While everyone is practicing social distancing and preventive measures during this current period of COVID-19 infections, it is recommended for people with lifestyle diseases to be extra cautious. It is not just the COVID-19 that is posing a threat, along with it, fungal infections, blood clotting and heart inflammations are also on the rise. Anyone with a proper immune system and healthy body can fight these but people with comorbidities have to practice extra caution against each one of them. In this piece of informative blogs, we are going to discuss how we can do this successfully to ward off this hazardous situation.
A study by top American Medical College hinted that people that got infected by COVID-19 infection were more at risk to catch comorbidities and those who already have them struggle more to ward off the virus. Lifestyle diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases became prevalent during this pandemic. There are two major reasons for this: 1. non-availability of medical care for day-to-day problems 2. Side-effects of COVID-19 and the medication used to cure it. Let’s take the simplest example of oxygen here. Cold oxygen given directly from cylinders has spiked the number of fungal infections. These infections whether black/white/yellow/green fungi can wreak havoc on a person who has diabetes or any other lifestyle disease.
To suppress fungi, steroids are used and if not used judiciously, they can further suppress the immune system leading to severe infections. Hence it is essential to stay safe if you have comorbidities like diabetes, hypertension, asthma, etc. Here are 10 tips to manage comorbidities well during these tough times:
- Follow your basic routine as it was before lockdown
- Take Regular Medication
- Do not miss/skip even a single dose
- Keep a stock of medicine (insulin syringes, vials, etc.) and monitoring devices (strips, etc.)
- Regular Exercise/ Physical Activity
- Walk, perform floor exercises, and Yoga inside the house to maintain body weight. Avoid sitting for a long time.
- Have a healthy and balanced Diet
- Consume more fruit and vegetables
- Eat high fibre and low carbohydrate diet
- Drink plenty of water
- Reduce salt intake
- Avoid binge eating while watching T.V
- Avoid Stress
- Indulge in your hobbies, learn new things, meditate, and talk with friends and family members.
- Have an adequate good night sleep to rejuvenate yourself
- Limit your caffeine consumption, avoid Alcohol and smoking
- Always monitor blood pressure to make sure it’s under control
- Ask your Doctor before taking common pain medications ( NSAIDs- ibuprofen), as they can increase the Blood Pressure
- As per the latest guidelines, do not stop taking prescribed ACE-Inhibitors or ARBs (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or blocker) medications for high blood pressure, or heart disease. [These medications don’t increase the risk of contracting COVID-19]
We hope this informative piece of advice turns out to be useful to you. For further information or assistance, you can call 93051 00014 or visit us at: www.unitedmedicity.com