All kinds of evidence show that middle-aged and elderly people with low immunity are more likely to be "recruited" in this epidemic and develop into critical diseases faster.
Zhang Wenhong, director of infection department of Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, once said, "Every day, people ask me if this medicine is effective. In fact, the most effective thing is our own immunity. "
Immunity is the body's own defense mechanism, and it is the body's ability to identify and eliminate any foreign body (virus, bacteria, etc.). ) and dealing with the aging, injury, death and degeneration of their own cells, as well as identifying and dealing with mutant cells and virus-infected cells in the body.
Human immunity is related to genetic factors, but emotions, sleep, diet, exercise, etc. It will also affect the immune system function. Immunity can't be improved in a short time. In a sense, it is a mirror of everyone's living habits. If everything is insignificant in the face of life and death, then in the face of viruses, immunity is no different from your own armor. How can we cherish this armor and strengthen this firewall of individual health?
Always keep a positive attitude and relax.
On February 28th, 2020, Liu Qing's brother, who finally recovered after more than 20 days of treatment, was discharged from Fangcang Hospital, transferred to the isolation point, and returned home on March 13.
This young man, who became popular on the Internet by reading The Origin of Political Order: From Pre-human Times to the French Revolution before his death, broke the stereotype of Chinese people about COVID-19 patients-instead of being angry, worried or collapsed, he attacked drugs with "reading" with equanimity.
Many netizens were infected by his good attitude, saying that "seeing him reading quietly made me feel more peaceful", and some netizens thought that "he read not only a book, but also another state of life".
In fact, a mentality that is not boring and chaotic, can be positive and calm, is an indestructible immunity.
On the one hand, the strength of psychological immunity is not unrelated to the times. The rapid development of economy and society makes people get unprecedented material satisfaction, but at the same time, great external pressure and temptation are also stimulating people's desires and creating inner conflicts.
The "Life Event Stress Scale", which is popular all over the world, shows that not only "bad things" such as divorce, separation and death of relatives will bring pressure to people, but also "good things" such as marriage and festivals will bring pressure to people. Coupled with employment, housing, pension and other "pressure cookers", people will inevitably fall into an unprecedented spiritual dilemma. Being in the torrent of the times and society, the pressure of life, study, career and emotion is inevitable, boredom is not enough, and chaos is useless. Only face it and accept it.
On the other hand, the attitude of not being bored or confused and being able to be positive and calm comes from the ability to accept and handle pressure. Under pressure, people are prone to negative emotions, so people tend to think that pressure is not only harmful but also terrible and should be eliminated by all means. However, Kelly Magnegel, the author of the best-selling book "Self-control", said in a TED talk: "Researchers have spent eight years tracking182,000 death cases and found that the cause of Americans' premature death is not stress itself, but the idea that stress is harmful."
Her research shows that stress itself is not the enemy, but how to treat it is very important. For example, if stress is regarded as helping people prepare for challenges, the body will trust this judgment and the corresponding stress response will be healthier. "So my goal as a health psychologist has also changed. I no longer want to help people get rid of stress, but want people to cope with it better. " Kelly Magnag said.
This means that after facing and accepting the pressure, we can adjust the individual's attitude towards the pressure, handle the pressure well, then let go of the pressure, accept the outside world, make demands on ourselves, and regard the pressure as a kind of help, so that we can live in harmony with the pressure and improve our emotional and psychological immunity.
Good sleep keeps the blood clean.
When the epidemic is urgent, some people stay up late, constantly refresh the web page, and refuse to miss any news. Their sleep defense seems to have been breached by COVID-19.
Fragile sleep doesn't just happen during the epidemic. In fact, when we are experiencing the convenience and advancement brought by scientific and technological progress and social development, the timely life of doing things at sunrise and resting at sunset has gradually drifted away from us. In a sense, lack of sleep is the price we pay for modern life.
Matthew Walker wrote in his book Consciousness, Sleep and the Brain: "100 years ago, less than 2% people in the United States slept less than 6 hours a night. Now, almost 30% of American adults are like this. "
China people's sleep is not optimistic. The 20 19 national health insight report (hereinafter referred to as the report) shows that the public's score on the importance of sleep is as high as 9.5 (out of 100 10), but the satisfaction with sleep is only 6.7. Among them, the satisfaction of young people is lower than that of the elderly.
Low satisfaction is because many people have their own sleep troubles, although these troubles may not be the same.
Some people suffer from not having time to sleep. Fast-paced life compresses people's rest time-they can't get home until 90 pm, which makes a good sleep a bit extravagant.
Some people are too playful to sleep. In their view, sleeping is very important, but the time before going to bed is more important, which does not belong to work or family, but only to themselves. During this period, the official account of WeChat needs to be read, Tik Tok needs to be read, games need to be played, TV dramas need to be chased, and Weibo needs to brush ... The bedtime is always "insufficient", so that it is too late to turn off the phone and close your eyes.
Some people worry that they can't sleep or sleep well. They are obviously sleepy, but they can't sleep over and over again, or they don't sleep long enough, or they can't sleep until dawn, and they wake up easily at night, and so on. The results of the sleep survey released by the China Sleep Research Association on October 20-0/6 show that the incidence of insomnia among adults in China is as high as 38.2%, and there are more than 300 million people with sleep disorders in China, and this number is still rising year by year.
If you don't sleep well, your body will be hurt-tired all day, inattention, inefficiency, emotional instability, and so on.
20 19,1/In June, Boston University scientists filmed the brain's self-brainwashing process for the first time after falling asleep: blood periodically flows out of the brain-cerebrospinal fluid takes the opportunity to flood in-to remove toxins (including β-amyloid, which can lead to Alzheimer's disease). This "cleaning" activity can only be realized during sleep. Studies have also confirmed that brain aging is related to brain wave activity during sleep.
Yes, just like a machine needs to be maintained for a period of time, sleep is the "system maintenance" time of the human immune system. If you always stay up late, the "garbage" in your brain will accumulate more and more. Don't expect to pay off the sleep debt you owe in a week by sleeping late on weekends-consciousness, sleep and brain clearly point out that sleep is different from credit cards, and deprived sleep can't be compensated.
Eat immunity
During the epidemic, many people's cooking skills advanced by leaps and bounds, and one by one, baking master, a catering chef in the WeChat circle of friends, was born.
In a public opinion space like Weibo, the topic of "eating" is also dominant. The fiery heat of "eating" is, on the one hand, the comfort of delicious and smoky; On the other hand, the health problems in "eating" are also intriguing. Nielsen social media research shows that hot pot, milk tea, fried chicken, cake and barbecue rank among the top five in the list when netizens discuss what they want to eat most after the epidemic.
Under emotional pressure, high-calorie and high-sugar foods beat the light diet recommended by doctors and nutritionists, which is not difficult to understand. Studies have shown that in response to stress, the human body will secrete more cortisol. Cortisol, as a glucocorticoid, is a stress hormone of human body, or stress hormone. When the human body is in a state of tension, fear, fear and anxiety, the body needs cortisol to help release amino acids, glucose and fatty acids, act as energy for the body and maintain normal physiological functions.
But cortisol makes people love and hate. If the cortisol level is high for a long time, its negative effects will appear, which will lead to problems such as increased blood sugar, increased appetite and weight gain. In other words, when people are under pressure, under the action of cortisol, the crispy skin of fried chicken will be particularly attractive, the sweetness and softness of cake will become hard to refuse, and a light diet with less oil, less sugar, less salt and less spicy will not be so pleasant.
What's more, high-calorie and high-sugar foods don't just fall on our table during the epidemic. In normal days, the scale of take-away customers, dessert parties and supper parties is quite considerable. Take selling outside as an example. Although the heavy taste cooked with high oil, salt and sugar is a well-known secret of food delivery, people who entrust delivery can still be seen everywhere. According to "20 18—20 19 China Online Takeaway Industry Research Report", there were 358 million take-away users in China in 20 18, and about 57 million takeaways were eaten by customers every day.
There are many problems with this diet. 20 19 April, The Lancet published the first large-scale and heavy research in the global diet field-195 countries and regions on mortality and disease burden caused by diet structure. This large-scale study with a statistical time span of nearly 30 years found that nearly 20% of the deaths in the world are caused by dietary problems. China ranks first among the top 20 countries in the world in terms of cardiovascular disease mortality and cancer mortality caused by diet structure.
I have to say that China people have eaten culture, creativity, mood and opportunity in this matter, but they are still far from being healthy, nutritious and immune. Take the most important word "moderation" in diet as an example. Although health proverbs such as "every disease is not born, always hungry for three points" are widely circulated, there are still many people who overeat.
The hard truth of eating less is actually based on certain science. On February 28th, 2020, China Academy of Sciences and other research teams published their research results online in the authoritative American journal Cell, saying that aging cells exceeding 1/2 and aging genes exceeding 1/4 can be reversed by "seven-point satiety". Generally speaking, eating less can reduce weight and prolong life.
In this paper, 18 ~ 27 months old rats (equivalent to human 50 ~ 70 years old) are used as animal models. It shows that the body weight of the experimental group ("seven-point full" group) is lower than that of the control group (casual eating and drinking group) 1/3, and the blood sugar level has not changed. The average life span and the longest life span of the experimental group are higher than those of the control group.
Although it is not clear whether this rule applies to humans, the reminder of Cell still needs reference.
Exercise overcomes inertia.
During the epidemic, many people can't go out for a walk or go to the gym to exercise. They can only stay at home and say gloomily, "Everything outside the bed is far away".
Life lies in exercise. A large number of evidence-based medical data show that regular physical exercise can prevent hypertension, colon cancer and coronary heart disease, and relieve psychological stress. From this perspective, exercise is actually a good medicine to relieve discomfort and a candy to soothe tired life.
Medical research has confirmed that moderate aerobic exercise can enhance immunity. People who have exercise habits will catch fewer colds than those who don't exercise. Even if you catch a cold, you will feel unwell for a short time.
However, there is the biggest gap between the public's attention and the current situation of sports. The aforementioned Report pointed out that people generally recognize the importance of exercise to health, with a score of 9.2. More than half of them even think that the full score of exercise is 10, but people's satisfaction with their own exercise state is only 5.5, and less than13 think that their exercise state is qualified.
Of course, there are various reasons for not exercising. "I have no time, I hurt my knee and can't run" is a good excuse to comfort myself, but it is very likely that one day in the future, the doctor will "intimidate" you with "quite serious, treatable and expensive". When you feel tired at work, it is probably just a reminder that you need to establish the habit of regular exercise, fight against your laziness and overcome your "lazy cancer".
If at the end of life, health determines whether we can leave gracefully, then health is the reward for us to adhere to good living habits and enhance our immunity. It is neither a "leap-forward" shortcut, nor an asceticism of eating salad every meal, exercising every day, going to bed early every day and being in a good mood every day, but a bit by bit but persistent change towards healthy behavior.
Only people who are physically and mentally healthy can gather into a healthy China. May health become an important element of our national image.
(Excerpted from Outlook, issue 1 1, 2020)