Reprinted from the Washington Post Wellness Section

By Daphne Miller 3/29/2020

As unemployment and gun sales spike and Quarantini recipes circulate on the Internet, it’s easy for me, a family physician, to focus on all the noninfectious ways that the novel coronavirus is attacking our health.

“I’m as worried about losing control of my diabetes, as I am about the virus,” one of my patients told me last week during a video medical visit, describing how sedentary she had become since the lockdown went into effect in the Bay Area a week ago.

But, to my surprise, not everyone is reporting a decline in self-care since the start of this pandemic. Among those lucky enough to have access to food and safe housing, and not be sickened by covid-19, there are some indicators that the pandemic itself, and the massive shutdown it has triggered, is forcing the adoption of more healthful behaviors.

While it feels wrong to talk about silver linings in the midst of so much tragedy, I cannot help but wonder: Will we sustain these changes post-covid? If so, what kind of impact might they have on our long term health as a nation?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/could-we-come-out-of-the-coronavirus-crisis-with-new-more-healthful-habits/2020/03/26/bddfe78a-6f85-11ea-aa... 1/9

More exercise?

Using the unscientific medium of Twitter, I asked my followers how self-care had changed since the lockdown. Many respondents said that they were exercising more than usual.

Ronin DeVamas, who describes themself as “a obese (240lbs) introvert with a desk job” replied:

“Since I’m working from home, I. . .
- can get up and lift my weights whenever I please, without feeling embarrassed - lost 5 lbs. from not dining out
- started drawing more often
- taken noon naps to re-energize for afternoon work
- woken up early more regularly”

People in the fitness industry are seeing indications that physical activity might increase, despite the fact that gyms are closed and many of us are being told to stay in.

“In the past week our subscriber numbers have tripled,” said Brandon Copeland, co-founder of Khepera Wellness in Washington, D.C., a yoga studio without walls, which he founded to serve the black community. “My mission all along has been to help people have a wellness lifestyle and now people are at home and suddenly have the time to take care of themselves.”

While Khepera has always offered virtual classes, brick-and-mortar fitness businesses are also refashioning themselves as online community centers, offering both a workout and the opportunity to connect.

Aleesia McIntosh, co-owner of the Dailey Method, a neighborhood exercise studio in Loudoun, Va., also reports that many new students are joining her live-streamed classes via Zoom. “People are turning on their cameras and exchanging words of support and encouragement,” she said. One positive outcome of transitioning to the Internet is that boutique establishments like McIntosh’s have suddenly become more inclusive. Her online classes can be accessed by anyone with a smartphone for a lower price point because using Zoom allows for more participants per class (maximum per meeting is 100).

In my neighborhood, a new sight has become commonplace: households exercising together. Yesterday one clan emerged from their home and started doing wind sprints up and down my block. There are grumbles on my local Nextdoor about “groups of people out exercising and not respecting the 6-foot rule.” But those groups might be made up of roommates or family members.

More time in nature?

Reports from around the country indicate that plenty of Americans are partaking in “forest bathing” or time in nature as a way to counteract the inactivity and isolation of shelter-in-place orders. In normal times, this would be registered as a positive health trend, but in this moment many park and public health officials are worried that the risk of transmitting the virus in overcrowded parks might outweigh the health benefits of being in nature. After witnessing a record number of visitors this past weekend, some parks are shutting down parking lots and access roads while others are staying open but reminding visitors to comply with social distancing. Hopefully we can up our daily dose of “green medicine” without getting each other sick or overwhelming park facilities.

More home cooking?

Home cooking from scratch, an activity generally considered to be a good indicator of healthful eating, also appears to be on the upswing. As I write this, slowcooker liners, Instapots and Lodge cast iron skillets are high on Amazon’s “Home & Kitchen” bestseller list.

Kelsey Burrow, public relations representative for the popular recipe site FOOD52, reports that traffic increased 25 perfect in the past week. “That's the kind of week- over-week growth we saw leading up to Thanksgiving last year (usually our biggest week of the year),” she said in an email. And the No. 1 dish this week is not a Quarantini or a gooey dessert, it is Charles Phan’s Vietnamese Chicken recipe which falls squarely in the healthy comfort food category.

In terms of ingredients, dried beans are suddenly a pantry mainstay. Shelf-stable, low-priced, low carbon, high-nutrient, high flavor, low-calorie; it’s hard to think of a food that is healthier and better meets the needs of the moment. Steve Sando, owner of the Rancho Gordo dried heirloom beans in Napa California, is overrun with orders and cannot keep up.

“This isn’t joyous, this horrible crisis. I hate this stuff. I would really rather sales were normal. I would love to go back to begging people to buy beans and having them get excited when they try them,” he told Bon Appetit. But still, people are (re)discovering beans en masse which might bode well for cholesterol levels and waistlines in the coming months and years.

More gardening?

Speaking of seeds, another Amazon bestseller right now is the is the 40 variety of non-GMO seed survival vegetable pack. It’s hard to think of a more healthful pursuit than growing one’s own food; it guarantees you a dependable supply of nutrient-rich ingredients and a workout that might replace going to the gym (you can expend 200 to 400 kilocalories per hour in the garden).

More mindfulness?

Meanwhile, Apple’s App Store is showing a dramatic bump in downloads for mental health apps — top picks include Calm and Headspace — to help with guided meditation, conscious breathing and mindfulness. Of course, this is a sad reflection of our collective distress. But still, its hopeful that so many are relying on effective and safe coping tools to get through this disaster. Mindful breathing, for example, has been shown to regulate sleep, lower blood pressure and cortisol levels.

Other more healthful activities people responding to my Twitter query mentioned were drinking less alcohol, trying to quit smoking and vaping, driving less, and spending quality time with housemates, family and pets.

Cleaner air?

From a public health standpoint, one of the most hopeful fallouts from this pandemic has been its effect on of our atmosphere. As we close factories, take vehicles off the road and airplanes out of the sky, air pollutants and greenhouse gas levels have plummeted. While it’s difficult not to view these dramatic improvements as ill-gotten gains, they do give us a glimpse of how much healthier our environment would be if we reduced the emissions from manufacturing, mining, transportation and agriculture. And if you consider that our expansion into wildlife areas to build homes and cities, and extract natural resources, is also the reason most novel infections — including covid-19 — are allowed to spill over to humans, this global pause also shows us that it is possible to halt this process. Perhaps, if we protect what nature we have left, we can prevent the next pandemic.

Covid-19 has drastically altered life as we know it, and we can only speculate about what awaits us in the days and weeks to come. “But even in this uncertain time, we can still find reasons for hope,” Former president Barack Obama wrote on the Obama Foundation website. One hope is that as we emerge from our separate shelters and venture back out into our changed world, we can preserve those changes that have made us healthier: body, mind and planet.

@drdaphnemiller is a family physician and author of “Farmacology” and “The Jungle Effect.”