Are You Thinking Your Way Into COVID-19?

"It's an old-people disease." "It kills people who are already sick." "'s the boomer-remover ." " you're young and have a healthy immune system, you have nothing to worry about."

Most of the world population is taking COVID-19 . Even those who aren't concerned about their likelihood of contracting the virus are taking significant precautions to avoid spreading COVID-19 to their loved ones in the high-risk population, or the loved ones of others. Of course, the outliers who consider the pandemic an elaborately exaggerated ruse.

Within The Center for Disease Control's (CDC) list of the underlying health issues that result in a higher risk of COVID-19 contraction, and mortality, are a couple interesting additions:

Nothing groundbreaking here, right? If you don't have HIV or AIDS and you aren't obese, you're low-risk. Back to saving the world by sanitizing your shopping cart before AND after you've bought another 40 pounds of rice.

And if you are obese, it's time to get healthy. Looking at the glass half-full, there's never been a better time to do so. Stay isolated, change your diet and start a body weight workout program. Our work here is . Thanks for reading! We'll beat this in no time.

Wait, what do you mean there's more to immunocompromised than HIV?

Let's take a closer look

What if I told you that I had a friend who was constantly injecting her bloodstream with a chemical that systematically disabled her immune system? It would start with headaches and fatigue, changes in her appetite, some insomnia and difficulty focusing. Over time, it would make her more susceptible to like infectious disease (like the flu, COVID-19, etc.), cardiovascular disease, diabetes, asthma and gastric disorders. Even worse, research shows links between prolonged exposure and alcohol abuse, further deadening her immune system and leading to more use.

I imagine you'd ask "why? on earth would she subject herself to such a terrible fate?" And I'd have to tell you that she doesn't mean to. It's a habit that she can't kick. She was wired this way from childhood. She never learned the coping mechanisms to dismantle the habit. It didn't start all at once, it's gotten so much worse.

You'd have no choice but to ask, "what drug is she addicted to?"

.

The stress hormone.

Let me get this awkward disclaimer out of the way for all you devil's advocates out there: yes, exists for a reason. No, is not unhealthy or purely toxic. Neither are red blood cells, but too can kill you.

This isn't a medical journal and don't worry, I'm not going to bore you with the science of and its ability to suppress your immune system from chronic stress. It's been studied, it's been weighed and counted, you can Google it at your leisure.

What I am going to tell you, is that more of the "young and healthy" population is at higher risk than we want to think. I'm going to tell you that the majority of people who listened to Michael Osterholm's discussion on the Joe Rogan Experience and followed his recommendation to exercise and eat healthy may be walking into a high-risk maelstrom.

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." -Sun

COVID-19 is a worldwide that individuals can't control. And most people are living in that - a state of pure, unadulterated stress.

Now, add in a slew of new habits like home-based exercise, eating healthy and balancing every meal for weight-loss. As a long-time fitness professional, I can confidently tell you that even without COVID-19 and all the associated fears, the majority of people who dive headfirst into a new plan, for weight loss or general health, let it become a major . The habits are new, the territory is uncharted and the results hang in the balance.

Here's what I'm telling you: Most of our society is wired for stress. Like Sun said in The Art of War: "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." Chronic stress is rampant and COVID-19 is a massive multiplier, subduing our immune defenses with fear and reputation to make room on our receptors for it to attach its sticky cellular protrusions. Whether you are young and healthy or obese and trying to lose weight, the legitimate concern and day-to-day stress of an uncontrollable situation can saturate your bloodstream in and take you from low-risk to high-risk due to what is happening in your mind.

I wish I could tell you that fear and reputation alone were the causes of COVID fatalities. Like a viral Freddy we could neutralize by learning to overcome the fear it incites. Presently, that isn't the case. With the information we have, good reason to fear COVID and vigilant against circumstances that lead to exposure. Compromising our natural defenses to build barricades against infection though, has a subtle sense of irony.

Controlling what we can, when feel out of control.

Most of us have no control over our stress response. Chronic stress is the natural progression of evolution with modern society. Like a biological , it's of our own design yet runs on a momentum too powerful to be down on a macro level. We were designed to drench ourselves in at the first sign of threat. "Do I fight this threat to the death or run away as fast as I can?"

Within modern society, we assign that life or death label to anything that takes us out of our comfort zone. It could be not having enough money, or even the suggestion that we may not have enough money soon. It could be the vigilance of making sure any threat of viral infection remains at bay outside your home, or trying to put together new meals that can keep you safe should the infection slip its way beyond your hand . could even be as simple as a longer line than you're used to at the grocery store.

If we take a moment to look at the stress response to scenarios, we'll see a glimmer of hope. Let's take a small step back:

Stressful situations we can't control.

A little further:

Out of our comfort zone.

a bit further:

Biological .

OK, a little too far, bring it a bit:

Fight or flight.

There . When something has been labeled as a threat to our well-being, our body automatically dumps into the tank to make sure we are all-hands-on-deck for a fight for our life or the effort to outrun a saber tooth tiger. Nothing matters but our physical effort, because all those other systems are useless if we are dead. , , a thread of choice that, like a fishing line on a sunny day, you can see if you look at it from the right angle.

The answer is our assessment of threat and innate to control it. When we allow our evolutionary programming to combine with our modern programming, we tacitly our brain to find solutions to inconvenience, discomfort and fear. When a situation is too big to control, our brain cues the we panic because there isn't a raider to fight or a tiger to run from. the line at the grocery store is wrapped around the building, our primal brain needs to control it, to bring it back into comfortable regularity.

Too Woo-Woo?

The more we fight for the control we are losing circumstances, the more we are drowning our system in and edging ever closer to the high-risk column. how do we alter the functioning of a primal brain within a modern society?

Oh boy, I'm so glad you asked

Meditation.

Too woo-woo? Try this one on for size: Studies have shown that "meditation lowers levels in the blood, suggesting it lowers stress and may decrease the risk of diseases that arise from stress" REAL, scientific studies show that meditation alone can guard against constant dumps wreaking havoc on your immune system. It doesn't have to be a 3-hour ordeal with all the bells and bowls either. You can do it in as little as 15 minutes first thing in the morning.

We've come this far, let's go all the way into the "woo."

A 15-minute morning meditation can help you get your day started on the right, stress-mitigating foot or a 15-minute midday meditation could help clear the build-up of saturation and help fight off more the day carries on.

It's the habit of stress within your primal brain that needs reprogramming. That reprogramming can be through two, simple : mindfulness and breathing. Mindfulness has gotten a lot of attention in the past years and, like anything that gets too much attention, it's been a bit blurred and mystified. There's nothing inherently "magical" or "new age" about it. Plain and simple: it's the act of being aware of your thoughts. Rather than allowing your thoughts to race and being the victim of their physiological , you can step back and your thoughts. If it's a new concept to you, it may sound a bit funky, but bear with me.

Have you ever caught yourself thinking something kind of nasty about a person, then realized you went too far and reasoned with yourself? you got cut-off in traffic and after breaking the person down in a profanity-laced mental tirade, you said "well, they do have three kids in the car at 6 in the morning, they probably didn't even see me." Or you ordered pizza that took an hour to arrive and after planning every spiteful thing you were going to say to the delivery driver, you thought " Friday night, they had a ton of and are still getting here as fast as they can, it's not their fault."

That's it! That's mindfulness. See? Nothing mystical. It's building the habit of stepping back from your thoughts and, instead of trying to stop them or with them, noticing them and deciding if they are truly useful to you. And while you take that step back to your thoughts, learning to breathe through them.

Breathe in, breathe out

Like mindfulness, has gotten a lot of attention amongst spiritual communities that are becoming more mainstream. And, again, even something as fundamental as breathing can be warped with increased attention. The way you breathe sends messages to your body about what is, or might be, happening in the immediate environment. Short, shallow breaths aren't a great sign of relaxation for your body and can both trigger, and be triggered by, your stress response. To avoid more signs of "woo," I won't use words like "healing" or "cleansing" here. I'll even steer clear of "energy" and go straight to the science.

When you are being mindful and observing those anxious thoughts, notice your breathing pattern and actively deepen it. Breathe deeply to your lung capacity, take a brief pause, and exhale without effort. You'll probably notice it feels like a new sensation, because living in stress means you are doing a lot of shallow chest breathing. If a "deep breath" to you means your chest puffing up and your waist shrinking, try this one out: imagine 3 balloons in your torso. One below your naval, one in your solar plexus (where your ribs come together) and one at the top of your chest. Then imagine your breath inflating these balloons to capacity, starting with the lowest and ending with the chest balloon.

Pause at the top. Exhale in reverse order, top balloon first all the way down to the bottom balloon. You may notice a change in your perception from the first exhale. That's because it's not mystical and has nothing to do with , it's science.

What's Your Point?

I'm not arguing that meditation, mindfulness and is all that we need to do as a society to arm ourselves against COVID-19. It's a powerful virus and the burden it's having on society is scary, and no shame in being scared. What I am arguing is that healthy individuals and individuals with underlying conditions may be stacking the cards against themselves by compounding risk factors.

The facts are:

A compromised immune system is a high-risk condition for contracting COVID-19.

Meditation, mindfulness and all work to lessen the amount of entering your system. And they are free.

If you're already buying hand and rice in bulk " in case," buy into these and take one risk factor off the table.