COVID-19 Update : Thinking About the Possible Second Wave

RVAchironeuro • July 20, 2020

Hello again everyone:­­

Here is a very pertinent quote from a very recent article from MedPage:

“As we begin to think about the next wave, about what the coming months may hold for us, it seems like having rapid flu testing available in the office, as well as rapid point-of-care testing for COVID-19, may be what we need to safely diagnose, safely treat, safely send home, safely quarantine, and safely track contacts, to prevent the second wave from being as devastating as the first. We need to begin now preparing for the next, not reacting after it’s already here…”

This is actually what we would hope will be in place by the fall so that we do not quarantine the healthy, only those that are truly sick with the virus, so that the economy and our lives can keep going and not be more stressful.

Once again, I am failing to find any mention of what each of us can do to optimize our health so that we can either avoid the disease altogether, or if we become infected then the course of the illness is mild. This appears to me to be gross negligence by our public health authorities in light of the foundational information about Vitamin D. I know I mentioned this before, however, it is worth re-iterating and going over the basic facts as they become available.

As of June 2020, there are around 20 Vitamin D trials being done in relationship to Vitamin D and COVID-19. Right now, the use of Vitamin D to assist in prevention and amelioration of SARS CoV-2 is not ‘proven’ but does have some basis in evidence from data from multiple countries who have examined Vitamin D status in relation to severity of illness of infected patients. Here are a few links:

Bottom Line:

Once again, please bear in mind that using Vitamin D is part of supportive or adjunctive care and is not considered primary care or primary treatment for SARS CoV-2. Emerging evidence supports using Vitamin D as the literature shows a strong relationship between Vitamin D status and severity of infections: the better your Vitamin D status, the better your outcome. It is that simple (yeah!). So, get your Vitamin D level tested and take adequate Vitamin D (always take your D3 with Vitamin K2!!!) to get your Vitamin D levels to around 80 ng/ml, and keep it there as this pandemic can possibly last well into next year!! With strategies like this, we may be able to keep the second wave to a minimum.

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Health News Update: Inflammaging is Bad News

By Mark Smith • August 25, 2025
Hello everyone: I think I have mentioned inflammaging before but never really focused on it. So, let’s dig into this interesting topic. Inflammaging is when chronic, low-grade inflammation develops with age as dietary and environmental stress accumulates, contributing to the development of all of the various age-related diseases and health issues. It results from a loss of control over systemic inflammation, which tends to come from an unbalanced and dysregulated immune system. One of the key drivers of inflammaging is diet…which means that one of the key tools to slow and reduce aging is our what we eat as well as what we don’t eat. In this paper, the authors reveal that the typical Western Diet (what science calls the Standard American Diet or S.A.D.) is the best example of a pro-inflammatory diet pattern. “ Conclusion: Inflammation is a key physiological process in immunity and tissue repair. However, during aging it becomes increasingly more chronic. In addition, we found that certain foods such as saturated fats have pro-inflammatory activity. Taking this into account, in this review we have proposed some dietary guidelines as well as a list of compounds present in foods with anti-inflammatory activity. It must be taken into account that the amounts used in the studies that detect anti-inflammatory activity of these compounds are very high, and the intake of a single food to achieve its anti-inflammatory power is not feasible. (My Comment: what this means is that it is the overall dietary pattern that matters the most.) However, the combination of foods rich in compounds with anti-inflammatory activity could exert beneficial effects during aging and in pathologies associated with inflammation and in reducing the detrimental effects of foods with pro-inflammatory activity. Therefore, we can conclude that the compounds in our diet with anti-inflammatory activity could help alleviate the inflammatory processes derived from diseases and unhealthy diets and thereby promote healthy aging. Thus, we can use diet not only for nourishment, but also as medicine.” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8389628/ anti-inflammatory diet and health aging https://www.healthline.com/health/5-minute-guide-to-inflamm-aging Bottom Line: We all must age, and how we do so is largely under our own control. To create an anti-inflammatory lifestyle is not that difficult, especially if you put it all together in stages. Start with a clean, whole-food, unprocessed plant-based food plan. And to begin, first focus on what you can add into your menus and use those additions to sort of crowd out the things that are more inflammatory…sugar, refined grains, processed and pre-packaged things. Set realistic goals such as going plant based one or two days a week, or even one meal…just start and gradually work up. It has to be doable so don’t stress. Next, start moving and doing regular exercise at least three times a week…and find what you enjoy doing and focus on that. Then add activities that de-stress you, whether that is socializing, church, meditation, prayer, yoga, etc. Overall, shift your attention to giving love to things that love you back. Sugar, drive-thru and processed food like thingies do not love you back but apples or kiwis or berries or veggies do. Sitting around does not love you back but going for a short walk after a meal does love you back. Hang out and give love to the people you really like to be with, they will most always love you back. Create a love you back lifestyle and see how you feel.

Health News Update: Blocking Internet on Smartphones Improves Mental Health

By Mark Smith • August 18, 2025
Hello everyone: I frequently hear about mental health issues with the people in our practice. They could be experiencing depression, or anxiety, feel flat, can’t focus or sustain attention, or may not feel well in general. These comments can come from anyone of any age…I can hear from parents about their kids, or it may be themselves experiencing these feeling. So, when I read this paper, it felt important to share it because we all seem to have mobile phones. Here is how the paper is summarized: “Concern about how smartphones affect users is widespread: half of American smartphone users—and 80% of those under age 30—worry that they use their device too much, and correlational research suggests that smartphone use is negatively related to mental health and cognitive functioning. However, few large-scale experiments have tested for causal effects. We report such an experiment, finding that blocking mobile internet for 2 weeks reduces smartphone use and improves subjective well-being (SWB) (including life satisfaction and positive affect), mental health (more than antidepressants), and sustained attention (as much as being 10 years younger). Despite the many benefits mobile internet offers, reducing the constant connection to the digital world can have large positive effects.” https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/4/2/pgaf017/8016017?utm_source=klaviyo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=%28Email%20-%20Chris%20Kresser%20General%20News%29%20Chris%27s%20Friday%20Favorites&utm_term=randomized%20controlled%20trial&utm_content=randomized%20controlled%20trial&_kx=fARhTo_gi8X3B_2-MaeO_RyzUl9tvT3tr4re-Dy7cNQ.my75y6 Bottom Line: It seems like a smartphone ‘timeout’ can be very beneficial for mental, emotional, physical health and can be an important part of stress reduction. The world today, with nearly instant communications, the almost constant bad and anxiety promoting news, and the fast pace of data consumption can add up to significantly stress us out and pull us down…or just simple keep us distracted. From what I can see, a ‘timeout’ may be just what the doctor ordered.
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