Before I get to the meat of my blog today, I need to quickly address a couple of things. Last week, I emailed my subscribers and specifically asked what I could do right now, to help out. I asked you to share comments and questions so I could specifically help each of you. I am still sorting through everything because I don’t have a secretary. I read you all, one by one, and I have hundreds of thousands of subscribers. One of the requests I saw over and over, was to please make more videos, so over the weekend, I taped 3 new videos and posted them to Youtube. One of the videos I made was in response to several dozen requests about IBUPROFEN and whether or not it is good to take. So you can watch that VIDEO now on youtube, it’s live. I have another one HERE too on Colloidal Silver and whether or not you should take that.
One common theme from your emails was about anxiety, and here are some examples of what I receive:
“I am having horrible anxiety over this…”
“I work in mental health care, and the rise in depression and anxiety is just overwhelming, please address some natural remedies.”
I want you to know that what you’re feeling is completely natural. Feeling nervous and stressed IS the normal response that occurs when the world is in this much disarray. It is an invisible attack that has unleashed itself upon all of us, and your sympathetic nervous system is kicking in. That’s what it’s supposed to do. What you’re feeling is normal, natural and it will subside in time. Here are 4 articles on anxiety and depression that I think can help you, and of course use my search box here as well:
How Your Gut Flora Contributes to Anxiety
Hypothyroidism is Often Mistaken for OCD, Depression or Anxiety
Why Some Antidepressants Work and Some Don’t
St. John’s Wort, Serotonin and Depression
Now let me shift gears for a moment. I want to validate how you’re feeling. I’m no different than you and totally understand how you’re feeling because I feel it too. Like, I would normally check in with the news once a day, and keep more balance in life. But as a pharmacist and blogger, and guest for interviews, I am being called upon to discuss the pros and pitfalls of medications that might help COVID-19. In other words, I am immersed in the news as much as you, if not more-so, and I also feel the collective consciousness of fear and panic within myself at times.
The problem is not the virus all by itself. It’s a pathogen, a very contagious virus like many others we’ve faced before and defeated. It’s really the unpredictability of it. And all the other unknowns. For example, we didn’t know a few month ago, who the target population was for major complications. Today we do, it’s primarily older people, especially those with obesity, and multiple co-morbidities, or those with compromised lung function. Also, those with immunosuppression, or a history of cancer may be more severely impacted. It doesn’t mean death, it just means there are more serious symptoms to contend with.
To help deal with the anxiety, I suggest we tune out of the news for longer periods of time. I notice that on days when I’m tuned in for 3 hours or more, I’m stressed more so than on days I don’t tune in. The news is never good, it never has been. They make their money by sensationalizing everything, including lovely weather! And the way the curve is going, it’s an exponential rise over the next month, so again, we are going to see more and more deaths.
The news is obviously going to report statistics, but they will probably highlight some of the outliers of the pandemic. Perhaps the producers find it more juicy to their ratings to talk about a 35 yo who is struggling, versus the middle-aged folks who got treated in the ER today, and sent home because they are doing well.
Because that’s the reality.
More people are going to survive, and thrive than die. But the fear is paralyzing.
More people around the world are survivors and they’re getting over the coronavirus, than those who are passing away. Many people will catch it and most all will be okay.
Some of us will test positive (if we even test ourselves) only to speculate on how and when we caught it, BECAUSE THERE WERE NO SYMPTOMS. There will be some of us who catch it and it will feel like the flu, maybe a mild flu, or maybe a horrible flu, but we will come through it! Most all of us will be okay, although some will need hospital care for a short period of time. MOST.
I want to reassure you of something: The numbers we are given are driving many people to the brink of insanity and emotional collapse. But those numbers are not ideal because depending on the model or projection you use, the numbers vary greatly. Some show a death rate of 17% some show less than 1%. There is tremendous variability.
Why do the numbers vary so much?
We do not know the denominator. For that matter, we do not know the numerator! We never will. But the issue is with the denominator and this is what is driving the panic. I hope the next bit of information gives you a deep breath and something positive to cling to.
Let’s start with “total deaths” (and I engage this discussion with sadness in my heart because it’s not just a statistic, it’s an unfathomable catastrophe for many families!). Total deaths is considered a fixed number, it isn’t a variable.
But what is the number of total deaths compared to?
(It differs from each source and that’s what I’m trying to point out).
1. Is it the total number of people who get hospitalized?
2. Is it the total number of people who were tested?
3. Is it the total number of people who were exposed (but were asymptomatic)?
4. Is it the total number of the population in that state/country?
Each answer here provides a TOTALLY different denominator!
Therefore some news outlets and sites are reporting the mortality (death) rate as frighteningly high. It’s shown on your TV screen with a ticker, like they do a baseball game, driving everyone to drink, take benzos and stress eat. (I fall in the last category. There are more hot dogs in my house right now, than I’ve eaten in all 55 years of my life!)
It’s impossible to confirm this yet, but my opinion is that the mortality rate is probably closer to that of the flu. What is different, is the virality of COVID-19. Its spreadability is faster. I’ve said that from the very beginning when I started talking about coronavirus. I based that on the videos that ‘citizen journalists’ in China had posted before their DISAPPEARANCE. And here’s ANOTHER. They spoke of, and took videos of their people, and the number of cases that occurred in a short period of time was exponential!
But we are resilient like the tulips.
Some of you remember last year when I had a Memorial Day Chrysanthemum blooming in my yard, and I destroyed it somehow… I suspect by leaving it in the pot, rather than planting it in the ground where it could take root and stay cooler. But regardless, I killed the mums and shared my dismay about it last year.
Today I noticed something that brightened my day for a few minutes. After a cold snap and snowing all night long, the lawn was covered in a blanket of white! But I dressed up and went outside to breathe in the crisp air, and I saw the tulips were still growing, and in fact even taller than the day before. These bulbs had survived the freezing weather and snow through the frigid Colorado winter all the way from October 2019 when I planted them, and they were growing as expected in the spring.
Tulips, they’re AMAZING! Nothing can stop them from popping up through the ground to bloom and get a kiss from the sun!
Do they even know how happy they make me?!
I took a picture for you so you can see how beautiful they are, and I want you to be reminded of their resilience. I will take another picture when they bloom too.
We can draw strength from this analogy. Always remember:
You are resilient like tulips🌷
If you’re interested in watching a beautiful slow-motion garden start blooming, I found this youtube VIDEO that is awesome: Watch a Garden Come to Life in This Absolutely Breathtaking Time-Lapse
Also, if you have 3 more minutes, this VIDEO is amazing too, it’s an aerial view of AMAZING TULIP FIELDS in Holland, filmed by one of those flying quadcopter’s with a camera!
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Suzy Cohen, has been a licensed pharmacist for over 30 years and believes the best approach to chronic illness is a combination of natural medicine and conventional. She founded her own dietary supplement company specializing in custom-formulas, some of which have patents. With a special focus on functional medicine, thyroid health and drug nutrient depletion, Suzy is the author of several related books including Thyroid Healthy, Drug Muggers, Diabetes Without Drugs, and a nationally syndicated column.
