How to be as COVID proof as possible

If you’re new here, the first thing you should know is that I stay in my lane when it comes to what I treat–in other words, I stick to the back and neck (and shoulders and such). You will not find me ranting on Youtube about “Big Pharma” or the other nonsense that some chiropractors get into.

But you might be surprised to hear that chiropractors get quite a bit of education in nutrition. Those courses cover everything from the biochemistry involved in the different energy production systems running in your body to how supplementation can help or hurt various conditions.

And, since we don’t prescribe, plenty of us take that baton and run with it when we graduate. Along with the nutrition baton, I also run with the “exercise is medicine” baton, and have written two books on weight loss, one of which has an entire section on strength training. So, I’m not just an armchair quarterback when it comes to what I’m about to say, and I think any reasonable person who reads what’s coming next in the article will agree. This is just common sense stuff that, for some reason, no one is really talking about. So let’s talk.

Here’s the thing everyone needs to know when it comes to being resilient to COVID: your general health status is the most significant single factor to influence your outcome with this infection (and pretty much any other disease, too). And, for most people, your general health status is something you can change for the better starting right now.

We know this because of both science and common sense. On the common sense front, we can see that basically everyone who has the worst outcomes are either very old, clearly unhealthy, or both. It’s that “both” category that is the most likely to die from a COVID infection.

So–how do you measure your health? Is there a way to know your susceptibility to the COVID infection? As it turns out, you can. There are already several papers that show that higher levels of specific markers of inflammation can predict COVID outcomes. Here’s a brief article that discusses one of the studies.

The short version is that if you’re systemically inflamed, you will not fare as well with COVID than if you’re not.

The test that predicts outcomes

There is a standard blood test that can give you a snapshot of your inflammatory status called the CRP test, which stands for “C-Reactive Protein.” Cardiologists have been using the CRP (sometimes called “hs-CRP for “highly sensitive CRP”) test for years because elevated CRP means you are more at risk for a “cardiovascular event” than a lower number. And that’s not an event you want to attend.

High CRP scores can also tell you if you’re at risk for many other things you’d rather avoid, such as cancer, diabetes, and pretty much everything else leading to decreased lifespan in the US. And, according to the above-mentioned paper, CRP scores are predictive of COVID outcomes. Here’s a quote:

“In the multivariate analysis, only CRP was significantly associated with the progression to a severe case of COVID-19.”

To summarize: increased inflammation is terrible under any circumstance, and is exceedingly terrible with COVID.

All of the above leads to the natural question: how do we lower our inflammation? I’m glad you asked, even though you probably already know: diet, exercise, and sleep. All of which have been unfortunately affected for the worse by the extended lockdowns. I don’t want to address the politics of our government’s response to the virus, though. I just want to tell you how to protect yourself. So let’s get into the details.

If you’re in doubt at all, the first step is to get a CRP test and know your level. The normal range, according to Labcorp, is between 1-3. In school, I learned less than one is the way to go. The last time I checked mine (in 2019), it was around .6. Not too shabby.

If your CRP is higher than three, your chances of having a harmful outcome rises. So, know your number. If your score is less than one, keep doing what you’re doing. If you need to get it lower, read on. We called Any Lab Test Now (over by Five Guys on Shepherd for the locals), and you can get a CRP test for $79 with no doctor’s order required.

But first–a quick sidebar on the occasional athletic person you’ve heard about who had a severe reaction to the COVID infection. How does that happen? If it can happen to them, is anyone safe?

To understand what happens with this crowd, you have to understand the intensity of their workout regimens. You don’t get to be an elite-level athlete without hitting the training incredibly hard. Often, leading up to a competition, the training gets even more intense. And one thing intense exercise can do is temporarily increase inflammatory markers. So, I think the most likely scenario with the super-fit getting super-sick is more of a timing issue with their exposure to the virus hitting them at the peak of training intensity. But for the most part, the professional athletes out there who have tested positive have had mild cases. Here’s one example.

Most of us don’t have the problem of being super-fit, though. Most of us have the exact opposite situation since we’ve been locked in our houses for months with nothing to do but eat and drink to excess. I have a pretty sweet home gym setup, and I still put on ten more pounds than I usually carry before I caught myself.

To lower your CRP, you need to lose weight. It would be best if you also exercised regularly, but not so hard that you venture into overtraining territory, which is harder to do than most people on the internet seem to believe. If you struggle with losing the weight, I wrote this book, which is basically a handbook on the science behind weight loss and how you can whittle off the pounds while minimizing the suffering.

The role of supplements

Another thing you can do to change your CRP for the better is to ensure your vitamin D levels are in the normal range, which is 30 ng/mL and above. I prefer over 40ng/mL, and the last time I tested mine, it was at 53.

There are quite a few denouncers out there when it comes to taking supplements for COVID. And true enough, I don’t think the average person needs to start taking a handful of pills every day when they haven’t gotten so many other variables under control. But–Vitamin D can be a huge help when you’re trying to be COVID proof.

There are several studies out there that show that lower vitamin D status is predictive of both poor COVID outcomes and higher infection rates. This study showed that those who are D deficient are 50% more likely to contract the virus. And most people are vitamin D deficient. I’ve mentioned this before, but when I was in chiro school in Florida, my friend, Ryan, and I got our levels checked. We all practically lived at the beach in those days, and we both had smokin’ tans. I had been supplementing 2,500IU a day, and Ryan was relying on sun exposure.

When we got our results back, mine was at 28 ng/mL, and his level was 19. The reality is that most of us are working indoors and not getting nearly enough sun exposure, and taking a supplement is an easy way to up your protection. When the first wave of COVID hit us, and the whole world was shutting down, I starting taking 10,000 IU a day for the extra protection. It’s exceedingly hard to take too much.

And if you have darker skin, it takes even more direct sunlight to up your D levels. This might explain why minorities are being harder hit, and this article in the Lancet makes that case.

Finally, and I know this might be hard to hear, but there’s a good chance that drinking too much alcohol can open the doors for infection to make its move. Also, drinking too much can lead to the weight gain we talked about earlier in this article. So, maybe think about your consumption. I was as guilty as anyone in the early months, but I had the conversation with myself and have given it up entirely for now. I’ll reconsider my stance when the dust settles with this whole thing. Read this for more info.

Finally, a quick note about what you should spend no time worrying about: supplements that supposedly boost your immune system with dubious mixes of ingredients. If it’s some proprietary blend designed to “boost your immune system,” save your money. The way this virus actually works against you is that it makes your immune system overreact and cause a “cytokine storm.”

Cytokines are a part of your immune response, and too many of certain kinds can have detrimental effects. The specific cytokine that storms is called IL-6 (which raises CRP, which is why you might want to know your CRP score in advance). There are others as well, but IL-6 is the one that causes a lot of the lung issues associated with poor COVID outcomes. So, you don’t want to boost your immune system. You want it fine-tuned.

So, as it turns out, all of the stuff you should be doing to stay healthy in general is the same stuff that will make you more COVID proof. Please note that I’m not condemning or elevating the use of masks, social distancing, or any of the other stuff we’ve all been instructed to do. I’m just telling you that if you want to protect yourself as well as possible, the above information can help you make well-informed decisions about your next steps.

I’ll leave you with a video from my nutrition professor just in case you want to keep going. This one gets into a lot of the details about how COVID enters the lungs and why extra bodyfat is extra bad for both the transmission of the virus as well as the outcomes from infection.