After more than three years, the COVID-19 pandemic has officially ended. During a CNN interview, when summarizing the number of deaths (6,921,614) due to COVID-19, chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta said, “We were not very healthy going into this pandemic.”
Many people were far more vulnerable to COVID-19 because of pre-existing conditions or weaknesses when it hit. Should another virus or pathogen strike again, will we be physically prepared to handle it and have a better outcome?
As we reflect on our vulnerability, it’s important to consider the ways in which a healthy lifestyle have been proven to strengthen our body’s resilience as we face the future uncertainty of another pandemic.
As early as 2020, a paper published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases investigated the risk factors associated with hospitalization due to COVID-19 based on data from 5416 adults in the United States who were hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 between March and June 2020. Hospitalization rates were significantly increased for individuals with certain characteristics including:- Those with three or more underlying medical conditions (fivefold increased risk)
- Severe obesity (fourfold increased risk)
- Chronic kidney disease (fourfold increased risk)
- Diabetes (threefold increased risk)
- Obesity (threefold increased risk)
- Hypertension (nearly threefold increased risk)
- Asthma (1.4-times increased risk)
While some may underestimate the impact of lifestyle choices on health outcomes, numerous studies have highlighted their crucial role in preventing chronic diseases and conditions, specifically helping to protect against severe COVID-19 or long COVID.
