Dr. Ron returns to the show to focus on the topic on everyone’s minds these days, and provides an extremely compelling and fresh perspective about the true mechanisms for how the virus attacks the body and how you can greatly improve your chances of getting sick.
In short, your aerobic condition and your body composition are directly associated with your chances of getting sick, and how sick you get. But ― if you improve your aerobic conditioning and shed the inflammatory belly fat, aka visceral fat ― you greatly reduce your chances of trouble. Dr. Ron has promoted the connection between visceral fat and health for a long time, and now brings this topic into greater focus as we all strive to reduce the risk and spread of the highly contagious Covid-19. The reason why belly fat is relevant to Covid-19? “Because belly fat releases chemicals that cause your immune system to overreact ― which is what we’re trying to prevent with Covid-19,” says Dr. Ron.
We hear plenty of anxiety-producing content from mainstream news outlets, so why not listen to this self-described “eternal optimist” discuss how to get healthier, how society will adjust in many positive ways (including more teleworking to increase worker efficiency), and more telemedicine (which can provide further insights to the doctor about how you live your life at home). Dr. Ron’s goal is to simply take people out of “panic mode” and prepare them for the “long haul” that lies ahead, which is why he thinks it is imperative that we, “Stop looking at Covid as an infectious disease, and more as a lifestyle disease.”
Be sure to visit Dr. Ron’s highly informative site, culturalhealthsolutions.com, read the article when he affectionately calls the “Covesity” pandemic, and also download a free eBook titled, The Covid Survival Guide here. You can also listen to past Get Over Yourself episodes with Dr. Ron, like Aging Gracefully, Medicine and Mindset, and Avoiding Heart Attacks and Evolving Your Perspective On Healthy Eating.
TIMESTAMPS:
Introducing Dr. Ron, Brad mentions the new term “covesity” which is the association of the state of poor health during this time of COVID-19. [04:50]
Dr. Sinha talks about the benefits of telemedicine with patients. [07:51]
There are fewer medical appointments as people are sheltering in place. This worries Dr. Sinha. [09:02]
We’ve got to get out of the vision and thinking that COVID is basically exclusively an infectious disease. [10:06]
It all depends on your body and your mind and how you are going to respond to this. [14:06]
Brad asks Dr. Sinha whether we are making too much fuss about this. It’s about keeping your body healthy. [15:27]
If you have elevated belly fat versus fat in other areas, there is an increased risk factor for heart disease and cancer. [19:52]
Looking at the bloodwork can tell you about your risk factors. Vitamin D is also very important to look at. [25:30]
How are people getting taken down by this still since the shelter in place started? [28:57]
You can be asymptomatic and be a carrier. There is still a lot of potential to spread. [31:48]
Brad asks the doctor if his medical training included anything this severe as a pandemic. [34:16]
Learning diaphragmatic breathing makes a huge difference. [35:22]
Overall, it looks like physical activity is increasing during this time. [38:38]
Micro workouts are a great breakthrough in the fitness industry. [40:20]
It’s not just standing up and getting into that but having variation throughout the workday. [43:58]
Get moving. It is important to move every 30 to 40 minutes. [45:38]
Maybe we can expect the corporate world to learn some healthy lessons during this COVID 19 sheltering experience. [48:20]
Around the 40 to 45-minute mark of sitting, we start to produce inflammatory cytokines. [50:07]
The viral load versus the cytokine load is what causes the body to attack itself and you get taken down. [53:28]
LINKS:
QUOTES:
- “People still don’t have a good sense of what six feet is – and six feet is actually the minimum. And the longer people go without issues, they can start to get more lackadaisical about this stuff.”
- “I’m really trying to teach people how to breathe better.”
- “I tell my patients: run with the mask on because it’s almost like high altitude training.”
- “Individuals that are really physically fit and aerobically fit have more tolerance for sitting longer. It makes sense because their mitochondria are burning fuel even while they’re at rest.
LISTEN:
Get Over Yourself Podcast
Brad (04:50):
Ron Sinha is back on the show. I love catching up with this guy. We had a great show. Go listen to that one earlier about all manner of healthy living, especially his area of particular interest, which is stavin’ off that belly fat, that visceral fat that has so many adverse health consequences and promotes systemic inflammation. Gee, why is that of importance and interest right now? It’s because we’re dealing with a Covesity pandemic. That’s what dr Ron calls it. Covesity because he’s highlighting the association with having a poor state of health and your vulnerability to the pandemic, the covert 19, uh, in particular having conditions like diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure sets off a chain reaction of bad stuff happening in your body where you essentially attack yourself due to the overactivity of these special molecules called cytokines, inflammatory cytokines that are produced by the belly fat.
Brad (05:55):
So man, this guy has been fighting the battle to try to get uh, high, uh, technology workers in the Silicon Valley healthy and active for many years and now people are paying especially close attention because your level of aerobic conditioning and your absence of disease risk factors in your bloodstream are directly associative with your risk of contracting the horrible pandemic illness here. And you know what’s great about listening to Dr Ron, he calls himself an eternal optimist and you’ll hear this come through so many times in the interview that he’s always putting a positive spin on things and a hopeful outlook for the future. I love it because it counters so well the excess of anxiety producing material that we see in mainstream media. Because we know that’s what catches people and hooks people in. He’s giving a very reasonable, sensible approach to this thing and also highlighting the importance of getting outside into the fresh air, the open space and sunshine to make some vitamin D, which also helps with your immune response to potential pathogens like the COVID 19 and especially getting that aerobic conditioning going.
Brad (07:08):
It’s going to be a really nice, refreshing, positive, uplifting show that will motivate you to stay active, get moving, watch that accumulation of belly fat. It’s a slippery slope. Once you get a little belly fat, you have a propensity to add more because of the inflammatory nature of it. Dr Ron Sinha. I joined him over at culturalhealthsolutions.com and download his free ebook about surviving the Covesity pandemic and a great article about training for the Covesity pandemic. Oh, what a great show. Enjoy lots to talk about it
Brad (07:43):
Dr Ron, I’m sure you’re, you’re keeping busy there and it seems like, uh, you’ve been preoccupied with the COVID19 pandemic.
Dr. Sinha (07:51):
Absolutely. It is. Definitely. It’s actually, in many ways, it’s fast forwarded us into the modern era of medicine because we’re, we’re at a large medical group called Sutter health, which you probably know being in the Bay area and we’ve been meeting to scale out telemedicine for a long time and as a result of the pandemic, all of a sudden we went from zero to 60 in no time at all. Um, but yeah. Yeah, I mean I think every business, every industry is having to figure out different ways of kind of launching itself. So that’s been an interesting time.
Brad (08:20):
Do we have some benefits with telemedicine in terms of the interactions and
Dr. Sinha (08:25):
Oh yeah. You know, the benefit actually has been, as much as I like live interactions, I’ve actually been able to get snapshots into people’s homes and their lives. So literally like last week somebody was having breakfast while I was actually interviewing them, um, for, for a visit. And I was seeing what they were eating and you would’ve thought that would have put their best game face on, but that was not the case. So I met a couple of recommendations there. And then also a lot of posture evaluations. I’ve actually had folks take me to their fridge and their pantry. So, so those have been the additional benefits is actually getting a snapshot of their home life, which you don’t get to do when you’re in a sterile exam room. So
Brad (09:02):
what’s amazing to me is to find out that a business is slower. My, my friend works in urgent care facility, my sister’s in the, in the medical scene and it’s like, well, wait a second. All of a sudden, uh, people’s stomach thing, aches aren’t as bad or they’re, they’re going to be okay with that. That, uh, that sprained finger. It’s kind of strange that, um, we’re, we’re recalibrating,
Dr. Sinha (09:26):
how’s it, you’re right bread. I’m worried about the people that have chest pain usually are like, you know, heart disease and like what’s happening. And w I think we have a lot of pent up medical issues that are not getting taken care of. Um, so I think the flood gates, but I think things are going to get busier really quick. But at the same time, Brad, I think that there are a lot of people that have issues that probably could be managed. I think people are thinking twice about coming in. In some ways that’s not a bad thing because maybe a lot of these things are resolving on their own. But we are worried about our chronic sick ill people that probably need more immediate care. So you know, we’ll have to cease for what walks through the door and once this period’s over war, transitioning back to elective operations and things are I think are going to start getting busier.
Brad (10:06):
Well, at Cultural Health Solutions, one of the best websites on the internet, you’re talking about some stuff that seems to be absent from the mainstream media blabber and it’s very interesting to me and I’d like to focus the show on some of these things because all we’re hearing about is make sure you wear your mask and wash your hands. And there’s a whole nother element to the disease process of this thing that we’re so scared about and it’s knocking people down. And you know, let’s, let’s get a little big picture here. Talk about that, uh, article training for the Covesity Oh yeah. You called it Covesity talk. Talk about that term. And uh, did you already trademark it? Do you have T-shirts coming out? Bumper stickers, mugs? I don’t know.
Dr. Sinha (10:48):
I got a tattoo so I’m pretty happy with this. So yeah, no, I mean basically at a very high level, Brad I mean what I’m telling people on talks, um, I get a lot of talks in Silicon Valley giving a lot of talks with the community and I’m telling people we’ve got to get out of the vision and thinking that COVID is basically exclusively an infectious disease. We have to start looking at it as a lifestyle disease. So typically you’re right, the last few months we’ve been obsessed with the, what I call the external borrower load. Like is COVID going to get me, I tell people this is like a game of chase. Basically. We’ve been sort of hiding from the enemy for this time, but at some point we’re gonna have to reinstall the rant to the real world and many of these are going to be exposed to COVID19.
Dr. Sinha (11:26):
So now the game switches from catch me, you can say, okay, now you caught me. Am I going to live or am I going to die? Not to be that black and white, but you know we have to fortify our internal bodies now and not be obsessive about the external world because that creates a lot of panic and anxiety. I literally had to tell a video visit with a couple of patients last week and even though they’re sheltered in at home, they’re not even stepping outside into the backyard or their streets cause they have this vision that the virus is everywhere. You can kind of imagine. Cause when you see those heat maps, you know those crazy heat maps that were coming out with these red circles wiving all of the world. A lot of laypeople think that the virus is literally everywhere, you know?
Dr. Sinha (12:03):
So, so I’m trying to take people out of that panic mode and saying, yes, you still got to wash your hands. You got to wear the mask, you got to do basic things. But now this is going to be a long haul here. So we’ve got to actually manage that internal load because really whether you survive and thrive, that’s going to depend on how your immune system reacts to this thing. So, so that training to the COVID 19, my approach is I taught people and you know, this kind of elite athlete yourself, um, is treat this like a half marathon or a five K. This is an event that we need to train our bodies and minds for because when we are unleashed back into civilization, we’ve got gotta be ready to do this thing.
Brad (12:40):
And also help me understand the, the idea of the, the viral load out there. Um, my, my notion of the winter season and the common cold is that it’s everywhere, right? Every door handle, every gas pump that you touch and you’re going to catch a cold if you get run down. I tell my kids it’s sugar and sleep, man. Which one did you fall apart on when, whenever they have a cold, that would be my comeback. Like, okay, let’s talk about your last 24 hours. Um, is that an accurate notion that this stuff is, uh, indeed easy to find? And it lives on this surface for this long and that long. But you might not get it if you’re strong and healthy or if you get exposed and someone sneezes on you, are you screwed no matter what?
Dr. Sinha (13:24):
No, absolutely not. And that’s why we have risk categories and criteria. I think a lot of the initial focus was on age, you know, looking at age and then it’s kind of the common underlying things that you think about if you’re in a compromised, if you’ve got chronic health conditions, just like the flu, you’re going to be more hit by this. But now what we’re really finding with emerging data is yes, those things still matter. But it is other more insidious things like having a little bit of extra fat around the belly, which is why termed the word Covesity. And in the old days, if you had a couple of extra inches around your waist, maybe that elevates your risk of having a flu infection. But this thing is really different. And that’s why you’re seeing on the news, just really scary things about young people in their thirties, forties having severe infections worldwide.
Dr. Sinha (14:06):
So that response, when your immune system overreacts to that, you know, handle that you touch that might have COVID 19 on it. When your immune system overreacts, it can really cause what’s called that cytokine storm. It can cause so much damage to the internal body. And that can happen with any infection. With COVID 19 it’s a little bit different than you with typical flu. So, so, so you’re right, it all depends on your body, your mind in terms of how you’re going to respond to this. And you know, a lot of my patients tell me said, Oh my God, I’m aged 50 on age 60 does that mean this is a death sentence? But I tell them that, you know, I look at you Brad. You’re an amazing looking, I’m not gonna say your age publicly unless you’ve been public about it. But
Brad (14:45):
baby, I’m in the 55 to 59 division. So I’m, I’m always going to be proud of my age as long as I’m competing. And get it. Getting older is only making it easier that the standards go down. You can, you can relax a little bit. Yeah.
Dr. Sinha (14:59):
But you know, as we know, it’s not really chronological age. It’s really biological age. I, you’re 55, but you look better than 98% of my 35 year old engineers that sit in front of the computer all day. They’re eating all the crap. So literally I’m more worried if they were exposed to COVID 19 versus somebody like you who does everything right. So I think instead of being fixated on, Oh my God, I’m 70, I’m 75 and whatever, it’s like, let’s try to fix that biologically by really attacking these inflammatory facts.
Brad (15:27):
Well, that brings up a, a knee jerk question for me, which is, you know, the social distancing, a lot of people are getting sick of it. I feel like there’s going to be like a revolt in society pretty soon, where the skaters are going to go back to the skate park and whatever else is going to kind of, you know, we’re gonna we’re going to leak out of this, uh, tremendous effort that the governor of California and the other States and the leaders are having us do, uh, especially because of the economic pressures and so forth. But, um, what’s, what’s your take on that? We could, um, we could, we could, we could pause the recording if it’s going to be like Dr Ron secret thing. This is all nonsense, but I’m wondering if you’re a sensitive, vulnerable person and there’s a global pandemic, it’s probably a great idea to isolate yourself, uh, and so on and so forth, but a healthy individual, um, what, what kind of risk are we looking at and is this a bit of overkill or is this the way that we have to do it?
Dr. Sinha (16:23):
Yeah, you know what, when it comes to public health issues like this, it is so hard to get it exactly right. I mean if you overreact, people are going to criticize you, but nobody’s going to know how many bodies you save, right? I mean the fact that you know, a lot of people are criticizing Governor Newsom right now. There’s no back count saying that he might’ve saved thousands of lives. He might have saved my mother, my grandmother, he’s never going to get credit for that. Right? If you under call this and underreact, then you get blamed like New York, like you didn’t do enough. So this is a thankless situation. So when we turn the spigot back on, we send people out there. There’s going to be a lot of unpredictable things that are happening, but I think we have to see the worst. We have to be cautious, but you know there’s going to be no right way to do this.
Dr. Sinha (17:01):
But you’re absolutely right that if you’ve got, if you’re at the age, you’ve got compromising conditions, you want to be extra, extra safe. If you’re young and healthy, you want to be reckless because as we know, I could be a carrier to my mom or somebody else said have exposed in the clinic or in the grocery store. So I think we can start losing the handles a little bit. But we still have to follow the basic precautions and the businesses were going to be set up like that to make sure we’ve got distanced precautions and things like that. You know, as parents we’re worried cause our kids are going to be back in high school, you know, and there’s no way all these rules are going to be enforced in a school type environment. But, but like I said, that’s why it comes back. There’s so many different variables out there. We got to come back to our base, which is how do we take care of our body and mind better so we’re not going to really react to this unpredictable environment that we’re living in.
Brad (17:46):
Uh, why do you think, uh, it, it seems to be discounted in the mainstream media commentary about this? Unless I’m, I’m trying not to pay much attention. I limit myself to like, you know, one article a day or something and then then check out, know what I gotta know and move on. But it seems to me there’s this huge void and they’re only looking at viral load instead of the other factors that you write about and what we’ll talk about in a sec.
Dr. Sinha (18:11):
Yeah. You know, the good news is since I wrote the first article that could be sued a few weeks ago now there is emergence happening where people are starting to treat this like it’s heart disease or diabetes. So I think it’s slowly starting to happen. But I think, Brad, the big challenge is, is that even the mainstream medical community, the linkage between lifestyle immunity is not something that was emphasized in medical training. So just knowing that, uh, you know, emotional stress has such a significant impact on our immune system, but staying up late at night and checking out the latest COVID 19 in the morning is going to impact my immune system, not sleeping properly. But now what I’m doing in talks is, um, you know, we’ve been talking this talk for a long time Brad, but now we’re finding very specific data. So I’ll give you one example.
Dr. Sinha (18:53):
Melatonin, we all know this is our hormone that lets us sleep at night time. And so a lot of people know that, okay, I shouldn’t be looking at blue lights because it’s not good for my sleep. But now we know that melatonin specifically has an impact on shutting down the inflammation that comes from COVID 19 it literally inhibits the exact enzyme. There’s an alarm sensor inside our cells and it’s called NLRP3 inflammasome. And that’s literally the sensor switch that turns up inflammation ourselves. And melatonin is like a garden hose. It teems down that alarm sensor. So now we’re finding specific mechanisms. So literally if you’re up late at night looking at blue light, this is not no longer about longterm fatigue. We’re actually compromising your immune system and the specific COVID 19 pathways. So I’m trying to highlight that specificity because in my work I find that if I tell people, well, sleep’s good for inflammation, it’s good for overall health. Now we’ve got a disease here, which is not about 10 year heart disease risk. It’s about 10 days, maybe three months risk. So we’ve got to start making these changes right away.
Brad (19:52):
Dang, this is time for Dr. Ron to taut. I mean, you’ve been talking your game for decades, trying so hard to change lifestyles with your patients and now it’s like he’s swooping in for the kill now. You can’t eat that cereal anymore, my friend. You’re going to get COVID . Okay. So just to, just to dummy down for the, uh, the dummy listener category, if, if some dude sneezes on me when I’m, when I’m getting groceries and I come home and, and go to sleep and then do my aerobic activity the next day and eat healthy, low insulin-simulating foods and all that, uh, I am improving my odds markedly rather than rather than being screwed just because the virus has hit me
Dr. Sinha (20:33):
markedly. I mean, when you look at the risk and conditions, it literally, and you’re right, this happens to be my sweet spot, but literally the three conditions come down to diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure. And these are really lifestyle related conditions though. There’s three major risk factors. So for example, the belly fat, I think a lot of people are now aware of, there’s been a lot of science around when you’ve got elevated belly fat versus fat and other areas. That’s the increased risk factor for heart disease and cancer. But the reason this is relevant to COVID 19 is because the belly fat releases a types of chemicals that caused your immune system to overreact. And that’s really what we’re trying to prevent with Copa dine teens. So all of these mechanisms are really aligned right directly with what COVID 19 does. Yeah.
Brad (21:17):
Uh, so there’s obesity and then there’s the, um, we call it the skinny fat or you have other terms for that. And that’s pretty much, uh, a much larger segment of the population is vulnerable to this, uh, condition where we’re carrying too much visceral fat. Even if we, uh, look okay in our, in our jogging clothes at the, at the gym. And so let’s, let’s, um, take a, take a breath a little bit from the obsession with the virus and talk about how to stave off this, this belly fat, especially as we age. Cause I know it seems to be easier to accumulate, um, just from just from getting older. Uh, when I compare like my dietary habits to my son’s, he eats anything in sight all day long and he ain’t got no belly fat. So what’s going on there and why, why is it, um, why is it such a risk factor too?
Dr. Sinha (22:07):
Yeah, I mean, so, so if we step back for a second, so I don’t keep using words like inflammation and viral load. So let’s just step back and think about the fact that when the virus entrusts our bodies, so that’s the external factor, right? And what we’re trying to do is we want to tame our immune system. Now we want our immune system to be a precision strike force where it’s not going to cost any friendly fires. So we definitely want to bring down that firewood with our immune system, but we don’t want it to shoot down our own cells. That’s really what we’re trying to do. And so when the way you want to think about this, there are these small chemicals called cytokines are chemical messengers are part of our immune system. And when you have an excess amount of cytokines, that’s when the damage to yourself happens.
Dr. Sinha (22:46):
But you want to produce some cytokines cause that’s going to keep your viral load suppressed. So what I’m telling people is let’s say today, hopefully I haven’t had any COVID 19 viral load, but if I already have extra belly fat or from eating processed foods, I’m causing cytokines to become inflamed. So if you think of that cell, we being in the barrier, very familiar with the concept of wildfires. So now we’ve got dry kindling and we’ve got flickering flames before. We’ve even been infected by COVID 19. So we have to make sure that we’re not creating a flammable environment for the virus. And that flammable environment comes from extra belly fat. It comes from extra sugar, extra processed foods. Um, you mentioned, you know, obviously you know, I’ve got teenage boys too and they can eat anything they want, you know, con any belly fat, but that’s because they’re going through puberty.
Dr. Sinha (23:31):
They’re still wrong vertically. A lot of the calories are going towards growth. We’re done growing vertically, man, we’re just going to keep growing out. We’re trying to be really careful about what we’re sort of taking into the body. But um, the ethnic differences are very profound because in Asians and other cultures, um, it takes very little of that belly fat to really cause issues. In African Americans we are seeing devastating disease and part of that is insulin resistance because there is timelines to diabetes in the African American population, but also in African Americans, high blood pressure has much more significant risk factors for heart disease. And that aging tends to, in blood pressure mechanism in African Americans is much more aggressive. So they’re really becoming more susceptible. Nobody knows exact mechanism, but again, these same risk factors for heart disease are getting amplified in the presence of COVID 19.
Dr. Sinha (24:19):
So we’ve got to be really careful. Now, I got to tell you, once I gave these talks, I’ve had women and readers reach out to me saying, Oh my God, does that mean any belly fat is going to put me at risk and I just want to be clear that I don’t want people to become paranoid. It’s not like everybody needs to have a six pack literally to stave off this disease, but some of us, even if we lose it eight to 10 pounds or a few inches off the belly, we can significantly lower inflammation and some of the signs that you might have, inflammatory belly fat can be seen in your labs. For example, if you’ve had a history for diabetes or elevated blood sugar, your belly fat is probably more inflammatory. If your cholesterol profile shows that you’ve had high triglycerides or local healthy cholesterol, your belly fat is probably more inflammatory.
Dr. Sinha (25:02):
If you’ve had a condition which is really common called fatty liver, most likely that extra belly fat is inflammatory. Now, let’s say you don’t have any of those conditions and you’re physically fit, you’re eating healthy, but you’ve still got some extra fat around the belly. It’s probably not as inflammatory. So I don’t want you to think that you’ve got to trim that every last student because otherwise we’re going to create that fear internally around them. So I know I went off on that, but I just want to make that clear cause a lot of people get wholly concerned about their all their mass around their belly.
Brad (25:30):
So besides, um, looking at our, um, our, our, our clothing size, our profile on the mirror, we can get some uh, blood work to, uh, represent a relative risk. And I know that, um, you like to talk about triglycerides, HDL, you want your triglycerides under a hundred. The, the main, uh, the common notion we see as under 150. So, um, are those kind of your big ones and in terms of priorities, if someone’s looking at their blood work?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yeah, so, so definitely talk to your doctor. Those are standard labs you should be checking now in some cases, especially if you’ve got the diabetes or other risk factors. There’s a test called the C reactive protein HSC reactor protein, which is a marker for inflammation. And I thought a lot of patients even before COVID that when they have insulin resistance and extra belly fat, their C reactive proteins are really high. The minute we modify their diet and they lose a couple inches, that number drops down like a rock. So that might be something to check, but I don’t check it in everyone. But in people that have those metabolic risk to see in protein can be really useful. Another one too that I see quite a bit of is vitamin D deficiency because you know people that have extra belly fat or body fat, it acts like a pool would traps Vitamin D. So it’s not actually releasing the bloodstream. It’s not as biologically.
Dr. Sinha (26:43):
And vitamin D has profound impacts on immune system health. It can be a real immune system boost for, so you know, we want to make sure we’re okay with that and in a shelter environment. So this is something else I’m seeing, Brad, winter, heart hibernation, a lot of people see indoors already, but usually January or February people are outdoors. But now people have been indoors for several months and when they are checking their vitamin D levels, they’re like single digit down to the 9, 10, 11 range that is not good for optimal health. And vitamin D also does play a role with COVID 19 specifically receptor function. So it’s all those things we want to be aware of. Now a lot of people are very scared about going to the doctor’s clinic. Many of my patients are overdue on blood tests, but all standard clinics are doing very safe distance precautions. Like in our labs, it’s safer to get your blood drawn to than to pick up, you know, apples at the grocery store right now. So, so you know, getting, you got to make sure you’re getting your numbers check regularly during this time, don’t just let it go to waste basically. And one number that people are not getting paying attention to is their waistline because everyone’s living in working from home. So people aren’t people just living in pajamas and stretchy pants, so they don’t realize that
Brad (27:48):
with a refrigerator within 17 feet of their workspace for the first time ever.
Dr. Sinha (27:54):
Right. It’s a big problem. Yeah.
Brad (27:56):
Well the vitamin D by far, the best source of it is sunlight. And you’re talking about how now we’re challenged, it sounds like, um, uh, Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti did not consult with you when he closed the beaches and hiking trails and I was sort of again, knee jerk not knowing the science or anything. It seemed like we should be encouraged to get outdoors and, and get more sunlight and get more fresh air and open space to boost health, boost immunity. Um, but again, I think we’re maybe that, um, you know, that overreaction or that, uh, that conservative approach here is maybe something to be revisited now, especially when now we can make a lot of vitamin D it’s getting warm.
Dr. Sinha (28:34):
Oh, absolutely. And the thing is, you know, we don’t have to go to a crowded beach to get it cause you’ve known, you know, I can be my backyard with my first off and get it right. Like I said, some of my patients are not even walking down the street because they’re afraid of virus. But I’m like, in the meantime, your vitamin D levels are plummeting, you know, and you’re not getting any physical activity. And like I said, when you transitioned back to work or in the outside world, you are not going to be in shape for the COVID 19 team. You know, that’s where I’m really concerned about.
Brad (28:57):
So if we’ve been doing social distancing here, uh, probably everywhere and you’re listening to the show, you’re subject to this around the world and, um, it’s been going on now for a couple months. Uh, what are these, uh, what are these new cases representing? How are people still getting taken down if the risk has been so tremendously diminished since the NBA basketball season when you’re going to Oracle arena with 17,000 people and then touching how many door handles and urinal stalls and whatever else.
Dr. Sinha (29:29):
Yup, yup. Absolutely. I mean, the thing is the social distancing was really done as an accommodation that healthcare systems. So we would not be overwhelmed with, you know, mounds of cases, volumes of case, cause if we’re going to overwhelm the system, but really social distancing wasn’t really done to necessarily eradicate the disease itself. The virus has its own lifeline unfortunately. So this is more of a longterm process. But if we can spread that out evenly so we’re not overwhelming hospitals in the healthcare system, then we can sort of manage it more. Kind of like we manage the flu rather than the tremendous spikes that we saw in Italy and other parts of the world. Um, but yeah, I mean that’s pretty scary to see. But like I said, as we open things up, you’re right, it was trying to predict where are the spikes going to happen. It’s very tough to tell, but we just have to be ready for anything at this point, you know, so, you know, we gotta take better care of ourselves, but luckily, at least in California, we do have capacity and that’s what we’ve worked towards. So if we see something happen, we’ve got the capacity to handle that and we hope that will happen. Other parts of the country as well too.
Brad (30:30):
So how are people getting it right now when there’s so much precaution and social distancing going on? Is it still out there on the, uh, on the handle, on the shopping cart that you wiped off but you only spent five seconds instead of 12, and then you’re vulnerable and you get hit?
Dr. Sinha (30:47):
That’s exactly right because, and this is imperfect, right? Because as much as there are people, I’ll be honest with you, I mean now that people are starting to hang out apart and stuff, it’s interesting. Even when I’ve gone out to our hiking trails, we’ve got a high control back here. People still don’t have a good sense of what six feet is. I rarely see people standing and walking six feet apart. They really don’t. And six feet is actually the minimum when you look it up in all the studies, probably more like eight to 10 feet. So if that’s the thing is, is the longer people go without getting issues, they can start getting bit lackadaisical on this stuff. And all of a sudden I’m starting to see some people at the parks, which is fine. Like we said, we want to get people out there, but you know, the level of comfort sometimes can be a little bit too close and then all of a sudden you see these things. So that’s where we have to be really careful. Your question there is, are still out there. It hasn’t been eradicated and it just takes literally, as you know, when a lot of these cases, you can take one person walking into a bar and all of a sudden you have 20, 25 people or in some public place, you know, because it’s so incredibly contagious. That’s really what’s different about this.
Brad (31:48):
And we have some, uh, unknowing. It’s potential to be an unknowing carrier because you have no symptoms that may be, this extends out for weeks where you’re carrying it around and you feel fine or what’s, is there a timeframe there? Right, right.
Dr. Sinha (32:01):
I mean, that’s the key thing is you can be an asymptomatic carrier for a few weeks, right? A couple of weeks until your new system suppresses it. And you know, that’s why kids, I mean, thank God, you know, knock on wood, thank God. Or young kids are not affected, you know, like, um, other types of infections. But unfortunately they can be little snotty carriers or this or other snotty. They can be perfectly fine and still carrying this. So, so I think that’s really what makes it such a difficult condition. And as we know, and I, I can’t say that I would have been the same, but teenagers, you know, the younger ones, they do feel more, you know, invincible with this. So they feel like it’s not a big deal. You know, at that age, it’s tough to expect that a teenagers are gonna be completely conscientious and manage public health the way we’d expect them to. So, so that’s why there’s still a lot of potential for spread that we have to be aware of.
Brad (32:44):
It’s, so how do you envision the future? If you were a named Governor tomorrow, what kind of steps would you take and you know, predictions would you make about how things are gonna play out? Are the kids going to go back to college next fall? Um, are we gonna lock down the, not to sound crass, but are, you know, are we going to lock down, uh, those with high blood pressure, obesity and um, and the, the risk factors for their own safety and so forth.
Dr. Sinha (33:12):
Yeah, this is a tough mean. I’m glad I’m not the Governor. I’ll say that first of all, but, but the thing is, the more time that goes by, the good news is we are getting more data back not too, so we are able to make more informed decisions. As you know, the economy just cannot go along at this rate anymore. I mean the economy is tanking right now. So we, you know, we, that’s why we are transitioning back selectively to certain businesses and all you can do is gradually release pressure valve and then measure, release, depression, develop and measure. And hopefully you have some sort of, you know, gradual return back to some semblance of normalcy. The blood works and the antibody tests, we’re still on that gray zone. We don’t know how to make any determinations based on this. And this is what’s happening is in the beginning we’re probably too slow. We were too slow with diagnostic tests, but now we’ve kind of gone the other way where all types of tests are being released. We don’t know what the accuracy and implications of that is, but is that data gets better in testing becomes more readily accessible and reliable. I think,, Brad will be able to make informed more informed decisions over the next few months in terms of the right transition back to some semblance of normalcy
Brad (34:16):
for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean you probably, I don’t know, did you ever kind of imagine this or receive training in, in, in medicine? Uh, for the, the, the idea that we could have a pandemic someday. I mean we’ve had them in the past.
Dr. Sinha (34:33):
Yeah, we read about pandemics, but no, we did not receive any specific pandemic type training. Some people have done fellowships, obviously in areas where that’s covered. But yeah, most of us coming out of this so we know how to take care of ill people. You know, we know how to take care of sick people with severe lung infections, but with the amount of scale and intensive this disease, this has taken everyone by surprise. So it’s, it’s quite a shocker. And you know, one of the thing, I know I’ve talked a lot about immune system function, but the other thing too, which will be close to your heart literally, is this concept of aerobic fitness is more important than ever. Because you know what I’m really teaching to folks right now is you know, this infection of primary target studies, you know, is deluxe and literally when it hits the lungs, when you talk to people that have gone through this, they literally describe this as either being dragged under water or being dropped on top of Everest and being asked to run marathon.
Dr. Sinha (35:22):
I mean, you are feeling suffocated and breathless when you get this infection and it’s because of that mass inflammation that happens in the lungs. All this fluid accumulates. So rather than feel like a victim of that, cause I know it’s a scary image. I tell people, this is where you have to train your aerobic because if your aerobic system is not fraying, literally what happens is the minute you start getting a bit short of breath, your body releases inflammation and cytokines like you wouldn’t believe. Cause Brad, the greatest minds work physical body is if I were to put a bag over his head and I made you stop breathing right? Automatically you’re gonna get panicked. So I’ve got to tell you one hack I’ve been teaching people, people always complain about having to put the 95 of the medical mask on. You’re like I don’t want to run with a mask.
Dr. Sinha (36:01):
And I’m like no, run with the mask on. Cause it’s almost like doing a mild version of high altitude training. And I’ve actually had many of my patients who have no mask tolerance at all. Now they can walk to the grocery store, they can go for a hike or light jog. And I’m saying, you know what? You’re actually doing these reps really elevating your RPC mass and you’re actually improving your report performance. And that’s a good thing because if this infection hits your lungs a little bit, your body’s going to be in better shape, actually manage them. So now people are very consulted to aerobics in a proper way. I mean actually had, I was going to bring him with me, I’ve had a high altitude training mass for one time cause I’ve always been a robotically challenged and that was a game changer for me was just to use that mask and do hardcore party or do longer things. And now that’s coming in handy. I can run a neighbor, I don’t look like a freak anymore. People are like, wow, where’d you get that? Now you can’t find them on Amazon. They’re all sold out. You can’t find a single high altitude training mask at all. But, but this is one opportunity for us to really build up that aerobic base. And that’s, that’s your sweet spot. And I’m not, I’ve learned a lot from you about it. A little bit training and I think it’s really coming in handy during this time.
Brad (37:02):
Oh my gosh, that’s funny. We probably had the very earliest versions of altitude training simulators in high school. We bought these backpack things and they were pretty cumbersome and they filled with these rock chemicals and the mask came in and so you breathe it and it’s supposedly extracted enough oxygen. So it was like training at 7,500 feet elevation and we put those things on and just suffer. And you know, you’d be jogging down the street with a very low intensity workout, low impact, but it was just brutal. And you wanted to rip that thing off and Oh man, I didn’t know. I didn’t know they had simple ones nowadays.
Dr. Sinha (37:36):
Yeah, I don’t think it’s as intense as what yours is. And I think mine’s is kind of a woodsy version compared to what you were wearing, but it still makes a big, big difference. And you know, most of us really, so. So the other part, you know, when we talk about fitness, obviously if there’s aerobic aspect, but I’m really trying to teach people how to breathe better. The breathing makes a big, big difference because as we get more anxious, we’re all breathing in the upper lungs zones right now. And many people have never even touched or massage that dire before that diaphragmatic breathing either at rest or when the exercise. So just getting people to breathe more normally through emotional stress and even when they exercise, it’s a huge lesson. You know, and some of my patients that I’m following up with that are doing some of this stuff, they’ve been running forever and now they’re like, Oh my God, I feel like a different person because now I’m able to engage the diaphragm and preset lung. So circulation. So again, I’m always, I try to be an optimist to this. I think people are learning techniques and lessons or taking their exercise to a level that they’ve never had been before, which will not only serve them well in this pandemic environment, it’s going to serve them all their lives. Because this is something we all want to be able to do.
Brad (38:38):
I love that optimism about the COVID 19 and I did a show talking about, you know, trying to look at the positive aspects of this. We we’ve heard enough complaining and fear and anxiety and you know, I’m reporting like, uh, I’m basically my, my biggest challenge right now is I’m getting overtrained because I have so many implements and stretch tubes and minivans and straps on my pull up bar and my lift bar. It’s always there available for me cause I’m at home and I had like overdoing it. I got to sit back and just, you know,
Dr. Sinha (39:09):
you’re so right. But you know, that’s another, that’s been another side benefit is, is you probably have to, I have a lot of patients that are completely dependent on gyms. Like they cannot lift anything unless it’s attached to 45 pound plates. And now I’m finally telling them, let’s work on some functionals strengths. So you’re right, I’ve been prescribing bands more climb metrics because as you know, when it comes to aging, it’s not how much you can necessarily dead lift. It’s really more about power. It’s like how functional are you? How fast can you move your own body weight? And these are concepts a lot of my patients have never been familiar with and now that they’re being able to do this, they feel amazing. They’re like, I’ve got an extra spring in my step now. Now I feel bad because I think gyms probably will not be as busy just because of worries about our load, but also because people are becoming more independent.
Dr. Sinha (39:53):
Realizing that fitness is something that can be integrated into their bedroom, into their office, in the parking lot. And that’s also the message you and I have been preaching all along is this should not be in a weekend warrior pursuit or something you just do for 30 minutes on elliptical, then you sit for 12 hours at a time. But that’s a great lesson. I’m seeing people walking in the neighborhood. I didn’t know they lived down the street from me, like people are coming out of the woodwork right now. So I love seeing that overall physical activity in most cases going up. I think that’s a good thing for everyone.
Brad (40:20):
Yeah, I’m pretty excited about this concept of micro workouts and I’m calling it the greatest breakthrough in the fitness industry in decades. Uh, the idea that, you know, you just haul off a set of pull-ups and it takes you one minute or do some mini bands up and down the hall and then go back to work. And it seems to me, especially at my age and trying to recover, you know, when I go do those prolonged strenuous workouts at a gym or doing it myself, um, there’s a recovery aspect. There’s a risk of overdoing it. And then there’s that compensation theory they call it, where because I did my kick ass 6:00 AM spinning class, I’m going to be more lazy throughout the day. So I feel like this is a way to kind of override a lot of the risks and drawbacks. This secret, an untold secrets of the fitness industry that even those people that get in there and put their butt on the seat at 6:00 AM, there’s all kinds of other risk factors even directly associated with that, especially when it’s too strenuous.
Dr. Sinha (41:17):
That’s so true. And you know, w one wait, I’ve been kind of teaching people about this is so, you know, when I basically wrote my recent blog post, I’ve been teaching people how do you work in positions that are different than where you work in already? Like literally I’ve got, you know, I love the word micro workouts or some people call this exercise snacking, you know, where you’re just snacking exercise throughout the day. So I literally am teaching people you need to develop your own exercise pantry and you need to have a list of 15 or 20 different exercises that you can do while you’re working. Like, um, focus on your target areas. For me it’s hand Springs and hips. Those tighten up a lot. So, you know, even if it was my standup workstation off and have my leg up on an elevated surface, so my, my hamstrings are getting loose.
Dr. Sinha (41:57):
I’ll open up my hips while I’m taking calls and my goal is usually in the evenings I go for like a five or six mile hike with a couple of buddies where we’re, we’ve got a whole routine when we’re socially distanced. And if I do this right, I should not be sore by the end of the workday. I should feel like a robot. I should feel like I’m pretty much warmed up. I can go for a run or a hike with no problems at all. And that’s been a big thing because most of my patients, they’re sitting all day, then they get to the gym and they’re already sore and stiff and they’re just all set up for injury. Right? But you want to keep those joints loose. Do you want to keep that circulation moving throughout the day while you’re getting work done? And then if you want to go after a sprint or something, you’re already ready to do that. And I think that’s the game changer for me and maybe my patients really enjoying that sort of fitness. Sitting in a car for most people has been a waste of time for them, but realizing that, wow, I just spent so much time in traffic and now I’m telling people in step of turning on your engine, turn on your mitochondrial engine, right? Get that my Contra moving instead and get that energy starting first thing in the morning, you know?
Brad (42:53):
So are you spending a good portion of your time in standup like we can see on the video or do you go back and forth or what’s your personal setup like?
Dr. Sinha (43:02):
Yeah, I’m spending a lot of my time standing, but I do go, you know, within sitting positions I alternate, I’ve got an exercise ball. I’ve actually now got my hip mobility to such a great level that I can sit in out of a meditation Lotus position with my legs crossed with a laptop in front of me. So, and believe me, I was like, I had to stick his tips in hamstrings, but now I can do that stuff. But yeah, I’ve got all types of fun stuff. I do. So, so I kind of put out this ebook, which is a COVID Survival Guide. It’s a free resource and I’ll give you the link at the end. But in the very back of it in resources, I’ve got about six or seven of my favorite positions to work in and I got my boys in the same thing. I’m torturing them.
Brad (43:40):
Really.
Dr. Sinha (43:40):
and we’re doing all types of positions. So right now, you know, I’m standing here, but often what I’ll do, I’m going to step back, but I don’t ever see it. Normally I’ll have my thigh kind of like a pigeon position and it’s kind of folded in and on a surface. So it really opens up my hip while I’m script checking emails and stuff. So there’s a lot of cool things that you can do basically. So yeah,
Brad (43:58):
I’m doing that right now on a chair because I can’t, I can’t just stay on the whole time. So we’re referencing our friend Katie Bowman from primal cons where she, she made the distinction that it’s not just standing up and getting into that, but having variation throughout the work throughout the workday. So you’re standing, you’re allowed to go sit again, you’re allowed to stand, you’re allowed to put your leg up. And those kinds of things are, the big picture is, is movement variation throughout the day.
Dr. Sinha (44:26):
Yeah. And you know, back to that same word, cytokine, sorry to interrupt, but in studies, do you see that usually on average, 40 to 45 minutes of prolonged sitting, that’s what can cause increased cytokine release causing more flammable cytokine release when we’re sitting for that period of time. And it’s some of the same cytokines that are released that we see in the COVID 19 cytoo.kine store. So something to really keep in mind.
Brad (44:48):
Uh, so you’re, you’re putting up the number 40 to 45 minutes is the, um, the checkpoint. You better set an alarm.
Dr. Sinha (44:54):
It’s a good checkpoint. Yeah. But I’ll tell you, it’s personalized too, Brad, because what we’ve seen in some limited studies is individuals that are really physically fit in aerobiingally fit. They have more tolerance to sitting longer. It probably makes sense because their mitochondria burning fuel while they’re even at rest. People that are more metabolically diseased and sedentary by nature, they’re overweight. They have to do it more often actually. So I kind of customize it. So yeah, somebody like you, I’ve seen the, you know, the, the records that you’re breaking in and then the high jump and the sprinting world, you could probably get away on the higher end of that spectrum. But my patients that are severely insulin resistant, they need to probably get moving every 30 to 40 minutes. But yet 45 minutes is probably about the average for most individuals.
Brad (45:38):
And so get moving. If you can, uh, encourage your, uh, your patients to move for even a couple of minutes, uh, you satisfied or do you have a prescription that they need to get up and do some walking?
Dr. Sinha (45:52):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you’re right. I mean, the minimum is actually two to three minutes and actually it’s for those that can do it, even they’ve shown that even a very high intensity sprint, skipping rope, doing burpees for even one to two minutes can still have some benefit. There were three able to do that. If you’re not able to do something at a high intensity, again, minimum three to five minutes every 40, 45 minutes, that’d be a good rule of thumb. And it sounded like you have to stop working. Right? Again, if you’re immersed in work, you can be doing a lot of these things while you’re looking at the screen just as for a change things up. But you know, ideally if you can get away and take a little bit more of a brisk walk and things, that would be probably the way to do it.
Brad (46:28):
So you’re working with these extremely high performing Silicon Valley, highly trained workers at the world’s leading tech companies. And I’m wondering, you know, if this message is going to go over anywhere, it would seem that these people would be the most receptive because of the, you know, the high education intelligence level and the drive to perform. Uh, but I, I’ve seen when I was working in Silicon Valley, you know, that that drive and that, you know, obsession with tech and getting your brain just locked in for hours and hours on end. I’m wondering, you know, how that battle is going, where you’re encouraging people to get up every 30 to 40 minutes. Hopefully the leadership’s on board. We know a lot of these prominent uh, business leaders are super good about balanced living and uh, Jack Dorsey walking five miles every day to work and doing the cold plunges and all that. But in general, how is it going over with your average Silicon Valley tech worker?
Dr. Sinha (47:21):
I would say the average Silicon Valley tech worker, when they have the right information at hand, they’ve been more motivated, engaged than ever. I mean, I think it’s an imperfect storm and first of all, having a disease out there that can literally kill us today, right? Heart disease or diabetes, which we always keep pushing off as being a long term event. So number one, I don’t like to motivate people by fear, but the fear is there. But number two now there is that flexibility. Like I said, many of my patients are in Silicon Valley they spend an average of 45 minutes to an hour each way in a car. Right? They’re stuck on the one Oh one or whatever freeway. Now,
Brad (47:55):
if you’re not familiar with Silicon Valley, let me tell you my commute down there. When I, when I stayed over with Shawn and Angelica was like 11 miles. Yeah. Or 12 miles and it took an hour and I was like, I’ve run this fast, you know, forget about biking. If you can beat your commute to work on a bike, maybe you should take the bike. But if you can beat it running, Oh mercy, that better be an awesome job, huh?
Dr. Sinha (48:20):
Right. But yeah, to your point now they have this unique opportunity to have morning exercise and I’ve always encouraged them like even when you get to your high tech campus, try to walk for 20 minutes before he stepped in. Some will listen, some don’t. But now I’m like, there is no excuse for not getting some physical activity in the morning. And as you know, with lifestyle changes, if you could even start half your day to construct the morning in the right frame of mind, eat the right breakfast or don’t eat the right breakfast and fast maybe to a fast 20 minute walk. Already these employees are feeling energy that they’ve never felt before in the first part of the day and that kind of propels them into help their habits throughout the day. They want more, how do I keep this going? So my hope, I hope once they get back into the real world, get back in office space, they’re going to remember that and they’re going to try to incorporate some of that to maybe, you know what? I’ll go to bed earlier, I’ll get a little bit earlier. I still want to get that walking before I jump in the car and drive to work where I’ll do it when I get to my corporate campus. So I’m pretty hopeful. You know, again, I’m an eternal optimist, but I think if people can feel what it feels like to be healthy for the first time and realizing, you know what, this thing, my brain is actually working better, it’s on fire and more creative. You know, I don’t need to be putting every single second of my danger productivity. I need to do some of these sings. I think I’m seeing some great change. I’ve literally had patients tell me that this is the healthiest I’ve ever felt just because they’re not in cars or in unnecessary meetings.
Dr. Sinha (49:39):
So I think the whole work environment is going to change longterm. I think companies also are going to be less dogmatic, but you have to come in to work every single day. I think managers are realizing rather than hovering over employees, it’s all about outcomes. By the end of the week, did you get these three or four things done? I don’t care how you got it done, let’s get it done. And then we figure out where’s health going to be fit into rather than eight to five, nine to six work days where you just sitting there and dragging on. So, so I think this is a great time. Hopefully we’ll keep those lessons in mind as we go forward.
Brad (50:08):
Oh my gosh, that would be so great to see that mass transition coming. And of course I’m a self employed person and I know, you know, my level of productivity when I’m able to, you know, create the optimal environment and put my workouts into place and if I’m, if I’m tired, I take a nap and all those great things that sometimes aren’t supported, the corporate workplace. But now I would imagine a lot of people are getting, getting a lot of stuff done and being shining stars in their management scenario because they’re home focused instead of sitting in a bloody freeway.
Dr. Sinha (50:39):
Yeah. And I have so many executives, you know, they spend so much time on the road just flying, they’re flying internationally.
Brad (50:45):
Let’s rethink some of that.
Dr. Sinha (50:47):
Yeah. We think a lot of that and now they’re reconnected to their families, which in most cases is a good thing. A lot of them are spending more time with their kids or wives and their kids needed that time with dad or mom or whatever. So yeah, it’s interesting how a lot of these things are, you know, I think it moving in a direction where it’s breeding more connection and more often will help and hopefully that’s going to move forward even beyond the pandemic
Dr. Sinha (51:07):
listeners. You know, I got this guy on now, what an optimist. I love it man. All these good things. I mean, sorry. Apologies to the airlines and those, those business class tickets where these guys are flying around. Uh, my, my friend,Van, he has the record, he flew to New Zealand from uh, from San Francisco 13 hour flight, uh, sat in a really long all day meeting for 13 hours and then flew back immediately without even staying in a hotel. So that’s like the all time business travel business, travel record. Uh, so yeah, great stuff man. It’s thumbs up and into a beautiful new future once we, once we get this stuff handled. One question. So you said around the 40 to 45 minute mark, we start to produce these inflammatory cytokines due to sitting. Uh, why is that?
Dr. Sinha (51:55):
It’s a good question. So what is the actual reason for that to happen? And you know, again, a lot of times we look at things through an evolutionary lens. So, um, you know, sitting or being immobile for prolonged periods, especially while we’re emotionally stressed is probably a conflicting message that we’re sending to the body. If I’m sitting here looking at messages about whether COVID 19 is going to kill me and I’m sitting and I’m not moving like my body is in date mode with that pooping, that’s probably going to elevate that trigger. But also metabolically speaking, when you’ve got extra body fat storage around the belly fat, um, you know, just that inactivity, triglyceride levels, glucose levels, everything goes up. So apart from even cytokines, putting that aside, glucose levels go up, triglycerides go up, blood fats go up, and it was all caused direct inflammation to happen too. So studies for the people who are more regularly active, their glucose levels, average glucose numbers are better, their inflammation markers are better. They’re all, the numbers get better as well too. And that’s the other thing too is I’m recommending a lot of my patients, if they’re not going in to see their doctor, they have to monitor themselves better. Check those glucose levels, put on a continuous glucose monitor, you have to check your blood pressures, check your waistline, be very number centric because otherwise you know health can slip through the cracks really easily.
Brad (53:10):
Love it. So our first assignment is to go over to Cultural Health Solutions.com and download that training for Covesity and our immune system and shape to to battle the virus and then carry on from there, huh?
Dr. Sinha (53:24):
Absolutely. Yeah, that’d be a good first step. Knowledge is power. Yep.
Brad (53:28):
Dr Ron Sinha. Thank you so much. Author of the South Asian Health Solution, we’ve got to give a plug to that book to keep doing that. Great work in Silicon Valley. I appreciate you spending time with us and setting us straight with that big picture, especially so well explained in the article about the viral load versus the cytokine load and how our, you know, our body kind of, uh, I guess basically attacks itself when you’re not sharp and that’s when you get taken down with the fluid in the lungs and all the bad stories.
Dr. Sinha (53:57):
Exactly. That’s right. Luckily this is the disease that we have more control than we think we can do. So, and then the nice thing is we have champions like yourself. I mean that already have the template and the content and information out there. But now we’re just, I tell people, because when I do this work, a lot of people reply back to me. They’re like, well, we’ve been talking about this for 20, 30 years, but now we’re putting a different spin on it. Right now we’re playing the pandemic tune version of this, you know, the Pandora Panndemic track basically. So, you know, it takes different ways to hit people in different areas, but this is the first time that our entire world is concerned about the exact same health conditions. So I think it’s a unique opportunity for us to really engage people, our community, and really make the right choices. So,
Brad (54:37):
and geez, if we’re just, if we’re just jumping in now or want the quick takeaway, you’re correlating aerobic fitness with your ability to resist this disease straight up.
Dr. Sinha (54:47):
You absolutely nailed it. Yep.
Brad (54:49):
Fantastic. Let’s look for Dr Ron at, uh, DeAnza park or wherever you can go hiking out there. And, uh, you know, I have noticed, and I, I said this on my show too, like one of the, one of the positive aspects is I noticed way more people on my little trails where I’m exercising than I did before this. Right. And it’s really cool because people have to get out of the house, I guess.
Dr. Sinha (55:11):
Dogs are loving it too, by the way. Dogs are getting fitter.
Brad (55:16):
The dogs. Yeah. The dogs are in heaven and they have all the all the attention at home now instead of everyone bailing out in the morning. I’m really sorry about the high school track season. My apologies to all you guys out there, especially the seniors, but hopefully some of these kids are keeping in shape to do some surprising next year. Right?
Dr. Sinha (55:34):
That’s exactly right. Yep.
Brad (55:37):
Dr Ron. It’s always great. Thank you so much. We will find you at culturalhealthsolutions.com and any anywhere else?
Dr. Sinha (55:44):
you know. That’s the main thing. I’m actually very active on Instagram as well and you can find us on Ronesh Sinha MD, so I’m putting a lot of practical lifestyle tips and a lot of cutting edge science around COVID 19 and health in general. So yup, you look out for me and reach out to me if you have any questions.
Brad (55:58):
R O N E S H S. I. N. H. A. M. D. Go find it people. Good. Thanks for listening. Thank you for listening to the show. We would love your feedback at getoveryourselfpodcast@gmail.com and we would also love it if you could leave a rating and a review on iTunes or wherever you listen to. I know it’s a hassle. You have to go to desktop, iTunes, click on the tab that says ratings and reviews, and then click to rate the show anywhere from five to five stars. And it really helps spread the word so more people can find the show and get over themselves cause they need to. Thanks for doing it.
