Possible Coronavirus Cure

The entire world is in a state of panic and confusion on the recent health development caused by a virus first discovered in Wuhan, China called CoronaVirus. We can term this virus a fast domineering virus as it is fast spreading to every part of the world and every country in the globe is experiencing one or many of the effects of this virus.

What is CoronaVirus?

CoronaViruses generally known as CoV are a big family of viruses known to cause infections ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) and more currently, Covid-19.

Covid-19 is the latest addition of diseases to the number of diseases already known to be spearheaded by the CoV family. It is a new strain that was discovered in 2019 that was never previously identified in humans.

The virus can be transmitted between animals and people which in turn gives it zoonotic characteristics.  A thorough study discovered that SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans and MERS-CoV was from dromedary camels to humans. There are several known coronaviruses flowing in animals that have not yet infected humans.

General signs of infection include, fever, respiratory symptoms, cough, breathing difficulties, and shortness of breath. In more severe cases, an infection can cause kidney failure, severe acute respiratory syndrome, pneumonia, and even death. Common hygiene practices are encouraged and recommended to prevent infection spread include covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, regular hand washing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs. Give at least three meters distance to anyone showing symptoms of respiratory poor health such as sneezing and coughing.

Let’s Discuss the Possibility of a Control

With the entire Covid-19 outbreak that’s going on in the United States and the rest of the world and the gaining rumor that vitamin D, vitamin C, warm weather, cold weather, and humidity levels can go a long way in controlling the CoronaVirus, it is imperative to talk about the impact of vitamin D and vitamin C, the weather and humidity levels on the common cold, Covid-19 and influenza virus.

The first thing we need to consider is, do colder temperatures make you more prone to getting the common cold, influenza, or Covid-19? Most health experts agree that when the environment is colder, more people end up spending more time indoors and this actually facilitates the spread of the virus. Experts also believe that when the weather is warmer, the immune system might actually function a little bit better than when compared to colder weather. A study also took into consideration the importance to learn how the virus is spread to look at specific viruses and how they spread during cold versus warm weather; this was done at different humidity levels and that was back in 2007.

Another study looked at the spread of the influenza virus; they put guinea pigs together in a chamber and carried out different environmental experiments on them and discovered that low relative humidity of about twenty to thirty-five percent was most favorable for infection while the transmission was completely blocked at high humidity levels of eighty percent and above. They also revealed that when guinea pigs were kept at five degrees Celsius climatic conditions, transmission occurred with greater frequency than compared to that of twenty degrees Celsius.

In a 30 degrees Celsius climatic condition however, there was no transmission detected at all. The researchers hence concluded that low relative humidity produced by indoor heating and cold temperatures favored the spread of influenza viruses.

During the winter months during the cold weather nevertheless, people can get runny noses without actually having a cold. However, if they have a running nose associated with cold, those viruses can be spread easier in those secretions that come from the nose. Then again, people are quick to wipe their noses without thoroughly cleaning their hands and then shaking other people or touching surfaces. In such situations, when other people touch those surfaces, there is bound to be a transmission.

It is common knowledge that forty percent of common colds are caused by rhinoviruses and the second most common cause of cold is the coronavirus—the normal coronavirus and not the novel coronavirus aka SARS coronavirus. It is also on record that the Rhinovirus reproduces more quickly at colder temperatures which means you can catch a cold more quickly if you’re cold and this process may probably apply to the coronavirus as well. It is most likely that with a combination of all these factors, colds flu and Covid-19 are more likely to cause infections in the winter months.

There is however another factor that deserves consideration and that is the fact that the presence of vitamin D may go a long way in controlling the Covid-19. Nevertheless, our bodies don’t naturally make vitamin D unless when exposed to sunlight. In countries that have little sunlight, it is very difficult to get enough vitamin D unless in warmer climates. If however, you are not getting enough sunlight in the winter months, it simply means that you may likely need to add vitamin D to your diet.

Vitamin D helps regulate our calcium levels and is important for bone and muscle health. It also plays a role in regulating our immune system but its exact role is not very clear. Then how is vitamin D important when it comes to the common cold, the flu, and possibly Covid-19, you may ask. Well, vitamin D doesn’t actually affect viruses it actually affects the way our immune system handles infections.

According to a study carried out by the British Medical Journal on the 2017 outbreak, over twenty-five, randomized control trials with a total of over eleven thousand people who took vitamin D showed that there was a significant association between low vitamin D levels and being more prone to developing respiratory infections. It also showed that daily or weekly supplementation with vitamin D has the greatest benefit for those with vitamin D deficiency. The ones who benefited the most were the ones with more severe vitamin D deficiency with blood levels below ten mmol/liter and this decreased their risk of respiratory infection by fifty percent when they had vitamin D supplementation.

Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that is important for overall immune health and worth considering. Its exact role is not known however, it does seem to help the function of white blood cells but again the exact role in our body’s defenses is unknown. Vitamin C is also important for iron absorption and when your body is iron deficient it can make you more vulnerable to infections in general but normal recommended daily intake of vitamin C or vitamin C supplements help treat cold symptoms but for the most part that folklore just doesn’t hold. The recommended dosage per day for adults is about 75 to 120 milligrams and this you can easily get up to 80 to 90 milligrams from a cup of lemon juice or even more from kiwi fruit.

In 2005, some researchers analyzed about fifty-five published studies that looked at vitamin C’s ability to fight symptoms of the common cold and the findings were pretty underwhelming. In most of the studies they found no benefit to taking vitamin C to treat a cold although another study discovered that people taking a very large dose of up to thousand milligrams at the beginning of cold got better quicker. However, subsequent studies were not able to confirm these findings. As of now there’s not enough research to recommend that people take vitamin C supplements either before or after they get a cold got better. So once again there’s no evidence that taking a vitamin C supplement even at high doses can protect people from the effects of coronaviruses.

On the other hand, zinc has been one of the most popular suggestions for helping with symptoms of cold and even the Covid-19. There have been conflicting results nonetheless about the effect of zinc on the severity and duration of cold symptoms. Some studies showed that zinc reduces the duration of a cold by half while others showed no effect. Another study revealed that the type of zinc taken determines the result seen. Zinc gluconate lozenges is a sort of zinc that provides thirteen milligrams of zinc that has been known to lessen the duration of colds but zinc acetate, another zinc compound, provides about five to eleven milligrams of zinc and was ineffective to reduce the duration of the cold. Zinc has also been shown in a lab study to slow down the reproduction of coronavirus in cells but not this current coronavirus.

Final Thoughts

Vitamin D, some Zinc compounds, and vitamin C can go a long way in controlling the current Covid-19 when applied in the right way and in the right place. It however has no guarantee for it to achieve this a hundred percent.