At a time when COVID has crippled the world, forcing people to frantically search for the best ways to survive and thrive, a new book offers some practical strategies including a six-point plan to fight the deadly disease. Dr Vishakha Shivdasani, a nutritionist, uses the same principles of healing her patients with reverse chronic lifestyle diseases, to develop a new protocol that shows how to expedite recovery from COVID, reduce the chances of post-COVID complications and recover from them.
This protocol also works on new COVID strains that are emerging. HarperCollins India had published Covid and Post Covid Recovery as an e-book earlier this year and now has released the paperback version.
The book has vital information on the symptoms, recovery and effects of contracting the virus and tips on how to build immunity. The six-point plan of Shivdasani or DoctorVee as she is popularly known, covers diet, gut health, sleep, exercise, stress management and enhanced healing with supplements.
"Having been a general practitioner for more than 20 years, with a focus on reversing diseases like diabetes, obesity and PCOS, I find the best results lie in combining modern medicine with lifestyle changes," says the author.
"This holds true for treating COVID as well. You have more power than you think, and seeing patients recover and thrive during this pandemic has been the most gratifying part of my career. I am confident that my six-point plan in this book will help people heal from COVID and its related complications both in the short and long term," she says.
Shivdasani says as a doctor, she has seen the entire gamut of cases, from patients who are completely asymptomatic to those who have unfortunately succumbed to the virus. "There is no textbook case or exact guidelines for recovery like we have for malaria, typhoid or even another virus like influenza. Fortunately, statistics show us that the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 far exceeds that of those who are left with complications or sadly succumb to it," she writes.
She, however, adds that there is a sizeable number of people who have been infected with COVID but can't seem to rid their bodies of its effects even months later. "It is a mystery that has baffled the medical community. Patients among this group may even develop COVID-19 like symptoms and others, weeks after testing negative for the virus. They have been designated 'COVID long-haulers' or 'Long COVID sufferers'," she writes.
She says common symptoms of long COVID can range from hair fall, skin problems, chronic cough, brain fog, headaches, loss of taste and smell to insomnia, fatigue, difficulty in breathing, palpitations, depression, joint pains to blood clots and lung scarring. According to her, the vaccine is not a 'quick fix' but seems to be the best bet to not just slow down the transmission of this virus but also slowly end this pandemic.
"To prepare the body to increase the effectiveness of the vaccine is of paramount importance, especially for high-risk patients like the elderly and people with comorbidities. They are at a much higher risk of poor outcomes and complications caused by the COVID virus," she writes.
