Covid Leaves Wave Of Wearied Souls In Pandemic’s Wake
The title of this post, is the same as that as this article on The Times.
It is the usual excellent article by Tom Whipple and it discusses long covid.
I haven’t knowingly had long covid or even common-or-garden short covid for that matter.
The Asian Flu of 1957-1958
But go back to 1957-1958 and the outbreak of Asian Flu.
This was another present from China to the world. Wikipedia says this about its severity.
The number of excess deaths caused by the pandemic is estimated to be 1-4 million around the world (1957–1958 and probably beyond), making it one of the deadliest pandemics in history.
According, to this page on Wikipedia, deaths from Covid-19, were approaching 5,500,000 at the first of January 2022.
But then the world population is now 7.9 billion as opposed to 2.8 billion in 1957. This is 2.8 times bigger.
If the Asian Flu of 1957-1958 had had a Covid-19 death rate around two billion would have died.
Was There A Long Form Of The Asian Flu?
In Long Covid And Coeliac Disease, I started the post like this.
I recently heard an interview with Adrian Chiles on Radio 5 about the so-called long covid
I am 73 and the more I read about Long Covid, the more I think I had something similar around 1958, when I had just started Minchenden Grammar School, where I missed most of the Spring Term. This was at the time of the 1957-8 flu pandemic., which killed between one and four million people worldwide.
This article on New Decoder is a personal memory of that pandemic, from an experienced journalist called Harvey Morris.
Last night, I was listening to another program about kids with long covid and they seemed to be describing how I felt all those years ago.
One of those two programs, also said that one doctor tested patients for coeliac disease.
So did I have a long form of Asian Flu which kept me off school for a long time?
I can remember a conversation between my late wife and my mother that took place before we got married in 1968.
My mother described how I was badly ill at around ten and how our GP, the excellent Dr. Egerton White kept coming to see me, whilst I was recovering at home, as he couldn’t fathom out what was wrong with me.
But he did seem to take particular care of me, even coming to visit me in hospital, when I had my tonsils out at around five. Could it be, that as he had brought me into this world, that he felt differently about me? It should be noted that he was probably from the Caribbean and either black or mixed-race.
Is Long Covid Linked To Undiagnosed Coeliac Disease?
As I said earlier that one doctor tested long covid patients for undiagnosed coeliac disease, at least one doctor must believe so.
Looking at the statistics in The Times article, I can make the following deductions.
- 42 % of sufferers from long covid are over fifty?
- 58 % of sufferers from long covid are female?
- It is not stated how many sufferers had been diagnosed as coeliac and were on a long-term gluten-free diet.
These statistics would fit roughly with the statistics for coeliac disease.
- According to the NHS, there are more female coeliacs as male.
- There was no test for coeliac disease in children until 1960, so it is likely, that many undiagnosed coeliacs are over 60.
- Since around 2000, coeliac disease is tested for by means of a simple blood test.
- Doctors understand coeliac disease better now, so I suspect more coeliacs under about thirty have been diagnosed.
I am certainly led to the conclusion, that undiagnosed coeliac disease could be a factor in long covid.
Treating Long Covid
The article on The Times has a section which is entitled How Do We Deal With It (1)?, where this is said.
One of the great challenges of pathology is that you have to know what you are looking for before you can find it.
“People with long Covid go to the clinician, give blood, and none of the results that come back show that these individuals are sick,” says Resia Pretorius, from Stellenbosch University. The doctors look through the metabolites in their blood, seeking something unusual, and find nothing. “The end result is their clinician tells them it’s psychology — go for a run or whatever. Some of these patients can’t even walk up a set of stairs. They think: are we mad?”
She had an idea. What if it was about the blood structure, as much as its composition? Her laboratory has looked at the blood of both acute Covid patients and long Covid sufferers. They have found tiny clots.
Something in the disease seems to cause malformation, and they can’t be removed.
They have also found preliminary evidence that treating patients with antiplatelet and anticoagulants leads to significant improvement. Although, she stresses, it’s a risky procedure that requires careful monitoring, in case people bleed dangerously.
When I read the bit about anticoagulants, the bells in my head started ringing.
I am a coeliac on a long-term gluten-free diet, who suffered a serious stroke in 2011, from which I made a remarkable recovery. I am now on Warfarin, which is the old-fashioned anti-coagulant and test myself regularly with a meter, so I don’t bleed dangerously.
Note remarkable is not a word of my choosing, but one that has been used several times by doctors referring to the recovery in my stroke. But then there are masses of Jewish, Huguenot and Devonian survival genes in my cells.
At the time of the panic about blood clots and the AstraZeneca vaccine I wrote A Danish Study On Links Between Coeliac Disease And Blood Clots, of which this is an extract.
This morning I found on the Internet, a peer-reviewed Danish study which was entitled
Coeliac Disease And Risk Of Venous Thromboembolism: A Nationwide Population-Based Case-Control Study
The nation in the study was Denmark.
This was the introductory paragraph.
Patients with coeliac disease (CD) may be at increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), i.e. deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and its complication pulmonary embolism (PE), because they are reported to have hyperhomocysteinaemia, low levels of K-vitamin-dependent anticoagulant proteins, and increased levels of thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor.
One thing in this summary screams at me. The mention of vitamin-K!
Ten years ago, I had a serious stroke, that because of modern clot-busting drugs failed to kill me.
I am now on long-term Warfarin and know I have to eat a diet without Vitamin-K.
There are too many coincidences in all this for me not to shout, “Do More Research!”
Prevalence Of Celiac Disease Among Blood Donors in SÃO PAULO – The Most Populated City In Brazil
The title of this post, is the same as that of this scientific paper from Brazil.
I am posting, so I can find the paper when I need it.
I will only point out one sentence.
Furthermore, an increase in the ingestion of wheat in the country in recent decades may have favored the increase in CD in our society.
I wonder if this statement can be confirmed, as this could explain the increase in coeliac disease in some countries.
Lumo Allows Passengers From London To Edinburgh To Pre-Order Meals
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail Advent.
I just tried it out and what I saw was a good start.
They even had gluten-free sandwiches and other items from Marks & Spencer.
You can access it here.
AstraZeneca May Explain Britain’s Lower Death Rate
The title for this post, is the same as that of this article on the The Times.
These are the second and third paragraph of the article.
Dr Clive Dix said he believed that the jab could help to stave off serious Covid-19 illness for longer than RNA-based alternatives made by Pfizer and Moderna. “If you look across Europe, with the rise in cases, there’s also a corresponding lagged rise in deaths, but not in the UK,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “I personally believe that’s because most of our vulnerable people were given the AstraZeneca vaccine.”
Dix suggested that the T cell response to the AstraZeneca jab may explain the lower level of hospital admissions and deaths.
Dr, Clive Dix is a former Deputy Chair of the Vaccines Taskforce.
I think that Dr. Dix may have a point.
I am coeliac and I know I have a strong immune system.
When I had my dose of AstraZeneca vaccine, I was fairly sure that my immune system gave the viral vector vaccine a good kicking, as it thought the chimpanzee adenovirus on which it is based could be a dangerous intruder.
But with the second dose, I got no reaction. Had my immune system decided that the vaccine was a friend?
I have mentioned this reaction to people and I have found some coeliacs, who had a similar reaction to the one that I had with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
But more significantly, this summer, I suffered badly from hay fever. My GP told me that the high level could have been because the AstraZeneca vaccine had boosted my immune system.
I’ve only had it as bad once before and I suspect that was a couple of years after I went gluten-free, after being diagnosed as a coeliac. I suspect that that would have boosted my immune system.
I can do a small calculation.
I suspect, that there are about 40,000,000 in the UK who have been vaccinated with two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
If we assume coeliacs are 1-in-100 of the population, as stated on this page on the NHS web site, and most have been vaccinated, as they tend to be cautious about their food and health, that equates to 400,000 people who could be fully vaccinated and have an immune system with all the defensive strength of a whole regiment of special forces soldiers on steroids.
For some time now, various sources have been saying the models of the pandemic aren’t right.
I do wonder, if coeliacs with the AstraZeneca vaccine are super-immune and they are skewing the models. After all 400,000 with a super-immunity is a large number in comparison to the total number of deaths from the Covids in the UK, which stood at 171,801 with the Covids on their death certificate tonight.
Conclusion
I am drawn to one big conclusion and that is more research needs to be done.
It would be a great help, if we knew how many coeliacs on long-term gluten-free diets had ended up in hospital.
I wouldn’t ask the doctors, but the catering departments, who would be providing the gluten-free food, that the coeliacs will be demanding.
Infection, Mortality And Severity Of Covid-19 In Coeliac Disease – Prof Jonas Ludvigsson
The title of this post is the same as that of this presentation on the Coeliac UK web site.
If you are coeliac and worried about catching the Covids, I suggest you watch the presentation.
The presentation is about eighteen minutes long and this is the last-but-one screen.
Coeliac Disease and Covid-19
- No increased risk of death from Covid-19
- No increased risk of ICU for Covid-19
- No increased risk of any (!) Covid-19
THEN: Coeliac patients with Covid-19, have no increased risk of death compared to other patients with Covid-19.
Conclusion
The professor concludes it is good news and there is no need for coeliac patients to get the jab earlier than other people.
I would also like to add my fourpennyworth!
The professor was only analysing diagnosed coeliacs, who were probably on a long-term gluten-free diet.
My son was an undiagnosed coeliac, who lived the rock and roll lifestyle, generally living on ciggies, high-strength cannabis and Subways. His immune system, probably gave him all the protection of a plastic colander.
He died at just 37 from pancreatic cancer.
A Full-English Gluten-Free Breakfast At Leon
I regularly have a breakfast like this in Leon.
Delicious and gluten-free!
How Celiac Disease May Affect Your Risk for Gallbladder Disease
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on verywell.health.
I am posting, as I am a coeliac, who has had gallstone problems and want to be able to find the article easily in the future.
Street Burger – Islington
Regularly in pre-pandemic times, I would go to Carluccio’s at The Angel in Islington for a quick lunch after doing my shopping on a Saturday.
But unfortunately, Carluccio’s is no more!
Now there is a Street Burger by Gordon Ramsay between Marks and Spencer and one of the bus stops, from where I can get a bus home.
Before I continue, I should say I have form with Gordon Ramsay, as I once talked to him on Radio 5 about gluten-free food in a restaurant.
He said that if you book at least 24 hours before and say you want a gluten-free meal, the restaurant has no excuse for not giving you what you need.
He also said that if they think they’re a good restaurant and can’t offer gluten-free food, then they’re not a good restaurant.
Since then, I’ve eaten a couple of times in his upmarket restaurants and he’s not broken his own rules.
Today, I broke his rule, by just turning up. But I did know, they did gluten-free options.
Note.
- I forgot to take a picture of the burger before I started to eat it.
- The decor is simple and practical.
- What car did the seats come from?
- You can have as much soft drink as you like.
The pictures don’t do the meal justice, which was upmarket for a burger.
I shall use the restaurant more often, as it’s so conveniently placed, close to Angel tube station, which is one of my routes home.
Who Stole All The M & S Gluten-Free Food?
Over the last few weeks, certain gluten-free lines in Marks and Spencer have started getting difficult to find.
Some of the things, I like that have been difficult have included.
- Ginger snap biscuits.
- Gluten-free pies
- Scones
- Bloomer slices
- Gluten-free muesli
Note that my supper is usually something I cook myself from scratch or one of the many M & S ready meals, that contain no gluten. It is usually washed down by a bottle of Adnams low-alcohol beer and followed by some fruit. Tonight, the fruit will be one of my favourites, which are strawberries and bananas.
I did think that the shortage of the lines I mentioned was due to a supply problem.
But then, there have not been shortages of other lines, that I buy, that are not specifically gluten-free.
So is it some gluten-free suppliers are having problems? Possibly.
But!
Regular readers of this blog will know that I believe that those coeliacs on a long-term gluten free diet seem to be unlikely to suffer a severe dose of the dreaded covids. There was no battle with the second dose!
I know for a start that my immune system gives short shift to any viral invaders, as it did with the AstraZeneca vaccine before they came to a truce.
So have others, including some with more medical knowledge than myself, come to the same conclusion about coeliac disease, the immune system, gluten and the covids and have gone gluten-free for safety?
For example, I’ve heard that those suffering from long covid have been tested for coeliac disease.
I’d love to be able to analyse the sales of gluten-free food.
The Anonymous Widower 