Health24.com | Asthma, COPD raise odds for severe coronavirus infection, lung experts warn

Posted on 07/04/2020 by Boris Clair

People with asthma and other lung diseases are at increased risk for serious complications from the new coronavirus, caution experts from the American Lung Association.

“Everyone’s health is at risk from Covid-19, and those living with a lung disease or who are immunocompromised may be more vulnerable to the impacts of the virus,” said Dr Albert Rizzo, the association’s chief medical officer.

Covid-19 can cause a pneumonia-like lung infection, with a range of symptoms from mild or absent in some to life-threatening in others, he said.

It’s crucial for people with chronic lung diseases such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to keep taking their maintenance medications and tell their healthcare provider about any symptoms or changes in their health, Rizzo said.

Best practices

All lung disease patients – including those with lung cancer who may have a weakened immune system – need to take steps avoid contact with the coronavirus.

Besides physical distancing, measures include thorough handwashing; not touching face, nose, mouth and eyes; and avoiding contact with people who may have been infected.

“The healthcare system and hospitals are already stressed with admissions as a result of the pandemic,” Rizzo said. “It’s important for those with lung disease to use their best practices in managing their disease.”

People who smoke or vape are also at increased risk of serious Covid-19 complications.

“Cigarette smoking and vaping are linked to lung inflammation and lowered immune function in the lung’s airways, both of which can increase likelihood of complications if exposed to Covid-19,” he said. “Therefore, long-term smokers and e-cigarette users may have a higher risk of developing chronic lung conditions associated with severe cases.”

READ | How mild, undocumented infections could lead to an even bigger coronavirus spread

READ | Coronavirus infection likely worse for vapers and smokers

READ | Certain health conditions increase risks for severe coronavirus cases

^{Image credit: iStock}

Daily Templates

Posted on 07/04/2020 by Boris Clair

I have long resisted making my life too structured and routine because I felt it would become too boring and monotonous, where each day is basically a repeat of the one before, and it feels like I’m trapped in the Groundhog Day universe. One solution I like is to use simple structural templates for how I flow through my days, and then I can just pick a template for each and follow it.

For instance, if I want to create a course lesson and a blog post in a day, I can do those in either order. I just want to have both published by the end of the day. Some days I’ll write and publish the blog post first. Some days I’ll design, record, and publish the lesson first. So all I have to decide on those days is which I’ll do first, and with that one decision, the rest of the structure falls into place. My preferred structure is to create a piece from start to finish and stick with it till it’s published. Then I move on to the next item. But the order of those items doesn’t particularly matter.

Some days I don’t record course lessons, so I can use different templates for those days. And of course weekend templates can be totally different as well.

The advantage of having a few templated structures to choose from is that I spend less time pondering what I should do next. I mainly just have to make one decision for how to begin my day, such as starting with a blog post, and then the rest of the day falls into place. Then I can spend the bulk of my day taking action by following the template I’ve chosen for that day.

A template is just a guide for when I have nothing else scheduled. I might need to modify it for any given day, like if I have an interview scheduled. But I can also create extra templates for known scenarios that happen often enough but not every day, such as doing coaching calls in Conscious Growth Club. On those days I know to limit myself to templates that include time for the coaching call.

A template is similar to a schedule, except that I don’t really schedule tasks by the hour. These templates are even simpler. They’re just lists of contexts to flow through in a given order.

For instance, one template for a workday could be as simple as:

Breakfast
Watch new lessons for the latest course I’m taking
Write and publish new blog post
Process communication
Lunch
Design, record, publish, and announce new Stature lesson

This might be a typical template for some weekdays. On other days I might have different items like planning work, administrative work, other creative projects, and so on.

Even with the simple list above, I can create different variations on it. What if I have an idea for a new course lesson right when I wake up, and I don’t want to wait till the afternoon to work on it? Then I can pick a different template that begins the workday with the course lesson. Since the other types of tasks are already laid out in a reasonable order within that template, I don’t have to refactor my task order. The other tasks all fall into place.

Using simple templates like this reduces the mental burden of deciding what to do and when. While it may seem like it’s not a big deal to decide fresh each day the order of every type of task, it actually is a big deal when you consider how much decision fatigue can accumulate by the end of a long day, and you multiply that across many weeks. Using templates saves a lot of unnecessary decision making, and that mental energy can be invested elsewhere. For me it may show up in having more enthusiasm for the afternoon work.

I can also have different templates for different parts of the day, like a few morning routine templates and a few different evening routines. So I could have morning templates, evening templates, weekday templates, and weekend templates. And there can be several variations of each.

I like spelling these out on index cards. Then I can grab one index card for each part of the day, and that gives me the template for the whole day.

I can also have templates for lighter days, half days, and heavier work days, depending on my energy and enthusiasm. There’s really no limit to how many templates I can create. I can even name them on the index cards, so I can quickly recognize each template at a glance.

Additionally, within each template, I can also have subtemplates. So there could be subtemplates for processing communication, and within those I could have different arrangements of tasks like checking email and the Conscious Growth forums. Or I can have subtemplates for creating course lessons because some steps can be done in different orders, like when I record the lesson and when I add the lesson summary and exercise to the course workbook.

Think of templates as recipes. You probably don’t want to eat the same meal over and over, so why would you flow through each day in the same sequence, especially if you have options? But you probably don’t want to plan every day from scratch either, so you can use templates to focus on your known favorites, just as you can use recipes to make your favorite meals repeatedly. This can provide a nice balance of stability and variety.

If you ever feel bored with your templates, you still have the option of breaking away from them and using a different approach when that appeals to you. And you might even learn something that could inspire new template ideas. Just as you may want to freshen up your habitual recipes now and then, you’ll probably want to freshen up your templates sometimes as well.

The battle against a vicious disease

Posted on 07/04/2020 by Boris Clair

Fergus Walsh is humbled by the astonishing dedication of NHS staff on the coronavirus front line.

Most coronavirus deaths occurring in hospitals

Posted on 07/04/2020 by Boris Clair

Latest figures show some are happening in the community but most are on hospital wards.

Health24.com | Coronavirus morning update: The latest on testing in SA, UK PM in ICU, and more on symptoms

Posted on 07/04/2020 by Boris Clair

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SA

Cases update:

The latest number of confirmed cases is 1 686.

The country has also recorded 12 deaths.

Gauteng, the Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal account for most of the cases in the country.

Latest news:

South Africans aren’t unaccustomed to queueing in a drive-thru, ordering and then waiting for food. But a drive-thru station that conducts Covid-19 tests has to be a first. Then again, we’re experiencing many firsts since the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus hit South African shores just over a month ago.

HealthInsite, a corporate wellness and occupational health service provider, in collaboration with Mullah Labs, have since 26 March been conducting drive-thru Covid-19 tests at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg.

The mobile testing station intends to operate throughout the nationwide shutdown, in order to improve access and reduce the risk and spread of infection, while contributing to “flattening the curve”.

A nurse at the testing station who could not be named, dressed from head to toe in white protective gear, told News24 that a person must meet certain criteria before they can get tested.

All prospective patients are screened at the first stop – to check if they meet the test criteria.

Testing for Covid-19 in South Africa will, hopefully, be massively increased in the next few weeks. A machine called the GeneXpert, currently used to diagnose tuberculosis (TB), will be used by the state to test for the coronavirus.

Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize has expressed concern that not enough testing is being done, GroundUp reports.

“Our testing criteria are reactive and restrictive. This means we don’t have a true picture,” he said previously in his daily briefing on the Covid-19 epidemic.

South Africa had conducted over 50 000 tests by 4 April. This compares well to, say, Brazil, which has conducted about the same number of tests but has a much bigger population. But our capacity is far behind Australia (nearly 300 000 tests), South Korea (over 460 000 tests) and most European countries

South Africa’s economy may contract by between 2% and 4% this year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the SA Reserve Bank has said.

In its latest Monetary Policy Review, the central bank said there was also limited scope for an economic rebound in 2021, with growth unlikely to exceed 1%.

Speaking on a webcast briefing on Monday afternoon, Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said forecasting had become “nightmarish” given the many moving parts at play.

In its earlier GDP projection in March, the bank said that economic growth was likely to decline by 0.2% this year. But this was before President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown to curtail the spread of the coronavirus so that South Africa’s health infrastructure does not become overwhelmed.

“South Africa was already in recession prior to the Covid-19 shock, and the situation has become more challenging since,” it said.

A fake video relating to Covid-19 which has emerged, claiming testing kits are possibly contaminated, has been condemned by the Eastern Cape Department of Health.

In the video, which has been widely distributed on social media, a man – whose name is known to News24 – calls on South Africans to refuse Covid-19 testing.

With an ear bud stuck up his nose, he claims he is giving South Africans “the most important message you will ever hear in your entire life”.

He then claims that the South African government will send 10 000 workers door to door, with the police, to test for Covid-19.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE REST OF THE WORLD

Cases update:

For the latest global data, follow this interactive map from Johns Hopkins University & Medicine.

Positive cases worldwide are more than 1 347 000, while deaths are close to 75 000.

The United States has by far the most cases, with more than 368 000, with Spain and Italy both on more than 130 000

Italy has more than 16 500 deaths.

Latest news:

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care after his symptoms worsened, according to reports on Monday.

He was taken to hospital on Sunday for tests, his office said, 10 days after he tested positive for coronavirus.

This came just two hours after he thanked people for staying at home in a bid to curb the virus. “Stay home, protect the NHS and save lives,” he tweeted.

Johnson, 55, announced he had mild symptoms of Covid-19 on March 27 and had been in self-isolation at his Downing Street residence for seven days.

President Donald Trump used his daily press briefing to enthusiastically endorse two experimental drugs as a potential treatment for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

The drugs – chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine- are often used for the prevention and treatment of certain types of malaria. It is also used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and a limited number of other conditions.

“It’s a powerful drug on malaria, and there are scientific works on this. Some strong signs,” Trump said, adding that the US has a stockpile of over 29 million pills for its potential use in fighting Covid-19.

“What do you have to lose?” he said, referring to using the pills for possible coronavirus treatment. “If it does work, it would be a shame if we didn’t do it early.”

In a suspected human to animal transmission, a tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for Covid-19, the coronavirus disease.

Nadia, a four-year-old female tiger at the zoo tested positive, and the diagnosis was confirmed by the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory, based in Ames, Iowa.

The Wildlife Conservation Society said that Nadia, three other tigers, and three African lions have developed dry coughs and decreased appetite, but are expected to recover.

None of the zoo’s other big cats, including tigers in another area of the zoo, have shown any coronavirus symptoms.

LATEST RESEARCH

As Covid-19 causes complications and death in patients globally, experts are attempting to find out exactly how the virus attacks the body.

While medical experts reported acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) as one of the main symptoms of Covid-19, it has been shown that it can also affect the heart. But now, according to an article in New York Times, and reports by clinicians, neurological symptoms such as confusion, seizures and an altered mental state have also been observed.

But what does this mean?

In an earlier Health24 article, we discussed the Covid-19 virus’s ability to adhere to several kinds of human cells, not only those of the lungs. This means that patients may present with atypical symptoms such as diarrhoea, apart from the textbook fever, cough and shortness of breath.

Now there are reports of patients who show no signs of pneumonia or respiratory distress, but instead confusion, strange behaviour and sometimes seizures.

HEALTH TIPS (as recommended by the NICD and WHO)

• Avoid contact with people who have respiratory infections

• Maintain physical distancing – stay at least one metre away from somebody who is coughing or sneezing

• Practise frequent hand-washing, especially after direct contact with ill people or their environment

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth, as your hands touch many surfaces and could potentially transfer the virus

• Practise respiratory hygiene – cover your mouth with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze. Remember to dispose the tissue immediately after use.

Health24.com | Could acupuncture help prevent migraines?

Posted on 07/04/2020 by Boris Clair

A new clinical trial supports acupuncture as an option for reducing migraine headaches, and researchers believe doctors should inform patients it is a possible treatment.

The Chinese study “helps to move acupuncture from having an unproven status in complementary medicine to an acceptable evidence-based treatment,” said Dr Heather Angus-Leppan, a neurologist who wrote an editorial that was published with the study in the BMJ on 25 March.

“We now have good evidence that acupuncture is an effective treatment for episodic migraine,” said Angus-Leppan, a consultant neurologist at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom.

The new study was led by Wei Wang, a neurologist at Tongji Hospital and the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China. Wang’s team noted that there are preventive medicines to help people with frequent migraines, but not all patients respond well to drugs and many don’t want to use them.

Significantly higher reduction

Acupuncture has been investigated as a method of reducing migraine frequency, but the results have been mixed. So Wang’s group decided to compare real acupuncture against either fake (sham) acupuncture or usual migraine care.

The study included 147 patients (average age 37) with a history of migraine without aura. None of them had received acupuncture before, and all were told not to take any painkillers or start any other treatments during the study.

For eight weeks, the participants received either: 20 sessions of real (manual) acupuncture at true acupuncture points; 20 sessions of non-penetrating sham acupuncture at non-acupuncture points; or usual care, including advice on lifestyle and self-management.

Over the following 12 weeks, those in the manual acupuncture group had 1.4 fewer migraine days in weeks 13 to 16 of the study, and about two fewer migraine days at weeks 17 to 20, compared to people in the sham acupuncture group.

Compared to those in the usual care group (non-acupuncture), those in the sham acupuncture group still had fewer migraine days (1.6 vs. 0.4) in weeks 17 to 20, according to the study.

Even though it was a short study, the results showed that acupuncture “resulted in a significantly higher reduction in the frequency of migraine days and migraine attacks,” Wang’s team wrote. Longer-term studies are needed to determine how long the preventive effects of acupuncture last in migraine patients, the study authors said.

Results highly variable

Still, the Chinese team believes that acupuncture “can be recommended as a [preventive] treatment” and doctors “should provide patients with information about acupuncture as an option when discussing [preventive] treatment strategies”.

One US headache specialist said he already sees patients who are using acupuncture to help ease migraines.

“However, what people actually receive is highly variable depending upon the practitioner – this can be different techniques, different placement or number of needles and different course of therapy,” said Dr Noah Rosen, who directs Northwell Health’s Headache Center in Great Neck, New York.

Rosen said that, in many cases, the beneficial effects of acupuncture are gradual, and patients may “need to commit to a full course of care – not assuming that they will see benefit right away”.

^{Image credit: iStock}

Coronavirus: Warning over daily death figures

Posted on 07/04/2020 by Boris Clair

Spikes or dips may in part reflect bottlenecks in the reporting system, rather than real changes in the trend.

Coronavirus: Scientists question school closures impact

Posted on 07/04/2020 by Boris Clair

Countries should now question whether keeping schools shut is justified, says one team of scientists.

Coronavirus: What is intensive care and which patients need it?

Posted on 07/04/2020 by Boris Clair

Doctors say PM Boris Johnson has been moved there as a precaution, should he need more complex care.

Finding Cuddle Partners

Posted on 06/04/2020 by Boris Clair

In Conscious Growth Club, there was a recent discussion about finding cuddle partners – i.e. someone to physically cuddle with when you want – so I thought I’d turn what I shared about this into a blog post with some tips on finding cuddle partners. Obviously this will be more useful when you’re not under a virus lockdown. 😉

Basically what I shared in CGC was a list of tips for increasing the chances of finding a cuddle partner. Here’s a refined version of that:

Hang out with cuddle-friendly and touch-friendly people more often. Spend more time around the hugger types. This helps a lot in picking up the vibe and getting more comfortable with people offering various forms of touch.
Spend less time with touch-avoidant people in person, so you can do more of the previous item. Don’t invest as much time and energy in the non-hugger types of people; if you do it will probably just hold you back. You need to move away from that mindset / vibe.
Ask for advice from the most huggy and touchy people you know, especially if you find someone who didn’t start out that way. I definitely didn’t start out that way, and it helped to just hang out and talk to people who had touch-abundant lives. At first it seemed they had skills and experiences that were far beyond my reality, but eventually I came to see that this was an invitation to a personal growth journey.
Be patient with yourself, but keep leaning into this if it’s what you want. You can get there. It will just take time. You probably have some misaligned behaviors and attitudes to overcome.
Tell the hugger types you know that you want the most truthful feedback they can give you, so you can raise your awareness of your problematic behaviors and attitudes that could repel what you want. They probably won’t tell you truths like “you have a put-offish attitude” or “you hug like a dead bird” or “you’re coming on too aggressively” unless you invite this level of honesty from them. Then take these hard truths as invitations to grow, not as personal attacks.
Invite people to cuddle when you feel they might be up for it. Do this in person ideally. Commence cuddling immediately if the answer is positive. I’ll share examples of cuddle invites after this list.
Publicly write, speak, and share about this pursuit, so people will know you’re into in it. Don’t hide if you want different results. If anyone gives you serious flak for it, I suggest dropping them from your social circle. Who needs that kind of friction? Purge the unsupportive social riff-raff. It’s challenging enough to have growth experiences with good social support from people who respect your goals and desires. Sharing human touch is beautiful. Own that desire fully.
If you think there’s something wrong with cuddling or with wanting a touch-abundant life, then journal the heck out of those false beliefs till you’re ready to replace them who a more empowering frame. Note the many benefits of cuddling, including better health and happiness, you’ll understand the point of offering cuddle invitations. There are lots of people who like and appreciate cuddling, and their mindsets are aligned with experiencing it. This isn’t just about meeting your needs. You’re helping someone else meet their needs too. Cuddling is to gift to yourself and to another person.
Be on the lookout for more cuddle opportunities like cuddle parties or cuddle meetup groups. Ask around to see if anyone knows of one happening soon. I think one-on-one invites are much better, but cuddle parties could be a good way to get started if you think that inviting a specific person takes too much courage. You may even find a cuddle meetup group in your area.
If you want a super cuddly long-term partner, don’t bother investing too much time in connections with people who aren’t into cuddling, at least not while you’re interested in finding a good match. Focus on what you want, and don’t settle for partial matches. There are lots of cuddle-friendly people out there, so there’s not need to try to convince someone to stretch themselves to be into it. If you meet someone who isn’t into it, move on quickly.
Visualize enjoying cuddles, and smile. You can cuddle a blanket, pillow, or teddy bear for practice. Feel what you think it would feel like to be enjoying this for real.
Realize that there are lots of people out there who’d love more touch, so the odds of finding matches are great if you just make enough invitations.
When you’re ready for it, push your cuddle skills higher by cuddling two people at once, one on each side. It’s super yummy but can get a bit hot in the middle if it’s overnight, so make sure the room is cool.
Remind yourself that as with many other personal growth pursuits, if you just keep investing in exploration and growth, some form of abundance is likely. It’s just a matter of time.
A key behavioral change to focus on is making cuddle invitations. The more you invite, the more you get to experience. You can make such invitations through any medium you like: in person, phone, text, email, social media direct messages, etc.
With enough practice you’ll get locked into the vibe of having these experiences, so making more cuddle invitations becomes pretty natural and easy. Experience builds confidence. There’s no need to fake confidence before you have experience. It’s totally fine to be a beginner. Just be a growth-oriented beginner, and keep nudging yourself to lean into action.
If you’re cuddling someone who’s inexperienced with cuddling, try to be extra kind and sensitive to their needs and concerns. Also help them discover what they like. Do your part to give others a good experience, so they can feel more confident in continuing their journeys as well.

Cuddle Invites

Cuddle invites are actually very simple and may go something like this:

Me: You look super cuddlable by the way.

Her: Oh how observant you are. I’m actually one of the best cuddlers in the world!

Me: Well I’d love to cuddle you right now.

Her: That sounds yummy, but the experience might spoil you, and then you’d feel sad cuddling anyone else.

Me: You’re that good, eh?

Or…

Me: If you feel like cuddling sometime, just know that I’d definitely be up for it.

Her: Hmmm… I think that would be nice.

Me: How about right now?

Her: Okay, why not? How should we do it?

And sometimes it’s the other way around, partly due to sharing about this openly…

Her: By the way… I’ve been reading your blog for many years, so I know you really like to cuddle. I like cuddling too.

Me: Would you like to cuddle right now?

Her: Yes, that sounds really nice.

In this last scenario, it’s also common for the woman to make some comment that lets me know she’s available too. For instance, she may note that she doesn’t have a current partner, that she just went through a recent breakup, or that she’s currently in an open relationship.

Usually we’d cuddle on the spot if the invite was done in person. Or if it was online, then it would happen later of course. I was surprised that my cuddle invites resulted in about 95% yeses. I didn’t think it would be so high. But I think that’s mainly because of what I’ll share in the next section.

Playfulness

Conversations don’t normally start out like the snippets above. There may be a lot more chatting before that, usually at least 15 minutes.

This little pieces of dialog assume that we were already having a bit of a playful banter beforehand, so we already created a nice connection with some laughter.

Sharing laughs, I would say, is one of the best precursors to a cuddle invitation. Laughing together builds trust and connection. I tend to think of cuddling as rather playful too, so when there are laughs and smiles, it tends to lead nicely into cuddling if there’s mutual interest.

I remember one time I got a gentle no for a cuddle invite, and there were no laughs in our conversation beforehand. It was too serious, which made the invitation not feel as natural. And I think the lack of laughter was a sign that the connection and rapport just wasn’t there.

If a conversation is very mental, such as talking about work or business ideas, I think it would be pretty awkward to turn that towards a cuddle invitation. The vibe just isn’t proximate enough.

If you can’t be playful, it’s likely because you’ve got a clogged and crusty heart-brain connection. A poor diet is one of the main culprits there. It takes emotional energy to be playful, and the body won’t generate much emotional energy if it’s overburdened with various other problems to deal with. Hence poor health habits can indeed be a barrier to feeling playful enough to invite cuddle experiences.

Cuddle Abundance

For some people it can be a long journey to cuddle abundance. It certainly was for me. What feels natural to me now was nothing of the sort many years ago.

I think the challenge of the journey just creates extra gratitude later on though. Thanks to a super cuddly wife who loves sharing touch, I rarely go more than a few hours without some kind of touch, cuddling, or affection in each day, which is especially nice to have while under virus lockdown. I think this is probably why we don’t mind it so much.

The key is simply not to give up. It may take years to create the experiences you desire, but the time will pass anyway, so you might as well invest in growing in this area. Lean into behavioral changes such that the passage of time shows you how much progress you’ve made.

WellnessMaster

Get The Latest News on Holistic Wellness

Category Archives: Mind Building

Health24.com | Asthma, COPD raise odds for severe coronavirus infection, lung experts warn

Best practices

Daily Templates

The battle against a vicious disease

Most coronavirus deaths occurring in hospitals

Health24.com | Coronavirus morning update: The latest on testing in SA, UK PM in ICU, and more on symptoms

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN SA

Cases update:

Latest news:

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE REST OF THE WORLD

Cases update:

READ MORE | All the confirmed cases worldwide

Latest news:

LATEST RESEARCH

READ MORE: Coronavirus 101

^{Image credit: Getty Images}

Health24.com | Could acupuncture help prevent migraines?

Significantly higher reduction

Results highly variable

Coronavirus: Warning over daily death figures

Coronavirus: Scientists question school closures impact

Coronavirus: What is intensive care and which patients need it?

Finding Cuddle Partners

Cuddle Invites

Playfulness

Cuddle Abundance