Transcript:
This is Dr. Hamilton-Stubbs' Sleep and Total Wellness Institute. Today I want to talk to you about the coronavirus and COVID-19 and this is our second of a series of talks that we'll be sharing with the general public and our patients. These talks are my opinion based on my readings from the Center for Disease Control website, World Health Organization, the National Public Radio, newspapers, peer-reviewed literature, and from talking to my colleagues who are actively working in clinics on the frontlines and in emergency settings in the United States. I want to advise the viewer, that you should supplement this video with your own readings from the Center for Disease Control website and the World Health Organization and other reputable sites like Johns Hopkins or Harvard. I think Harvard has a coronavirus update section.
For those of you who weren't here last week, we talked about what is a virus and a little bit about the immune response and the different types of testing and then we touched a little bit on how to protect yourself. A virus is an organism that is classified as being in a grey zone which means it's somewhere in between living and not living and the reason is classified as such is because viruses don't have all cellular mechanisms to reproduce and live on their own they do require a host and they have to have a specific host with a cell in that host that the virus can attach to and find what it needs to live. When we are confronted with a virus infection or any type of foreign body we respond by using our immune system. We do have an innate immune system and this one involves the skin, mucous membranes, white blood cells, and something called natural killer cells. This is our first line of defense. Once a organism is able to get past that then we have another type of immune system that involves antibodies which are proteins that the body builds that are specifically made to attack a certain microorganism and this is where we're talking about today and getting immunity from the coronavirus. If you are infected you would have to wait a few days for in this system to work. About five days before you start to see the first immunoglobulins and up to four weeks before you start to see some permanent immunoglobulins. When we are doing the testing there's two types of tests available one looks for virus particles and the other looks for antibodies. If you are having a rapid test, looking at virus particles you have to have a good specimen it has to be processed correctly or you can get a false negative. The antibody test, you must wait past the time period where the body is not responding but making of immunoglobulin. If you have the test too early you won't be able to detect immunoglobulin and you will get a false negative. So where we are today, I want to do some updates.
The Center for Disease Control has added a few more symptoms to the description of COVID-19. So a fever, cough, and shortness of breath were the primary symptoms. And now they have included strokes, chest pain, pressure on your chest, diarrhea, muscle cramps, chills, confusion, and headaches. What they have found is that the coronavirus SARS COV2 also affects the central nervous system and for some people this can be devastating. It can leave them with severe neurological disease and possibly some permanent impairment.
What you can do to protect yourself: try to avoid being in a situation where you will be contaminated or infected. That means practice staying at home, avoid crowded areas, avoid crowds, and when you go out wear your mask. You need to have a mask that covers the nose and the mouth and a good area around the nose and mouth. For example should come around here and be anchored behind the ears. If you are making your own masks ,there's some things you can do that would make your mask filter out small particles a little bit better and that is put in pieces of a HEPA filter or if you use a nylon stocking and napkins inside of the fabric. So just what is protective personal equipment what - just make sure I don't overlook anything but this is a gloves, gowns, masks, and a protection of your eyes of goggles and I like to include shoe covers. When you are using your protective clothing you want to put it on in a certain sequence and most importantly you want to take it off in a certain sequence and this is so you won't contaminate yourself. So when you put on your protective clothing you start by putting on the gown, next you mask your goggles, and then gloves. When you are going to take this off, you start by taking off your gloves, then you take off the goggles, the gown and the last thing you take off is your mask. And when you take off your mask you want to grab it from behind the ears and try not to touch the front of your mask. If you are wearing makeup then you can make it so that your mask can't be cleaned and used again so it's recommended to not use makeup with your mask. There are a couple of recommendations for cleaning your mask and one of them is to use a six percent hydrogen peroxide solution. The other thing I want to tell you about is the Virginia Department of Health showed some statistics at a conference for physicians that indicated that of the people tested for COVID-19 37% of whites were positive and only 18%of African-Americans were positive. And this is leaving me with some question about those statistics, because the statistics do not match what's happening around the country. It would be wonderful if African Americans only had half of the incidents but we have more of the risk factors and so it makes me wonder if these numbers are more of a reflection of not having access to testing than a true reflection of the incidence of COVID-19 in African American population. The risk factors include being a male something about testosterone makes men a more attractive host for the virus. People have diabetes. If you have any kind of lung problems, high blood pressure, and obesity. These all put you at a greater risk for COVID-19. Also if you're sleep deprived, you are less likely to fight off an infection. Research has been done to show that people who had the minimum of 7 hours of sleep at night, that's the minimum recommend, can fight off viral infections better than people who are sleep deprived. So getting adequate amounts of sleep can be a line of defense in protecting you along with getting good nutrition.
This is the end of the video for today these videos are being posted on YouTube you should be able to find us again at Facebook we'll be back next week at 4 o'clock we're changing our time to 4 o'clock and also be sure to go to the website and download the updated version of the survivors guide. It's the coronavirus and influenza survivors guide and it's free. And that should be up and available to you within the next few days. If you go to the website now feel free to download the current information but just check back for the newer updated information that's coming. Also while you're there check out our shop and you will see a free inspirational gratitude reflective walking journal. We need to keep moving if we're sitting down and staying at home we have to be careful about our calories or we will pick up weight and put ourselves at risk for some of the co-morbid illnesses that are associated with chronic diseases and COVID-19. Join us on Instagram live on Wednesdays at noon for our walking and our recipes thank you for your attention.
Thanks for joining in, this is Dr. Hamilton-Stubbs. May God have mercy on us all. Stay Safe. Download our COVID-19 ebook for free on www.drhamiltonstubbs.com/covid-19