Jun P. Espina 5 min read
Updated on June 22nd, 2022
Global Health Crisis and COVID-19
Before COVID-19, noncommunicable diseases preoccupied our health concerns. Heart disease, cancer, kidney problems, diabetes, etc. have always topped our list of health issues. But when the pandemic came in 2020, the noncommunicable diseases suffered primarily by the aging population have caught new complexities. It turned into a global health crisis of communicable and noninfectious diseases. Wrote Dr. Jalal Baig: “Almost one year into the pandemic, many of the fears harbored by oncologists like me have been fully realized in clinical practice. Apart from felling scores of cancer patients, the virus has upended cancer diagnosis, treatment and research. Covid-19 attacks the lungs, of course, but it also disrupts other organs and really, entire health systems. By now, Covid has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, stroke, low blood cell counts and psychiatric conditions.”1
COVID-19 Killed Our Grandparents
COVID-19 targets the older generation by adding new layers of complication to their noninfectious diseases caused by aging. Exposure to a COVID-positive person is fatal for the grandparents, but not for the grandchildren given their strong immunity. The closure of schools and the lockdowns are questioned by medical experts somehow as nonscientific. Conservative groups in the U.S. criticized their government’s mask-wearing and other COVID-19-related policies as a game plan to control the citizens. It is not for public health and welfare from a scientific viewpoint. Lockdowns are viewed as counter-productive and devastated further the global economy.
“One of the lingering questions of the pandemic,” wrote Erin Garcia de Jesús, “is why COVID-19 symptoms tend to be milder in children and young adults than in older people. A new study suggests that the immune systems of people younger than 24 deal the coronavirus a strong first punch. Those early immune defenses, which set off alarm bells for the body to go on the attack no matter what the invader, may be weaker in older adults.”2
Alarming Global Health Crisis
The phrase Global Health Crisis coined by health authorities bears a very alarming reality since we are threatened by a global health crisis that is foreign in the history of human experience for the past thousands of years. Hundreds of millions of people don’t reach a good old age because of such degenerative diseases as heart problems, hypertension, kidney disorder, cancer, diabetes; you name it. COVID-19 has made the situation even worse. Its spread is now affecting the whole wide world, the poorer and richer nations alike. Hence, a global health crisis. The main culprit is the Wuhan virus plus our more sedentary lifestyle and the wrong food that we eat. Observe the picture which I posted here below, for we invert–by habit, culture, and our modern-man lifestyle–the so-called food pyramid of the ideal amount of food we need to consume daily.
Food vector created by freepik – www.freepik.com
Global Health Crisis & Wrong Diet
Our diet is more on carbohydrates and sugars and junk food, instead of good fats, fruits, nuts, and vegetables. We are overweight and don’t do regular physical exercise. Two-thirds of the US population, one study shows, have been considered obese. And did you know, reported CNN, that Kuwaitis are getting lardy after the export of “Americanism” (the convenience food, the McDonald’s concepts!) through the US soldiers during the Kuwait-Iraq war in 1990-91?
The global health crisis, as reported by the US Department of Agriculture and other health authorities, is very alarming indeed. It is estimated that one person will die from diabetes every 5 seconds by 2030; that by 2025, cancer will increase the number of its victims by 50% (from 20 million deaths in 2005 to 30 million deaths by 2025!); and that heart disease, the #1 killer, continues to claim 30% of the deaths globally. Again, the culprit of this global health crisis–not to mention COVID-19–is poor diet, obesity, and a less-active lifestyle.
Regulate Your Symptoms by Lifestyle Change and Natural Supplements
We know that given the above facts, physical exercise and a proper diet are our only hope to live long on the earth–not to mention our prayers for long life. Organic food supplements have now become part of the diet of the health-conscious millions out there. True, the wellness business is now impacting the market. Wrote Paul Zane Pilzer, economic adviser to two US Presidents, that “wellness business is the next trillion dollar industry!”
I got my worst fear as an old man after my exposure to COVID-19 in January 2021. The swab test and the 15-day quarantine were like an eventual disaster for me. We cried out to our God for help (11 of our family members got exposed!) and my wife gave our children food supplements. At age 33, my doctor diagnosed me with a heart abnormality. In 2000, I joined a food-supplement company and studied the value of Omega 3 for my heart. I took the product from different sources for twenty years–until today! My hypertension took me by surprise as I reached the retirement age despite using natural remedies for decades. From YouTube, I learned that sleep, the sunshine, physical activity, a peaceful heart, a loving family, a healthy diet, coffee, and green tea are vital elements of longevity.
READ MORE: Spirulina Health Benefits, Dosing, and Side Effects
Food Supplementation and a Happy Life
But I have another good news aside from the idea of proper food supplementation, which I learned from Hiromi Shinya, MD, the known pioneer of colonoscopic surgery, from his book titled, The Enzyme Factor:
“However, the most important thing I can tell you to live a long and healthy life is to do what makes you happy (even if that means you occasionally don’t follow my other recommendations). Play music. Make love. Have fun. Enjoy simple pleasures. Live life with passion. Remember that a happy and meaningful life is nature’s way to human health. Joyful enthusiasm, rather than perfect adherence to some dietary regime, is the key to making the enzyme factor work for you.” (Italics supplied.)
Let us face this global health crisis boldly by changing our diet, drinking plenty of water, doing regular physical exercise, taking well-researched food supplements, and living a happy and contented life. Let us live long by doing something for our health today!
** NOTES:
[2] Erin Garcia de Jesús. “Early immune responses may be why younger people get less sick from COVID-19.” sciencenews.org. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/early-immune-responses-young-people-covid19-coronavirus (Accessed March 25, 2021).
