ABSTRACT
In looking for solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic, important lessons come from the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. During the H1N1 influenza pandemic, the soldiers had better outcomes than the civilian populations, but the best outcomes were reported by a Seventh-day Adventist seminary, where a plant-based diet was provided. The diet has been described as including grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables. A few clinical trials have also assessed the role of nutrition in COVID-19. One study with almost six hundred thousand participants showed that those with a high consumption of fruits and vegetables had a reduced risk of COVID-19 of any severity by 9% and a reduced risk of severe COVID-19 by 41%. Another study in healthcare workers who were frequently exposed to COVID-19 in their clinical practice has demonstrated that those who reported being on a plant-based diet had a 73% lower risk of moderate-to-severe COVID-19. Based on the lessons from 1918 and the recent nutrition research in COVID-19, it seems plausible that a healthful plant-based diet may be a powerful tool to decrease the risk of severe COVID-19 and should be promoted as one of the public health safety measures.
ABSTRACT
The study tested the effects of a vegan diet on cardiometabolic outcomes and quality of life among healthcare employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overweight hospital employees were enrolled and randomly assigned (in a 1:1 ratio) to an intervention group, which was asked to follow a low-fat vegan diet, or a control group, asked to make no diet changes. However, due to COVID-19 disruptions, all participants remained on their usual diets from March to June (12 weeks), creating a de facto control period, and all (n = 12) started the vegan diet with online classes in June, which continued for 12 weeks. Nine participants completed all final assessments. A crossover ANOVA was used for statistical analysis of differences in cardiovascular health during the control period and during the intervention. Despite the ongoing crisis, body weight decreased (treatment effect -5.7 kg [95% CI -9.7 to -1.7]; P = .01); fasting plasma glucose decreased (-11.4 mg/dL [95% CI -18.8 to -4.1]; P = .007); total and LDL-cholesterol decreased (-30.7 mg/dL [95% CI -53.8 to -7.5]; P = .02; and -24.6 mg/dL [-44.8 to -4.3]; P = .02, respectively); diastolic blood pressure decreased (-8.5 mm Hg [95% CI -16.3 to -.7]; P = .03); and quality of life increased (P = .005) during the intervention period, compared with the control period. A vegan diet improved cardiometabolic outcomes and quality of life in healthcare workers at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABSTRACT
Declining life expectancy and increasing all-cause mortality in the United States have been associated with unhealthy behaviors, socioecological factors, and preventable disease. A growing body of basic science, clinical research, and population health evidence points to the benefits of healthy behaviors, environments and policies to maintain health and prevent, treat, and reverse the root causes of common chronic diseases. Similarly, innovations in research methodologies, standards of evidence, emergence of unique study cohorts, and breakthroughs in data analytics and modeling create new possibilities for producing biomedical knowledge and clinical translation. To understand these advances and inform future directions research, The Lifestyle Medicine Research Summit was convened at the University of Pittsburgh on December 4-5, 2019. The Summit's goal was to review current status and define research priorities in the six core areas of lifestyle medicine: plant-predominant nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress, addictive behaviors, and positive psychology/social connection. Forty invited subject matter experts (1) reviewed existing knowledge and gaps relating lifestyle behaviors to common chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, many cancers, inflammatory- and immune-related disorders and other conditions; and (2) discussed the potential for applying cutting-edge molecular, cellular, epigenetic and emerging science knowledge and computational methodologies, research designs, and study cohorts to accelerate clinical applications across all six domains of lifestyle medicine. Notably, federal health agencies, such as the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration have begun to adopt "whole-person health and performance" models that address these lifestyle and environmental root causes of chronic disease and associated morbidity, mortality, and cost. Recommendations strongly support leveraging emerging research methodologies, systems biology, and computational modeling in order to accelerate effective clinical and population solutions to improve health and reduce societal costs. New and alternative hierarchies of evidence are also be needed in order to assess the quality of evidence and develop evidence-based guidelines on lifestyle medicine. Children and underserved populations were identified as prioritized groups to study. The COVID-19 pandemic, which disproportionately impacts people with chronic diseases that are amenable to effective lifestyle medicine interventions, makes the Summit's findings and recommendations for future research particularly timely and relevant.