Coronavirus Insights & Updates (Roundup from June 18, 2020)
Coronavirus continues and so do we – with eyes, ears and minds open, looking to learn all that we can and hoping something works. Here are some insights, promising treatments, and healing resources that caught our attention this week:
Insights
Via The Atlantic:
COVID-19 Can Last for Several Months
"Some have been diagnosed through tests, while others, like LeClerc, have been told by their doctors that they almost certainly have COVID-19. Still, many long-haulers have faced disbelief from friends and medical professionals because they don’t conform to the typical profile of the disease. People have questioned how they could possibly be so sick for so long, or whether they’re just stressed or anxious. 'It feels like no one understands,' said Chloe Kaplan from Washington, D.C., who works in education and is on day 78. 'I don’t think people are aware of the middle ground, where it knocks you off your feet for weeks, and you neither die nor have a mild case.'”
Via NCBI
COVID-19 Psychosis: A Potential New Neuropsychiatric Condition Triggered by Novel Coronavirus Infection and the Inflammatory Response?
"Despite the presence of multiple potential stress-related and physiological causes of psychosis in these COVID-19 positive patients, we submit that a new-onset psychosis associated with COVID-19 infection and the potential immune-mediated neuro-pathogenesis described here warrants further investigation."
Via 23andMe
23andMe Finds Evidence that Blood Type Plays a Role in COVID-19
"The preliminary data suggest that O blood type appears to be protective against the virus when compared to all other blood types. Individuals with O blood type are between 9-18% percent less likely than individuals with other blood types to have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the data."
Via The Scientist
Two Genetic Regions Linked with Severe COVID-19
"In a genome-wide association study, variants in both the ABO blood group locus and a cluster of genes on human chromosome 3 are more common among COVID-19 patients with respiratory failure than in the general population."
Via Times of Israel
One-Minute Breathalyzer Could Test for Coronavirus
"An Israeli-designed one-minute breath test to tell whether someone has coronavirus could soon be installed at hundreds of global entry points if it gets approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. The clever contraption, which uses frequency to detect the deadly SARS-CoV-2, was designed by a team based at an Israeli university and has a success rate of more than 90 percent in trials to-date.
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Treatments Showing Promise
Via BBC:
Coronavirus: Dexamethasone Proves First Life-Saving Drug
"The low-dose steroid treatment dexamethasone is a major breakthrough in the fight against the deadly virus, UK experts say. The drug is part of the world's biggest trial testing existing treatments to see if they also work for coronavirus. It cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators. For those on oxygen, it cut deaths by a fifth. However, Dexamethasone does not appear to help people with milder symptoms of coronavirus who do not need help with their breathing."
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Via Melatonin Research Journal:
Melatonin for Hemolysis in COVID-19
"This review discusses the full potential of melatonin as a safe and effective therapeutic intervention for the prevention and attenuation of hemoglobinopathies, refractory hypoxemia and myocardial injury during critical COVID-19 infections."
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Via medRxiv:
Pre-exposure Hydroxychloroquine Use Is Associated with Reduced COVID 19 in Healthcare Workers
"This study demonstrated that voluntary HCQ consumption as pre-exposure prophylaxis by HCWs is associated with a statistically significant reduction in risk of SARS-CoV-2."
READ MORE
Note: medRxiv is a pre-print server. This study has yet to be published or peer-reviewed.
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Helpful & Healing Resources
Via Nutmeg Aspirin:
A Powerful Healing Energized Guided Meditation
"I have been working with energy healer, Jenny Lethbridge for years. With everyone struggling now more than ever thanks to Covid-19 and world unrest, Jenny recorded this video to assist all of as as we clear old traumas during this time of reset."
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Via Survivor Corps:
COVID-19 Survivor Corps Facebook Group
"Survivor Corps is a grassroots movement educating and mobilizing COVID-19 survivors and connecting them with the medical, scientific and academic research community, to help stem the tide of this pandemic and assist in the national recovery."
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Via New York Times:
Why Talking About Our Problems Helps So Much (and How to Do It)
"Research from Southern Methodist University suggested that writing about traumatic experiences or undergoing talk therapy had a positive impact on a patient’s health and immune system. The study argues that holding back thoughts and emotions is stressful. You have the negative feelings either way, but you have to work to repress them. That can tax the brain and body, making you more susceptible to getting sick or just feeling awful.
None of that is to say that talking about your problems, or even talk therapy with a licensed therapist, will automatically fix everything and immediately make you happy and healthy. But, like eating better and exercising, it can contribute to overall improvement in your well-being. More important, it can help you understand how and why you feel the way you do, so you can handle your emotions more effectively in the future.” Of course, this process can still be messy. Some days, talking about your problems may just be complaining about something that happened at work, but others it may involve crying into someone’s shoulder for an hour. It can feel embarrassing or uncomfortable the first few times, but the more you open up, the easier it will get to share how you feel.”
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Via Health Line:
5 Pressure Points for Sleep
"Learn five pressure points you can try and find out more about the science behind using acupressure for sleep."
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Via Musings Mag:
We Need to Lead with Love
“Feel your feelings. We are experiencing a collective trauma that will affect our lives for a long time. Pain is something I see as part of life; it’s not to be avoided. The more we face our pain and our fear, the more we can use it as alchemy to become the next version of ourselves that has greater compassion, wisdom, awareness and readiness to face what is happening next. Evolution is constant and we can either answer the call to wake up or stay stuck in the cycle that created the pain in the first place. We have to employ the growth mindset 'Why is this happening for me?' versus 'Why is this happening to me?' That shift changes everything. Also, learn how to ask for help. We are all human and we can and will support each other when it’s needed, but if you need help, you gotta ask for it.”
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