The global pandemic caused by the new coronavirus looks likely to be entering a second wave worldwide. The North West of England has already been particularly hard hit.
As the list of Government advice and instructions grows ever longer and more confusing, it can be hard to know exactly what you need to do to make sure that you, your family and your community stay safe.
Sticking to the general rules about wearing masks and maintaining social distancing are the very basics, and by now everyone should be used to keeping up a strict regime of personal hygiene when it comes to washing and sanitising their hands.
However, with the number of infections rising and likely to hit even higher numbers, everybody must know what extra steps they can take to minimise the risks to themselves if they do end up catching COVID-19.
Eating well
Everyone knows that eating a healthy balanced diet improves the condition of your mind and body. One of the ways it does that is to boost the power of your immune system. That gives you a better chance of fighting off any infection or virus in the early stages before it can develop into something more serious.
Ditching the junk food and too many sweets and treats and replacing them with fresh fruit and vegetables sounds simple and straightforward, but often it isn’t that easy. That can be especially relevant when giving yourself the odd treat helps deal with stressful situations. The start of a global pandemic of a brand new disease is about as stress-inducing as problems come!
However, another critical factor to take into account is that being overweight does seem to increase the risks of having a bad reaction to a COVID-19 infection. People with a high BMI have been clinically shown to have worse outcomes in many cases. Even Prime Minister Boris Johnson blamed his weight for ending up in intensive care during the first wave of infections last Easter.
Losing weight to cut the risk
So it would seem that for anyone who has been thinking about losing weight, now is the right time to take action and to start to mean business.
Even the NHS has begun to get behind meal replacement diets to combat various conditions that would positively benefit from weight loss. It stands to reason that this approach would be a good idea for anyone looking to protect themselves from a worse-case scenario of the pandemic.
The Cambridge diet was the original name for the 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan, which is both a meal replacement regime as well as a one-to-one relationship between clients and medical Consultants.
Scientifically proven to encourage weight loss as shown by research published by the NHS and the British Medical Journal, a range of nutritionally balanced meal replacements offer tasty and enjoyable ways to shed the pounds.
By taking advantage of this type of modern approach to weight loss, you can take back control of your body and give yourself the best chance of fighting off the worst of any infection, including a virus such as Covid-19.
Vitamins
Another way that your overall diet affects the way that your body fights off a virus is by making sure that you have all the essential vitamins and minerals needed for your immune system to function at its best.
When you eat a healthy balanced diet, you should automatically be getting all you need in this regard. However, some things are not all sourced from food. In fact, Vitamin D, which specifically helps to guard against respiratory infections, comes from exposure to sunlight and is created by a natural process in the skin.
Some people become lacking in this vital bodily health aid for various reasons, and the main one is not getting enough sunlight. Most of the summer was spent ‘in lockdown’ with restrictions on being outside. Hence, it’s little wonder that many people are entering the time of year when the sunlight is less intense with a lower amount of Vitamin D in their bodies than usual.
Thankfully, you can top up your levels of this readily available and cheap vitamin very easily with a daily tablet. If you think you might need any type of supplements when it comes to vitamins or minerals, it’s always best to first check with your GP.
