Being known as the sick man of Europe is not the accolade that anyone would want. But would you be surprised to know that since Covid we have gotten even sicker?
The most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that 36 per cent of people of working age had at least one long-term health condition, an increase from 31 per cent before Covid.
What is even more alarming is that more than 2.5 million people were economically inactive due to long-term illnesses, an increase of more than 400,000 since the start of the pandemic.
And yes, there is no doubt that this is due to the damaging impact of our lifestyles, including obesity, lack of exercise and the consumption of ultra-processed foods (which make up 60 per cent of the average Briton’s diet). .
But I want to suggest another factor: the long sting of Covid.
Now I know that many people think that what has driven the rise in poor health is the vaccine: I get a lot of beating and threats on social media when I write about the benefits of it, and people say I don’t understand the meaning of the vaccine. damages and accusing me of being a vaccine fanatic.
To some extent, I can understand why some people are so overwrought: the distrust many of us now have towards pharmaceutical companies in general, the failed hope (as I also initially believed) that vaccines would prevent one from contracting Covid, and The lack of long-term safety data has led many to question them.
However, the results of a new study finally put that argument to rest.
More than 2.5 million people were economically inactive due to long-term illnesses, an increase of more than 400,000 since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The research was published last month to little fanfare, but hidden in the fine print of the results section was something quite revealing.
At first, we all thought that Covid was just a respiratory disease. Unfortunately, it is more complicated, with a greater number of manifestations than any of us could have imagined. Because the virus seems unique in that it not only damages organs, but can also alter our immune response, cause chronic inflammation, and change our body’s hormonal controls.
(This uniqueness makes the chances that Covid was man-made (by accident or deliberately, we will never know) in a laboratory a reasonable theory, rather than a simple insane conspiracy.)
All of these factors increase our risk of several long-term illnesses after a Covid infection, ranging from lung clots to strokes and heart attacks and even an increased risk of dementia.
And this new study now reveals that it also increases our risk of developing an autoimmune disease.
As someone who has a strong family history of these (my grandmother and cousin both had rheumatoid arthritis) and who suffers from Crohn’s disease (which got worse after my two Covid episodes), this article caught my attention.
Published in the respected journal JAMA Dermatology, the study, conducted by South Korean researchers, was based on the medical records of more than six million people: half of them had had Covid and the other half were matched as “controls” , which means that He had similar characteristics except for not having had Covid.
All Covid patients fell ill before October 2020 (when not all had been offered the vaccine). The results were surprising.
But what we do know is that Covid vaccines have not contributed to the rise in ill health, quite the opposite, writes Professor Rob Galloway.
If you had Covid, you had a 35 percent higher risk of developing Crohn’s disease and a 15 percent higher risk of ulcerative colitis (both are debilitating conditions that cause inflammation of the digestive tract); a 9 percent increase in rheumatoid arthritis (where the immune system attacks joint tissues); and an 11 percent increase in ankylosing spondylitis (which causes a swollen, painful spine).
There was also a 13 percent increase in Sjögren’s syndrome (where the immune system attacks the glands that produce saliva and tears, causing very dry mouth and eyes); and a massive 45 percent increase in Behcet’s disease (which attacks blood vessels and causes symptoms ranging from mouth and genital ulcers to joint pain).
The researchers also found that patients who had been in intensive care with Covid (a marker of severe infection) were at even higher risk of developing an autoimmune disease in the future.
But buried deep in the supplemental pages of the article’s results section was the most important information.
Figure 11 was a table titled “Subgroup Analysis of Autoimmune Connective Tissue Disease Risk by Vaccination Status.”
This harmless-looking table compared the risks of getting an autoimmune disease if you had Covid in people who received the full vaccination course, an incomplete vaccination course, and no vaccine.
The results were surprising. For example, overall there was a 13 percent increased risk of developing Sjögren’s syndrome after having Covid.
But if you were unvaccinated and developed Covid, you had a 76 percent higher risk of Sjögren’s disease. The increased risks were replicated across all other conditions: rheumatoid arthritis went from a 9 percent risk to 55 percent; Crohn’s disease from 35 percent to 121 percent; ulcerative colitis 15 to 191 percent; etc.
Even more surprising is that, in some conditions such as psoriasis, there was no risk if you had had Covid but were vaccinated; However, if you were unvaccinated and contracted the virus, you had a 95 percent increased risk of developing the condition.
The researchers concluded that the results “may provide evidence supporting the hypothesis that Covid vaccines may 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 Covid vaccines have not contributed to the increase in poor health, quite the opposite.
Not only would many millions more have died, but the burden of post-Covid ill health would have been much greater.
So, following a purely scientific approach and without conflicts of interest, I will continue to receive the Covid vaccine.
And if I’m somewhere where I’m at risk of contracting Covid, like a busy emergency department or on a plane, I’ll wear a mask, despite feeling socially awkward about it. I don’t want to risk long-term post-Covid complications, or compound the growing poor health in this country.
But if the evidence changes, my opinion will change too and you will be the first to know.
That’s not fanaticism. That is putting the patient’s well-being before everything else.
@drobgalloway
My concern about new weight loss medications
My dad taught me to be suspicious of anything that seems too good to be true. Does that include the new weight loss shots?
The first death in the UK related to these (in this case, Mounjaro) was recently reported. Susan McGowan, 58, an NHS nurse, received two injections in the weeks before her death. The hit was listed as a contributing factor.
And now it has been reported that there have been 274 hospitalizations due to these medications and almost 15,000 adverse reactions. The worrying thing is that there is no long-term safety or efficacy data.
Being very overweight or obese is dangerous and most diets fail, so there is a place for these medications.
But I worry that we are succumbing to the easy lure of Big Pharma telling us that one drug can solve a lifetime of unhealthy living. There is a worrying history of “wonder drugs” gone wrong.
For the sake of our patients, I hope my anxiety is misplaced. But until we know more about their long-term safety, my advice to patients will be to try safe and healthy alternatives to these injections first.