Building a strong defense To fight COVID-19 risk, don’t neglect key factors of immunity and inflammation
While most people focus, as they should, on social distancing, face coverings, hand-washing and selfisolation to protect against the deadly coronavirus ravaging the country, too few are paying serious attention to two other factors critically important to the risk of developing a COVID-19 infection and its potential severity. Those factors are immunity, which should be boosted, and inflammation, which should be suppressed.
One fact is indisputable: Older people are especially vulnerable to this disease and its potentially fatal consequences. But “older” doesn’t necessarily mean “old.” While people older than 80 are 184 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those in their 20s, Dr. Nir Barzilai, scientific director of the American Federation for Aging Research, points out that vulnerability increases starting around age 55.
Immune defenses decline with age. That is a fundamental fact of biology. For example, with advancing age, natural killer cells, a major immunological weapon, become less effective at destroying virus-infected cells. But it doesn’t mean nothing can be done to slow or sometimes even reverse immunological decline, said Barzilai, who directs the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
At the same time, inflammation in tissues throughout the body increases with age, a fact that helps the coronavirus get into the body, bind to molecules in the nose and lungs, and wreak havoc, Janet Lord, director of the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham in England, explained in a webinar this month.
Fat tissue, for example, increases inflammation and renders overweight people more vulnerable to a COVID infection.
Here, too, there are established ways to diminish inflammation and thereby enhance resistance to this deadly disease. The basic weapons, diet and exercise, are available to far more people than currently avail themselves of their benefits. Lifestyle can have a major impact on a person’s immune system, for better or worse, Lord said.
Regular exercise can also improve your sleep, which can suppress inflammation and keep your immune system from having to work overtime. Aim for seven to eight hours of sleep a night. If virusrelated anxieties keep you awake, try tai chi, meditation or progressive muscle relaxation (from feet to head) to reduce stress and calm your mind and body. Avoid eating a big meal late in the day or consuming caffeine after noon. Perhaps eat a banana or drink a glass of warm milk about an hour before bedtime.
Which brings me to what for many is the biggest health challenge during the coronavirus crisis: consuming a varied, nutrient-rich diet and keeping calorie intake under control. It seems baking has become a popular pastime for many sheltering at home, and the consequences — weight gain and overconsumption of sugar and refined flour — can increase susceptibility to the virus. Excess weight weakens the immune system, and abdominal fat in particular enhances damaging inflammation.
The good news, according to Dr. Leonard Calabrese, clinical immunologist at the Cleveland Clinic, is that even small amounts of weight loss can counter inflammation, a benefit aided by avoiding