What To Do? Thoughts on COVID.

It's become clear to me that there are many among our readership who wish to know exactly where I stand on COVID and varying mandates that are popping up around the world.

Given that this newsletter goes out to somewhere around 90 thousand people globally, you might imagine that whenever I share thoughts on any contentious issues, I receive countless passionate responses, typically split evenly between the world's growing partisan divide.

The last time I shared thoughts on developing COVID vaccines, I received many letters by postal mail scolding and even threatening me for my views - this was above and beyond the hundreds of messages received via e-mail. This is, by the way, why I offer my personal e-mail address in this newsletter from time to time, as I would rather spare our Client Care Manager Rebecca from having to read through some of the combative messages that come in - benkim@drbenkim.com is my e-mail for those who don't have it.

So getting to it, here are my current thoughts on COVID:

For those who have comorbidities including but not limited to obesity, cardiovascular disease, lung disease, or anxiety, I feel that the reward/risk ratio favours getting vaccinated for COVID. For those who don't have comorbidities, I think not getting vaccinated is a rational choice.

If I had a choice between different vaccine types for COVID, I would choose in the following order of preference:

1. Inactivated whole virus.
2. Protein subunit.
3. Viral vector.
4. Nucleic acid.

If you don't know which of the four categories a specific vaccine belongs to, please google it. If you'd like to know when any of these types of vaccines will become available in your country, please also use google to research this.

In my view, rather than worry excessively about whether to get vaccinated or not, it's more beneficial to ask yourself this: are you doing all that you reasonably can to be metabolically healthy?

If your diet, lifestyle, sleep quality, and general outlook on life are such that you have one or more comorbidities, will you make the decision to take better care of yourself so that your immune system will be better able to handle a bout or two with COVID and other infections?

If there is room for you to improve your metabolic health, perhaps you can benefit from getting a scale that measures your body and/or visceral fat percentage along with your muscle, bone, and water mass. Such devices are relatively inexpensive these days, and while they aren't as accurate as a Dexa Body Composition Scan, they are good enough to allow you to conveniently track your metabolic status.

Options I can recommend:

Withings Body Composition Scale

Withings Body Composition Scale in Canada

FitIndex Body Composition Scale

FitIndex Body Composition Scale in Canada

As partially outlined in a recent newsletter, here are some concrete actions that support excellent metabolic health and immune system strength:

1. Ensure quality sleep - for most people, this means anywhere between 7 and 10 restful hours per night. Be aware that ingesting caffeine or alcohol in the afternoon or evening typically erodes sleep quality. Do everything necessary to wake up feeling refreshed, even if this means having to sleep in a separate bed. For most people, wearing a sleep mask is helpful, as is using black-out curtains. Best to stop intake of food and liquids 2-3 hours before you go to sleep to minimize disruptive trips to the bathroom during sleep time.

2. Exercise daily. Enough to perspire and keep your body feeling conditioned and strong.

3. Make time to breathe deeply from your abdomen for at least 1 minute, multiple times daily, preferably outdoors in fresh air. With each inhalation, strive to fill every lobe of your lungs with oxygen. With every exhalation, aim to empty every last segment of your lungs of carbon dioxide.

4. Minimize the amount of energy you give to anything that brings you down, including people and media feeds that consistently leave you feeling upset or anxious.

5. Don't overeat. Focus on nutrient-dense foods. Minimize intake of sugar and other highly processed carbs. Chew your meals until liquid.

6. Ensure that you are getting enough vitamin D and vitamin C. The one blend that I personally rely on for these two micronutrients and others is our organic whole food multi:

Powder: https://drbenkim.com/sunshop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=150

Vegetable Capsules: https://drbenkim.com/sunshop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=147

For extra insurance, I continue to take our stand-alone cherry powder as well as our organic greens, but for most people, I feel that something like the organic whole food multi is sufficient as long as regular meals are nutrient-dense.

7. Spend time with people and/or doing things that bring you genuine happiness and hopefully laughter - feeling fulfilled and having fun are critically important to our immune system strength.

8. Once in a while, if you find yourself craving a meal that is less than ideal, go ahead and enjoy it and give thanks for every mouthful!

9. Periodically expose yourself to heat and cold by spending time in a sauna, steam room, and with cold water in a shower or bath tub.

10. Strive to be a kind and helpful presence to those around you, even strangers.

What would I do if I became sick with COVID? I would continue with all of the actions above to the best of my ability, though I would avoid intense exercise and opt for more rest until I felt strong enough to exercise again.

I would continue with my daily supplements and add quality stand-alone zinc and quercetin supplements.

Depending on how I felt, I would also consider taking a corticosteroid and ivermectin according to guidelines shared by the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC). Contrary to popular headlines, ivermectin won a Nobel Prize in 2015 for its excellent results in treating humans and has had a long track record of safe use around the world. In my view, media outlets and individuals claiming that ivermectin is only intended for horses and other animals are uninformed.

What about the idea of vaccinating as many people as possible to prevent spread of COVID to those who are most vulnerable to having a bad outcome with it?

The data that I am seeing out of Israel leads me to believe that vaccinating as many people as possible is not an effective way of protecting those who are most vulnerable. Each individual doing what he or she can to be metabolically healthy is the most effective protection anyone can acquire.

What about the idea of having vaccine passports to allow only those who are fully vaccinated to have certain privileges?

I am well aware of the immense toll that lockdowns have had on mental health and the ability for many to make a living to support themselves and their loved ones. So I can wrap my brain around why some governments are turning to vaccine passports to possibly prevent further lockdowns. My personal feeling is that it's better to open everything up without requiring passports, and encourage everyone to focus on their own metabolic health via their daily choices. Those who are vulnerable can choose to take their own measures to limit contact with others while hopefully working to improve their metabolic health.

Ultimately, all of us have great potential to be a source of support and love to those around us, and this pandemic has given us an unprecedented opportunity to make a positive difference in other people's lives. Rather than spend our life energy consuming and even contributing to all of the fear, uncertainty, and doubt surrounding COVID, can we not choose to spend our life energy doing all we can to take care of ourselves and those around us?

On a personal note, I've donated all of my personal income and even some savings to people and causes I've felt moved to support and encourage since lockdowns began in early 2020. I have been able to do this because I spent much of the past 25 years living below my means, working to create value for others, and learning how to invest and grow my savings. I share this not to flex but rather, to explain why I don't have room in my life to listen to members of the woke mob tell me with their inexpensive words that I'm not doing my part to help society overcome COVID by maintaining my stance that getting vaccinated should be a personal choice and that no one should be made to feel selfish or irresponsible for choosing not to receive medical treatment that they are not comfortable with for any reason. Just like no one should be made to feel like they are an unthinking lemming for getting themselves and their loved ones vaccinated despite the unknowns that come with some types of vaccines.

It is my intention that this will be the last time I share my thoughts on issues surrounding COVID. Our life energy is finite. Rather than contribute to endless conversation and debate on what is best for everyone and why, I prefer to spend my remaining life energy doing what I can to stay healthy and be a positive force in my circle of life. Less talk. More action. Less virtue signalling. More making actual personal sacrifices to help others.

Sending love to all,

Ben

Thought of the Moment:

Feeling upset because some of my views don't align with yours? The next time you or a loved one is in need, I hope I am the first person you contact at benkim@drbenkim.com. I don't care about politics or optics. I care about doing what I can to be of tangible support to those who really need it despite already doing their best to help themselves.