The research paper showed the major causes of death in the United States from March 2020 to October 2021. According to the article, 20.1 percent of deaths were due to heart disease, and 17.5 percent were caused by cancer. The third leading cause of death during this time was COVID-19, accounting for 12.2 percent of all deaths.
Cardiovascular disease had always been a leading cause of death, yet the number of heart disease-related deaths during the pandemic has seen an unusual change.
COVID-19 Infections Are Related to the Increased Mortality Rate in Heart Disease Patients
The number of heart disease complications in critically ill COVID-19 patients are much larger than average.
Similar situations have also occurred in other countries and regions.
- The SARS-COV-2 virus can directly damage cardiac cells, causing damage to cardiac vessels and carditis;
The impact of lung infection on blood circulation burdens the heart; - The virus can cause an aggressive inflammatory response known as a “cytokine storm.” And inflammatory factors can severely impact the cardiovascular system and vital organs;
- The pandemic has altered people’s lifestyles. Being forced to stay at home and the lack of exercise both could cause a decline in their general health, which made them more prone to heart disease.
Myocarditis and Pericarditis Cases Increased Significantly After Administration of COVID-19 Vaccines
In addition to COVID-19 infections, the administration of COVID-19 vaccines has also increased the risk of heart disease. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in August 2021, by using data collected from more than 40 American medical institutions, shows that the number of myocarditis and pericarditis cases increased sharply after around 2 million people received the COVID-19 vaccines in the United States.The median onset of myocarditis is around 3.5 days after vaccination, and there is a strong correlation between the time of onset and the time of vaccination. Among the myocarditis patients, 80 percent developed the symptoms after the second dose, 75 percent were male, and their median age was 36 years old.
The median onset of pericarditis in patients is 20 days after receiving the COVID-19 vaccines; and in 60 percent of the cases, the onset of symptoms took place after the second dose. Among these patients, 73 percent were male, and their median age was 59 years old.
Is the Second Leading Cause of Death Possibly Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic?
The second leading cause of death during the first year of the pandemic was cancer. This, however, differs from heart disease, as the number of cancer patients did not have any abnormal fluctuations in terms of data trends during the pandemic.Nevertheless, COVID-19 infections did have an impact on cancer patients during this time period.
This is because a COVID-19 infection can cause chronic inflammation, and the inflammatory factors can directly or indirectly inhibit the functions of immune cells. The spike proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus can also inhibit mitochondrial functions and suppress the cells’ DNA repair mechanisms. The aforementioned effects can all cause the degeneration of the immune cell functions, further aggravating the cancer patients’ conditions and causing their tumors to worsen and spread.
Also, the prolonged lockdowns during the pandemic could lead to or increase the levels of anxiety and depression, which could both inhibit the immune cells’ ability to surveil and suppress tumors.
A Way to Reduce Mortality Rates of Heart Disease and Cancer
How can one reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer?Since the onset of the pandemic, people have been under a lot of pressure, stress, and anxiety, which affects their immunity. Furthermore, being prone to anxiety puts one at further risk for heart disease.
In the movie Kung Fu Panda, the term “inner peace” is repeatedly mentioned. Recently, more and more studies have found that “inner peace” is closely related to one’s health.
Congestive heart failure is a very common chronic disease in the United States, affecting more than 5 million people. Factors such as smoking, poor diets, alcohol consumption, depression, and a lack of social support are all associated with the increased risk of death in patients with congestive heart failure.
The study followed 191 patients with congestive heart failure for five years. One of the items assessed the subjects’ state of spiritual peace and harmony, asking them to rate their own state and frequency of spiritual peace from “never or almost never to some days” to “most days or many times a day.”
The results showed that a state of spiritual peace could be an important predictor of mortality. During the five-year follow up, people who felt peace of mind regularly had a very low or close to zero risk of death, while those who experienced little or no peace of mind had a 25 percent mortality rate.
Even after taking other factors into consideration, spiritual peace still played a role in reducing mortality rate.
However, for people who don’t feel anxious, their health is usually already much better than people who suffer from anxiety. Therefore, after becoming even more calm, their physical condition doesn’t show any obvious changes.
A lot of people might ask, “How can I have spiritual peace?”
If we pay more attention to our spiritual pursuits, and less to our materialistic pursuits, and remind ourselves to remain calm when facing conflicts, then it will be easier for us to obtain inner peace. For materialistic people who can’t let go of their emotions and love to pick a fight in the face of conflicts, it will be quite difficult to reach inner peace.
There is another term to describe a state of spiritual peace, namely spirituality, and this is usually used to represent a divine feeling or a “holy” state of mind. In medical research, spirituality is more commonly used to describe inner peace and a feeling of meaningfulness in life. This is a state of mind that takes spiritual cultivation, and it requires continuous restraint and effort to achieve.
So our attitude decides our fate. Reducing the number of fights with others and achieving more inner peace, our hearts will be thankful to us, and we will be rewarded with a longer, healthier life.
