© Getty Images Covid was a tough teacher, but those useful lessons, including managing risk, focusing on the basics and understanding immunity, stuck.The peak of the Covid epidemic was brutal. Three years after it all began, leading scientists tell us what lessons we need to learn to stay healthy now and beyond.
Risk management is huge
Before the pandemic, how often did you think about protecting yourself from respiratory diseases? "Most people were risk averse. Respiratory viruses haven't been a big problem," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Covid has forced us all to take viruses seriously every day and highlighted the power of our personal habits: hand washing, masking, vaccination, deciding in which domestic situations to risk rather than risk getting sick.
Covid has also made it clear that failure to manage risk has consequences beyond a difficult hospital stay or, in less severe cases, lost sick days. A 2022 study found that someone infected with Covid was 33 times more likely to experience a blood clot for the first time within the first week of infection than someone who had never had it. Respiratory viruses can cause other true medical emergencies, and these complex factors can damage major organs and increase the risk of autoimmune diseases. Even mild Covid can affect your breathing and fitness for months at the gym.
Vitamin D is the hero of health
Before the pandemic, it was easy to think of vitamin D as a bone-building nutrient found in milk, and it was. However, research carried out in the time of Covid has shown that people with vitamin D deficiency have a higher risk of testing positive for the disease, compared to people with good levels. Experts suspected that an optimal amount of the vitamin could help protect against Covid, as it does with other respiratory diseases.
There is still no clear conclusion, says Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, head of the New England Complex Systems Institute's Covid Risk Task Force. But doctors have long known that this nutrient plays an important role in immune health, and one in three American adults aren't getting enough of it.
Vitamin D helps your immune system "everywhere," says Feigl-Ding. It mobilizes parts of this system to start working against microbes and also to reduce inflammation, a process that plays a role in many health conditions, including cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and more. DEPRESSION
If you already have enough vitamin D, too much will do you no good. (A blood test can show your levels.) To maintain a healthy amount, get five to 30 minutes of sun exposure at night at least twice a week (your body uses it to make its own vitamin D). and eat Foods rich in D. These include salmon, trout, and fortified cow's or plant-based milk. If you don't eat these foods or get direct sunlight, consider winter supplements "insurance," Feigl-Ding advises.
Lung covid helps us understand other diseases
One of the most devastating and surprising legacies of the pandemic, the ongoing Covid, can also help advance our understanding of health. This wide range of issues that about half of people with Covid are symptomatic – everything from joint pain to brain fog – may not be unique to the virus. And it has spurred interest in studying the seemingly similar but often overlooked conditions chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome.
We're still learning about the longevity of Covid, but theories that cause these symptoms include organ damage, chronic inflammation (including in the central nervous system) and reservoirs of the virus that remain in the body, Feigl-Ding says. These are some of the same factors that scientists believe may be involved in CFS.
Learning more about long-term Covid may also shed light on these other conditions, says Dr Adalja. Still, it's pretty clear that "these diseases are valid," says William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
The basics are important
Health problems that develop over time, such as strokes and type 2 diabetes, have increased over the years. About 60% of American adults have at least one chronic disease, and one in ten have two or more. However, until one is diagnosed, the risk of chronic disease may be low.
Covid has made it clear that people with chronic illnesses are at greater risk of serious illness, forcing them to take an honest look at their health habits. For example, obesity has gone from "something to deal with" to a risk factor for complications from the scary new virus, says Dr. Schaffner. To illustrate the synergy, Dr. Feigl-Thing for people to "draw a cup". All the risk factors (eating too much sugar, not exercising, not managing high blood pressure) add water to the glass, while healthy habits lower the water level. Covid can push the water out and ugh.
The admission here is more than a warning, actually. You know what to do. You can prevent chronic disease by eating well, being active, avoiding smoking, and drinking alcohol in moderation. These small lifestyle habits can save your life.
This story originally appeared in the January/February issue of Men's Health .
Try over 200 personal videos on men's health, women's health, prevention and more at All Out Studio for free for 14 days.