COVID-19 Insights
Conventional medical training most often divides diseases into organ-based domains. There are cardiovascular diseases, neurological diseases, bowel disorders, pancreatic disorders, etc., and we have doctors who specialise in those areas.
What COVID-19 identifies is that, when challenged, the body develops multiple-domain issues and associated consequences.
This gives an insight into where Functional Medicine has traction. An initial view of COVID-19 shows that people – with respiratory diseases, such as asthma, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), and bronchiectasis; cardiovascular disease like hypertension, ischaemic heart disease, and heart failure; kidney disorders such as chronic renal failure and glomerulonephritis; and, Diabetes (essentially a disorder of the pancreatic endocrine cells) with far-reaching consequences due to its vascular damaging affect – are all more at risk of severe consequences.
These are also the individuals who genetically have less favourable SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms are frequently called SNPs and are pronounced “snips”; they are the most common type of genetic variation among people. Each SNP represents a difference in a single DNA building block, called a nucleotide) in the areas of immunity, detoxification, and methylation.
The NHS is banking tissue samples from COVID-19 victims in an effort to understand why those who have severe reactions are more vulnerable.
My current evaluation of those people on whom I have genetic data strongly confirms that we could look at genetic profiles and identify those people most at risk who haven’t yet developed the diseases mentioned above, and therefore identify those as yet unidentified as at-risk individuals.
For those of you who are more interested in detail, people with less favourable cytokine SNPs – such as I L6 (Interleukin 6 is a naturally occurring interleukin or protein that acts as both a pro-inflammatory and an anti-inflammatory substance), TNF alpha (Tumour Necrosis Factor is a cell-signalling protein involved in inflammation), I L 10 (Interleukin 10 is a potent anti-inflammatory substance), CRP (C-Reactive Protein is a protein made by your liver), and vitamin D receptors – show a predilection towards the development of Western-style diseases mentioned above.
Providing tools – through nutrition, medications, novel genetic interventions, vaccines, pre-exposure medications, and nutrigenomic agents to better regulate the epigenetic effects – will improve both prevention and outcomes.