There are many people that still maintain an abundance of caution concerning the Covid 19 pandemic. They have not stepped into a restaurant, have food delivered as opposed to entering a supermarket, have stayed completely away from their children/grandchildren and do not allow anyone into their homes. On the other end of the spectrum, there are a number of people that are angry about wearing masks, have no issue hanging out with people and are trying to carry on their lives as they were before the pandemic hit.
Clearly, the aforementioned cautious people are very concerned about contracting Covid 19 and having a very bad outcome vs. the other category of people that feel that even if they were infected, this would be no different in outcome than having a common cold. This comes down to a person’s confidence in her/his immune system.
We now know that there are many risk factors for people having serious outcomes from an infection with Covid: Advanced age, high blood pressure, diabetes, immunosuppression, certain blood type, obesity, lung disease and several others.
Personally, I am over 60 but fortunate to not have other risk factors. Moreover, I have spent years seeing “sick” patients and I believe that this, to some extent, has helped me develop a strong immune system. Therefore, I had no problem or major concern seeing sick patients (fever, muscle aches and all of the classic symptoms) presenting to me most likely having a Covid infection. I have a good deal of confidence in my immune system, and thus far, even though I know I have been exposed to the virus, I luckily have fared well.
How about you? With more waves of Covid likely coming (I just read this morning that the President and First Lady tested positive but seem well at this point), how confident are you in your immune system? When you go through the checklist of risk factors, how many apply to you?
Optimizing weight is the very best controllable action we can take to build our immunity to stronger levels. So many of the major risk factors of severe Covid illness revolve around the co-morbidities of poor weight control. NOW is the time to become steadfast and focused on your weight control efforts. Having confidence goes far beyond our appearance…this extends into feeling better about our immune system.
