After the virus challenge: Propping up your Immune system against COVID-19 and its allies

in Natural Medicine4 years ago (edited)
The human immune system differs and while some of the variations might be due to genetic composition, some are due to physical factors of the environment and others can be attributed to the general lifestyle of individuals.

Genetic variability ensures that no single disease, no matter how widely spread and deadly, will be able to wipe out the population of any living organism. This attribute of the population is achieved through different means which include:

  • random mating of individuals within the population,
  • mutation of the molecule responsible for the transmission of traits (DNA),
  • random fertilization; and
  • exchange of chromosomal segments between non-sister chromatids during meiosis (crossing over).


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Credit: Allinonemovie on pixabay

As natural selection continue to select for the fittest genes within the population, the more the genetic variability of a population, the more the population is likely to resist a pandemic.

There are several environmental factors that have been reported to affect the immune system of humans. Topping the list of these factors is the presence of pathogens in the environment along with favourable environmental conditions for their easy multiplication. When the environment is very conducive to the growth of pathogens, even the strongest of the immune system will eventually bow to the inoculum power of the pathogen.

The presence of ultraviolet radiation in the environment has also been found to have a suppressive effect on the human immune system the presence of harmful chemicals in the environment has been found to have immunotoxic effects on humans. This thus means that those inhabiting polluted environments are more likely to be susceptible to diseases when compared to those living in a clean, pollutant-free environment.

The general lifestyle of an individual also determines the immune level of the individual. People with underlining health conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, sickle cell anemia, etc., are generally more prone to diseases than those without any health disorders. Those whose diets fulfill the daily recommended intakes for each class of nutrients usually have strong immune systems.

In addition to the above, people that exercise and obtain adequate rests are known to be stronger immune-wise when compared to those that do otherwise. Above all, the age of an individual plays an important role in determining the immune level of individuals with those at the two extreme ends of the population's age distribution known to have a weaker immune system.

The COVID-19 and the African countries scenario

So much has been said about the COVID-19 virus and the rate at which the pandemic is spreading in Africa which is quite low compared to other regions of the world. As at the time of writing this article, Nigeria which is the most populous African country has less than four hundred confirmed cases of the virus, about ten deaths, and over 70 recoveries. South Africa leads the African countries in prevalence with just over two thousand cases and twenty-five deaths.


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Credit: kalhh on needpix

Even though the argument in various quarters is that cases of the disease are being underreported (which is essentially not true), I like to point to the huge role the difference in the strength of the immune system could be playing here. African countries are generally considered third world countries with a huge poverty level among the various population. Most of the populace cannot live the kind of lifestyle being lived by the populace of developed countries of the world where there are huge prevalence and deaths related to the virus.

People living in developed countries leave more sophisticated lifestyles and exercise less when compared to most of their African counterparts whose daily hustles for a living is more than recommended daily exercise regimes for a healthy lifestyle. According to economic theory, those earning high incomes are more likely to live ostentatious lifestyles (including eating junk foods) when compared to low-income earners. Ostentatious lifestyles generally predispose humans to underline health disorders such as diabetes and high blood pressure and hence, a compromised immune system.

The majority of the African populace does not have the means to live expensive lifestyles and eat junk foods. They eat cheap, organic foods that have been found to be generally more healthy than processed foods. Most of them also move around a lot in the process of trying to fend for themselves as opposed to the less mobile lifestyles of high-income earners in developed countries. These two factors are hypothesized to have contributed to the higher immune system of Africans and hence, their ability to resist the COVID-19 virus more than the other continents of the world.

Recommendations for natural, inexpensive ways to boost the immune system

Naturally boosting the immune system is relatively inexpensive and safer than taking synthetic immune boosters such as multivitamins. This is a fortunate situation for the teeming poor people of Africa and the rest of the world that do not have a lot of money to throw at multivitamins. Below are my proven recommendations irrespective of financial status fo individuals:

  • Regular exercise: This has been proven to be extremely helpful in boosting the immune system. Physical activities such as running, walking, jumping, etc., have been found to have the ability to flush out harmful microbes from the lungs thereby reducing the chance of certain illnesses. Regular exercises have also been reported to cause positive changes to antibodies responsible for fighting off pathogens in the body as well as slow down the release of stress hormones. Exercise generally helps individuals reduce the risks of heart diseases.

  • Adequate rests: Resting is an essential factor for maintaining a high level of the immune system. Several studies have reported that inadequate sleep has the tendency to predispose individuals to sickness, especially those caused by viruses. The body system is able to produce adequate cytokines and antibodies that serve protective functions when the body gets adequate sleep.

  • Organic foods over processed foods: Organic foods are generally more beneficial to the body system than processed foods. They contain natural products that are easily digested and absorbed by the body as compared to processed foods which most times contain synthetic additives that could be harmful to the body in the long run. Processed foods often contain high levels of sugar, fats, and sodium and have been reported to be associated with disorders such as cancer, obesity and heart diseases. Organic foods are cheaper and more readily available most of the time.

  • Balanced diets: Taking diets that contain the right doses of the nutrient will ensure daily have been found to be important in maintaining good health and immune system. Balanced diets do not necessarily have to be expensive.

  • Regular medical check-ups: Several people do not take ill-health serious until it becomes threatening, perhaps due to finances. Regular medical check-ups to ascertain any underline health condition and prompt treatment of such will ensure that the body's immune system is up and running and ready to fight off invaders. Prevention, they say, is better and cheaper than cure.

  • Clean environment and personal hygiene: Maintaining a clean environment and observing personal hygiene will go a long way in keeping one at harms-length of immune compromising diseases. Regular washing of hands and observing social distance will also help in this case. Like I said earlier, even the strongest immune system will carve-in in the presence of a high population of pathogen inoculum. A clean environment and hygiene will provide an uncomfortable condition for the thriving of pathogens.

Observing the above-highlighted recommendations are inexpensive efforts that will prop up the immune system and enable the body to fight off foreign invaders such as the COVID-19 virus.

Thank you all for reading.

This post was submitted in response to The Natural Medicine COVID 19 After The Virus Challenge.

Resources

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-biology/chapter/population-genetics/

https://www.lhsfna.org/index.cfm/lifelines/may-2019/the-many-health-risks-of-processed-foods/

Harrast MA, Laker SR, Maslowski E, De Luigi AJ. Sports medicine and adaptive sports. In: Cifu DX, ed. Braddom's Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 5th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2016:chap 39.

Lanfranco F, Ghigo E, Strasburger CJ. Hormones and athletic performance. In: Melmed S, Polonsky KS, Larsen PR, Kronenberg HM, eds. Williams Textbook of Endocrinology. 13th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2016:chap 26.

Cedernaes J, et al. Determinants of shortened, disrupted, and mistimed sleep and associated metabolic health consequences in healthy humans. Diabetes. 2015;64:1073.

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I am not a scientists, and am not challenging your premise. I don't know enough about Nigeria or immunity to do that. However, when we think of variability in immune response of different populations, I wonder: Is it not true that as the virus travels around the world it mutates and combines with other related viruses, so that the virus that left Wuhan, in many instances may be slightly different from the virus that is now reaching Nigeria. If this is true, and the virus has combined with one that commonly circulates in the population, wouldn't it be possible that acquired immunity (to the familiar virus) might be somewhat effect against the 'novel' COVID virus? Except, the COVID virus wouldn't be so novel because it would have elements of a familiar bug. Might that not be one reason some people seem to be able to fight it off (those who have antibodies to the familiar virus) and some people are not (those who do not have antibodies to the familiar virus)?

Again, I'm not a scientist, just an idea :)

Of course, that is another way to look at it. However, the mutation, in this case, will make the virus stronger, not weaker if such is the case.

If your assertions were to be true, why is the same trend not observed in other parts of the world?

Once again, I'm speaking from an uninformed (non-science-trained) perspective. The virus may be stronger--I'll take your word for it because viruses mutate to survive, I guess. However. many pathogens common in the U. S. (for example) are not all the same as those common in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, even with the U. S., pathogens common on farms are different from those common in urban settings. It has been noted that people who grow up around farm animals (dung!) have an immune response different from those who haven't grown up in this environment. Different populations have different antibody pools.

Anyway, just an idea. A good article/good discussion is one that prompts a reaction. You got that :))

Shared to our FACEBOOK page, Natural Medicine Hive. 😊 Pls come over and engage with us there too, and invite your friends to like our page.

POSH: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1284634891725086&id=1003470073174904

I LOVE that you are looking at so-called 'disadvantaged people' (maybe they will turn out to be the MOST advantaged in this new post-virus age?) and have gone straight back to basics - and focused on simple things that are within EVERYone's reach.

African people have remarkable resilience and access to so little - such a WONDERFUL example to us that preparing for a post-Covid life is NOT about money or privilege.

In my heart I love that #hive and @naturalmedicine are about GLOBAL solutions, and not just white western ones.

Do you know that folks around here jokingly call the virus as "rich men virus"? This is because the majority of those that are down with severe symptoms are upper to middle class individuals. Most lower class folks with the virus have been found to be totally asymptomatic.

Don't forget to post the link to this post in the comment of the Challenge post - so we can find it easily for judging. 😊

The BIG co-morbidity factors for Covid-19 are obesity, diabetes high blood pressure and lung disease - common factors among many hi-so people. Many lower class people who eat simply and work hard have faaaar lower risk factors. There's a part of me that likes this social-leveling.

Thanks for reminding me. I will do just that

Hi Shaid,

This is a very interesting read and indeed a perspective that is hardly shown by the ( mass ) media, as the truth can be 'painful' at times, I guess.

I just wanted to let you know that I've added this post to today's Natural Medicine curation that will go out in an hour or two.

Thanks for sharing this with us,

Vincent

Thank you very much. It is quite easy to overlook those factors and accuse the African countries of underreporting their cases. If I'm not sure of any other country, at least I'm sure of that of Nigeria. 90% of our cases here are individuals that traveled to high incidence countries and only about 10% are through community transmission. All the recorded deaths are folks with underlining health conditions. Perhaps one day, researchers will look into the immune system of Africans.

 4 years ago  

nice information I liked a lot and surething I l
growth with the read, here the health centers are not prepared for this virus so the lockdown played a good rate of saved life's, if we keep following the rules could be good but I heard that the are some part of the cities without having respect of this

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random mating... that's what she said

but really, shit is still early, it's just getting out of america and europe b/c those are the high int. traffic areas

shit's going to get nasty... i'll pray with you bro that africa don't get terrible, but i fear so

peace

So much has been said about the COVID-19 virus and the rate at which the pandemic is spreading in Africa which is quite low compared ...........

I feel the bias being super strong in this one. Since I wasn't sure, I asked google whats the temperature right now in Nigeria. This is what I got

Screenshot_20200414-194225.png

Bear in mind that in Greece now the answer to the same question is 19. And Greece is also the hottest country in eu. In the others it's probably around 10 or less. Maybe the 3x higher temperatures compared to other countries is somewhat related? Maybe ? Just maybe? Rumours after all in the streets are that most Corona viruses aren't best friends with high temperatures.

There are so many other factors I can think of, including underreporting that you so easily dismiss, but yeah I guess you are right. It's all in the diet.

Here's another interesting thing I asked google

Screenshot_20200414-195515.png

With that in mind I bet you will also have fewer covid related deaths simply due to the lack...of old people...sorry I meant due to the awesome diet.

As for the rest I think it's common sense so there's nothing to argue. Exercise, sleep well, eat healthy and don't do drugs equals a better immune system.

A final note. From talks I have had with other Nigerians and what I have read regarding Nigeria's political state, I really don't have much trust in the stats provided by the govermental site you are referencing.

That site is the Nigerian arm of center for disease control. Most Nigerians you talk to probably have not left their homes for the past 2 weeks. Do any of them have the virus or do they directly know someone with the virus that is not part of the official statistics? Ask them, I'm sure their answer would be no. Several false information abound on social media and some people will rather believe those information over the official information.

Well, most of the ones I still or used to talk are actually well traveled, and currently live abroad or want to leave Nigeria permanenty because the country is corrupted as fuck. Of course that's just my biased opinion but most sources I have checked enerally agree on this. Don't take it as an insult, I am Greek which is corrupted as fuck as well :) So yeah, I'd take anything coming from the mouth of the wolf with a grain of salt! I am not saying the stats are necessarily wrong. I am saying they could well be though!

No offence taken whatsoever. That Nigeria is corrupt is no news to anyone. However, the lack of trust in the government do make some people to always take a biased view of issues and often over exaggerate negative news and play down positive issues relating to the government. It's often worse if the person involved is into partisan politics and belongs to the opposition party.

I always try to take objective views on issues relating to the government. I'm not into partisan politics and neither is any member of my family. I am still in the country because I'm yet to get an opportunity to relocate along with my family. But that won't stop me from telling it the way it is. There have been 20 confirmed cases in my state out of which 7 have been discharge. 💯100 Percent of the cases are those that traveled to countries with high incidence. There are no reports of community transmission so far. This is mostly the case with other states except Lagos and Abuja.

That's quite another plausible way to look at it. However, I don't know how the life expectancy stat was computed but I've got several folks within my extended family that are in their 80s, some in 90s. I might agree a bit with that stat if it is limited to cities like Lagos or Abuja where the level of pollution is quite high. Trust me, those in the semi urban and rural areas keep balling into their 80s on the average.

The virus has been in the country for a while and if truly the incidence is grossly underreported as claimed by the media, we ought to have started seeing people drop dead on the street or at least, increased death rate across various hospitals in the country but such is not the case. That's why I didn't dwell much on the underreporting part. Not saying there isn't none, but probably insignificant.

I'm also of the opinion that temperature might be a factor in the spread of the pandemic. There are anecdotal evidence to back this. A kind of yet to be proven correlation seems to exist between flattening of incidence curve and rise in temperature. The latest evidence cited the UK and Spain as example. I've not researched this but I read it briefly somewhere.

So yeah, temperature is imo a better candidate why Nigeria is doing better. Also, another possible reason is the number of carriers that brought the disease to Nigeria. I mean England that you used as an example (and Europe in general) have a a shit ton of tourists from China, and of course natives going to China for work or tourism and returning back to the home country. I haven't checked, but I don't think Nigeria has a lot of people coming or going to and.returning from China where the disease started. Also I think Nigeria is generally rural and I guess populations are generally more isolated etc etc. All these sound way more reasonable explanations to me, especially considering how they probably work synergistically.

China is is the major home for a large percentage of Nigerian businessmen, so yea, we've got a large portion of our population moving to and fro China. Temperature sounds plausible but it remains unproven. That Nigeria is generally rural is arguable and no, populations in Nigeria are not as isolated as you have been made to think. Currently, inter state movement has been suspended in order to curtail the spread.

Also another question How is humidity there these days?

Humidity level is quite high considering that we are in raining season coupled with high temperature. It stands at about 84% on the average.
Screenshot_20200414-214055_Microsoft Launcher.jpg

http://www.lagos.climatemps.com/humidity.php

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Thank you, I appreciate your point of view and the way you wrote your article. To make it a little more striking, I would go so far as to say that each individual is different from the others in his or her reaction to the virus. Basically, the differences between people, current geographical locations, climate, personal biology (chemical processes in the body), food consumed, exercise, water and air quality, age, mental position, beliefs, hygiene etc. etc. are the factors that are interesting. The commonalities to which one so readily reduces all people to in order to better understand life itself often paint an inaccurate picture, as they tend to be fuzzy.

Science clearly has its limits of meaningfulness because of its analytical nature. Since every thesis and its proof must always leave the exception out, so that experiments can be reproduced in exactly the way that the scientific method prescribes. All too much is forgotten that life itself does not care about exact repetitions of a process. Since the surprising and unpredictable takes place outside of science, it can hardly be grasped by science itself. The mistake that we humans often make is to assume that science is objective, which is not given in this pure form. Thus, even the interest of a scientist, the design of an experiment, the negotiation of financing, one's own world view and the expectations that someone unconsciously brings with him/her through his/her research are not without bias. Man is incapable of impartiality unless he has undergone a hard training every second of his present actions to be aware of them at all times. So often the wish is the father of a thought and its consequences.

As Heinz von Förster and those who have also tried to approach this circumstance in a scientific yet philosophical way, are concerned to ask: Who observes the observer?

A simple example to illustrate my point: The average score on a student's report card tells us something about his overall performance. However, individual grades can vary greatly and the number of factors involved in the calculation is always limited. Even the addition of just a few more factors can significantly change the final score. The reliability of statistics and mathematical calculations should therefore always be treated with caution. In order to be able to move within this uncertainty to some extent, everyone can only observe for themselves to what extent their own well-being corresponds to recommended measures for the average or probabilities. No one else can do such work for one. However, I should not forget that often exactly those factors that I do not think about, which cannot be included in any calculation because they elude it, also play a role.

Definition par excellence is a finite matter. The word says it all. Everything that is not included in a definition is therefore not taken into account.

My personal subjective observation is this: I see no mass dead or sick, neither in my immediate nor my more distant personal surroundings. Strangely enough, no one has died of this pandemic, and until now I have considered an epidemic to be something that is clearly and visibly emerging. Our standard of living - measured in terms of convenience and comfort - is so high that it seems like a crazy thing for me to suddenly count deaths differently than before. The usual death statistics from past decades are currently the only halfway sharp and reliable source to show a difference.

For my part, Corona is a phenomenon. I do not have an ultimately extreme view on this, except if you want to classify it as extreme, that I find in it a kind of mental overreaction to the fact that man is mortal and that we perhaps see something like a personal insult in this fact of mortality because of our luxurious living conditions.

Thanks for the thoughtful insight Erikah and welcome to hive.

Yes, some people have played down the threat about the virus with some going as far as saying that the mortality rate is not more than that of the commonly known flu.

Nigeria has recorded about twenty deaths so far from the virus since the first index case entered the country about two months ago. Within the same period, people have died from malaria, childbirth issue, etc. Even though I don't have the statistics, I'm almost certain malaria would have killed more within the same period if the records are scrutinised.

So, I totally see reasons with people that try to downplay the effects of the virus but the big question is, if the government has not been making efforts to curtail the spread of the pandemic, would not the death rate be far more than this?

To answer your last question: Hard to tell because the setting doesn't provide for it.

For a clean scientific study you need different groups. One group that is isolated, another that is not. With regard to something as complex as human health and causal research, the Covid19 case is based on the reliability of the first appearance of this virus. The whole world seems to assume that it first appeared in China/Wuhan and spread from there. Now my question is: How does anyone expect to know this beyond any doubt? Who can proclaim this as certain and absolutely doubtless knowledge? It may just as well be that the virus originated elsewhere and at a different time before it was identified. That makes the point in time where the counting began quite significant, I would say.

As far as one follows this thought, other questions arise. Given the high frequency of travelers across the entire earth, I consider it an astonishing achievement and for my sceptical part a rather presumptuous supposition. On the other hand, it is quite simple to say that the measures taken by most governments (except Sweden), i.e. the lockdown, have been effective in curbing the spread. In my opinion, this is also an anticipatory statement, as too little is known about the virus, there are no comparative figures from previous years, the tests do not work sufficiently well, and the tests and counts vary from country to country. In many cases of Covid deaths, not even an autopsy has been carried out and no distinction has been made between those who died of Covid and those who died with Covid.

If you are interested in critical sources, I will pick them out. I have such mostly from German speaking sources, but I can remember English ones as well. Many German doctors have been very critical of the lockdown decision and the dangerousness of this virus.

For me, the matter is indeed a phenomenon. I haven't made up my mind in an extreme direction. I think every event has more than two sides and can be looked at and thought about in many different ways.

Why I left such a long comment on your blog is that I assume that I got to know you as someone with a wide horizon.

Sincere greetings to you!

....and I quite appreciate the long comments to be honest. I totally understand your argument. Perhaps it would have been better to just allow the disease to run its course and let natural selection play it's role.

Honestly, I doubt if the lockdown will prove effective in the long run because the virus will definitely not just go away from the population. For how long can we lockdown? Perhaps till a vaccine is found and that might be in 6 to 12 month time.

I will appreciate if I can get a few of those critical sources. Thanks.

Viruses and bacteria are an essential part of our lives, we consist of them. The "interest" of the virus is to create life. To kill its host is probably a mistake in it's "design". We will always have those kinds of viruses which "overdo" it and are not in the same way "smart" than the other ones who exist with us in fruitful co-existence.

To change the view on viruses and bacteria in a broader sense helps me to leave the medical realm and used language (which unfortunately lends its vocabulary often from combat and battle scenes) and take on a more philosophical approach.

As a human being I still trust my eyes and senses and was skeptical from the beginning of the "pandemic". It's obvious that the definition of it changed. And so the perception of what is a dreadful plague and what is highly contagious but not monocausal for deaths.

I understand your point. I mostly right from the angle I've got a good knowledge of. I'm not much of a philosophical evolutionist but I can try in that regards.

Everyone is just trying to survive, indeed, and the capacity to cause diseases by microbes is just a fault in their quest to survive which the poor microbes might not even be aware of. In the quest to survive, we humans also kill other animals for food and raw materials for products. It's the way nature is designed and we biologist love to refer to it as the food Web.

P.S. Every family doctor knows and knew in all the past decades or even hundreds of years that influenza kills people every year. It simply wasn't thought in general as something dreadful because nobody talked about it in the manner that it was perceived as a deadly threat. Even though it always was and will be. My dad died in February, my Mom in March, those are the usual months old or sick people often die.

I hope that I may fall for amnesia (irony:) because getting an influenza during the winter times is no fun. In the past I myself though never thought of it being a threat towards my health. I always was totally convinced to recover from it. What I - nevertheless - noticed was that the older I become the more effort it takes to endure it and get it through.

I like to maintain the confidence to become well again without focussing too much on the sickness. But I can predict that people will now be extra obnoxious in the future once winter is about to come and one cannot leave the house, go to work, read the news without being confronted all the time. For my taste, some things should remain in Pandoras box ... being approached in a more indirect way.... I cannot express it better right now, but I hope you understand the underlying meaning of it.

Bye bye, dear Shaid.

Of course I do. I do have my own fair share of the influenza attack at regular intervals, mostly when my immune system goes down due to work related stress. Sometimes, I feel like it might be the end of me the way it makes me feel.

That's why I'm a bit indifferent about CoViD-19. Virus generally only get successful with weak immune systems and that's why my main strategy has been to prop up my immune system through different activities which I listed in the original post.

Sorry for the late reply.

Here is one site which lists some articles about the topic in a critical way:

https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/

If you are interested to dig deeper a lot of personal research is involved. Unfortunately I cannot give you any of the German sources as you cannot read them.

In the end of the day it anyway depends on what one wants to believe and what not. From my general point of view objectivity is nowhere given. Not in the sciences and not in the non-sciences.

Human health is from my point of view so much more than the immune system alone. All factors cannot be taken into account because that overwhelms the capacity of each individual.

The best protection I see for myself is always to stay skeptical towards "total cure", "effective solutions" and so on and so forth. In modern times almost everybody follows some kind of interest. Trust I can put into those, who express themselves doubtful and have no economic advantage on what they promote.

Thanks. I will have a deep look.

Yes to everything, especially sleep, exercise, and movement! Nature's best immune system defenses. Great post.