yinzburgher wrote: ↑Tue Mar 17, 2020 1:44 am
BostonCharlie wrote: ↑Mon Mar 16, 2020 9:32 am
Judging by the empty shelves around here, Wal-Mart customers seem to hoard different things than Kroger customers.
For myself, I just bought some stock for the first time in years. I am not a trader, so I just dipped my toe into an S&P 500 index ETF. If it goes up, I can say I got the deal. If it goes down, I still have cash available to buy more -- it's a win-win in my imperfect human mind.
I am also trying to keep my immune system in good shape with good food,
good sleep, light exercise, vitamins and
low stress.
Stay healthy everybody!
I think you're on the right track BC. All of those things are great but it seems to me that the two highlighted ones are most important in a time like this. As many transplant recipients and people with autoimmune diseases already know, steroids such as prednisone or hydrocortisone can have a favorable immunosuppressive effect but unfortunately leave you immunocompromised and susceptible to infections as well. Consider what happens to a person that is under tremendous emotional or physical distress or is sleep-deprived. Cortisol levels go through the roof. It's not that different from taking mega doses of steroids which leave you more prone to infections. It's happened to every one of us. Too much work and not enough sleep and all of a sudden you come down with a cold or some other infection. My hope is that at age 79, Anthony Fauci is remembering this little bit of biology in the midst of long days involving numerous interviews with sometimes aggressive reporters.
Well said [mention]yinzburgher[/mention]. Thanks for bringing up these important points. Endorphins, produced from exercizing, lower cortisol level and help get your immune system back up (of course, folks on immunosuppressants or with autoimmune disorders need to be careful at all times).
Useful read:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying- ... g-to-relax
Research has shown we need at least 7-9 hours of sleep, more if you are young, to perform optimally. Most of us are sleep deprived, no matter how well we think we can do with less sleep. IIRC, there were studies showing people performing better on cognitive testing with more/adequate sleep even though they said they could do just as well with less. Our immune system is impacted by sleep deprivation as well. In clinical settings, this is one of the areas that is often undervalued and where I have found the need to come in and provide education to my patients/examinees.
Another useful read:
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/article ... eally-need
Sleep meds don't work for everybody. If you need help with sleep, try implementation of sleep hygiene:
https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/s ... giene.html
Also, can't stress enough about hand washing - much more effective than using sanitizers especially given what we are dealing with these days. Recent observations: People geling their hands before a meal vs washing their hands, and a mother pulling out some sort of wipes to clean the table and chairs, yet neglecting to tell her kids to wash their hands before using their bare hands to eat tacos. These are bad habits regardless of whether we are in a pandemic or not.
I might be preaching to the choir, but it's good to be reminded of such things. Getting off my soapbox now. Gosh, this coffee is strong...
