Being known as the sick man of Europe is not an honor that anyone would wish for. But would you be surprised to learn that we are getting worse since COVID-19?
Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show 36% of people of working age have at least one long-term health condition, up from 31% pre-COVID-19.
Even more alarming, more than 2.5 million people are economically inactive due to long-term illness, an increase of more than 400,000 since the pandemic began.
And yes, there is no doubt that this is due to the negative effects of our lifestyles, including obesity, lack of exercise and eating ultra-processed foods (which make up 60 per cent of the average British diet).
However, I would like to suggest another factor. That is the long tail of pain caused by the coronavirus.
Now we know that many people think that vaccines are the cause of the increase in disease. When I write about the benefits of vaccines, I receive a lot of criticism and threats on social media. You do harm by accusing me of being a vaccine fanatic.
I can kind of understand why some people are so devastated. The current distrust that many of us have towards pharmaceutical companies in general, the disappointing expectations (as I originally believed) that vaccines will protect against the coronavirus, and the lack of a vaccine. Many people have questions about long-term safety data.
But the results of a new study have finally put an end to that debate.
More than 2.5 million people are economically inactive due to long-term illness, an increase of more than 400,000 since the start of the coronavirus pandemic
The study was announced last month with little fanfare, buried in small print in the results section, but it was quite eye-opening.
Initially, we all thought that the coronavirus was just a respiratory disease. Sadly, it’s more complicated and presents more symptoms than any of us could have imagined. This virus seems unique because it not only damages organs, but can also alter our immune response, cause chronic inflammation, and alter hormonal regulation in the body.
(This uniqueness makes the possibility that the coronavirus was man-made, whether by chance or design, a reasonable theory in the lab, rather than just a crazy conspiracy.)
All of these factors increase the risk of several long-term illnesses post-COVID-19, from blood clots in the lungs to stroke and heart attack, and even an increased risk of dementia.
And this new study reveals that it also increases your risk of developing autoimmune diseases.
As someone with a strong family history of these conditions (my grandmother and cousin had rheumatoid arthritis) and as someone who suffers from Crohn’s disease myself (which worsened after two COVID-19 infections), this paper is my It caught the eye of
The study, published in the respected JAMA Dermatology journal, was conducted by South Korean researchers and was based on medical records of more than 6 million people. Half of them were infected with the coronavirus, and the other half were matched as “controls.” They had similar characteristics except that they were not infected with the new coronavirus.
All coronavirus patients became ill before October 2020 (all were not offered vaccines). The results were amazing.
But what we do know is that coronavirus vaccines are not contributing to an increase in disease, quite the opposite, writes Professor Rob Galloway.
If you have coronavirus, your risk of developing Crohn’s disease increases by 35 percent and your risk of ulcerative colitis increases by 15 percent (both debilitating diseases that cause inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract). . Rheumatoid arthritis (a condition in which the immune system attacks tissue in the joints) increases by 9 percent. And ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammation of the spine that causes pain, increased by 11%.
There was also a 13% increase in Sjögren’s syndrome (in which the immune system attacks the glands that produce saliva and tears, causing extremely dry mouths and eyes). And Behcet’s disease, which attacks blood vessels and causes symptoms ranging from mouth and genital ulcers to joint pain, increased by a whopping 45 percent.
Researchers also found that patients who received intensive care with COVID-19, a marker of severe infection, were at greater risk of later developing an autoimmune disease.
But the most important information was hidden deep within the supplementary pages of the results section of the paper.
FIG. 11 is a table entitled “Subgroup Analysis of Autoimmune Connective Tissue Disease Risk by Vaccination Status.”
This innocuous-looking table compares the risk of developing an autoimmune disease if infected with the coronavirus in fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated, and unvaccinated people. This is what I did.
The results were amazing. For example, overall, there was a 13% increased risk of developing Sjögren’s syndrome after being infected with coronavirus.
However, if you get infected with the coronavirus without being vaccinated, your risk of developing Sjögren’s syndrome increases by 76 percent. The increased risk was replicated for all other conditions, with the risk for rheumatoid arthritis increasing from 9% to 55%. Crohn’s disease increased from 35% to 121%. Ulcerative colitis ranges from 15% to 191%. and so on.
Even more surprising, for some diseases such as psoriasis, there was no risk if you were infected with the coronavirus and had been vaccinated, but if you were infected with the virus without being vaccinated. The risk of developing the disease increased by 95 percent.
The researchers concluded that the results “may provide evidence supporting the hypothesis that COVID-19 vaccines can help prevent autoimmune diseases.”
No one wants to inject a vaccine into their body, especially one without long-term safety data.
But what we do know is that coronavirus vaccines are not contributing to an increase in disease, quite the opposite.
Not only would millions more have died, but the post-COVID health burden would have been far greater.
Therefore, following a purely scientific approach with no conflicts of interest, I will continue to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
And if you’re in a place where you’re at risk of contracting coronavirus, such as in a busy A&E department or on a plane, you’ll wear a mask, even if it makes you feel socially uncomfortable. I don’t want to put myself at risk for long-term complications post-COVID-19. We also don’t want to exacerbate the growing health crisis in this country.
But as the evidence changes, so will my opinion, and you’ll be the first to know.
It’s not enthusiasm. It is about prioritizing patient welfare above all else.
@drobgaloway
Anxiety about new weight loss drugs
My father taught me to doubt anything that seems too good to be true. Does that include the new weight loss jab?
The first UK death related to these (in this case Munjaro) was recently reported. NHS nurse Susan McGowan, 58, had received two injections in the weeks before her death. The jab was cited as a contributing factor.
Currently, 274 people have been hospitalized and approximately 15,000 side effects have been reported as a result of these drugs. Worryingly, there is no long-term safety or efficacy data.
These drugs come into play because being extremely overweight or obese is dangerous and most diets fail.
However, I am concerned that we are succumbing to the easy temptations of big pharmaceutical companies to believe that a lifetime of poor health can be solved with drugs. There is a worrying history of “silver bullet” failures.
For the sake of my patients, I hope that my fears are unfounded. But until we know more about their long-term safety, my advice to patients is to try safe and healthy alternatives to these injections first.
