Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - 9 Natural Ways to Boost Your Resilience Against Covid

Starting point is 00:00:00 Well, after two years now and billions of dollars of research and development, there still is no foolproof cure for COVID. Fortunately, research shows that if you are a healthy person under the age of 60, your chances of being stricken, hospitalized, or killed by the disease are extremely low. data from the CDC show that about 0.013% of 30-year-olds who catch COVID have died with the disease and not necessarily from the disease, key point, whereas this number rises to just 0.214% for 60-year-olds and 2.836% for people aged 85 and over. To put those numbers differently, if 1 million 30-year-olds catch COVID, only 130 of them will die with the disease, again, not necessarily from it, whereas nearly 29,000 out of 1,085-year-olds would die. Other research from the CDC shows that 95% of people who have died with it also had another serious medical condition, such as heart disease, the flu, or cancer. And on average, people who died with COVID had four additional comorbidities. And so,

Starting point is 00:01:20 many people can rightly dismiss COVID as just another respiratory virus. That is all it is for many people. But what about the people who do have an underlying health condition like diabetes or heart disease or chronic bronchitis? Or what if someone's healthy, but they just want to make themselves as koof-proof as they possibly can be? What should those people do? Well, by now, scientists have collected and analyzed a terrific amount of data on COVID, and they have a good understanding of the key lifestyle factors that increase and decrease the risk of catching a bad case of the latest scarient. And in this podcast, you are going to learn the top nine.

Starting point is 00:02:06 Iscariot. And in this podcast, you are going to learn the top nine. Before we get to it, your ability to gain muscle and gain strength is greatly impacted by how well your body can recover from your training and how strong you get in your training. And that's why it's not enough to just hammer away at the weights every week. You have to watch your calories and watch your macros. You have to maintain good sleep hygiene. You have to avoid overtraining. And you can also speed up your post-workout recovery and your muscle and strength gain with supplementation. And that's why I created Recharge.

Starting point is 00:02:42 It is a 100% natural post-workout drink that boosts muscle growth, improves recovery, and reduces muscle soreness. And Recharge also comes in several delicious flavors, including a new one we just released, which I recommend you try, and it is grape. Now, the reason Recharge is so effective is simple. Every ingredient is backed by peer-reviewed scientific research and is included at clinically effective levels. Those are the amounts used in studies that found benefits. Recharge is also 100% naturally sweetened and flavored. It contains no artificial food dyes, no chemical junk whatsoever. And all that is why I have sold over 250,000 bottles of Recharge and why it has over 2,500 four and five star reviews on Amazon and my website. So if you want to be able to push harder

Starting point is 00:03:40 in the gym, if you want to recover better from your training, if you want to gain muscle and strength faster, you want to try Recharge today, go to buylegion.com, B-U-Y legion.com slash recharge and use the coupon code muscle at checkout and you will save 20% if it is your first order with us. If it is not, you will get double reward points on that order. So that is 10% cash back. And if you don't absolutely love Recharge, just let us know and we will give you a full refund on the spot. No forms, no return even is necessary.

Starting point is 00:04:19 You really can't lose. So go to buylegion.com slash recharge now, place your order, use the coupon code muscle and save 20% or get 10% cash back in reward points. Try Recharge risk-free and see what you think. So the first is to maintain a healthy body weight because study after study after study has shown that being overweight or obese markedly increases your risk of severe illness from COVID. For example, in one study conducted by scientists at the University of Oxford, researchers parsed the medical records of nearly 7 million people, and they found that those with a BMI, a body mass index, of 23 or below

Starting point is 00:05:01 had the lowest risk of admission to a hospital or intensive care or dying. The researchers also found that the risk of becoming seriously ill with COVID increased in lockstep with BMI. Specifically, someone with a BMI of 25 had a 10% higher risk of hospitalization and a 20% higher risk of landing up in the ICU than someone with a BMI of 23. And those numbers shot up to 35 and 70% respectively for someone with a BMI of 30. Now, BMI is an imperfect barometer because lean muscular people register inappropriately high. My BMI, for example, is about 25 and I have probably about 40 to 45 pounds more muscle than the average guy. And I have quite a bit less body fat, but the point still stands. If you are

Starting point is 00:05:53 overweight, one of the best things you can do to reduce your risk of being pasted by COVID is to trim down. And if you'd like some help with that, head over to buylegion.com slash diet quiz, B-U-I legion.com slash diet quiz, and take that 60 second quiz. And it will help you understand what diet is going to work best for you, how many calories to eat, what your macros should be, what types of foods you should be eating and more. All right, number two on my list is exercise at least 30 minutes every day. Now, it's common knowledge that exercise boosts immune function. It reduces your risk of a long list of non-infectious diseases like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. And in fact, studies show that strength training in particular is more

Starting point is 00:06:41 effective at boosting your body's natural defenses than supplementing with vitamin D, for example, which is also prudent, but which is often held up as a powerful immune booster, while strength training is even better. But what you might not know is that exercise also significantly reduces the risk of contagious diseases caused by viruses and bacteria like COVID. For example, in one study conducted by the scientists at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, researchers found that people who were consistently inactive, people who did zero to 10 minutes of exercise per week, had a three-fold increased risk of hospitalization with COVID versus people who consistently exercised at least 150 minutes

Starting point is 00:07:26 per week. That's just about 20 minutes per day, by the way. And those people who were sedentary had nearly a five-fold increased risk of dying with COVID. Now, what happens if you exercise more than 150 minutes per week, more than just 20 minutes per day, which is really a bare minimum for maintaining health and well-being. Well, while there's no data on how much each additional minute of exercise beyond that threshold will increase your immune defenses, it's likely that the more you exercise up to a pretty high point, the lower your risk of succumbing to COVID. For example, the latest activity guidelines from the WHO recommended people aged 18 to 64 get at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous physical activity,

Starting point is 00:08:20 plus at least two strength training sessions per week. And again, that is considered a minimum amount of exercise and strength training to stave off disease, not necessarily an ideal dose for optimizing your health and mood and vitality and physical performance and body composition and the rest of it. Now, if you'd like to exercise more and if you'd like to do strength training, but you're just not sure where to start, if you are a guy or gal over the age of 40, check out my book and the programs in it, Muscle for Life. If you are a guy under 40, check out Bigger, Leaner, Stronger. If you are a gal under 40, check out Thinner, Leaner, Stronger. All right, next up we have get enough sleep because chronic sleep deprivation is devastating to our health and well-being.

Starting point is 00:09:12 So it's really no surprise that studies routinely show that people who sleep more are at a lower risk of ill health from immune-related disease like COVID than people who sleep less. from immune-related disease like COVID than people who sleep less. And although the optimal amount of sleep is largely determined by our genetics, it does vary from person to person. A good rule of thumb is most of us need to get seven to nine hours of sleep per night. Now, if you are finding it difficult to do that because dropping off in the evening is easier said than done, here are a few tips for improving your sleep hygiene. One is to avoid coffee, nicotine, alcohol, and other stimulants for at least four to six hours before you go to bed. And for someone like me, it needs to be more like eight plus hours

Starting point is 00:09:57 because as I've gotten older, I'm a little bit more sensitive to caffeine. I don't do nicotine or alcohol, but I do espresso. The next tip is to make your bedroom quiet, cool, and dark. Then there is don't eat or drink too much before bed because a large meal can disrupt sleep. Then we have create a relaxing pre-bed routine that might include things like reading, stretching, listening to calming music, or bathing. Now, if you can't sleep, get out of bed and go do something quiet, like one of those relaxing activities, until you feel sleepy, until you feel the urge to fall asleep. Then, once you are ready to go to sleep, go back into bed. Don't just toss and turn in bed. Going to bed at the same time every night has been shown to help as well with getting

Starting point is 00:10:47 sleepy, being able to fall asleep, being able to stay asleep. And last is only use your bedroom for sleep and sex. Don't put a TV in your bedroom. Don't put a computer in your bedroom. Those two activities are the only things that should be happening in the bedroom. And research shows that if you do that, your sleep can improve. Okay, getting back to the natural lifestyle-related ways to reduce your risk of COVID, we have drink less alcohol. Now, one study conducted by scientists at Shenzhen

Starting point is 00:11:19 Mental Health Center made headlines recently when it suggested that consuming red and white wine and champagne reduces your risk of dying from COVID while consuming red and white wine and champagne reduces your risk of dying from COVID while consuming beer, cider, and spirits increases your risk. Winos rejoiced, but what the scientists and the media outlets really, it's more in the media than the researchers, what they failed to mention was that any link between wine drinking and reduced risk from COVID was correlation, not causation, which by the way, is almost always the case when you see these paradoxical headlines, these paradoxical purported outcomes. And so what I'm saying here is the researchers noticed that

Starting point is 00:11:59 people who drank red and white wine and champagne tended to have a lower risk of dying from COVID. But that doesn't mean the plonk deserves the credit because in reality, research shows that heavy drinking inhibits immune function of any kind, heavy drinking of any kind, whereas moderate drinking is not likely to help or hurt immune function. And that's particularly apropos to COVID because the lockdowns have caused many people to drink a lot more alcohol than they normally would to cope with the fear and loneliness and depression. And those who increased their drinking the most have tended to experience rougher COVID symptoms. So if you drink moderately, giving up alcohol entirely is unlikely to make a significant difference in your risk of getting really sick with COVID. But if you teeter between

Starting point is 00:12:55 moderate and excessive alcohol intake, or if you are an unabashed boozer, then cutting back will reduce your chances of getting shellacked by the cove. All right, number five on my list here is to chill out because studies show that stress and indeed loneliness can suppress immune function and make you more susceptible to infection and illness. And the best way to counteract stress is just to find ways to relax. And if you want a few evidence-based strategies to help you quiet the noise and cool your jets, here they are. One is to change your perspective on stress because research shows that our perception of stress as harmful can really

Starting point is 00:13:38 give it teeth. That is, it's possible that getting overly stressed about stress, overly worked up, you know, really working ourselves up into a lather is what makes it particularly harmful. And studies show that we can consciously reappraise stressful situations. We can choose to look at them differently and thereby deprive them of a lot of their destructive power. And so a frustrating situation doesn't have to be an excuse to rip your hair out. Instead, for example, you might want to view it as an opportunity to exercise a virtue, like maybe patience or tolerance, or maybe you could look at it as an opportunity to learn what doesn't work or learn that you're actually a bit tougher than you thought. Another reliable stress buster for many people is classical music. Next time you're stressed, put on some slow, quiet classical

Starting point is 00:14:32 music and before long you will be nestled in its soothing embrace. And for what it's worth, Beethoven is my favorite. There's something about his music that really resonates with me. But maybe Mozart is more your thing, and he'll be able to do more than just chill you out too, because studies show that classical music can sharpen your mind, it can engage your emotions, it can lower blood pressure, it can lessen physical pain, it can reduce depression, it can help you sleep better. It is a powerful form of music. Next on the list here is to consume less media because research shows that exposing yourself to a constant barrage of bad news and fear-mongering and morbid reminders of your mortality increases stress levels. You don't say. And while the media has always specialized in spotlighting tragedy and turmoil,

Starting point is 00:15:28 right, if it bleeds, it leads, this bias has reached gargantuan proportions. For instance, economists from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that 87% of news coverage on COVID has been negative, whereas only 54% of news coverage was negative in most other countries and 65% in scientific journals. So basically what most US news outlets have been doing is embellishing the bad news, oh cases are rising, and burying the good news. Deaths and hospitalizations are falling to give the gloomiest picture possible. Now, if you don't want to swear off media altogether because you want to at least stay informed about the state of things, try limiting yourself to just one,

Starting point is 00:16:17 maybe 15 to 20 minute bout of news browsing per day. Another effective way to bring stress levels down is to just spend less time with tech because studies show that the more people use and feel tied to their computers and their cell phones and their tablets, the more stressed they feel. In fact, overuse of technology has even been linked with various symptoms of poor mental health like depression. And scientists aren't certain as to what is causing that, but the relationship is unmistakable. The more time we spend with our devices, the worse our mental state becomes. Lastly, if you're going to spend less time with tech, why not spend more time with people? Because spending time with people, especially your nearest and dearest, is one of the best ways to bring stress down, to extinguish anxiety.

Starting point is 00:17:07 So make seeing people in the flesh a priority, even if it's a hassle, because that is going to be more effective than just talking on the phone or talking on Zoom. Which is still worth making time for if you can't get together in person. time for if you can't get together in person. Okay, the next lifestyle tip I have is a bit of a counsel of perfection because many people try to do this and fail at it, but there are many people who try and succeed as well. So I'm going to share it with you, and that is quit smoking. And this one is unsurprising given the carnage that smoking causes on your respiratory health and immune function. And several studies have found a consistent and positive association between smoking and the risk of COVID-related death. Now, the good news is it doesn't take long for your cardiovascular health and your respiratory function to begin to improve once you quit

Starting point is 00:18:02 smoking. Okay, number seven on the list here is eating well, eating a healthy diet. When your body gets infected by a virus such as SARS-CoV-2, your immune system creates a cascade of proteins, immune cells, and molecules such as lipid-derived mediators that rush to fight the infection. And to organize this molecular assault, your body uses the nutrients that are supplied by the food that you eat. Those are the raw materials. And multiple studies show that the fewer vitamins, minerals, and nutrients you eat, the fewer of those building blocks there are to mount a robust immune response to something like SARS-CoV-2. And thus, the more likely you are to become severely ill with it. Therefore, an easy way to shore up your body's defenses is to eat

Starting point is 00:18:51 well, to eat the right number of calories and enough protein, carbohydrate, and fat to maintain a healthy body composition, to eat enough vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other phytonutrients to function well without the need for supplementation. And finally, to drink enough water to make sure you stay hydrated. And while there are no hard and fast rules about how much of each food or food group you should eat or not eat, a healthy diet also includes an abundance of whole, nutritious, and relatively unprocessed foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, fish, dairy, pulses, nuts, seeds, legumes, and oils. And a good rule of thumb for how much you should be eating of all of that stuff is to go for at least two to three servings of fruit per day with a serving being about a fistful and three to five servings of

Starting point is 00:19:43 vegetables per day, same serving size, with some whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds based on your preferences and your calorie needs. I like to get in one serving of whole grains per day in addition to the fruits and vegetables, for example. For me, that is oatmeal, and it's actually not in my meal plan right now because I'm cutting for a few weeks, And so I just took the oatmeal out to bring my calories down. But normally I do a cup of dry oatmeal and then I cook it of course, but I measure it dry and I throw in a small handful of walnuts and I cut up a banana or cut up some strawberries or throw in some blueberries and I cook all of that together

Starting point is 00:20:21 in water. And then lastly, after it's done, I mix in a scoop of protein. These days I use my own, of course I use Legion, but I use the salted caramel whey and it's so good with banana in particular. You do the oatmeal, you do the nuts, you do a banana and you do the salted caramel whey protein, delicious. Okay, step number eight for reducing your risk of COVID is spending time outdoors. Now, just a few years ago, vitamin D was just known as the bone vitamin. And even today, many physicians still believe it's mostly just for bone health. And while that is true, it is good for bone health. Having insufficient vitamin D levels also increases your risk of many types of disease, including heart disease, stroke, some cancers, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis,

Starting point is 00:21:11 tuberculosis, and COVID. For example, in one study conducted by scientists at Galilee Medical Center, researchers found that people with a vitamin D deficiency were 14 times more likely to become severely ill with COVID than people who had adequate levels of vitamin D. Now, there is some controversy over these findings and how this study was conducted, but other research shows that if your vitamin D levels are too low, your immune system is affected negatively, and your risk of getting seriously sick with COVID does go up. It might not go up as much as the Galilee study would have you believe, but COVID will have an easier time infecting you and ripping through your body. Now, aside from supplementing with vitamin D, which I'll talk about in a few minutes, one of the best

Starting point is 00:22:05 ways to keep your vitamin D levels topped off is to spend time outdoors in the sun. And a good place to start is spending 30 minutes per day outside. Research shows that that's enough to produce some extra vitamin D, at least enough to lower your risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and poor mental health. That said, if you live in cold northerly climes, or you are just bundled up against the cold because it's still winter, and that means you're of course shielded against the sun, then supplementation is the answer. And a good place to start for most people is 2,000 IU per day. And that brings me to the ninth and final tip that I have,

Starting point is 00:22:47 which is to take the right supplements. And I saved this for last because unfortunately, no pill, powder, or potion or injection will bulletproof you against COVID. But there are a few supplements that appear to lessen the severity of the disease for some people. And the first one is omega-3 fatty acids. Studies show that fish oil, which is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids, reduces systemic inflammation and thus may help minimize the likelihood of ill health and death from COVID. And if you want a high potency, molecularly distilled fish oil with added vitamin D. You can check out mine. It's called Triton. You can find it at bilegion.com slash Triton. Next on the list of supplements is a trio, vitamins C, D, and selenium, because studies show that maintaining high levels of these vitamins and

Starting point is 00:23:35 mineral, it lowers your risk of becoming severely ill with COVID. And if you want a multivitamin that contains clinically effective doses of all of them, C, D, and selenium, as well as 28 other ingredients that are designed to enhance your health and mood and reduce stress, fatigue, and anxiety, check out mine. It is called Triumph. You can learn about it at bilegian.com slash triumph. Next on the list is L-citrulline because research shows that L-citrulline increases the production of a gas known as nitric oxide that widens blood vessels and improves blood flow. And while the research on L-citrulline's potential impacts with COVID is very much in its infancy, early signs are that it can help

Starting point is 00:24:20 lessen the severity of certain symptoms like breathlessness and chest pain. Now, you can buy L-citrulline as a standalone supplement. You can also find it in many pre-workouts. My pre-workout, Pulse, has a clinically effective dose. The top end of the clinically effective range, 8 grams, which is a lot. That's a good dose. And next, we have quercetin, which is a natural pigment found in fruits and vegetables that acts as an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and analgesic in the body. And some studies

Starting point is 00:24:52 suggest that quercetin may slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the body by preventing it from infecting new cells, which then can decrease symptom severity and length of infection. cells, which then can decrease symptom severity and length of infection. And if you want to pick some up, you can get it from Now Foods. That's a brand that I like for individual ingredients, or Gero. That's another brand that I like because both are relatively inexpensive. They are large companies that don't have an incentive to cut corners, and their products consistently test out. You can trust that you are getting what you are buying. Next is zinc because of its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiviral properties. Several studies have shown that zinc might provide an additional

Starting point is 00:25:38 shield against infection with and illness from COVID. Next, we have melatonin because research shows that the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory effects of melatonin might reduce the severity of COVID symptoms when it is used as an early treatment. Then we have nigella sativa, which is also referred to as black cumin seed because research shows that it might make recovery from COVID quicker in people with mild infections. And you can buy it as a standalone ingredient. You can also find it in my multivitamin triumph, or at least in the male version of the multivitamin. In the female version, I pulled out Nigella sativa to add in a couple of female-specific ingredients like maca extract and chaste berry extract. And the last supplement on my list is not one that you swallow. It is

Starting point is 00:26:33 antiviral mouthwash because studies show that rinsing your mouth with antiviral mouthwashes containing chlorhexidine, povidone iodine, or cetylpyridinium chloride may reduce the SARS-CoV-2 viral load in your saliva, which then may reduce your risk of spreading the virus and speed up your recovery time. Well, I hope you liked this episode. I hope you found it helpful. And if you did, subscribe to the show because it makes sure that you don't miss new episodes. And it also helps me because it increases the rankings of the show a little bit, which of course then makes it a little bit more easily found by other people who may like it just as much as you.

Starting point is 00:27:14 And if you didn't like something about this episode or about the show in general, or if you have ideas or suggestions or just feedback to share, shoot me an email, mike at muscleforlife.com, muscleforlife.com, and let me know what I could do better or just what your thoughts are about maybe what you'd like to see me do in the future. I read everything myself. I'm always looking for new ideas and constructive feedback. So thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - 9 Natural Ways to Boost Your Resilience Against Covid

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