News & Views
A British Indian-origin doctor, who has been championing an anti-obesity drive as a means to combat the severe effects of Covid-19, has just released a new book that offers a “simple, evidence-based” plan to help improve health parameters.
Dr Aseem Malhotra 's 'The 21-Day Immunity Plan: How to Rapidly Improve Your Metabolic Health and Resilience to Fight Infection' is pegged as a tried and tested method of how.in just 21 days people can prevent, improve and even potentially reverse many of the underlying risk factors that exacerbate how infections, including Covid-19, affect humans and improve their ability to recover. “Poor metabolic health equals poor immune health. The good news is that within weeks of making simple changes to what we eat, how we move and reducing stress through meditation, we can rapidly improve - both making us healthier and more resilient.to infection,” said Malhotra, a National Health Service (NHS) trained cardiologist.
Record time
The medic says he wrote the book, which will hit the shelves in India in the coming weeks, in just six weeks because he and his publishers wanted it out as soon as possible to help readers build resilience to infection, given the current coronavirus pandemic. “I follow my own advice and I prescribe this to my patients who see rapid improvements.in their health. My metabolic parameters are all normal despite having a strong family history of high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes and a recent body composition scan revealed my metabolic age is 29 even though my actual age is 42,” he said.
Adopting the plan
Among the many converts is British Indian filmmaker Gurinder Chadha, who is on course to reverse her type 2 diabetes by adopting Malhotra's plan.during the coronavirus lockdown. “When lockdown happened, I was very worried about catching Covid-19. Being a type 2 diabetic with not great glucose control I knew I was at high risk for severe infection,” said Chadha. “I finally decided to do something about my obesity and T2 [diabetes]. I immediately took Aseem's lifestyle advice, specifically cutting out all sugar and refined carbs and within weeks I've come close to reversing my type 2 diabetes. The best part is I was still able to enjoy my food and felt mentally and physically better as my body became healthier. Read this book and follow the plan, it may well save your life,” adds the 'Bend It Like Beckham' director.
The 21-Day Immunity Plan - An Excerpt
After I first highlighted that the reason the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, fell very sick with symptoms of Covid-19 was because of his weight, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock asked me to advise him on the links between the potentially deadly virus and obesity.
I told him that obesity was just the tip of a diet related disease iceberg and that risks of excess body fat especially in the abdomen affected many with so called normal weight. Unfortunately, this risk, best measured by five factors, is sub-optimal in the overwhelming majority of Brits, meaning we're essentially all at risk not just from infection complications but in the longer term, heart attacks, stroke and death.
The good news, as I explain, is that with simple changes to what we eat, how we move, and reducing our stress levels we can notice significant differences to how we feel and health markers within just 21 days and get us on the road to a longer, healthier and happier life.
There's no better time to start than now, and if we do, we'll be much more resilient the next time we're hit with another viral pandemic and with a healthier population we won't need another lockdown.