Health & Fitness

05/05/20

Tiffiny Hall’s 3-hour reset rule is the simplest way to stop emotional eating we’ve ever heard

A Famine Will Follow With Coronavirus

When the COVID-19 pandemic is over and systems are in place for any reoccurrences, the world will still not be out of the woods. Experts are predicting that food disruptions and even a famine could follow.

COVID-19 was said to be an "equalizer," affecting poor and rich countries alike. Certainly, the infection did not spare high-profile figures like U.K.'s Prince Charles¹ and Prime Minister Boris Johnston,² U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky³ and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, even as it affected the poor and members of minorities.⁴

But the same may not be true for the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which experts predict will cause large swaths of poor nations to face hunger and starvation. Unlike the advanced food sales and distribution systems in rich countries, poor countries have unorganized systems that are heavily reliant on labor and have been deeply disrupted by COVID-19.

The economic and social disruptions caused by COVID-19 on the backdrop of harmful agricultural practices and resulting environmental destruction threaten to cause devastating world hunger, especially in poorer nations.⁵ Though the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on human health will end as treatments are identified and the pandemic peaks, world hunger may be a long-lasting and grim outgrowth.

COVID-19 Affects All Facets of Society

When you look at the social, economic, agricultural and workforce fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is like a perfect storm. Almost no sector of society has been spared, from travel and tourism to basic food production and delivery. According to The New York Times, a global hunger crisis looms from:⁶

"… the sudden loss in income for countless millions who were already living hand-to-mouth; the collapse in oil prices; widespread shortages of hard currency from tourism drying up; overseas workers not having earnings to send home; and ongoing problems like climate change, violence, population dislocations and humanitarian disasters …

There is no shortage of food globally, or mass starvation from the pandemic — yet. But logistical problems in planting, harvesting and transporting food will leave poor countries exposed in the coming months."

Even when food prices don't rise, countries that already suffered from food shortages before COVID-19 will face worsened situations, the Times continues:

"This is especially true for economies like Sudan and Zimbabwe that were struggling before the outbreak, or those like Iran that have increasingly used oil revenues to finance critical goods like food and medicine."

Migrant Workers and Refugees Suffer From COVID-19

It is no surprise that migrant workers, doing the low-paying and often dangerous work that others don't want to, are especially suffering from COVID-19-related work shutdowns. Thirty-five million migrants work in the six Arab Gulf states constituting over 80% of the population in some countries.⁷

In India, as many as half a million people working outside their cities or origin literally walked back home after their jobs disappeared with COVID-19. Amitabh Behar, chief executive of Oxfam India, called the exodus the "largest mass migration since independence."⁸ The job loss is already causing food famines.

Throngs of displaced workers coalesce at food lines set up by the Delhi government to feed them, but the amount of food is not always sufficient. "Instead of coronavirus, the hunger will kill us,” said Nihal Singh, a migrant worker hoping to be fed. Clustered food distribution in India and elsewhere also puts people at risk, since the crowding prevents social distancing.

COVID-19-related travel bans and airport closures have also worsened a gigantic locust invasion that is destroying pastureland and crops in the East and Horn of Africa by delaying the arrival of pesticides:⁹

"‘The outbreak is the worst the region has seen in decades and comes on the heels of a year marked by extreme droughts and floods. But the arrival of billions of new swarms could further deepen food insecurity,’ said Cyril Ferrand, head of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s resilience team in eastern Africa."

Refugees and those fleeing wars in their respective countries are also victims of COVID-19, says the Times.¹⁰

"Refugees and people living in conflict zones are likely to be hit the hardest. The curfews and restrictions on movement are already devastating the meager incomes of displaced people in Uganda and Ethiopia, the delivery of seeds and farming tools in South Sudan and the distribution of food aid in the Central African Republic.

Containment measures in Niger, which hosts almost 60,000 refugees fleeing conflict in Mali, have led to surges in the pricing of food, according to the International Rescue Committee."

US Meat Workers Sicken and Lose Jobs From COVID-19

Even during normal times, U.S. meat workers perform some of the most dangerous and low-paying jobs that exist. Most are immigrants doing jobs few people want to do; at the Smithfield Sioux Falls facility, 40 languages are spoken.¹¹

But the plight of U.S. meat workers is heightened by Big Meat's reliance on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) that house thousands of animals in one facility and have crowded out family farms. CAFOs invite pandemics and novel pathogens through unhygienic crowding of animals. According to The American Conservative:¹²

"In 2017, three-quarters of the egg-laying hens in America were owned by just 320 farms, each averaging about 900,000 birds in annual inventory and 95 percent of American hogs were raised by farms that sold 5,000 hogs in a year. (In the same time frame, independent farmers sold on average 43 hogs each.) …

They look and operate more like factories, with poorly paid staff doing the work. The animals spend their entire lives in a confined space, rarely seeing the light of day. They can’t naturally survive under these conditions without being pumped full of drugs, incubating resistance that poses major threats to human health. They have also been found to amplify a pandemic.

Most of these operations are owned by a few huge corporations, meaning that the profits flow outside the community and, very often, outside of the country. In fact, the single largest owner and slaughterer of pigs in America is now a Chinese company called WH Group, which acquired Smithfield Foods in 2013."

In April 2020 many U.S. slaughterhouses closed because of workers infected with COVID-19, some of whom died. As I write this, Smithfield Foods,¹³ the world's largest pork producer, JBS,¹⁴ the world's largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork and Tyson,¹⁵ the world's second largest, have all shuttered their slaughterhouses.

JBS’ parent company, helmed by the high-rolling brothers Wesley and Joesley Batista, is under investigation by the U.S. Department of and the Securities and Exchange Commission for alleged bribery and COVID-19-related price fixing.¹⁶

In addition to employees who work close to each other in slaughter facilities coping with increasing line speeds,¹⁷ U.S. meat inspectors themselves are also falling ill. According to the Los Angeles Times:¹⁸

"More than 100 inspection-service employees have tested positive for COVID-19, the government confirmed. At least two deaths of inspectors have been reported. U.S. inspectors travel among facilities. That’s adding to fears that shutdowns will keep occurring if a sick federal employee brings the infection to plants where there’s not yet an outbreak."

Will COVID-19 Cause Shortages in the US Food Supply?

Big Meat, abetted by mainstream media, has floated the idea that food will be scarce in the U.S. because of the closing of slaughterhouses linked to COVID-19. Giant dairy farmers are dumping milk¹⁹ and pork farmers, claiming they have nowhere to send them, are euthanizing pigs.²⁰

But the "food" they refer to is from multinational corporations, not family and regenerative farms that still offer healthful protein, including meat that does not come from CAFOs. Conventionally-produced meat teems with hormones, antibiotics, heavy metals, growth-producing drugs like ractopamine and antibiotic resistant pathogens that are treated with radiation, ammonia, chlorine, gasses and nitrites.²¹

Conventionally-produced meat is also produced with many vaccines. According to Organic Consumers Association:²²

"For example Merck markets 49 vaccines for poultry alone to prevent diseases like fowl pox, turkey coryza, bursal disease, coccidiosis, laryngotracheitis, hemorrhagic enteritis, avian encephalomyelitis of course salmonella and E. coli …

It also markets at least 25 vaccines to prevent cattle diseases and an entire schedule of vaccines for pigs including … 'an aid in the prevention of pneumonia, diarrhea, septicemia and mortality caused by Salmonella choleraesuis and as an aid in control of disease and shedding of Salmonella typhimurium.' It even markets vaccines for use in aquaculture."

CAFOS Drive Diseases and Pandemics

CAFOs are a driver of animal-based virus pandemics like avian and swine influenzas. Even as CAFO-linked slaughterhouses close, Big Pork is bracing for another China-originated novel virus called swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus or SADS-CoV, which killed thousands of piglets in China from 2016 to 2017.²³ According to Farm Journal Ag Web:²⁴

"If SADS-CoV were to enter the U.S. the industry needs to be prepared to implement control strategies to mitigate the disease’s impact on pork producers."

Big Ag and mainstream media assure the public the meat is safe to eat because coronaviruses like COVID-19 aren't "foodborne illnesses,"²⁵ but Paul Sundberg, executive director of the Swine Health Information Center, cautions that coronaviruses are “very adaptable.” They "can jump from species to species and certainly that's been the U.S. pork experience," he told Hog Farmer.²⁶

Moreover, both SARS and MERS are coronaviruses that have been found in the past to jump from animals to humans who ate civet cats²⁷ and camels,²⁸ respectively.

U.S. pork producers are also bracing for African swine fever (ASF), a China-based disease that has killed a quarter of the world's pigs.²⁹ “It’s not a question of whether ASF reaches American shores, but when," writes Thomas Parsons, professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine, and Scott Michael Moore, China Program Director at the University of Pennsylvania, in The Hill.³⁰

CAFOs and Environmental Destruction

CAFOs, in addition to driving pandemics, also drive environmental destruction. According to the American Conservative:³¹

"The environment simply cannot handle such massive populations of animals in such condensed space. The 25 million hogs in Iowa produce as much waste as 65 million humans equivalent to the populations of Texas and California combined."

The waste is ruining America’s water from heavy rainfalls and manure spread indiscriminately on field crops that spills into waterways. A family farm with 100 hogs on it simply doesn’t pose a threat to our natural resources like these corporate factories. An opinion piece in the Des Moines Register by two professors of public health conveyed the enormity of the pollution:³²

"Largely because of 23 million hogs, Iowa now has a 'Fecal Equivalent Population' of 168 million people … Over-application of manure, too often on frozen ground … increases in Iowa’s stream nitrate loads … our water leads all states in discharged nutrient loads …

Iowa has by far the most CAFOs of any state. We should heed the American Public Health Association’s Governing Council’s call in November 2019 for a national moratorium on new or expanded CAFOs, citing their 'threat to air quality, drinking water and human health' and to 'stop using medically important antibiotics in healthy animals.'"

World Hunger Will Follow the COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has brought hunger to millions of people around the world already. National lockdowns, social distancing, loss of tourism and tanking oil prices have annihilated incomes, disrupted food production and supply chains and deprived poor children of the food they received at now-shuttered schools.³³

In the U.S., food from CAFOs owned by multinational conglomerates will also be affected by the pandemic. Hopefully, we can depend on wholesome food from family and regenerative farmers to get us through the after-pandemic of hunger.

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Ventilators May Increase Risk of Death From COVID-19

In recent weeks, several doctors and published papers have noted that COVID-19 patients who are put on ventilators have an increased risk of death.¹ April 9, 2020, Business Insider reported² that 80% of COVID-19 patients in New York City who are placed on ventilators die, causing some doctors to question their use.

According to The Associated Press,³ “Similar reports have emerged from China and the United Kingdom. One U.K. report put the figure at 66%. A very small study in Wuhan … said 86% died.”

Updated New York City Statistics

An April 22, 2020, study published in JAMA describing the outcomes for 5,700 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the New York City area reported:⁴

“Mortality rates for those who received mechanical ventilation in the 18-to-65 and older-than-65 age groups were 76.4% and 97.2%, respectively. Mortality rates for those in the 18-to-65 and older-than-65 age groups who did not receive mechanical ventilation were 19.8% and 26.6%, respectively. There were no deaths in the younger-than-18 age group.”

These numbers were amended shortly thereafter, though. April 26, 2020, CNN Health reported⁵ that an average of 24.5% of patients placed on ventilators died, compared to about 20% of those who were not ventilated.

Karina Davidson, senior vice president of research at Northwell Health, told CNN her team had decided to “clarify the wording of the report,” and that the figures are being updated to reflect “how many [patients] we know have had an outcome and how many remain in the hospital." CNN explained:⁶

“The original report in JAMA stated that 12% of patients required ventilation and of them 88% died — but those numbers only represented a minority of patients whose outcome was known, not the entire body of patients. The updated numbers include all of the patients, including those who remained in the hospital at the time the data was gathered on April 4.”

In an April 8, 2020, article, STAT News reported:⁷

“What’s driving this reassessment is a baffling observation about COVID-19: Many patients have blood oxygen levels so low they should be dead. But they’re not gasping for air, their hearts aren’t racing, and their brains show no signs of blinking off from lack of oxygen.

That is making critical care physicians suspect that blood levels of oxygen, which for decades have driven decisions about breathing support for patients with pneumonia and acute respiratory distress, might be misleading them about how to care for those with COVID-19.

In particular, more and more are concerned about the use of intubation and mechanical ventilators. They argue that more patients could receive simpler, noninvasive respiratory support, such as the breathing masks used in sleep apnea, at least to start with and maybe for the duration of the illness.”

Oxygen Is Needed but Ventilation May Be Inadvisable

Dr. Cameron Kyle-Sidell, whose video is featured at the top of this article, has noted their patients’ symptoms have more in common with altitude sickness than pneumonia.⁸ Similarly, a recent paper⁹ by Drs. Luciano Gattinone and John Marini describes two different types of COVID-19 presentations, which they refer to as Type L and Type H.

While one benefits from mechanical ventilation, the other does not. Dr. Roger Seheult discusses this paper, as well as the comparison of COVID-19 to high altitude pulmonary edema or HAPE, in the MedCram video above.

In the final analysis, it may turn out that ventilators are inappropriate for a majority of patients, and doctors at UChicago Medicine report¹⁰ “truly remarkable” results using high-flow nasal cannulas in lieu of ventilators. As noted in a press release:¹¹

“High-flow nasal cannulas, or HFNCs, are non-invasive nasal prongs that sit below the nostrils and blow large volumes of warm, humidified oxygen into the nose and lungs.

A team from UChicago Medicine’s emergency room took 24 COVID-19 patients who were in respiratory distress and gave them HFNCs instead of putting them on ventilators. The patients all fared extremely well, and only one of them required intubation after 10 days …

The HFNCs are often combined with prone positioning, a technique where patients lay on their stomachs to aid breathing. Together, they’ve helped UChicago Medicine doctors avoid dozens of intubations and have decreased the chances of bad outcomes for COVID-19 patients, said Thomas Spiegel, MD, Medical Director of UChicago Medicine’s Emergency Department.

‘The proning and the high-flow nasal cannulas combined have brought patient oxygen levels from around 40% to 80% and 90%, so it’s been fascinating and wonderful to see,’ Spiegel said …

‘Avoiding intubation is key,’ Spiegel said. ‘Most of our colleagues around the city are not doing this, but I sure wish other ERs would take a look at this technique closely.’”

Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Technique

Another less available and more complicated treatment strategy that’s showing promise is known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or ECMO. The system involves a complex circuit of tubes, filters and pumps that oxygenate the patient’s blood and remove waste products outside the body before pumping it back into circulation.

Guidance¹² for the use of ECMO in COVID-19 treatment was published March 30, 2020, in the ASAIO Journal. As a general rule, ECMO is recommended for relatively young patients with few comorbidities who are failing to respond to ventilator treatment. According to an April 24, 2020 press release by the University of Michigan:¹³

“As of April 21 … more than 470 patients with suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been treated at the ECMO centers that are sharing their data. Most were men in their 40s and early 50s. Nearly half had obesity and one-fifth had diabetes.

Most of those placed on ECMO for COVID-19 are still on the treatment, which can take weeks to allow the body to recover enough for the patient to function on their own. Every moment of that time, patients must be under the care of teams of trained nurses, respiratory therapists, technicians and physicians …

Patients must get evaluated by an ECMO center and transferred before their condition worsens too much. They should not have been on a ventilator more than seven days before starting ECMO, which means that they should be considered for ECMO soon after the decision to intubate them is made.

‘Despite the substantial resources required to care for patients on ECMO, we believe this is an appropriate strategy for selected patients that are otherwise at imminent risk of death,’ says Jonathan Haft, M.D., medical director of U-M’s ECMO program.”

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Sadly missing from the conventional conversation is the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) which I believe might be an excellent treatment method. As noted by Dr. Andrew Saul, editor-in-chief of the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, in “A Review of Helpful Antiviral Strategies”:

“Making the oxygen available in a way that's appropriate to the severity of the patient is the answer. We have to remember that our body is singularly good at taking in oxygen or we wouldn't be here. And our lungs have a huge amount of absorptive space. I mean, that's what they do. It's just an extraordinary system that we have.

Oxygen goes in by diffusion. You don't push it in; the body sucks it in because if you have more oxygen outside than you do inside, it just goes through. All you do is give a lot of absorptive surface. And if you flattened out all the little alveoli in the lungs, you'd have an enormous area …

So, by providing the oxygen and then see if the body will take it up, you've made the first step. That can be done preventively by fresh air and exercise and going out and playing …

If somebody needs more oxygen, and you want to give them a little pressure, if that makes the patient better, then you do it. But the idea that you've got to ram this oxygen like a supercharger on a Mustang is, I think, a little bit, shall we say, industry friendly …

[The alveoli] are tiny, tiny little sacks. They have some of the thinnest little membranes you've ever seen. Look at them under a microscope. They're very delicate. So, the last thing you want to do is add injury to insult.”

Mechanical ventilation can easily damage the lungs for the fact that it’s pushing air into the lungs with force. During HBOT, on the other hand, you’re simply breathing air or oxygen in a pressurized chamber, which allows your body to absorb a higher percentage of oxygen.

There’s no airflow being forced directly into the lungs. HBOT also improves mitochondrial function, helps with detoxification, inhibits and controls inflammation and optimizes your body’s innate healing capacity. You can learn more about this in “Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy as an Adjunct Healing Modality.”

HBOT Trials for COVID-19

We may eventually hear more about this, however, as NYU Langone Health is currently recruiting COVID-19 patients for a study using HBOT. The study was posted April 2, 2020. As detailed on ClinicalTrials.gov:¹⁴

“This is a single center prospective pilot cohort study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) as an emergency investigational device for treating patients with a novel coronavirus, disease, COVID-19 …

The patient will receive 90 minutes of hyperbaric oxygen at 2.0 ATA with or without air breaks per the hyperbaric physician. Upon completion of the treatment the patient will then return to the medical unit and continue all standard of care …

After the intervention portion of this study, a chart review will be performed to compare the outcomes of intervention patients versus patients who received standard of care.”

Chinese doctors also report “promising results” after treating five COVID-19 patients with HBOT. Two were in critical condition and five were severe. As reported by the International Hyperbarics Association:¹⁵

“Hyperbaric oxygen was added to the current comprehensive treatments being performed at the hospital for COVID-19 affected patients, with a dose of 90-120 minutes at treatment pressures of 1.4 to 1 fi.ATA.

The results were very encouraging as these five patients received significant therapeutic benefits, including rapid relief of symptoms after the first session.

The rationale for adding this procedure is to help combat the progressive hypoxemia (low blood oxygen levels) that COVID-19 can cause. Hyperbaric oxygen has the ability to add a substantial supply of extra oxygen into the bloodstream …”

Hospitals Are Major Transmission Sites of SARS-CoV-2

In this video, taped April 17, 2020, Dr. John Ioannidis discusses results from three preliminary studies. Importantly, he points out that nosocomial infections — infections that occur in hospital settings — appear to be part and parcel of why the COVID-19 mortality rate is so much higher in certain areas, such as Italy, Spain and the New York metropolitan area.

A common denominator between these areas is a massive number of hospital personnel who are infected with SARS-CoV-2 and spread it to patients who are already in an immune-compromised state.

“Hospitals are the worst place to fight the battle with COVID-19,” he says. “We should have done our best to keep people away from the hospitals if they had COVID-19 symptoms, unless they had really severe symptoms.”

In essence, by having so many people unnecessarily going to the hospital out of fear, a hospital-chain of infectious transmission was allowed to develop. Many could simply have been treated at home.

These findings highlight the need for very stringent infection control measures in hospitals, to avoid transmission from asymptomatic personnel to patients. They also highlight the need to more carefully assess your need for medical care.

Ioannidis stresses that people experiencing mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19 should not rush to the hospital, as they simply increase the risk of infectious transmission to personnel and other more vulnerable patients.

He also cites data showing hospital personnel have an estimated 0.3% chance of death from COVID-19, which is significantly lower than the 3.5% originally cited by the World Health Organization. He also points out that this and other data point to COVID-19 having a fatality rate very close to that of seasonal influenza.

This, he says, is good news for hospital personnel who have been working under very distressing conditions, many fearing for their lives. As it turns out, such fears appear to be vastly exaggerated and uncalled for.

Sepsis Is a Common Complication in COVID-19

While treating mild to moderate symptoms at home may be advisable, it’s important to stay vigilant to signs of sepsis.¹⁶ If COVID-19 symptoms worsen and signs of sepsis develop — described in “Recognizing the Signs and Symptoms of Sepsis” — immediate medical care is required.

Unless promptly diagnosed and treated, sepsis can rapidly progress to multiple-organ failure and death. Sepsis is responsible for 20% of deaths worldwide each year, and the cytokine storm response associated with sepsis also appears to be a primary way by which COVID-19 claims the lives of those who are immunocompromised and/or elderly.

According to a March 11, 2020, paper¹⁷ in The Lancet, 59% of the 191 Chinese COVID-19 patients in the study developed sepsis, and sepsis was present in 100% of those who died. It was the most commonly observed complication, followed by respiratory failure, ARDS and heart failure.

You can learn more about sepsis and its treatment in “Melatonin for Sepsis,” “Vitamin C Lowers Mortality in Severe Sepsis” and “Vitamin C Works for Sepsis. Will It Work for Coronavirus?"

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Rising Reports of Poisoning From Cleaning Products

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has affected nearly every aspect of daily life. Businesses have shut their doors and the unemployment rate has jumped higher than it was during the Great Depression. Grocery store shelves reflect weaknesses in the food supply chain that have forced dairy farmers to dump milk while grocers limit sales.

In a public attempt to gain more information, Facebook, Google, Twitter and 57 other companies are monitoring your communication using artificial intelligence. The pandemic has also changed the way people are cleaning their homes.

Spike in Poisonings From Cleaning Chemicals

If you've found your favorite cleaning solutions are running low at the grocery, you aren't the only one. Americans have been zealously disinfecting surfaces in their home since the World Health Organization Director-General declared a pandemic March 11, 2020.¹ The announcement sparked the massive buying of everything from bread and toilet paper to several types of cleaning supplies.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention² recently released a report on the number of calls received at poison control centers across the U.S., showing record numbers for problems after exposure to cleaning solutions. The CDC compared the numbers and types of calls in the first three months of 2020 to the same period in 2018 and 2019 across 55 centers.

The data are uploaded to the National Poison Data System (NPDA) in real time as calls are received 24 hours a day. In the first three months of 2020 the centers received 45,550 calls related to either cleaning solutions or disinfectants.

The data showed that across all types of problems related to cleaning solutions, calls about bleach increased the most, while non-alcohol disinfectants and hand sanitizers increased the most among disinfectants. These numbers reflected an overall increase of 20.4% from 2019 and 16.4% from 2018. The CDC reported:³

"Although NPDS data do not provide information showing a definite link between exposures and COVID-19 cleaning efforts, there appears to be a clear temporal association with increased use of these products."

While these numbers represented the total over the first quarter of 2020, the researchers noted the reports rose sharply in March, corresponding to when WHO declared the pandemic. The researchers published two case studies to highlight the dangers of chemical exposures.

In one case, a woman said she heard on the news it was important to clean recently purchased groceries before eating. "She filled a sink with a mixture of 10% bleach solution, vinegar, and hot water, and soaked her produce." The gas triggered difficulty breathing which required care at the emergency department, where she received oxygen and was put on a bronchodilator before being discharged.

The CDC acknowledges the data “likely underestimate the total incidence and severity of poisonings, because they are limited to persons calling poison centers for assistance." Dr. Joshua King is the medical director at the Maryland Poison Center⁴ where they estimate a 50% rise in calls related to hand sanitizer in the months since the pandemic began.

Disinfectants Are Designed for Use Outside the Body

Speaking with a reporter at Slate, King recommended that people use soap and water if they run out of their household cleaners. The Food and Drug Administration reassured consumers there is currently no evidence of contracting the virus from food packaging.⁵

This is supported by a German infectious disease specialist, Dr. Hendrik Streeck, who, in his initial research, found no live viruses in a home with sick people. He checked surfaces, doorknobs and even pet fur.⁶ He’s planning an innovative follow-up study to survey people living in Heinsburg, Germany, the worst-hit area in the country. He and his team hope to figure out how the infection is spread.

In his daily briefing April 23, 2020, President Trump questioned the different ways the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be killed in the human body. He first suggested using light that could penetrate the body after learning the virus doesn't live as long in warm and humid conditions. He went on to suggest:⁷

"I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that."

His suggestion was quickly challenged by medical experts and chemical manufacturers from the offices of the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Surgeon General and Maryland’s Emergency Management Agency.⁸ Dr. Vin Gupta, global health policy expert, told NBC News:⁹

“This notion of injecting or ingesting any type of cleansing product into the body is irresponsible and it’s dangerous. It’s a common method that people utilize when they want to kill themselves."

Although the President never mentioned Lysol, the manufacturers of Lysol also rapidly issued a warning statement, telling consumers that any internal use of their product is dangerous:¹⁰

"… we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route). As with all products, our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines. Please read the label and safety information."

Clean Up Your Cleaning Solutions

Emergency medicine physician Dr. Robert Glatter from Lenox Hill Hospital spoke with Newsmax. His comments were published in an article just one day before the President’s remarks. He stressed the necessity for caution while using toxic chemicals, saying:¹¹

"While cleaning your home and your hands is important in reducing your risk for COVID-19, it's also important that you take the proper precautions to reduce a toxic exposure, which can lead to an ER visit.”

With an increased use of cleaning supplies across the nation, it may be time to revisit research from the University of Bergen in Norway, where scientists demonstrated that people who used cleaning products just once a week for 20 years experienced lung damage that was equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes a day for 10 to 20 years.¹²

Their data set was the result of analyzing 6,235 men and women whose average age was 34 when they enrolled in the study. They were followed for 20 years. They found that women who worked as cleaners experienced accelerated lung damage, and speculated this was the result of irritation to the mucus membranes in the airways.¹³

Common household products and cleaning solutions contribute to indoor air pollution. Short-term exposure increases your risk of exacerbating asthma symptoms; chronic exposure is also associated with lung damage, cancer and damage to reproductive health.¹⁴

Don’t Mix These Cleaning Products

SARS-CoV-2 is encased in a lipid envelope, which means it's a single strand of RNA wrapped in a bubble of fatty molecules.¹⁵ This makes it, and others like it, highly susceptible to soaps and disinfectants. This is good, since soap, water and elbow grease are all you'll need to clean your household surfaces.

If you'd like to use more, it's important not to mix over-the-counter cleaning products. They often have more than one ingredient and are designed to be used alone. If you mix chemicals, the reactions can produce dangerous and sometimes fatal fumes.

For example, the woman in the CDC case study who I mentioned earlier, who mixed vinegar, bleach and hot water to soak her produce, inhaled chlorine gas, which was the product of this combination. Chlorine gas was once used during World War I as a chemical weapon.¹⁶ When bleach is mixed with another acid chemical, such as vinegar, toilet bowl cleaner or oven cleaner, chlorine gas is released.¹⁷

Combining bleach and ammonia is another common mistake that releases chloramine gas.¹⁸ A dangerous side effect of the gas is pneumonia and lung damage. Other symptoms include nausea, chest pain and nose, throat and eye irritation.

Best Surface Disinfectants: Clean First, Then Disinfect

To thoroughly disinfect surfaces, begin with a clean area. Soap and water are some of the best options for cleaning up dirt and grime. Additionally, soap will inactivate viruses. There are three solutions that effectively disinfect surfaces — alcohol, bleach and hydrogen peroxide or accelerated hydrogen peroxide (AHP).

Alcohol-based disinfectants contain either ethyl alcohol or isopropyl alcohol at different levels of strength. Alcohol primarily kills bacteria but has strong activity against fungi and viruses at concentrations above 60%.

Alcohol-based disinfectants are ineffective against nonenveloped (nonlipophilic) viruses, but tend to work better against enveloped viruses,¹⁹ like SARS COV-2. Keep in mind that for hand sanitation, soap and warm water is the most effective combination. Only use alcohol-based hand sanitizers if soap and water are not available.

Chlorine bleach kills bacteria, viruses and fungi,²⁰ but it has several major drawbacks. Bleach is known to irritate your mucous membranes and form deadly gases when exposed to heat or light. It also damages household surfaces and is highly reactive when mixed with other chemicals. Bleach requires 10 to 60 minutes of contact to disinfect surfaces.

Hydrogen peroxide, at concentrations of 1% to 7.5%, is a disinfectant that has been cleared by the FDA.²¹ As opposed to bleach, when hydrogen peroxide breaks down it doesn't produce any dangerous compounds.

A better alternative is accelerated hydrogen peroxide (AHP), which works faster at killing viruses so you don't have to wet the surface as long.²² For more information see "What Is the Best Disinfectant for Surfaces?"

Reducing Anxiety Helps Protect Your Immune System

Cleaning and disinfecting surfaces are meant to help reduce the spread of viral and bacterial infections. Another way to reduce your potential for infection is to protect your immune system and reduce feelings of anxiety and fear. Cortisol is released when you’re anxious or fearful. Evidence shows it initially mobilizes more natural killer cells — part of the immune system.²³

However, in just one hour, the levels of natural killer cells fall far below your normal levels. This is one mechanism to explain why chronic stress may increase your risk of getting sick. There are strategies you can use to cope with uncertainty; discover more in “You Can Control Fear.”

One strategy to reduce anxiety is to be as prepared as possible for the circumstances you may find yourself dealing with. This includes using the proper hand-washing technique, using the best disinfectants in your home and knowing the numbers for your local emergency services (911 in the U.S.) and poison control center.

In the U.S. the number for Poison Control is 1-800-222-1222.²⁴ Links to centers throughout Europe can be found on the European Association of Poisons Centres and Clinical Toxicologists (EAPCCT) website.²⁵

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The reason why we sleep remains an unresolved question of the 21st century. Research now shows that the depth of non-rapid-eye-movement (nonREM) sleep in humans is associated with different genetic versions of a gene that encodes a water channel involved in fluid flow in the brain.

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