Even with these uncertain times with the corona virus, our practice has continued to be busy. When seeing a patient for the first time I always ask them how they are and many times they tell me they are fine and have no problems. I will then look to see if they are on any prescription medications and sure enough, many times they are. I will say to them I notice you are on a drug for Diabetes or for Hypertension. Do you have any of these problems? They reply “Well not really if I take that pill, my blood sugar is fine or my blood Pressure is fine, no I don’t really have any problems with those diseases”. They always say as long as I take that medication I don’t have the disease. Believe it or not a lot of patients feel that as long as they take their medications they are protected from the disease. They have been given a false sense of security.
All medication have some interactions in the body. These interactions can be for good or bad. One of the side effects we are seeing with patients who are on certain classes of drugs for hypertension is that if you contract the coronavirus these drugs can cause the infection to be more deadly because of how the virus binds to our cells because of those drugs.
In the February 28th edition of the British Medical Journal, a recent study showed that children given the flu shot had a five-fold increase of acute respiratory infections cause by a group of non-influenza viruses including the coronavirus. The questions is does the influenza (flu) vaccine make you more susceptible to other infections. This same observation has been seen with people that receive the DPT (Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus) vaccine as well as other vaccines. It is definitely something to think about. The influenza vaccine (Flu Shot) is a sacred cow in American medicine, maybe we need to rethink some things.
Just because you get a shot or take a drug does not always mean you are immune from a disease. It may mean you are more likely to get another disease.