On March 18th, I discussed how Coronavirus is more likely to kill the elderly. In that post, I highlighted the fact that many older individuals have more underlying diseases, including heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, pulmonary disease, obesity, etc. I cited statistics that of Australians who die, 90% have as many as three to five underlying chronic conditions. (1) You can read that post here. We now have statistics regarding deaths from Coronavirus that demonstrate that trend. I would like to share them with you today.

First off, let us look at the deaths-by-age graph. You can see that death from Coronavirus is more likely with increasing age.

Now let’s look at the typical profiles for those who died from the disease as of February 11th, 2020.

Less than one percent of people with no underlying conditions died from Coronavirus. It is interesting to note that cardiovascular disease is a greater risk factor for death than chronic respiratory disease.

Now let us take a look at the statistics from Italy.

According to the Italian National Institute of Health, 99% of those who died from the infection had an underlying illness. (2) Notice that three or more underlying conditions are twice as likely to result in death than just one or two, and having no underlying disease is twenty-five times safer than having 1-2 conditions.

How to avoid cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and pulmonary disease is a bit too much to get into in just a single post. Still, if you have spent some time reading my blogs, then you know that I recommend sticking to the basics like staying away from processed carbs, industrial seed oils, getting enough sleep, proper amounts of movement, the right amount of sun, and stress management to minimize your odds of avoiding chronic disease. More on that here.

Processed carbohydrate and industrial seed oil consumption are important contributing factors underlying most of our current chronic conditions. In the case of processed carbohydrates, they lead to changes to the oral and gut microbiome that cause chronic inflammation throughout the body. Industrial seed oils promote chronic inflammation through a variety of factors. I believe that chronic inflammation stemming from the mouth and gut is a significant source of most of our modern chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other inflammatory diseases. If you are interested in more details about the threats they pose, read my post here.

Gum disease and other oral infections can be the first notable sign of underlying conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other inflammatory diseases. I often lament when patients ignore the oral manifestations of chronic inflammation, as I am well aware of the risk factors involved. In many instances, I will see patients on diabetes medication, who are obese, are also on blood pressure medication, cholesterol-lowering medicine, and have oral infections. They are often overly confident that their medication alone is enough because their lab tests look normal. The presence of oral inflammation is a clear indication that the underlying inflammation causing their chronic issues has not been addressed. Having normal lab test results is like cutting the wire to your check engine alert in your car. The problem is still there; you have merely eliminated the outward sign of it. I am not suggesting that you eliminate taking your medication. If you are on a prescription drug, stay on it until your doctor tells you otherwise.

We now know chronic disease can cause death quickly when combined with a threat like Covid-19. If you have any underlying chronic illness, don’t panic. Take the proper precautions recommended by the White House to avoid contracting the Covid-19 virus. In the meanwhile, the statistics presented in this post today should give all of us some additional incentive to work at eliminating chronic underlying issues at the source, not just slap a pharmaceutical bandage on them.