Let me start my sharing a few statistics with you:
At last count, 142,000 people in total, for the entire pandemic, have died within 28 days of a positive COVID test here in the UK.
168,000 people in the UK, per year, die of heart and cardiovascular diseases. That is one quarter of all deaths in the UK. Every. Year.
7.6 million people are living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK right now.
One person every 5 minutes is hospitalised in the UK due to cardiovascular disease.
36,400 people with diabetes die prematurely per year here in the UK.
4.9 million people in the UK have diabetes and a further 13.6 million are at greater risk of developing it.
1 in 6 patients in hospital in the UK have diabetes.
Those with diabetes are twice as likely to be hospitalised.
If you fear COVID because you are afraid you will die if you catch it. The data say that you are more likely to die from cardiovascular disease. If you fear COVID because you are afraid someone you know will die if they catch it, the numbers say they are more likely to die of cardiovascular disease.
If you fear COVID because it is taking all of our NHS resources and you are worried you will hospitalised from it — at the point in the pandemic when the most hospital beds were being occupied by COVID patients they made up 6% of all patients in hospital beds on that day (November 2nd 2021) where as patients with diabetes take up 16% of all hospital beds all year round as an average. On the worse day 6% had COVID and on average 16% have diabetes. 10% of the entire NHS budget is spent on diabetes. 10%!
If you fear COVID because it is infectious so you disinfect your hands regularly and you wear a mask for prevention. Then I ask you, when was the last time you ate processed food? Smoked a cigarette? Ate way too many carbs in one sitting? Drank one too many cocktails? Stayed up too late? Choose not to do your daily exercise? Didn't get enough sun on your skin to ensure optimum vitamin D levels? Why does that matter? Because all of those things are linked to greater likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease and/or diabetes so avoiding them daily would be great prevention.
Cardiovascular disease kills more people per year than COVID does. Diabetes hospitalises more people per year than COVID does and is on the rise. Both Type II Diabetes and cardiovascular disease are preventable. Simple diet and lifestyle changes can mean you are less likely to develop either, and guess what? Those same changes will strengthen your immune system meaning that if you do catch COVID your infection is likely to be shorter and less severe.
The best immunisation against all inflammatory disease is a healthy balanced diet and lifestyle. There is not magic bullet that if you do that one thing will ensure you a long healthy life. It is a number of small, simple, healthy choices that you make during each day every day that lead to optimum health.
I am feeling increasingly frustrated with our government pushing the fear agenda and not letting its constituents know that there are simple steps they can take every day to empower themselves and their health. Fear creates stress hormones and chronic stress hormones are a factor in both cardiovascular disease, diabetes and immune suppression. I call two years of fear pushing from the media, lockdowns, mask wearing, no hugs, losing jobs and freedoms revoked chronic stress. It is time we demanded better from our elected officials.
So, if you are looking for a way to reduce your risk of dying, reduce your risk of hospitalisation, and you want to unburden the NHS here are some simple tips to get you started:
stop eating processed food
drastically reduce your sugar intake (in fact, cut it out all together)
eat good quality, lean protein with every meal, but not too much
eat two big handfuls of fresh greens with your lunch and dinner
aim to have every colour of the rainbow of vegetables and low GI fruit everyday
include a little fermented food in your diet everyday
ensure you are eating enough good quality fat (not seed oils)
include as much anti-inflammatory food in your diet as possible
move your body every day
breathe
take time for stillness
find a community when you can be authentic and connect with them
do the work you need to do to move on from your past and upbringing
find a way to make the world a better place even in a tiny way
practice random acts of kindness
This pandemic will be solved by each one of us taking personal responsibility to educate and doctor ourselves — it is clear to me our government has no interest in supporting us in this way. You have the power to heal, grow, change yourself and change your communities.
Let’s do this people, one leaf of kale at a time!
If you would like to look at the numbers yourself. Please do. Knowledge is power.
https://www.diabetes.org.uk/professionals/position-statements-reports/statistics
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-hospital-activity/
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