Fron the podcast: From Sickness to Health this episode is “Corona to Coronary and deals with the lifestyle impacts that this pandemic will have on individuals especially as heart disease remains the number 1 killer in America and much of the world.

<p>Fron the podcast: From Sickness to Health this episode is “Corona to Coronary and deals with the lifestyle impacts that this pandemic will have on individuals especially as heart disease remains the number 1 killer in America and much of the world.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Newington Three Angels Church

Tom Dombrowski

Eric Walsh

Clinical Discussion on Coronavirus and Lifestyle Factors

Hello and welcome to From Sickness to Health.

And our topic for today is Corona and Coronary, what's the connection?

We have a very special guest with us today, Dr.

Eric Walsh, introduce yourself to our audience.

Well, I was actually born here in Hartford in Connecticut.

I did my medical school training in Florida at the University of Miami, but probably my most profitable and beneficial health education really came in my master's in doctorate in public health at Loma Linda University in Southern California.

And I've worked in public health for the government on the federal level all the way down to the local level.

And really am fascinated by what's happening with this pandemic right now, and understanding how a healthy lifestyle will help to mitigate the impact of this pandemic on us as individuals and on society as a whole.

Okay, so obviously you're aware of the Corona problem.

But the number 1 killer in the United States is heart disease, and it's the number 1 killer worldwide.

You know, it's interesting when you look at it, there's a fascinating little YouTube video of a little Puerto Rican girl who makes the connection back through the Latin of the corona and coronary in that the reason we call this the coronavirus is because it looks like the 1 of the layers of the sun like the crowning layer of the sun.

The same reason we named the coronary arteries coronary arteries because the way that the arteries sit on top of the heart almost looks like a crown on the heart.

So it connects in the sense that it you know it has kind of a similar etymology, but here's where it really gets fascinating.

Probably the most devastating aspect of this virus is going to not even be its physical impact as terrible as that's going to be probably the most devastating impact of this virus and this pandemic is going to be on the emotional health of the world of the entire world.

Because the media has really done a good job of warning us, but in that process, what we have is not simply a pandemic, it's a panic-demic.

And so we are having, watching people, really in some ways, gutturally overreact to the risk by doing things like hoarding toilet paper, hoarding hand sanitizer, even fights have broken out in stores over supplies.

So once you see that, You're literally pushing people to where you would think the next step is martial law, but clearly not there yet, not hopefully not even ever going to get there.

But people are beginning to behave like there's an apocalypse at hand from a public health standpoint when there is not.

So for you as a public health official, not just a medical doctor, but the understanding the science of public health through your education, what can you share with the public on this point with regards to this overall, with the drama that we're going through on this point?

Well, first let me start by debunking any ideas that this is not a real threat.

I think when it's finally all over with the case fatality rate, which means how many people per exposure die of the disease, is actually going to be smaller than we thought.

I think that number is going to keep coming down.

When you look at how many people in America have tested positive, you could argue that 10 times, you know, for every person that tests positive, 10 people haven't been tested and have the virus.

So the death rate is gonna come down, but it doesn't mean somebody's not gonna get sick and die.

The second thing is once you understand the science, you do understand how to protect yourself.

So that means that the virus has to actually exist in little tiny bubbles of mucus, saliva, whatever it is that's coming out of the body.

And when it comes out, it has to hit you and get you in your mucus membranes or on your hands.

And you've got to put your hands to your mucous membranes.

That is a lot to under once you understand that you there's a bit of protection long before you get into into medicines or vaccines or herbs or any other treatments.

There is there is a physical barrier that can exist.

Hence the demand for masks And it's not so much the person wearing the mask protects themselves from everybody else, but the person with the symptoms wearing the mask protects everyone else.

So someone with symptoms who puts on a mask can actually protect anyone else in the room.

If it's not, it can't get the droplets on anyone.

With that said, there's a lot to do with surfaces and you could read papers like 4 to 5 days, metal surfaces that last longer.

It can actually circulate in the air for up to 3, 4 hours, I think is the last thing I've read.

So clean, wiping down surfaces, door knobs, kitchen counters, bathrooms, anywhere where people would go and touch is important.

And then the social distance is 1 reason people say 6 feet apart.

So, and just help clarify, why would it live differently on 1 surface material as opposed to another?

Because of how long a droplet can last on a surface.

So, if it's like paper, paper is going to absorb the moisture, the virus is going to dry out.

The droplet was not going to absorb in that droplet can last much longer on a metal surface because it won't won't absorb and dry out and so and so forth.

So, you know, the different surfaces matter clothes matter.

So if you happen to go like, you know, me who works in the medical field still sees patients, it's really important when I get home to take off the clothes that I've been in around patients, and make sure they get washed right away, take a shower right away, you know, and try and kind of stay clean.

It's interesting during the bubonic plague, and during the Dark Ages, it was the Jews who survived the best.

And part of that was because of the ceremonial hand-washing that we read about, Jesus kind of argued with the Pharisees and Sadducees about, but that ceremonial hand-washing actually protected them against that plague.

So there are things that you can do to protect you even in the middle of a pandemic to make it so that your risk comes down.

Coronavirus is actually akin to the common cold.

MERS, the Mediterranean version of it that was out in the 2000s, also a coronavirus.

Flu is a little different, but it works similarly.

They're usually seasonal and they spread similarly.

So how come we're not reacting the same way with just the regular flu?

I mean, when people are coming to get a patient, somebody who's been identified, and I see them in the pictures in the press.

They're all decked out in garbs and bubbles and putting people in bubbles.

And what's interesting is we, in hindsight, maybe if we're this afraid of this, we should, because the CDC's put out the statements this year for how many people will die from the flu.

And they're estimating somewhere between, somewhere around 30, 000 to 50, 000 Americans might die from the flu this year.

And I believe it was Americans and not the world, Americans.

So when you look at that, we probably won't get anywhere near that with this coronavirus.

And I don't know why we are reacting so strongly to this and not to the rest of it.

And I think it's part of why there's a lot of people scratching their head around this.

There was 1 German epidemiologist, virologist, who said, normally we would dovetail this in with the rest of all of the flus and coronaviruses for the season.

And because of that, you wouldn't see the variation wouldn't be quite as big.

1 of the things that's scary from a public health standpoint is it's new, it's novel.

And so if you've watched the symptomology has how we define the symptomology has evolved.

So at first it was cough, dry cough, fever, shortness of breath.

Now it's dry cough, fever, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of smell or taste and headache.

It's going to keep evolving like that as we learn more about it.

We now know that up to 10% of people will present with stomach symptoms like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea.

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Clinical Discussion on Coronavirus and Lifestyle Factors

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