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Musings on COVID

Writer's picture: Paul EhrenPaul Ehren

Updated: Jan 6, 2021

This is the first of the regular articles that will let you in for a small taste of the inner workings of the brains of Paul Ehren, Janet Pitcher and our HuMaN brand. It is our hope that these will educate, amuse, entertain and most of all make you think about the subjects covered.

We don’t expect you to agree with everything we say as diversity of thought is a great thing, please feel free to respond, agree, argue or give your own opinion.

We would also welcome your ideas for any subject you would like to see covered in the future.

Where to start?? At the moment I think here is only one major issue that is never out of the headlines and that’s the ubiquitous virus.


In keeping with the tone of these posts I will be introducing a degree of frivolity and as I’m sick of the word COVID I’m taking the lead from the 1997 film “Con Air” and baptising it Cyrus after John Malkovich’s character Cyrus “the virus” Grissom.


So, what do we know about our friend Cyrus? First of all I want to stress that we are not raving conspiracy theorists and as far as possible we want to stick with the known science and, to be honest, if this is a global threat to everyone’s liberty from the “New World Order”, the Illuminati or some other Matrix style control there is sweet f*@k all we, you or anyone else can do about it so let’s control the controllable, get a handle on our own personal risk profile and get on with our lives.


Having said that we can and will question those who are making the decisions that directly affect each and every one of us as without doubt Boris’s mantra of “we will be guided by the science” also includes “we will cover our own ass” and “the science also includes that which will benefit our personal politics”.


The mainstream science community has pretty much ruled out Cyrus leaking out or being purposefully exposed from the lab in Wuhan, the gene sequencing apparently shows every likelihood of being natural with a 96% match for its origin being in Bats with the eventual transmission to humans taking place via an intermediate animal with the pangolin (kind of scaly anteater) being very high on the list of possible suspects.


The human to human transmission that then followed took the path we are all aware of leading (according to official figures, whatever value you place on those) to a current 635,000 total cases in the UK (526,000 in England) and 43,018 UK deaths (38,061 in England) @ 13th October 2020.


Those most at risk have been seen to be the elderly, the obese and those who carry various co – morbidities. The young and fit seem to escape the worst Cyrus has to offer, however I will return to this later.


These facts alone seem to me to be the biggest argument against our deliberate infection by a foreign power. If you were going to introduce a biological agent to f*@k up your enemy surely you would target the young and fit not those members of society who, if you took your lead from ancient Sparta, are actually a drain on the economy and add nothing to the fighting ability of a nation or its monetary wealth.


We have now been living with the virus since the early part of 2020 and we have all had to get to grips with the consequences of both the disease and the Governments attempts to deal with it. Many of us have suffered the physical, mental and economic effects of the combination of Cyrus and Boris.


Here in suburban Essex in the grounds of the HuMaN estate where peacocks stroll through the grounds and we raise our own organic, natural livestock, veggies and fruit we try to bring our own level of expertise to bear on the issues that affect us. Our backgrounds in physical therapy, strength and conditioning and nutrition give a slightly different take on things from the general public and many in the mainstream. For what it’s worth these are our thoughts on the future and what we may be able to do to best protect ourselves.


A personal and I hope realistic summing up of where we are now is that we know relatively few people who have actually been unwell and have heard of literally only a couple of people within our very extended circle who have died. On the one hand this makes for a degree of complacency and dismissal of the official warnings. However, if we dig a little deeper, of those I personally know who became unwell, at least 3 relatively young and definitely very fit individuals, the actual acute stage lasted about 10 days, resembled a bad cold or mild flu and then disappeared. BUT, all three are still suffering long term problems with their breathing, fitness and stamina. These “long haul” symptoms seem to go as far as chronic fatigue/fibro myalgia style effects in some people and can be extremely debilitating.


If we dig a little deeper into circumstances however, something else starts to emerge which is of great relevance for us all. At least 2 and possibly all 3 of the afore mentioned people had been through a sustained period of personal emotional upheaval. This type of chronic stress will weaken our immune systems and potentially trigger other issues which may well be non- Cyrus related but have similar fatigue related effects.

I would therefore sum up our views by saying don’t be afraid to live your life as by being sensible and working on your own risk profile there is a good chance you won’t become unwell. However, don’t take silly risks as you really don’t want to contract this when the full effects are so much of a lottery and potentially could be life changing.


My understanding of the science is that Cyrus finds its way around by airborne transmission and there is a degree of debate over this whole 6 feet distancing as some research shows smaller droplets known as Aerosols spread much further and remain in the air for some time. The chances of catching the thing from infected surfaces seems generally unlikely and all this scrubbing of everything in sight is no better than a process to make people feel more comfortable, there is even an argument to say this actually causes more problems due to a blunting of our innate immune system by removing all possible pathogens to which we need exposure to build up a natural immunity.


Once inhaled and inside the airways the SARS-COV-2 virus enters the body via the ACE2 receptor which sits on the surface of many cells and is primarily known as part of the system controlling blood pressure. The entry into cells is assisted by the serine protease TMPRSS2 which has the ability to prime the Spike protein of the virus which in turn enables the nasty stuff to cascade into our cells.


Once inside the cell Cyrus duplicates itself and starts looking for more cells to infect. It also appears to have the ability to “up regulate” or create more ACE2 receptors on cells than would normally be the case.


In addition to this, more than just being confined to the respiratory system as one might expect of a SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus it also manages to potentially play havoc with the heart, kidneys and other bodily systems. Scarily, it also seems to be able to cross the Brain/Blood barrier which accounts for some of the Neurological symptoms being reported.


So, whatever the truth about the actual figures of infection and whether or not the Government are playing politics with our lives and freedoms this is one dirty little disease and you really don’t want to catch it if it can be avoided.


I look at our individual susceptibility in the form of Russian Dolls, one layer wrapped up by succeeding layers over which we have more and more control.


For example, the innermost layer consists of our age, our gender, our genetic make-up over which we have no control. The next may be where we live, our family situation, our job, our financial situation. Here we have some control but only to a limited degree. We can gradually work our way through these layers to the point where we can have a direct influence and here, we come across the “elephant in the room” individual and population health.


It is well known that various co morbidities – Obesity, Diabetes, Cancer, CVD, respiratory disease, dementia etc make us far more open to infection and to the severity of symptoms. All of these ailments can be addressed to various degrees, many prevented and many cured so why not take responsibility for your own health and take action??

Just looking at our immune systems which are in the front line against Cyrus and similar ailments there are many things we can do:

  • Sleep more

  • Stress less

  • Eat anti-inflammatory foods

  • Move more

  • Address Gut Health

  • Experiment with Intermittent fasting

  • Stay Hydrated

  • Don’t totally isolate

  • Practice good Hygiene measures

Janet and I are here to help you with the detail of these together with the introduction of immune supportive nutrients:

  • Vitamin C

  • Vitamin D

  • Vitamin E

  • Vitamin A

  • Beta Glucans from certain mushrooms

  • Herbs and spices such as garlic, turmeric, echinacea

  • Minerals such as Zinc and Selenium

Details of preferred food sources are available on request.

Everything here is also some of the most potent tools in our fight against general disease.


Most chronic conditions are driven by inflammation and your baseline inflammation levels will also dictate your reaction to our friend Cyrus.

Become the CEO of your own health, take responsibility as we can guarantee that no one else gives a flying you know what

Come visit the HuMaN estate by getting in touch:

Paul – tel. 07768 563 688, email paulehren123@btinternet.com


Janet – tel. 07966 054 017, email janetpitcher@btinternet.com

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