A Functional Medicine View of the Vaccine, the Virus & You

As shared by Mark Hyman, M.D.

As a board certified health and wellness coach with an additional certification as a functional medicine health coach — I am all about wellness.

And not just about living longer, but living healthier. As there is a difference.

As a mentor of mine, Dr. Mark Hyman states…

~ It’s about adding years to your life AND life to your years ~

I have been an advocate helping to spread that message so we can make the best out of our time — in the time that we have here on Earth.

This past year has been full of uncertainty due to Covid 19 and how it has been handled on so many levels. And I feel as we approach the one year mark of lockdown, as least here in Illinois, I see more and more feeling some relief.

People restless after almost a year. Some nasty winter weather that we haven’t seen in awhile. And now this past week, a lot of sun and warmer temps with feelings of spring around the corner. And things slowly continuing to open back up.

And of course, the vaccines. Though many have to wait — relief is in sight.

Or is it?

Our health, especially here in the United States has not been very healthy…

It is a fact that the virus is most active in people that have weakened immune systems due to conditions such as diabetes and obesity.

And many want a quick fix — a bandaid, instead of doing what it takes to heal.

While Americans look for relief from a vaccine, the functional medicine community is looking at a larger problem which really needs to be addressed.

As Mark Hyman shares in the docuseries The Longevity Roadmap:

“Your health span is the years that are healthy years, where you’re vibrant, energetic and can function and feel alive.

You want your health span to equal your lifespan.

Unfortunately, for most people that health span starts to decline 20 or 30 years before they die, leaving unhappy later years in life.”

And it doesn’t have to be that way. We can still live vibrant healthy lives as we grow old, but that isn’t modeled in our society.

The food industry and Big Pharma have a hold on us — but we can take control back.

Functional medicine looks at the root cause of any dis ease and looks to heal the body. It believes that our bodies work as a whole system. And considers food as medicine and looks at our lifestyle and our perception of our lives.

That this all influences our biology — that our genes are not our destiny.

What does this have to do with the vaccine?

Taken directly from Mark Hyman’s The Longevity Roadmap transcript:

“What we have now with this pandemic of COVID-19 is the intersection of the pandemic of the virus on top of — the pandemic of chronic disease and obesity.

What we’re finding is 94 to 97% of the people who die from COVID-19 and the reasons our hospitals are full of patients with COVID-19 is not because of the virus…

…It’s because of the host.

When you’re inflamed because you’re overweight or obese, or you have one of these chronic diseases, which is caused by metabolic dysfunction, you are pre-inflamed.

Your body is ready to activate an even greater inflammatory response, which is what kills people from the virus.

The virus doesn’t kill people.

Our body’s immune response to the virus destroys our tissues.

So people are pre-inflamed, if they’re overweight or obese, which sadly is most of our population. 75% of us are overweight, 42% of us are obese, and only 12% of us are metabolically healthy.

That means 20 to 40% of people who are normal weight also are metabolically unhealthy because they eat a crappy diet.

And even if you’re not fat overweight, you can be over fat inside. You can be thin on the outside and fat on the inside, and you’re also susceptible to the same diseases and inflammation as everybody else.

When you’re overweight or obese, your immune system is suppressed. You tend to shed virus a lot longer so you spread it more.

Your immune system can’t respond to a vaccine like healthy people.

Therefore the immune system will not actually activate your own antibody responses if you get a vaccine, which is bad news, and you are less able to fight this virus.

So the whole state we’re in now, the lockdown of our society, the economic catastrophe that’s costing so many people their jobs and livelihood and trillions of dollars of economic losses globally is really because we are metabolically unhealthy…

… and the virus has landed on a susceptible host — and we can change that quickly — by changing your diet.”

I certainly could have paraphrased this, but I wanted to share it verbatim right from Dr. Hyman himself. And though these are his exact words, he is not alone with these findings.

Conventional medicine needs to step up to functional medicine and focus not on the disease but what is causing the disease, so that health can be restored.

And to help us extend our health span so it can equal our life span.

In the meantime, we can extend our health span by taking control of what we eat, our environment, our thoughts — even our relationships as this all factors into our quality of life.

So many of us accept aging and ‘falling apart’ as a natural occurrence. And it need not be that way! It’s time to focus on the quality of your life.

So as we move forward with vaccines, please know that this alone is really not enough. To truly boost your immune system, we need to be aware of what we ingest daily.

Food is medicine. Dr Hyman has a NEW book for guidance — The Pegan Diet.

In my other articles in my time here on Medium, I have shared this message, along with epigenetics, neuroplasticity and spirituality.

I do not have a financial gain by sharing Dr. Hyman’s work. My intention is to help you feel more in control. To tap into your inner power. And bring more peace into your life.

YOU have the biggest impact on your health and wellness.

If you are NEW to me, please let me introduce myself:

Please join me on Facebook, for the NEW Minutes With Michele where I do a Monday evening Live based on my published articles. Replays are available.

You can also find me Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, My Website.

And I encourage you to read the work of my fabulous writer friends: Trista Ainsworth, Gurpreet Dhariwal, Amy Marley, Aurora Eliam, CMP, Kathryn A. LeRoy, Ph.D., Desiree Driesenaar, Selma, Keno Ogbo, Melissa Bee, Dipti Pande, Francine Fallara, Sandra Szubert, Erin King, Karen Madej, Ann K Frailey, Sumera Rizwan, MaryJo Wagner, PhD, Britni Pepper, Chowa Sekai, Ksenia Sein, Alison Tennent, Livia Dabs, Neha Sandhir S, Lanu Pitan, Sherry S, Agnes Louis, Chris Hedges, Paul Myers MBA, P.G. Barnett, Terry Mansfield, Rasheed Hooda, Henery X (long), Timothy Key, Tim Maudlin, Bob Jasper, John Ross, Joe Luca, JeffHerring.com, Indra Raj Pathak

Much gratitude for Dr Mehmet Yildiz, Founder and Leader of ILLUMINATION

Until next time ~

Sending you light, love — and better health.

Be Well,