Dear Editor,
I am a professional bodybuilder, personal trainer and nutrition consultant. I recently used my talents to win The Bahamas two more gold medals in the 2021 Central America and Caribbean Championships, and I am currently coaching over 50 persons on their path to better health. I am writing this letter in the hopes of helping our nation get out of this pandemic in a healthy, sustainable way.
People say that COVID-19 has a 99 percent survival rate, and we shouldn’t worry. This is dismissive, and although factual, is misleading. Every single person is different. We have different bodies, diets and activity levels. We work different jobs with different levels of stress. We even sleep differently. Because of these differences, we all have different “risk profiles”. This must all be acknowledged when discussing COVID.
- Editor’s note: The World Health Organization has confirmed that maintaining a healthy lifestyle alone does not guarantee protection from COVID-19, but that it is important to support immune systems.
Some of the biggest factors in someone’s life that can make them susceptible to COVID are: age, body fat percentage, fitness levels and sunlight exposure.
Now, we cannot change someone’s age, but we can change the other three factors.
Body fat percentage
In a study conducted in the UK with over 334,000 people, researchers found a direct correlation with hospitalization and BMI. Persons with a healthy BMI were hospitalized at a rate of 12 percent, and overweight persons were hospitalized at a rate of 42 percent.
Diet and exercise are the biggest controllable factors in determining body fat. We should eat a balanced diet of mostly proteins, some carbs and some fats. The foods that we eat should have a low glycemic index. With proper eating and 30 minutes of exercise a day, every Bahamian can enjoy a healthy BMI.
When hospitalized, those with a lower BMI suffered less severe symptoms and had a higher chance of survival. If the average survival rate is 99 percent, we can safely say that the average survival rate for persons with a healthy weight is 99.9 percent.
Body fat study: https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2020/08/10/2011086117.full.pdf
Fitness
We often think that skinny means healthy. This is not true. The type of calories you take into your body can matter more than the amount. Eating a #6 sandwich is much worse than eating a big plate of fish and grilled vegetables. The second may have more calories, but the first is laden with partially hydrogenated fats.
A study was conducted in China earlier this year to investigate the correlation between CONUT score and COVID mortality. They found that persons with a high CONUT score were on average 10 times more likely to experience adverse outcomes.
What is the CONUT score? It is based on serum albumin concentration, cholesterol level and lymphocyte count. We can lower it by staying properly hydrated — a gallon of water per day, eating real unprocessed foods and maintaining a healthy immune system by taking vitamins.
If you have a healthy BMI and a low CONUT score, you can increase your chance of survival from COVID to 99.99 percent.
Nutrition Study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33367467/
Sunlight exposure
One of the least talked about factors is Vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is unique because your body makes it using sunlight, similar to photosynthesis in plants.
A study was conducted in Europe in March of this year. Researchers found that persons with vitamin D deficiency were 50 times more likely to suffer the worse symptoms of COVID-19.
We should be taking at least 20 minutes of midday sunlight per day, broken up into increments. We think that this is no problem because we live in The Bahamas, but with COVID, many of us are staying inside to avoid spread. The good news is that if you want to socialize, being outside in the sun is the safest place to do it, with less than 10 percent of transmission occurring outdoors.
Vitamin D Study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33721102/
What can we conclude?
By eating well, exercising and going out in the sun, we can reduce our risk from COVID from less than one percent to less than 0.001 percent.
Collectively as a nation, we could decrease our hospitalizations from COVID — and, more importantly, deaths — from 600 to less than six if we all took care of our health.
As a personal trainer, as a nutrition consultant and, most importantly, as a Bahamian, I want to see our people beat this virus and future viruses that may come our way. So, let’s get healthy.
Wellington Wallace
- To have your letter to the editor published, email eyewitnessbahamas@gmail.com. Please note letters should be under 500 words and refrain from using profanity, slurs or otherwise offensive language.
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