The world is on high alert with the latest pandemic: The Stock Market, Industry, Education, Entertainment, Food Service and Travel: all are concerned. So are entire countries and their residents. The 2019-2020 Coronavirus pandemic is by no means the first nor will it be the last that Planet Earth experiences.
Fact is that sensational news “sells.” It also scares.
That’s normal.
Because some have no relevant background or experience to help them process the myriad of news releases in a logical or rational manner, they panic.
That’s normal, too.
Some lack a solid base of health knowledge that can lead to failure in applying the recommended prevention strategies daily.
Unfortunately, that’s also normal.
So, with news of the Coronavirus Pandemic (by whatever name)—which is no joke by any stretch of the imagination—many are anxious, worried, fearful. Even panicked.
The emotion of fear is a signal to alert you to danger so you can take necessary steps to keep yourself safe. (Unless it’s an imaginary fear with no real danger.) Hung onto or mismanaged, fear tends to “downshift the brain,” re-directing its energy and attention to subconscious parts of the brain where the stress responses are housed—such as Fight-Flight, Tend-Befriend, and Conserve-Withdraw. This also increases a risk for exhibiting illogical or irrational thinking, and for “shooting from the hip.” In addition, it can suppress the brain-body immune system, which is the last thing you want to happen.
Pandemics are enormously expensive in a myriad of ways: economic, pain and suffering, conflict, and bereavement. Panic is a contributor that can exacerbate all the others. As a form of fear, it, too, can downshift the brain causing individuals to make irrational—if not dangerous—decisions. In addition, it can increase the impact of underlying chronic diseases, especially those related to the cardiovascular system. You’ve no doubt heard the expression: “Died of fear.” Panic can impact heart function.
You do need to implement recommended precautions to help keep you safe—and to help others stay safe, including pets. However, it’s best to avoid panicking.
When I was a little girl, the huge farm down the Townline from our home, raised all manner of creatures. Pigs, for one. I was afraid of the massive hogs that often looked to me like small hippopotami. The piglets were something else. I could stand by the fence watching them cavort around their pen for minutes on end, their coiled little tails bouncing like a stretch of curly ribbon—the kind my mother usually purchased, being less expensive.
I’ve also always liked nursery rhymes. “This Little Piggy” is touted as the best-known English nursery rhyme, and my mother used it as a fingerplay as well as a toe play with my baby brother. Reportedly, the first full version of the rhyme appeared in 1760 in The Famous Tommy Thumb’s Little Story-Book. It goes like this:
This little piggy went to market
This little piggy stayed home
This little piggy ate roast beef
This little piggy had none, and
This little piggy cried wee-wee-wee
All the way home
Naturally, I had no idea what “market” signified.
I think of Proactive, Prudent, and Preventive as three little piglets. I can see them in my mind’s eye, all scrubbed clean and pink, each wearing a tiny harness with its name engraved in large gold letters. So cute on such little creatures!
More importantly, their names remind me to do whatever I can to stay safe day after day without becoming ongoingly fearful, downshifting my brain, and suppressing my immune system.
So, be proactive, prudent, and preventive, building good protective habits and using them for the rest of your life. (Especially handwashing!) Avoid panic and keep your brain upshifted so it can help you make good life-impactful decisions. What do you picture in your mind’s eye? It matters—because everything begins in your brain.
And guess what? You, too, can increase your risk for staying healthy—and safe.
Is there a difference between an epidemic and a pandemic?
Epidemics and pandemics are no strangers to Planet Earth and are nothing new.
Technically, the term epidemic refers to the widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at one time. Epidemics may turn into a pandemic, often defined as an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents during relatively the same time period.
Smallpox is one example. Highly contagious, it is one of the most devastating diseases ever to hit this world. Caused by the variola virus, about a third of those infected died during its dubbed 2000-year reign of terror. Although the origin is uncertain, it is thought to date back to the 3rd century BC because of a smallpox-like rash discovered on three mummies in Egypt. Mexico battled smallpox for 500 years after it was introduced—albeit unwittingly—by Spanish invaders. One source reported that Mexico went from eleven million people pre-conquest to one million. The last known natural case occurred in Somalia in 1977. By then the cumulative worldwide deaths from smallpox were reported to be 500 million. The development of a smallpox vaccination slowed deaths from this disease so dramatically that, by 1980, it was considered virtually “eradicated.” If a case occurs now, it likely will be attributed to terrorism.
And then there is influenza. More recent pandemics have involved a type of influenza virus. The words influenza and flu are often used interchangeably. However, influenza causes a respiratory ailment that is very different from the stomach “flu” that causes vomiting and diarrhea.
The years 1918–1919 saw the most severe influenza outbreak of the 20th century and remains among the most devastating pandemics in human history. Believed caused by an Influenza A virus (subtype H1N1), it had genes of avian origin. Although there is no universal consensus regarding its place of origin, it spread worldwide and was quickly dubbed “Spanish Flu” because of the eight million casualties in Spain alone. The overall death toll was estimated between 20 and 50 million. In the United States, a second wave began with the return of soldiers from the War; an estimated 28 percent of the country’s population were eventually infected.
The Asian flu pandemic of 1956-1958 involved Influenza A (subtype H2N2). Reportedly originating in China, its reign killed over two million.
About 1920 a lentivirus appears to have crossed species from chimpanzees to humans in the area now known as Kinshasa. Because it attacks the immune system in humans, it became known as the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV. It likely arrived in the United States around 1960. By the mid- to late ’70s, the epidemic was in full swing; by 1980, it had reached pandemic proportions, having spread throughout five continents: Africa, North America, South America, Europe, and Australia. In 1981 Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was recognized as a new disease. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is one of the most persistent worldwide. The possibility of a vaccine remains uncertain, allowing for the possibility that this will continue to pose a significant public health threat for decades to come. The website AIDS.gov reports that 35 million have died since 1981 and another 36.7 million people worldwide are living with HIV.
2017-2018 was the first season in the United States to be classified as having “high severity” of influenza across all age groups. An estimated 80,000 people died in this epidemic, making it the deadliest in at least 40 years. Deaths often resulted from complications, such as stroke, heart attack, and pneumonia—individuals with underlying chronic diseases being at higher risk. Influenza A (subtype H3N2) viruses predominated overall during this epidemic. However, toward the end of the outbreak, Influenza B viruses became more commonly reported.
2019-2020 saw the Coronavirus 2019 (also known as Covid-19 or SARS-CoV-2) pandemic emerge. This RNA or retrovirus reportedly has the highest mutation rates of any organism on the planet. First identified in the region of Wuhan, China, it too, will take its place in history when the financial impact and death tolls are eventually compiled.
A century ago, your risk for becoming infected with an epidemic or pandemic virus likely depended primarily on where you lived. In today’s world it doesn’t matter if you live 12 thousand miles away from the epicenter. The reason? International travel! Upwards of 28 million people take cruises every year. More than 3 billion take an airplane flight annually. Thousands of military personnel return from far-flung portions of the globe. This blows up the balloon of your potential risk exponentially, whether the other person is showing symptoms or not.
How do you lower your risk in the 21st Century?
By developing good health habits and practicing them daily. By following recommended preventive strategies when epidemics/pandemics do occur. By creating a Longevity Lifestyle and embracing it for the rest of your life. Seventy percent of how long and how well you live is in your hands. Make good choices. It matters.
Do epidemics and pandemics other than those caused by destructive organisms exist?
Epidemics and pandemics are no strangers to Planet Earth. By way of reminder, the term epidemic technically refers to the widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at one time. Although definitions seem at times to overlap, a pandemic can be defined as an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents.
As languages tend to do over time, the meanings of both epidemics and pandemics have morphed to include non-communicable diseases or what the World Health Organization (WHO) calls NCDs—Referring to them as an epidemic.
The statistics are sobering. Although no specific “infectious organism” can be identified in an NDS epidemic, the actual death toll (to say nothing of quality of life) may equal or exceed those of the average influenza epidemic or even pandemic.
Indeed, NCDs make the largest contribution to mortality on Planet Earth, accounting for 60 percent of global deaths and overshadowing most epidemics and pandemics due to an infectious disease agent such as a virus. Data from 2015 report that NCDs alone accounted for 40 million of the 56 million global deaths. That represents a lot of funerals and a whole lot of bereavement.
What do non-communicable diseases include? Here are examples, the first six alone considered the leading causes of mortality worldwide:
By 2030, NCDs are estimated to account for two of the top three leading causes of disability and death worldwide: unipolar depressive disorders, ischemic heart disease, and HIV/AIDS. Estimates are that more than three-quarters of all NCDs occur in low and middle-income countries, making this a major cause of poverty and an urgent development issue.
Would you be surprised to learn that obesity is now listed as a non-communicable disease? The World Health Organization reports that more than one billion adults are overweight worldwide, with 300 million considered clinically obese. Some wonder why obesity itself is not being referred to as a pandemic. Maybe because Obesity is uncommonly listed as the cause of death on a certified death certificate even though it may have been a major contributor. Typically, one of the fifty or more diseases linked with obesity is cited. In England there is an emerging trend toward increased certification of obesity as a cause of death.
Generally, obesity is the result of lifestyle factors. For example:
Did you know that as of 2020, WHO designates depression as the second leading disease on this planet? Over 350 million people worldwide suffer from depression. More than 50 percent of people who commit suicide suffer from major depression. Anxiety, a form of fear, is the most common mental health issue.
Are NCDs really noncommunicable human to human?
Interesting question. Likely the answer is ‘yes” unless organisms such as viruses and bacteria also enter the picture. But are they communicable as behaviors?
Maybe. Just maybe!
According to Jim Rohn, you become the average of the five people with whom you spend the most time. That includes yourself, because you are the only person who will be with you over your entire lifetime. Your mindset, self-talk and lifestyle do impact you as you develop habits and repeat them largely subconsciously. You also influence whom you hang out with and they influence you, both at a conscious and a subconscious level. Over time this can impact your beliefs and your choices of lifestyle behaviors. This has been shown especially true for happiness, smoking, health—and obesity.
How do you minimize the risk of becoming part of an NCD epidemic or pandemic? By starting with your brain. Many contributors to the top NCDs involve poor lifestyle choices. Together, your brain and you can choose to create and follow a longevity lifestyle. The habits you develop and the decisions you make can either hinder or help you embrace the researched components of health and wellness. Remember: everything begins in your brain.
Where do so-called “plagues” fit in with epidemics and pandemics?
A plague is typically defined as a serious and potentially life-threatening disease and usually transmitted to humans through some vector, e.g., bites of infected insects, contaminated water, parasites spread by mosquitoes. Because it can have a high death rate, just the word plague can strike terror into the heart of some.
Euphemistically the word has also been applied to a perceived pestilence, such as a swarm of insects that attacks plants or an infestation of grasshoppers―or even the proverbial “wicked” stepmother or “impossible” mother-in-law.
A plague is more likely caused by a bacterium rather than a virus. What is the difference between the two? In a word, bacteria tend to live in space outside of a human cell, where they can often be treated using antibiotics—unless they have become resistant to them through overuse and adaptation. Viruses live inside human cells where they can create their own type of chaos but are typically safe from antibiotics. Did you know that viruses can also infect bacteria?
Make no mistake. Bacteria (some 40 trillion) and viruses (perhaps 400 trillion) are essential to the health of the human body when they are the “good guys.” Along with your genome and epigenome, they form your microbiome and virome. When they have gone rogue, the result can be deadly.
Plague has a rather colorful history on Planet Earth. The most common form in humans is bubonic plague, characterized by chills, prostration, delirium, and the formation of buboes—swollen lymph nodes—in the armpits and groin. Septicemic plague invades the blood stream and is especially dangerous. These two forms do not spread from person to person. Pneumonic plague, however, that attacks the lungs, can be spread from one human to another, likely through the air. The causative bacterium, Yersinia pestis, is spread by the bite of infected fleas―and perhaps lice, as well. It also caused the Justinian Plague in AD 541, which brought the Byzantine Empire to its knees and continued to strike relentlessly for 200 more years, killing over 25 million people.
Yersinia pestis or one of its variants, reportedly arrived in Sicily in the fall of 1347, when 12 ships from the Black Sea docked at the port of Messina. Dubbed the Black Death, it peaked in Europe a couple of years later and is considered one of the deadliest in human history, wiping out more than a third of Europeans to the tune of about 75 million.
Scrub typhus―caused by infection with one or more rickettsial bacteria―is a serious public health problem in the Asia-Pacific area. It is transmitted by mites (or chiggers), fleas, and lice. A million cases occur annually with a death rate of up to 70 percent without adequate treatment.
Typhoid fever is caused by salmonella typhi or by a related bacterium salmonella paratyphi. Fairly rare in industrialized countries, it remains a serious disease in the developing world, especially for children. It spreads through contaminated food and water causing high fever, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. An estimates 21 million cases occur annually, of which 600,000 die.
Cholera is caused by a highly contagious bacterium known as vibrio cholerae that also spreads through contaminated food and water. It causes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and dehydration. If untreated, it can kill previously healthy individuals within hours. The year 2017 saw over a million people infected in Yemen. Close to 150,000 succumb every year worldwide.
Malaria is caused by a microscopic parasite transmitted by mosquito bites. The World Health Organization typically reports 300-500 million cases a year with over a million deaths.
These examples are just the proverbial tip of the ice burg and contribute to the high cost of epidemics and pandemics in every way imaginable.
The truth is, the over seven billion human inhabitants of Planet Earth are vastly and exponentially outnumbered by organisms. Estimates are that bacteria alone account for five million trillion trillion (i.e., 5 times 10 to the 30th power) of organisms, with viruses perhaps 10 times greater. Fortunately, not all are harmful, yet history has shown what can happen when they are—be they called epidemics, pandemics, or plagues.
Your brain is your greatest resource—because everything begins there. Your best defense is to get your brain in gear to help you create and live a healthy lifestyle, one that strengthens your brain-body immune system and prompts you to avoid behaviors that would increase your risk for being felled by one of these opportunistic organisms looking for a home. Your brain walks hand-in-hand with your body. What benefits one, benefits the other and vice versa. Your daily choices are critically important to the rest of your life.
If you need to brush up on information about your immune system, review “The Doctor Within” series.
Meantime, be well, be happy, and make healthy choices—a Longevity Lifestyle Matters.
