By KATY CABLE, THE WEEKLY RUNT A 4 min. Lifesaving Read GET READY! Spring is on it’s way and with green shamrocks, thawing temperatures and chocolate eggs, The Corona Virus is here! I can no longer write this off! and ignore what began as a short news blip affecting “Chinese” peopke on the other side if the world. But how serious is this and what must we do to protect ourselves, our families, (and that includes our pets?) Never in my lifetime have I seen a superbug so bad it closed Disneyland and quarantined entire towns. It’s frightening and surreal to watch the stock market to plummet like a lead balloon over Corona Virus fears. My own vacay to Italy is off the books and even the Olympic Games may very well be cancelled. That’s HUGE! Some claim we’re being lied to about facts in an effort not to create total panic and mayhem. The news shows things spinning out of control, yet leading researchers and epidemiologists presenting facts that downplay the pandemonium. Two completely different sides of the same “Corona Virus” coin! Regardless of what your believe, the Corona Virus is here and not going away anytime soon. These are the numbers and a few things you can do RIGHT NOW to stay safe. First of all, there are never any guarantees. We all know that healthy puppy who comes from incredible lineage. They’re fed a fresh, balanced, healthy diet and still succumbs to cancer at the tender age of 3. Or that fitness buff who’s the epitome of health on Instagram and then drops dead of a heart attack at 30 years young! What you can do however, will greatly decrease your probability of dying and catching deadly diseases. And it’s the same for your dog! But back to the Corona Virus. Lets look at the two big questions: Will I get it and if I do, will it kill me? Accirding to an article by Dr David L. Katz, Director of the Yale Prevention Researcher Center, the worry shouldn’t be over the Corona Virus but how sick most Americans are right now. And how ill prepared their bodies are to fight this attack. WILL I GET IT? In order to get CV, you must first be exposed to it. So let’s take the epicenter of where this occurred, Wuhan, China, and use that as the “worst case scenario.” Assuming everyone there was “exposed”, they currently have just under 79,000 cases in a city of ten million. Rounding up for simplicity, I’ll say 8 people out of a thousand will become infected. That’s still under10% in the worst hot zone. WILL IT KILL ME? The second question is: If I get it will it kill me? The fatality rate in Wuhan is 2,800 deaths out of just under 79,000 cases. That’s a mortality rate of around 4 deaths per hundred (about 4%) Now, I sincerely hope a loved one is not counted in those numbers. If so, I offer my most sincere condolences. The last thing I want to do is minimize or trivialize a precious human life and turn them into a lousy statistic in this blog. But here’s the takeaway. We all stop in our tracks and pay attention the minute a death is reported. The CV numbers right now, show that many, many more people are likely coming down with CV and mistaking it for a mild flu. Others possibly have no symptoms at all and are letting it go unnoticed. Compare that to the numbers for this year’s influence outbreak. (We haven’t heard much about that during the CV scare.) Each year around 40 million people contact it (about 1 in 9) and it kills about one in 1,000. Yet, we have safe vaccines which greatly reduce the infection and transmittal. But these statistics are much more staggering. The current odds of contacting and dying of the Corona Virus or even a flu are quite small, the really scary epidemic killing way more people AND PETS is our AMERICAN DIET With 100 million adults pre-diabetic, and 3 out of four anywhere from overweight to morbidly obese, our diet is a far greater concern. But, unlike the Corona Virus which strikes and sometimes kills very fast, not so with a piss-poor diet! It often takes years for deadly effects to present and even then it’s typically under the guise of heart disease, diabetes or other conditions. Im certainly not trying to downplay a very serious and fast moving pandemic, but, for most of us there are much bigger threats sitting right smack on your dinner plate and in your dog’s bowl. Quite simply, we can eat for health and to live, or we can dig our graves with a knife and fork. Heres a bit of good news...there’s plenty you can do to decrease the odds of getting ANY disease and staying safe while this scary Corona Virus spreads at record speed. 1. Manage STRESS (Stress will kick your immune system to the curb and then you can’t fight off ANYTHING! Meditate, read, golf, walk your dog and let go of some stress! 2. Get Enough SLEEP! 6-8 hours for most of us is sufficient. But if you’re not feeling well then rest up! Your body needs sleep to recharge, restore and heal. 3. Eat Fresh, Whole FOODS. Cut back on the big killers: like sugars and processed carbs. 4. Practice INTERMITTENT FASTING Give your body a chance to repair and rebuild during sleep. Try and go 12-18 hours before eating. 5. Get Some FRESH AIR & EXERCISE. Spend some time outdoors in the fresh air. Do something you enjoy and move your body. Surgical masks are fine but sterile gloves offer much more protection if you’re immune compromised. Wash your hands or use wipes after handling money, door handles, etc. It’s always smart to stay away from sick people. Don’t travel to highly infected areas and try and avoid wildly crowded, popular places like airports, cruise ships, amusement parks, casinos. I know, nothing you haven’t heard before but these simple steps go along way to build your immune system and keep you healthy. This is a great time to start adding healthy fermented foods like kimchi, pickles, sauerkraut plain Greek yogurt, Kefir, Kombucha and Goat’s milk to your diet. These provide billions of probiotics (healthy bacteria spores) to the digestive system and build up your immune system. GanedeanBC30 is a powerhouse, patented probiotic used in Nulo pet food. You can buy it in a number of products from gummy vitamins to Karma probiotic waters. Every serving delivers billions of powerful bacteria that activates in the gut. This is a good time to double check that emergency kit and make sure you’re prepared if a quarantine goes into effect. Make sure you have a 30-60 day supply of the following: *WATER *CANNED FOOD/NUTS/PROTEIN BARS *PET FOOD *MEDICATIONS *BATTERIES *MATCHES *BLEACH *DISINFECTING WIPES *CASH *FIRST AID SUPPLIES 😜 books, toys, games! Let’s hope we get a handle on this current CV scare and our lives don’t become even more disrupted. Unfortunately things are looking to get much worse before they get better. This is a crucial time to get the facts, be prepared and make some healthy changes to boost up your immune system! Hopefully taking these precautions will keep you and your family safe from attack!. Stay safe! Pugs🐾and ”surgical masked”😷 kisses, katy & Olive |