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By Kelley Herring
For those of us with eyes to see, it has become quite obvious over the past year and a half that all is not as it is portrayed to be, when it comes to COVID. With every announcement from the government and health authorities – and any mainstream news you are unfortunate enough to view or read – it is evident that the primary objectives are not to promote true health… but rather, to instill fear and control.
It would seem that in the midst of the “greatest pandemic in modern history” that political and health authorities should focus first on the dietary and lifestyle improvements proven to support health and bolster immunity. This advice should be followed by the recommendation of inexpensive drug therapies with a long history of safety and effectiveness. And this should be followed last by novel and experimental treatments with the greatest potential risks and the shortest records of testing and use.
Of course, you already know that the authorities have said virtually nothing about dietary and lifestyle interventions, like weight loss, metabolic health and vitamin D status. You also know that they have vilified and attempted to blockade the safe, inexpensive and effective drug treatments. And they have focused exclusively on the treatments with the greatest risks (and greatest profits to the patent holders).
The truth is that COVID poses a very small risk to the vast majority of people. Most people who do experience symptoms recover quickly. And most of those who do truly succumb to the illness – as opposed to those deaths that are intentionally mislabeled to pad the statistics – have underlying health issues that are the greatest contributing factor to their illness and ultimate demise.
As I have shared in this space before, if you truly want to protect yourself and your loved ones… the most important thing you can do is to focus on your diet, your body composition and the lifestyle factors that help to improve your overall health and immunity.
And among these factors, your body weight and metabolic health are the most crucial!
Fat Cells: An Incubator for COVID?
Previous studies showed that the risk of becoming ill from COVID and the severity of the illness rise in direct proportion to the degree of obesity. The more obese the individual, the greater their risk of hospitalization and death from COVID (not to mention, other causes).1,2
A primary reason for this is that fat cells help to produce and regulate hormones… and hormones influence your risk of COVID.
However, new research conducted at Stanford University found that COVID-19 may infect fat cells directly. These fat cells then act as an incubator and repository for the virus.3 The researchers also found that COVID-19 not only infected the cells… but also inflamed them.
“If adipose cells constitute a reservoir for viral infection, obesity may contribute not only to severe acute disease, but also to long-COVID syndrome.”
The researchers evaluated the fat tissue from the bodies of patients who died from COVID-19 and discovered the coronavirus “hanging out” in the fat stores around various organs, including the heart and intestines.
By hiding in fat tissue, the virus evades the body’s immune defenses, allowing it to replicate unhindered before triggering a severe immune response.
Dr. David Kass, MD, a professor of cardiology at Johns Hopkins Medicine, says:
“If you really are very obese, fat is the biggest single organ in your body.”
Optimize Your Body Composition for a Healthy Life
Optimizing your body composition doesn’t just help in the fight against COVID-19. Decades of research shows it guards against every chronic illness.
If you’re currently overweight or obese, there is a lot you can do to improve your body composition and overall health – starting today.
- Fuel with Fat: Carbohydrate consumption drives insulin – the “fat storage” hormone. By enjoying a fat-focused diet you can keep your blood sugar (and therefore insulin) in an optimal range for a healthy body composition. So, bring on the grass-fed beef, butter, and bacon!
- Compress Your “Eating Window”: By keeping your caloric consumption in a narrow window, you can dramatically improve insulin sensitivity and shed unwanted pounds, without counting calories. It couldn’t be easier. Simply stop eating after dinner and skip breakfast the next morning to tap into fat stores and reset your metabolic machinery to promote better insulin sensitivity.
- Move Your Body: Find a physical activity you enjoy and make it a routine. Resistance or weight training is especially helpful to improve your insulin sensitivity and body composition.
It doesn’t matter what new “variants” are discovered. The key to your staying healthy has always been right inside of you!
Read more health and wellness articles from Kelley Herring on our Discover Blog.
Ed Note: Need some kitchen inspiration? Grab Kelley’s free guide – Instant Pot Keto Dinners – made exclusively with Paleo-and-Keto ingredients, for quick and delicious meals that taste just as good – of not better – than your restaurant favorites. Get your free guide here.
References
- CDC: CDC Updates, Expands List of People at Risk of Severe COVID-19 Illness. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p0625-update-expands-covid-19.html
- CDC: People with Certain Medical Conditions. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html
- Giovanny J. Martínez-Colón, Kalani Ratnasiri, Heping Chen, Sizun Jiang, Elizabeth Zanley, Arjun Rustagi, Renu Verma, Han Chen, Jason R. Andrews, Kirsten D. Mertz, Alexandar Tzankov, Dan Azagury, Jack Boyd, Garry P. Nolan, Christian M. Schürch, Matthias S. Matter, Catherine A. Blish, Tracey L. McLaughlin. SARS-CoV-2 infects human adipose tissue and elicits an inflammatory response consistent with severe COVID-19. bioRxiv 2021.10.24.465626; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.24.465626
