I agree large swathes of the media are sensationalizing the coronavirus. It's also worth noting medical experts are flying by the seat of their pants; they're learning as they go too. No one will know the true scope and real-world ramifications of the coronavirus until it's all over.

    Of course, I don't think anyone should ever panic. However, as I've seen someone else point out, that's sort of tautologous advice, for by definition panic is what one shouldn't do. And it's common sense to take steps to be healthy and have a level-head about the coronavirus and infectious disease in general.

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  2. I thought the OP was tongue in cheek. A bit of levity on an otherwise heavy topic. After all wasn't "Ring Around the Rosies" born from the very human need for lightness in the midst of the darkness of the bubonic plague?

    I didn't take it that the author was attacking those suffering or ill.

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    1. Well, if you look at my past posts on the coronavirus where Alan has left his comments (e.g. here), he has said the same things, so I think he's probably serious.

      Of course, if he's been joking the entire time, then I'd be the first to congratulate him on successfully trolling me. :)

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    2. Right, Hawk read into my post. Exhorting people to keep their stress levels down to keep their immunity in check somehow touched on a nerve.

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    3. Lol, Alan. :) No, you didn't "touch a nerve" with me.

      1. Like I already said in my original reply to you, my point is that your advice is at best common sense. Of course it's obvious people should try to be healthy, take their vitamins, exercise, remain level-headed, etc. Again I said all these things I said in my original reply to you.

      2. However, as I also said in my original reply to you, there are some people who are quite healthy but who nevertheless can get infected with the coronavirus and deteriorate. From the current data, approximately 80% of people who get infected with the coronavirus develop mild symptoms and can stay at home. Approximately 15% develop serious symptoms and end up hospitalized. And approximately 5% deteriorate so much that they need to be admitted into an intensive care unit. Eating healthy and staying stress-free isn't going to help in such cases.

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    4. Also, Coram Deo's point about your post was that your post was tongue-in-cheek. Trying to lighten the mood.

      However, given your replies now, it sounds like you're actually quite serious about what you've said. You're not joking about when you say things like "creating new stem cells from fasting for good immunity, along with...probiotics, etc." and "the average immunity of the developing world. . . sucks". You truly believe these things. (Of course, whether they're true or false isn't the point, but the point is that you're not joking when you say these things.)

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  3. If I contract the virus, of course I will have some measure of anxiety. I hate being sick. But at least I have perspective and not capitulating to the hype out there. Further, I am creating new stem cells from fasting for good immunity, along with taking vitamin A, C, D, Zinc, probiotics, etc.

    Other than advice on washing hands and such, how anyone can take offense at advice for maintaining good immunity so at to minimize the effect of the virus if contracted is beyond me.

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  4. Incidentally, I suspect that if this happened 100 years ago, exponentially fewer people would have adverse effects from it. The average immunity of the developing world. . . sucks. The carb-sugar toxic diet that most of the world is on has compromised their immunity. As along as they feed on grain, sugar, and processed foods their immunity will continue to be shot. It should go without saying, there can be exceptions, but building one's immunity is the best thing that someone can do. (And a tip: stay away from concentrated orange juice, which is a joke. It's full of sugar and has been pasteurized killing off the natural vitamin C, which is why they actually put it back into it artificially. Better off having one whole orange rather than processed juice).

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    1. I'm just going to roll my eyes at this. Lots of oddities to say the least.

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    2. "I suspect that if this happened 100 years ago, exponentially fewer people would have adverse effects from it."

      Well, I mean the 25-50 million people who died 103 years ago from the Spanish Flu kinda prove that point.

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