Omicron: How to Stay Safe

I’ve spent this morning talking to patients who are sick with Covid symptoms.

Let’s talk about how to help you to weather this latest storm. The correct response is to do all the things we know to protect ourselves and others.

My recommendations to stay safe while continuing to live your life:

Visit my Covid Resource Page for diet, lifestyle and supplement recommendations to deal with Covid better!

ONE: Minimum Protection = Two out of three of the following. All three would be my choice if possible.

• Masks (KN95 or N95 only, see below for more information)
• Testing (At-home or PCR tests, depending on your exposure)
• Vaccination including booster (Vaccination only won’t work, see below for more information)

TWO: Avoiding infectious environments.

Inside:

• Large buildings: (Big box stores, groceries) have so much circulating air with the high ceilings that they are safer. Visit only when necessary, go on off-hours with fewer people, stay away from others in the store (come back to crowded aisles later). Stay far away from unmasked people in the store. If the store begins to fill up and you feel uncomfortable, abandon your cart and just get out.
• Restaurants: Omicron is far too infectious for patios to be safe. Use restaurants that will bring your food out to your car to avoid going inside. Remember that restaurants have many unmasked people in the building and are not an environment you want to be in, even for a minute or two.
• Company of Friends & Family: This is where many new infections are happening. The risk of spreading Omicron to another household member is three times higher than with Delta. Even with testing, visiting may not be safe. If you do visit: Everyone must test just before the visit, and outside the house. Everyone should still wear masks indoors, though you could eat outside with testing. Multiple day visits require a new test every day.

Outside:

• Parks, crowds, etc.: Preliminary studies are showing that Omicron is about twice as contagious as Delta. Omicron is close to measles as an infectious virus. Being close to an infected person, even outdoors, can get you sick. Wear a mask and stay away from crowds.
• Restaurant patios: If you are traveling, you should eat in your hotel room, a car, bench, or picnic table far from anyone else.

THREE: Keep your immune system strong.

• Wash your hands for 20 seconds and use sanitizer (a lot). It’s time to refill those hand sanitizers in your car and your bag.
• Increase your hours of sleep if needed to boost your immune system.
• Take immune-boosting supplements every day.
• Stop eating refined sugar (cake, candy, cookies, ice cream, soda, beer, wine, sweet tea).

Details You Should Know to Stay Safe:

Wear only KN95 or N95 masks: Cloth masks offer no protection against Omicron, and surgical masks only help a little. KN95 masks seal against your face and filter 95% of particles, including viruses. They aren’t perfect protection but are the best available. Mask effectiveness studies here. Available on Amazon.

Vaccinations: Two shot vaccinations are ineffective against Omicron. You need to have the booster shot as well. Even then, you rely on staying in safe environments and wearing a mask as your primary defense. Your vaccination won’t stop you from getting infected; its job is to keep you from becoming seriously ill and going to the hospital.

Monoclonal Antibody Treatments: One of the most effective tools against severe illness with Covid has been monoclonal antibody treatments. This treatment should be done very early in the disease process to prevent the infection from becoming more serious. It’s been discovered that of the three monoclonal antibody treatments available, only one works with Omicron. This working treatment is so scarce that many doctors and hospitals are already out of it. If you are not vaccinated, you are “performing without a net” at this point.

Testing: At-home tests are very accurate if they show a positive result. So if you get a positive test, isolate and assume you have Covid until you can get a more accurate PCR test back. BUT, at-home tests are 30% to 40% less sensitive than PCR tests and may show false negative early in an infection before symptoms start. At-home tests are much better than no tests, but use them as part of a larger strategy (masks, outdoors, etc.).

New Quarantine Rules: As of December 27, the CDC has issued new rules for those exposed and infected with Covid. Research has shown that Covid is most infectious 2 days prior and 3 days after symptoms start. Read the new rules here.

We Will Prevail

The New York Times has a great article from last Thursday, “Omicron and Holiday Travel: How to Strategize.” I think the authors did an admirable job of describing our current situation and reasonable responses to it.

Covid is a coronavirus, like the common cold. It’s almost certain that the cold was also a pandemic long ago. At that time, bodies and the virus adapted to the point that we could live with each other. Experts believe that we are moving through this process now.

Meanwhile, we must adapt to the changing virus, stay safe and protect others.

Patient Story:

Holiday & Winter Depression

A bit of research turned up that the holiday season can be difficult for people who have depression and other mental health problems.

Feeling lonely, financial stress, disruption in regular schedules and activities can cause stress for many people. Overeating sugar and junk food, drinking too much alcohol, and worrying about the pandemic are additional stressors.

Physical Health Problems Cause Many Mental Health Problems

The mental health industry (and likely your doctor) is entirely focused on “chemical imbalance” and “brain function” as causes for mental health problems. It’s a very rare doctor who will look for underlying physiological health problems before prescribing antidepressant drugs or talk therapy.

As a doctor, I talk to many people about depression and anxiety. Very few are even aware of a connection between their hormones, blood sugar, digestive system, and psychological state. Because these physical issues are among the most common cause of mental problems, it’s frustrating to see that millions are put on dangerous, addictive antidepressant drugs without any attempt at even checking to see if there’s an underlying health problem.

Mental stresses (such as holiday stress) can be more of a trigger than the cause of anxiety and depression. Typical mental health treatments such as medications or talk therapy mainly work as symptom relievers (at best).

As with any symptom treatment, if nothing is done about the cause of the problem, you must continue to treat the symptom indefinitely. Antidepressant drugs have serious physical and mental side effects. As reported by many of my patients, one of the worst is having little to no feelings about anything. Sure, the depression is less, but there’s no joy or interest either. Patients say their emotions are like cardboard cutouts, and they no longer fully experience their lives.

Another severe downside to antidepressants is that many are addictive and can be difficult or impossible to stop.

Talk Therapy?

Many of my patients have reported that talk therapy has helped them to better control their depression and anxiety.

Anything that helps is great unless that help hides a solution to the whole problem. Someone suffering from anxiety and depression might continue talk therapy for many years to keep their symptoms under control. If they had handled the underlying health conditions that caused their problems in the first place, they would no longer need the therapy and would be much better mentally and physically.

Take Away

Medicine is designed for the most part to treat health problems (symptoms) rather than look for underlying causes. If a doctor sees evidence of holiday depression, then a prescription for an antidepressant drug may seem like the correct treatment. The doctor won’t even think of addressing hormones, blood sugar or digestion, because medicine has virtually no treatments for any of these.

To summarize: If you feel depressed over the holidays and would like to feel better, you have these choices. Seems to me that the first one would be highly preferable!

A: Get evaluated and tested to find the underlying physical cause of your problem and get this resolved.  You may have holiday stress in the future, but you’ll deal with it much better and not have any lasting effects once January comes around.

B: Get on a possibly addictive drug with serious side effects that may prevent you from enjoying your life. Then, have to stay on this medication or go back on it whenever something in your life makes you sad and depressed.

C: Tough it out and try to act like nothing is wrong.

Please Share!

If you know someone with the “holiday blues,” please send them a link to this post. I’ve found that this information is unknown, and most people are convinced that something is wrong with their brain if they feel anxious or depressed.

Here’s a bright ray of truth and hope for the holiday season!

Patient Story: