The BBC News online has come out with a news item claiming that help is here finally for coronavirus patients. Dexamethasone has proved to be the first life-saving drug for Covid19 patients. It is a cheap and widely available drug. It is actually a low-dose steroid treatment which is considered as a major breakthrough in the fight against the deadly viruses.
UK experts say that the drug is part of the world’s biggest trial testing existing treatments to see if they also work for coronavirus. Reportedly, dexamethasone treatment cuts the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators, for those on oxygen it cuts deaths by a fifth. Had the drug been used earlier in the pandemic in the UK may be up to 5,000 lives could have been saved.
Needless to say the drug could be of huge benefit in poorer countries like India where Covid19 is escalating. Chief Medical Officer for England Prof Chris Whitty says the drug would save lives around the world. In a trial, led by a team from Oxford University, about 2,000 hospital patients were given dexamethasone and compared with more than 4,000 who were not. For patients on ventilators, it cut the risk of death from 40% to 28% and for patients needing oxygen, it cuts the risk of death from 25% to 20%.
The findings suggest that this is the only drug so far that has shown to reduce mortality significantly so perhaps India’s authorities would do well to quickly look into this matter and the drug be used for patients suffering from Covid19 in India. Unfortunately, the mills of god grind exceedingly slowly in India or do they?!
THE HEALING OUTDOORS!
THIS is to say doctors have been encouraging their patients to go outside for millennia. Hippocrates called walking “man’s best medicine.” Han dynasty physicians encouraged outdoor “frolicking exercises” to ward off aging. And until the mid-1990s, tuberculosis patients were sent to mountain retreats to take in the “magic airs.”
And nowadays even the times of Covid19 there is a movement in the countries of the developed West which is prescribing nature to heal faster! Health providers are saying that exposure to outdoor activities do a lot of good things for us on the health front for we are meant to be outdoors physiologically.
Reportedly scientists have discovered that exposure to non-threatening natural stimuli lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormone levels, promotes physical healing, bolsters immune system function, raises self- esteem, improves mood, curtails the need for painkillers, and reduces inflammation. The contention is that these stimuli — the scent of plants, the sight of trees swaying in the breeze, the sounds of birds, streams, and rustling leaves –combine to activate the unconsciously controlled “rest and digest” functions of our bodies, which are regulated by our parasympathetic nervous system.
These functions are suppressed when a threatening stimulus, whether a venomous snake or an aggressive work e-mail, triggers our sympathetic “fight, flight, or freeze” system. If that response stays active long enough, our immune, digestive, reproductive, and psychological health suffers. In an increasingly urbanized world, in other words, nature cues our brains to shift us from a depleting to a restoring state. “The environment of our original adaptation is all outdoors,” says Chao-ying Wo, a pediatrician in Bellingham, Washington, “It just makes sense.”
So the message going out loud and clear is put the great outdoors back in your life if you want to stay fighting fit and happy! Experiments are on to provide empirical data of the efficacy of being outdoors, say in old-fashioned sanitariums where a balmy sunshine-filled climate, nutrition packed diets and pure air spins its magic wand of healing…..far, far better than enduring the stress of being incarcerated in our congested over busy hospitals.
In this one may remember that vitamin D boosting is part of the regime being prescribed for Covid19 patients. What better way of getting natural vitamin D basking in the sun in the nude?! Although, of course, doctors say in times of illness one must boost vitamin D with high-dose supplements. For some reasons human beings suffer majorly from vitamin D deficiency — not surprising given the fact that modern human beings constantly hide from the outdoors!
HANG ON TO MOTHER NATURE!
FROM UK’s The Guardian we get this bit of news. Blame the coronavirus outbreak to our varnishing wildlife habitats! Says a recent report carried by the newspaper, pandemics result from destruction of nature and this is endorsed by both the United Nations and World Health Organisation, where experts are calling for legislation and trade deals worldwide to encourage green recovery of Mother Earth on a war footing…or else suffer the consequences.
According to Damian Carrington (environment editor) we cannot ignore the stark reality that our illegal and unsustainable wildlife trading as well as devastation of forests and other wild places are driving civilization into increasingly pandemics taking a toll of large numbers of vulnerable human beings. What is required is an end to destructive farming and unsustainable diets. Unless we can swing in lieu green and healthy recovery for our wildlife habitats pandemics are going to be the story of life…all this and much more. A WWF report warns, “The risk of new (wildlife to human) diseases emerging in the future is higher than ever, with the potential to wreak havoc on health, economies and global security.”
Says Maria Neira, WHO’s director for environment and health and WWF International’s head, Marco Lambertini, with reference to coronavirus, say “these outbreaks are manifestations of our dangerously unbalanced relationship with nature, they all illustrate that our own destructive behavior towards nature is endangering our own health – a stark reality we’ve been collectively ignoring for decades.”
Well, don’t say you have not been warned. What you choose to do is your business. Be part of the problem, or part of the solution!
keep your Covid-19 medi-kit ready!
Everyone these days is afraid of contracting covid-19. It’s better to be prepared with something to tackle this deadly coronavirus. Here’s how to make a start in treating yourself if you suspect you have something like coronavirus infection (fever, dry cough, breathlessness, etc.) Consult your GP first but keep these things handy at home and here are a few tips…
- Paracetamol
- Betadine for mouthwash and gargle
- Vitamin C and D3
- B complex
- Vapour+ capsules for steam
- Oximeter
- Oxygen cylinder (for emergency only)
- Arogya Setu app
- Learn some Breathing Exercises
Covid Three stages: - Covid only in nose: recovery time is half-a-day
Steam inhaling, vitamin C.
Usually no fever. Asymptomatic. - Covid in throat: sore throat, recovery time 1 day,
hot water gargle, warm water to drink, if temp then paracetamol. Vitamin C, B-complex. If severe than antibiotic. - Covid in lungs: coughing and breathlessness 4 to 5 days.
Vitamin C, B complex, hot water gargle, oximeter, paracetamol, cylinder if severe, lot of liquid required, deep breathing exercise.
Stage when to approach hospital:
Monitor the oxygen level. If it goes near 43 (normal 98-100) then you need oxygen cylinder. If available in society then no hospital – else admit.
Source: Dr. Harshita — Helping Hands Group, New Delhi