HEALTH
WORK ON YOUR PANDEMIC RECOVERY
By Lisa Benton, MD, MPH
People also are reporting hair falling out, memory loss, ongoing abnormal tiredness, and losing their senses of taste and smell due to Covid. While many of the Covid complications happen if you have risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, lung, heart, and kidney problems, you can still be in top shape and have Covid, or a complication of it that can kill you.
Most recently, the overall unemployment rate for people ages 16 and older is 6.5%, and even lower for whites at 5.8%. Despite news that the unemployment rate is falling and trending toward pre-pandemic shutdown numbers, the numbers remain higher for Black, Latinx, and Asian Americans. Even with a little optimism as we wait for the vaccines, stay on top of your health and be Disparity and inequity in all sectors of the job proactive. Wearing a double mask will give market is made plain when the numbers are an extra barrier of protection. Continue to analyzed to show that the rates are higher for keep safe distances (2 shopping cart lengths) people of color. It’s 9.9% for Blacks, 8.7% apart and wash your hands with soap and for Latinx, and 6.7% for Asians, reminding water. Use hand sanitizer regularly. us that recovery in our communities lags the optimistic outlook that others may be talking Consider getting a finger pulse oximeter about, and a lot more work needs to be done (about $25 at Walmart, Amazon, Walgreens). on many levels to revitalize the economy. This will measure minute to minute if you are getting enough oxygen. More importantly, For women, and particularly women of color, it can warn you if you’re getting short of the pandemic driven recession continues to breath when moving around or sitting still be hitting us even harder, has been and will before you feel it. It will detect that very continue to be devastating. Women have early signs of Covid, pneumonia and other been leaving the paid workforce in greater lung problems. numbers to provide childcare, eldercare and homeschooling, and losing income. Even Studies have shown that the pulse oximeter though we’re working harder, our earnings measurement will drop even before you start and equity are decreasing. Because of this, to show other signs of a Covid infection. it is that much more important to make time Doctors have been sending patients home to keep your physical, mental, and spiritual from the emergency room and hospital to health together. monitor themselves. A normal pulse oximetry reading is near 100%, and if it drops into the Even though we’re hearing for the first low 90’s and high 80s you should get help or time in months that hospitalizations due to check in with an advice nurse. Covid and its complications may be leveling off, don’t let your guard down. Covid still Check with you doctor about whether you continues to be the thief that comes to steal, need to take a baby aspirin daily or need a kill, and destroy. vitamin D supplement beyond your regular diet. As African Americans we are often The complications of Covid on the heart, lung vitamin D deficient especially during the and brain are still happening with a vengeance. winter months when there is less sunshine We’re seeing many hospitalizations for blood and daylight. clots in the lung and brain as well as irregular heartbeats, rhythms, and heart attacks. Many Continue to make sure you’re getting your people getting a second pneumonia on top of daily recommended allowances of vitamin and after Covid causing further respiratory C, zinc. Stay hydrated by drinking water and increasing fruits and vegetables in your diet. problems and need for extra oxygen.
The Columbus African American News Journal • February 2015
25
Try to get enough sleep and again, check with your doctor to see if it’s alright for you to take melatonin. Researchers are still looking to see if helps, but there are a few reports out that maybe melatonin does have benefits. Just as important to staying healthy is working to reduce you stress and increase your peace. Connecting for your mental health matters just as much as taking care of your physical body. Regular prayer, meditation and turning off negative news and social media are activities that will do wonders for you. Cutting off your phone, radio, and television at least one hour before bedtime will help you rest better and give you more time to focus on yourself in that much needed “me time” that everyone is after. Adding exercise which can be as simple as walking, deep breathing, and gentle stretching for 15-minute intervals during your day and before bedtime, will help you relax, calm down, reduce your anxiety, improve your mood. It will help get you ready and keep you in your right mind to face tomorrow and the day after that. See A Little More How Earlier Covid Diagnosis and Treatment Saves Lives, retrieved from: https://www.pbs. org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/ how-earlier-covid-diagnosis-and-treatmentsaves-lives Working women are still being disproportionately hurt by the pandemic recession. by Juliana Kaplan and Madison Hoff. 1/31/21. Retrieved from: https:// www.businessinsider.com/women-are-stilldisproportionately-hurt-by-the-pandemicrecession-2021-1 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics retrieved from: https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/ cpsee_e16.htm Lisa D. Benton, MD, MPH (The Doctor is In) breastsurgeonlb@gmail.com, Twitter:@ DctrLisa (415) 746-0627
The Columbus & Dayton African American • February 2021
