Posts Tagged ‘COVID-19’

Plant-Based Diets Cut COVID Risk? Not Exactly

January 20, 2024 — We do admire the tenacity of folks who promote the virtues of a plant-based diet. But that admiration stops when we move on to the dimension of scientific rigor and objectivity. In BMJ Nutrition, Prevention, and Health, a group of researchers are claiming that plant-based diets “may be considered protective against COVID-19 infection.” The only […]

Obesity, Opioids, and Guns Rank as the Top Health Threats

August 18, 2023 — “Of the following what do you think is the number one threat to American public health at this moment?” Given a list that included guns, alcohol, cancer, COVID, obesity, opioids, smoking, driving, or something else, three top choices were clear. Opioids (chosen by 26%), obesity (23%), and guns (20%) outpaced everything else. The others were […]

Preventing Long COVID for People with Obesity

June 12, 2023 — In many ways, COVID seems to be in the rear view mirror. Travel, meetings, and busyness have cranked up to a level that makes it seem like the pause we took for the pandemic is a distant memory. But not for folks who develop long COVID – which is about ten percent of people who […]

A Time of Challenges, Changes, and Generosity

December 25, 2022 — We’re well on our way to closing out one more in a string of extraordinary years. These have been times of remarkable challenges, changes, and, perhaps surprisingly, great generosity. Through three years with a pandemic in the foreground and now the background, people of all ages have suffered – all in different ways. The losses […]

Nope, Vitamin D Does Not Prevent COVID

September 8, 2022 — It really is becoming hard to remember just how we were clutching at straws to cope with the pandemic two years ago when all we had to prevent COVID was social distance and masks. No vaccines or Paxlovid. One of the straws we were clutching then was vitamin D. Both our ex-President and Tony Fauci […]

Vitamin D: The Panacea That Isn’t

July 30, 2022 — It’s hard to argue with something dubbed “the sunshine vitamin” – more specifically, vitamin D. It’s been generating headlines and controversy for years now. The vitamin D fan club described it like a panacea, good for preventing bone fractures (of course), but also ills ranging from infections to diabetes and cancer. Because of its association […]

Are COVID Vaccines Protecting People with Obesity?

July 8, 2022 — In a word, yes. COVID vaccines are still protecting people with obesity. Two new studies remind us that, although people with obesity are more vulnerable to this virus, the immune response is still good in this population. This is true of the immune response to infection as well as the protection afforded by vaccination. A […]

Personal Responsibility for Public Health

April 12, 2022 — Your health is in your hands. With these words, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky captures the essence of flawed thinking about public health. These words also capture the pervasive bias that gets in the way of coping well with both the COVID-19 pandemic and with obesity. This is the presumption that personal responsibility will take care […]

Two New Studies Point to Diabetes from COVID

March 22, 2022 — Very early in the pandemic, it was clear that diabetes and COVID had a deep relationship. Along with obesity, diabetes was a key risk factor for a rough ride with COVID. But as the pandemic unfolded, data started suggesting this was a two-way street. COVID could give patients a higher chance of developing diabetes. A […]

Were Meal Kits Just a Pandemic Thing?

March 15, 2022 — The pandemic isn’t done with us yet. Cases are rising a bit in Europe and it’s anyone’s guess where this is heading. But certainly, it appears that many of us are done with the pandemic. Does this mean the boom in meal kits will fade? Will it turn out that they were just a pandemic […]