Surviving COVID-19 / Open Lines

Hosted byIan Punnett

Surviving COVID-19 / Open Lines

About the show

A physician and nutrition expert, John A. McDougall, M.D., is certified as an internist by the Board of Internal Medicine and the National Board of Medical Examiners. He joined Ian Punnett (Twitter) to discuss the COVID-19 outbreak from the perspective of medical professionals and how people in high-risk groups for the virus can improve their odds of survival. "I think we should dispense with the idea that this is a hoax or a flu," McDougall said, noting he has treated comorbid factors (obesity, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis) for 46 years. Unlike the flu, coronavirus-infected patients who are older and have comorbid issues can become overrun with respiratory distress within hours, he explained.

"It's something we've never been exposed to so we're immunologically incompetent," he continued. According to McDougall, fewer than 20 percent of patients put on respirators ever recover from COVID-19. It's a lethal disease that is ten times more deadly than the flu, and hospitals are ultimately places to go to die, he suggested. McDougall sees the best path through the coronavirus pandemic is to make lifestyle changes that will boost immunity and prevent the virus from taking hold. These include self-quarantine, moderate exercise, and dietary changes. Citizens of Denmark changed their diets during the Spanish flu pandemic and experienced a significantly smaller mortality rate than other European nations, he revealed. McDougall recommended his starch-based diet to cure rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune diseases, and type 2 diabetes, as well as reverse heart disease.

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Charles in Sacramento, California, wondered if there would be a noticeable difference in the social security master index between the year 2020 and previous years due to COVID-19 deaths among the elderly. He recommended the govinfo.gov for facts on coronavirus and other issues. "The stuff that they're telling us is a lot scarier than what they're not telling us," he said. Bill from Washington suggested those bored in self-quarantine look up some of the latest discoveries in paleobotany, including articles on billion-year-old algae fossils. "All life on this planet as we know it... probably is the result of a virus inspecting a bacteria," he suggested.

Grant in New Mexico phoned in to voice his disagreement with advice presented during Dr. McDougall's earlier segment in which he recommended a starch-based diet to cure a variety of ailments and strengthen the immune system against the coronavirus. "If you go to India and Southeast Asia, they eat a high-starch diet and they have the highest rates of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke," he said. Grant also commented on the coronavirus noting the US government had months of notice before its arrival. "They were warned, they had intelligence briefings, they had plenty of time," he said.

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