Taking Charge of Your Health

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Flowers and trees have been winterized. The mulch has been spread throughout the yard. The leaves remain a continuing problem, but in short order the snow may take care of that. The one thing that I like about working in the yard is it gives me an extended opportunity to think. There are two things they have been on my mind.

Body Composition and Aging

I completely underestimated the change in body composition that occurs as we get older. I weigh about seven pounds more than I did about a year ago; the problem is that it’s all settled right around my waist. I’ve lost muscle mass in my arms, shoulders, and even my legs. From a strictly physical perspective, that’s the challenge I intend to address next. This will not be a “by the end of the year” thing because it’s going to take some time. I’ll write about how I intend to do it and then keep you posted on how it goes. Everyone is welcome to join me.

COVID-19 Isn’t Going Away

The second thing I’ve been thinking about is the COVID-19 virus. I’ve had the opportunity to read a lot of material I want to cover in upcoming memos that are not related to the pandemic. But the damage from this pandemic continues to increase, at least for the time being, and it would not be responsible for me to ignore COVID-19 all together. There’s some fascinating research that I think adds to the Swiss cheese approach in the last Memo.

Many people seem to be working themselves into a frenzy over possible state restrictions on activities and the insistence on wearing masks. Many of you know that attitude is everything. If we, as a nation, could just make up our minds that we’re going to do the best we can in each and every state, we could get through these temporary restrictions and get back to living our lives more completely than we are able to right now. If we don’t, then this is going to continue until we all decide to take things seriously.

The Bottom Line

Every morning, when I take Riley to school, we review our rules. The first rule is “Do the best you can.” It doesn’t have to be perfect. And you will make mistakes. Just do the best you can each and every day, because that’s all you can do. We review it after school on the drive home, and he gives me a thumbs up if he did his best that day. I hope we all can do the same thing in dealing with our health. The bottom line is that in all phases of our health, let’s do the best we can.

The Insider Conference Call is Wednesday evening. Do you have questions you’d like answered about supplements, weight loss, or any other topic related to health? Become an Insider today and gain the benefit of our discussion.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Swiss Cheese COVID Protection

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You’re probably thinking “First, zeptoseconds, then speeches and dancing, and now Swiss cheese? How are they related?” I’ve used the concept of discrete time intervals to make a point. Each discrete time interval of seemingly separate tasks can be put together to make up something that can be greater than each individual part—in this case, a way to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

The Swiss cheese concept is credited to Dr. James Reason who applied it to safety in many industries, but it fits here very well. For example, wearing a seat belt every time you drive reduces the risk of serious injury. But a specific type of collision, say hitting another vehicle from behind that doesn’t have operational brake lights, could still cause serious whiplash. In a time interval too fast for human response, a sensor sends a signal to deploy an airbag to limit injury, and there are now sensors that will automatically brake to stop the car. Different actions performed in discrete time intervals put together can make driving safer.

The Swiss cheese idea is that while there are holes in any single slice, the holes don’t extend the entire brick of cheese; any single hole will eventually get blocked. If you have enough safeguards, the combination of imperfect strategies will work together to lower your risk. I’m adding time to it to illustrate how little time it can take.

Four Steps to Keep Yourself Healthy

1. Wear a mask all the time when in public. Using my five-year-old grandson Riley as an example, it takes no more than 10 seconds to put on a mask. (He and his classmates wear masks all day in kindergarten, so don’t tell me it’s too hard to do; here’s more on masks.)

2. Social distance and spend no more than 15 minutes in any single encounter (four hours in a poorly ventilated space with strangers is just asking for trouble). A shorter time is better.

3. Clean and sanitize surfaces regularly. This may take up to 10 seconds for the surfaces we encounter frequently.

4. Wash your hands often with soap and water; sing the ABC song to make sure you scrub long enough. Or use a hand sanitizer with 70%+ alcohol, and the virus is destroyed within 30 seconds.

Any single strategy has holes, but used together, we can keep the risk for ourselves and others very low.

The Bottom Line

My point this week is to demonstrate that you have enough time to reduce the COVID risk for yourself and others. Small discrete acts can add up to a powerful strategy; doing enough of them helps put the odds in your favor. As I said before, there’s nothing to fear. Just respect the virus and act accordingly.

If you’re a U.S. citizen, make sure you vote next week. With everyone glued to the election results, including many readers in other countries, I’m sure your attention will be elsewhere so Paula and I are taking next week off. The leaves and the mulch await, and I’ll work on getting prepared for some great new ideas for the New Year.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: doi: 10.1097/QMH.0b013e3182418294.

The Power of the Pause

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When talking about discrete time intervals, there are two specific examples that come to mind. As a professional speaker and a Distinguished Toastmaster, I’ve learned one of the most difficult things to do in giving a speech isn’t selecting the correct words, it’s knowing when to pause. It’s one of the most difficult techniques to learn because when you’re speaking, you think every available second needs to be full of sound. You can say more with a moment of silence than you can with a shout.

Discrete time intervals also apply to ballroom dancing, and that’s even harder to master because it can involve the entire body. A specific move in a waltz or a tango can be broken into smaller and smaller pieces. They don’t seem important individually but when they flow together, they make the simple seem elegant; a pause speaks even more loudly in the context of that flow.

The pause allows us to make the ordinary appear and sound extraordinary. While it takes a lot of practice to make the sounds or the moves appear to be seamless, once mastered it becomes a habit. Then it’s no work at all.

Where is the going? You’ll find out on Saturday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

What Is a Zeptosecond?

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In a football game on Sunday, the ball was intercepted and the defensive back started to run the ball back about 90 yards for a touchdown. Only he never made it. A wide receiver took off after him and caught him at about the 7-yard line. To watch it happen was simply amazing. He reached a speed of 22 mph.

That’s fast for a human being, but it’s a lifetime in physics. Scientists are trying to measure things in smaller blocks of time. They measured how long it took for a single particle of light to cross a single atom of hydrogen and came up with 247 zeptoseconds. A zeptosecond is a one after a decimal point followed by 20 zeros! That’s a trillionth of a billionth of a second. That’s relevant to science but not practical to us as humans.

However, time is something we should all think about. By breaking tasks into more discrete time intervals, we can focus on the individual elements that make up any task. I’ll give you a practical example in Thursday’s Memo. Until then, think about the tasks you perform and how many discrete intervals are involved in them. It will all make sense on Saturday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: DOI: 10.1126/science.abb9318.

Does Exercise Reduce COVID-19?

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I’ve written about fitness and COVID-19 before, but a recent post by a colleague got my attention. I had never been able to find any research that suggested people who are fitter would have less serious cases of COVID-19 or any upper respiratory infection for that matter. I thought maybe the scientific paper he used might provide an update. In addition, there were a couple of statements in the paper that caught me by surprise. Here’s what I found.

Exercise and Fatty Lungs

The paper suggested that if a person were overweight or obese, there could be an increase in fat cells in the lungs. As such, that could increase the available components such as fatty acids that could contribute to the cytokine storm in extreme cases of infection. I’d never heard that fat cells were found in the lungs, so I decided to dig deeper.

The paper referenced an article that talked about risk factors for severe cases of the COVID-19. They cited two studies. The first was a study on overweight diabetic rats. However, we’re not rats so we can’t assume the same applies to humans. The other article dealt only with obesity. The paper said that in a small study on humans, fat cells were found in the lung parenchyma where gas exchanges occur in the lung tissue.

I decided to check out that paper as well. It was a post-mortem examination of the lungs of normal-weight and overweight subjects who died from asthma and non-respiratory conditions. Researchers found fat cells in the cell walls of large structures greater than 6 mm in diameter but none in smaller areas. There was an increase in the fat cells and immune response cells in the fatal asthma cases in obese subjects. While interesting, it does not support the original article indicating fat cells in the lungs to any significant degree, because some obese subjects had none in their lung tissue.

Exercise and COVID-19

The rest of the paper discussed the benefits of exercise as it relates to weight loss, reducing cardiovascular disease, and improving metabolic systems, especially as related to type 2 diabetes. They talked about how every type of exercise improves the body enough to reduce comorbidities, and reducing comorbidities may lead to a better outcome if you get COVID-19.

The only misstatement was that exercise is a way to reduce a significant amount of body fat. It’s not; you also have to reduce your caloric intake to do that. But exercise can improve every organ system to respond better to challenges. That may help if one catches a severe case of COVID-19, so they got that right.

The Bottom Line

Exercise has been described this way: it would be the most prescribed medication in the world if it were in pill form. Based on this paper and the sum total of all the research on exercise and health, exercise can help you reduce your risk of a severe case of this or any virus, maybe not directly, but in helping you reduce your comorbidities. Move more and start today!

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

References:
1. Front. Physiol. doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.572718
2. Diabetes Metabolism. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1002/dmrr.3325.
3. Eur Resp J. 2019. 54:1900857; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.00857-2019

Research Update: COVID-19 on Surfaces

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There are hundreds of papers published every day on the COVID-19 virus. The range of topics borders on the incredible, so I decided to provide two updates based on a couple questions that I’ve gotten. The first is a simple one. How long does the virus live on surfaces? When does it become unable to infect us?

Using standardized procedures that exposed the surfaces to identical amounts of viable COVID-19 virus, researchers tested surfaces under a standard temperature of 68 degrees F and 35-40% humidity. They found the virus was detectable up to seven days on nitrile gloves, four days on chemical-resistant gloves, 21 days on plastic face shields and N95/N100 particulate respirators, and 14 days on stainless steel. All very nice, but how about what appears to be argued about most of the time: cotton masks? The viability of the virus on cotton was reduced within four hours of drying and by 24 hours, was not detectable at all. For a full explanation on the facts behind masks, check out the free Health Info on drchet.com: Cloth Masks: What the Research Says.

The researchers want to check out other materials used in personal protection devices, but the masks are most relevant to you and me. If we can’t wash them between uses, which will kill the virus, letting them dry completely overnight renders the virus unable to infect us. They will continue to protect others as long as we wear them. Respect.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2020.10.006

COVID on a Plane

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We’re never very far from being reminded about the COVID-19 virus; there’s more info every day. This week, I’ll review three recent scientific papers about the virus. Because I’ve recently flown on an airplane, let’s begin there.

We would logically think that when you have upwards of 150 people crammed into a box that the risk of transmission is going to be high if someone is carrying the virus. My observation, at least on the flights that I was on, is that the airlines try to keep people socially distant, at least as much as possible given the limited space.

One of the things that assist in reducing the risk of transmission is the way that air flows through a plane. The air comes in near the top of the cabin and then circulates down and out at the base of the cabin. Half the air comes from outside the plane while the remainder of the air is circulated through HEPA filters, similar to those found in operating rooms. The risk of viral transmission on an airplane is lower than in office buildings, supermarkets, schools, and commuter trains.

Based on current estimates, there have been only 42 cases of traceable COVID-19 infections from flying. Worldwide! While there are no guarantees, as long as we follow the recommendations of wearing a mask, not traveling while we’re sick, and washing our hands frequently, it appears that it’s a safe way to travel if we really need to fly somewhere.

Just a reminder that there’s an Insider conference call this Wednesday night at 9:00 p.m. ET. On this month’s call, I’m going to introduce a new feature that will be coming to the Insiders subscription portal.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: JAMA. 2020. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.19108

The Bottom Line on Cats and Dogs and Supplements

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One of my all-time favorite movie lines is by Bill Murray’s character in the original Ghostbusters. He goes on a rant about the coming plague of ghosts and says “…dogs and cats living together…” It’s the delivery more than the words, but it still makes me laugh. I often blurt it out when people talk about all the things that could go wrong if X happens.

I decided to search the literature for specific supplements that can benefit cats and dogs, whether they live together or not. There’s no research on multivitamins-multiminerals per se, although there’s some info on the use of vitamins and minerals as additives to food.

Cats and Supplements

There are two primary areas of research on supplements in cats. The first is the amino acid taurine and the other is joint issues. The lack of taurine in a cat’s diet can result in compromised immune systems, eye problems including blindness, deafness, cardiomyopathy and heart failure, and reproductive issues. Researchers have found that taurine supplementation can increase the taurine level in a cat’s cardiac tissue. One more thing: soy interferes with taurine absorption or utilization, so make sure that the food you feed your cat is soy-free.

The other issue is joint problems such as arthritis. In research on cats, the same blends used in humans that consist of glucosamine, chondroitin, Boswellia, and fish oil help alleviate pain as assessed by owner and veterinarian pain evaluations.

Dogs and Supplements

The big issue with dogs is joint problems such as osteoarthritis. Research shows that the same nutrients recommended for cats and humans are appropriate for dogs: glucosamine, chondroitin, Boswellia, and fish oil. When it comes to amino acids, dogs require 10 essential amino acids to be healthy. While they can get that from vegetarian protein, research shows that dogs can smell it when meals don’t contain all the essential amino acids and will avoid them. That’s some sniffer dogs have!

In the category of interesting research, the amino acid l-arginine together with antioxidants has been shown to benefit dogs with memory issues. Also medium-chain triglycerides are being tested in epileptic dogs to see if the supplement can help reduce seizures. Maybe a teaspoon of coconut oil every day can benefit these dogs—there’s no harm in it while waiting for the research to be completed.

The Bottom Line

We love our cats and dogs and want them to being as healthy as they can be. Targeted supplementation for specific issues is certainly warranted, and it’s probably good to use the same recommendations for us humans and for our best friends: eat better, eat less, and move more. You’ll both be healthier for it!

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

References:
1. Vet Med Sci. 2019 Aug;5(3):325-335. doi: 10.1002/vms3.1822.
2. J Nutr. 1995 Nov;125(11):2831-7. doi: 10.1093/jn/125.11.2831.
3. Am J Vet Res. 1992 Feb;53(2):237-41.

Do Cats Need Vitamins?

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Absolutely no way I could write about dogs without talking about cats as well, and there’s good reason: my daughter-in-law is an ardent cat advocate. She and our son act as foster parents for kittens from their local animal society until they’re ready for adoption so that when they join a family, they’re accustomed to being around people. When you have grandcats, even only for a few weeks, you want to see how they’re doing and what Matthew and Kerri have named the latest pair. I also want to see that they do well, so the topic was relevant: can cats take vitamins and minerals?

When the National Academy of Sciences put together the report on dogs, they also did the same type of brochure for cats, and again the quantities seem proportional to body weight.

One difference I noticed about cats is that they require the amino acid taurine to be healthy. As a result, while dogs could do well on a vegetarian diet with enough protein, cats require animal protein. You can check out the entire PDF to get additional information.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: www.nap.edu/resource/10668/cat_nutrition_final.pdf

Do Dogs Need Vitamins?

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I recently got a question from a long-time listener who asked if it was okay to give the dog a partial serving of their multivitamin-multimineral. I didn’t have a clue—I don’t deal with supplements and animals, with the exception of glucosamine and fish oil. Both are good for dogs, but what about the rest of the supplements?

One supplement I know they don’t need is vitamin C, because dogs can make their own vitamin C. In fact, only humans and one variety of bat can’t make their own vitamin C; all other mammals can. While too much C can be hazardous, the amounts found in most multis for humans should be fine for dogs. But what about the rest of the vitamins and the minerals?

Wouldn’t you know that the same organization, the National Academy of Sciences, that establishes the Dietary Reference Intake for humans has done the same for dogs. In examining the list, they’re in proportion for what humans would take, but proportional based on body weight. The document also goes through the entire nutrition lifecycle of a dog. If you have a dog or dogs, just download this PDF.

And before you ask, we’ll talk about cats on Thursday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: www.nap.edu/resource/10668/dog_nutrition_final_fix.pdf