elev8 wellness
  • Elev8 Wellness
    • About
    • Meet the team
    • Classes >
      • Women's Wellness Series
      • Elev8 Yoga
      • Elev8 Dance
      • Elev8 Kids Programs >
        • Elev8kids Summer Camp
        • Toddler Classes
    • Our Studios >
      • Rent Our Studio
    • Elev8 Recipes
  • WellBlog
    • Elev8 Weekly Thoughts
  • Services
  • Virtual Coaching
  • Contact
    • Take a Tour

wellblog

Magic, Denial, Panic And Conspiracy Evaporate with Education

3/24/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
I had a mentor in college who frequently said, “a little bit of knowledge is dangerous.” The joke was about INCOMPLETE understanding of a subject. Beginners like to weigh in with opinions before they grasp the mechanisms of a system. This can be remedied with just a little more patience and learning.

I see it a lot in health and fitness. A once-heard meme about heart disease has a greater likelihood of influencing people’s beliefs than the known biology. An ad on TV dictates people’s opinion about food and exercise more than the actual science. Frequently, I find that a non-controversial chemistry fact I say to clients or friends is met with a response like, “but don’t THEY say that milk does a body good?” What? Who is they? How do we define good? What kind of milk? Wasn’t that a television marketing campaign in the 80s? I’m talking about chemical laws.

And so we see it in magical thinking, superstition, or more recently with denial and conspiracy theories. People who’ve never even thought about the nature of viruses believe whole-heartedly that Covid isn’t dangerous AND/OR that it’s a lab-concocted Rothschild assault on our liberties. If they would take the time to learn anything about infectious disease or virology, they’d discover there is absolutely nothing surprising about the present pandemic.

People in the field have been writing about this exact possibility in the 70s:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/604130


Coronavirus making the jump to humans in the 80s:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6262459

The inevitable likelihood of viral pandemic in the 90s:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8557069

How people with underlying health conditions will get crushed with a respiratory flu in the 90s:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8405160

Hundreds of papers on the SARS Coronavirus in 2003.
​

And essentially predicting our current situation in 2007 (reference photo) and the emerging zoonotic threats in 2008:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18378340

What we're all observing in the world is just how viral mutation has always worked and must work. If you imagine an x-axis to plot infectiousness and a y-axis to plot deadliness, any mutation must shift one or both. But one tends to upend the other, which is why we see an Avian flu high and to the left and Measles low and to the right. If it’s deadly, it tends to kill off before developing high infection rates, and vice versa.

We could also imagine a z-axis representing other traits (animal-to-human viability, pandemic preparedness, etc.). Viral mutation dictates that these must happen, and have. We lucked out for 102 years; and, frankly, even Covid isn’t high and to the right (which will also happen one day). It has a middle mix of both, with a depth in the z-axis.

We cannot control the x and y axes. We can only limit part of the z-axis depth. That was always the case. Covid and all viruses will mutate again. Some of these mutations will move them higher, some lower, some rightward, some leftward, some deeper, some shallower. This is a natural consequence of replication. It requires no conspirators. Maybe we won't get a virus that is high and to the right for another 102 years; but we WILL get one eventually. And hopefully, by then, we will have emergency measures in place that limit its depth.

You don’t need to invoke magic, superstition, panic, denial, or conspiracy if you remain patient and learn. It’s not to say that conspiracies aren’t ever real. In health and fitness, there are well-documented cases of conspiratorial suppression of science around cholesterol and pharmaceuticals. But we don’t have to default to these fear coping mechanisms when we face something new to us. We can remain calm. Stay patient. And withhold far-flung opinions until we gain a little more understanding.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Elev8 Wellness
    ​wellblog

    We strive to provide the latest articles and commentary on health, fitness, nutrition and vitality strategy.

    Archives

    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    Categories

    All
    Active Memory
    Age
    Business
    Cancer
    Coaching
    Dementia
    Diet
    Dna
    Elev8 Wellness
    Family
    Fat
    Fish Oil
    Genetics
    Gut Health
    Health
    Jonathan Watters
    Ketosis
    Leadership
    Life
    Memory
    Muscle
    Nutrition
    Optimisim
    Parkinsons
    Pessimism
    Probiotics
    Sales
    Spatial Intelligence
    Strength Training
    Weight Loss
    Weight-loss
    Wellness

    RSS Feed

Picture

LIVE. AWESOME.

We offer the highest quality in personal  fitness, nutrition, and mindset coaching, helping you achieve your fitness, health, wellness and performance goals no matter the obstacle. With virtual online training and private, in-studio training we make it easier to reach your wellness goals safely.

​No more can't. No more not good enough. If you compete in a sport, let your mind no longer hold you back from being the greatest. If you don't, let your mind no longer hold you back from being the best version of you that you can be.

Sign-up for a Tour
Covid Screen Waiver
​Elev8 Waiver
Become an Elev8 Instructor
Space Rental
LOGIN / MEMBER REGISTER

6244 lyndale ave. s., minneapolis, mn 55423
[email protected]
612-440-6877

© 2021 Elev8 Wellness LLC.  All Rights Reserved.                                              site map  |  contribute  |                                                           SITE BY  Sproute Creative
Photos from benzado, frankieleon, hatcher10027, Sterling College, OakleyOriginals, rawpixel.com, quinn.anya, allispossible.org.uk, wuestenigel, jeffdjevdet, Brian Legate, jeffreyw, Ray Larabie, katerha, Agência Brasil, TheBetterDay, A. M. D.
  • Elev8 Wellness
    • About
    • Meet the team
    • Classes >
      • Women's Wellness Series
      • Elev8 Yoga
      • Elev8 Dance
      • Elev8 Kids Programs >
        • Elev8kids Summer Camp
        • Toddler Classes
    • Our Studios >
      • Rent Our Studio
    • Elev8 Recipes
  • WellBlog
    • Elev8 Weekly Thoughts
  • Services
  • Virtual Coaching
  • Contact
    • Take a Tour