Ashok Gupta examines whether ME/CFS and fibromyalgia increase COVID-19 risk. While these conditions involve immune dysfunction like reduced NK cell activity and sleep deprivation, there's no objective evidence yet that patients face higher infection or complication rates. He recommends strict precautions and his free 10-day Coronavirus Challenge protocol.
And the second topic is, what happens if you already experience me, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, chemical sensitivities, POTS or other other kind of chronic illness, like irritable bowel syndrome. Are you at greater risk of getting the illness? Are you at greater risk of having complications or even death? Now, the first thing is, we do know in terms of, let's start with the kind of, I suppose, the negative aspect of it first. We know that people with these conditions have compromised immune systems because of the overstimulation of the immune system. So the NK cells, what we call the natural killer cells that fight off pathogens, we know that their cytotoxicity, so their ability to fight off pathogens is compromised. We know that there's a lot of sympathetic nervous system activity in patients with these conditions. So an overactive stress system which can cause what we call Th2 dominance. So in our immune system we have Th1 dominance and Th2 dominance. Th1 is when we're fighting off physical pathogens and Th2 is a general inflammation, we're fighting off infections. And that general inflammation is often active in these patients. And that can mean that, yes, our immune system may be compromised in its ability to handle the COVID 19 virus. And I say could because there's no objective evidence yet. Then of course, many people with these conditions experience sleep deprivation and we know that sleep deprivation can compromise the effectiveness of the immune system. Then in terms of exercise, many patients aren't having the chance right now to exercise because of post exertional malaise. So that can impact an immune system. And there's various other symptoms that people have which could be a risk factor. Now, the good news is, certainly when I've networked with many of my colleagues in the ME and chronic fatigue syndrome area, also reading the research studies, as yet, we have no evidence that people with those chronic conditions have a higher chance of getting the infection or a higher chance indeed of having complications. So there's no evidence as yet. And this is also backed up by the fact that certainly amongst our patient cohort, we don't necessarily find that more people are contracting severe flu or passing away from severe flu as a result of having these illnesses. And certainly there's no record of that. I think it would have been picked up by various doctors if that had been the case. Now why could that be? Well, although the immune system is compromised in me, CFS and fibromyalgia at the same time, as we've said, that immune system may be overactive. So one hypothesis is that As a result of this overactive immune system, we're already primed and ready to recognize those pathogens circulating the body. You know, there's already perhaps more of these cells circulating. It's a mixed bag because the research, there's certain aspects of the immune system which are overstimulated and overactive, but there are also certain aspects of the immune system which compromised. Secondly, we know that patients with these conditions have often quite a number of opportunistic infections in the blood and in the body. And therefore we know that there's evidence of ongoing infection and evidence that these are being successfully fought off. So I think that the jury's out as to whether patients with these chronic conditions have a higher chance of complications. But what I would like you to do is really take those precautions. Okay? So prioritise the precautions that you need to take. So that is making sure that you're isolating and away from potential dangers as much as possible. Having home deliveries instead of going out, making sure that if you do go out, that you wear a face mask in public, indoor areas and hand washing and all the things that we already know that I don't need to cover here. But please do take those precautions as much as possible to prevent your exposure to that. And once again, if you do that, we know that your chances of being infected are very, very low if you successfully personally self isolate. Secondly, I'd love for you to boost your immune system as much as possible. And as many of you know, we have something called the Coronavirus Challenge, which is a 10 day challenge to boost your immune system using the latest science and the latest research that we've done here at the clinic, based on our 20 years of research, in fact. And we're getting some fantastic reviews in terms of people's experiences of going through that. So you can take the Coronavirus challenge at www.thecornaviruschallenge.com and once you sign up, it's completely free and not for profit. You'll find videos on our MEND protocol. M stands for the mind. E stands for energizing the body and exercise. N stands for nighttime routine sleep. D stands for diet. And those are the four main components, our four main lifestyle components that determine our chances of getting a virus. Our chances of cancer or heart disease is all encoded within those four aspects. The MEND protocol, mend. So when we're looking at the mind, we know that actually people who meditate can halve their chances of getting a virus. That's how powerful meditation is. And we also know that if they do get a virus, they can once again halve the number of days with that virus. So people are touting the benefits of these various antiviral drugs like remzivir and all these other things, whereas actually, we already know that regular meditation has no obvious side effects generally in the population. And yet it also can reduce, if not halve, the number of days that we have a chronic virus or certainly flus and colds.
