Love in the time of COVID-19: Social prescribing and the paradox of isolation

At the time of writing, over 100 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide, and over 3.7 million in the U.K.1 Over 2 million people have died from the disease including over 100,000 in the U.K.2 Fortunately, several vaccines have now been developed, but it will be many months before a sufficient number of the population has been inoculated to achieve effective herd immunity.3 In the meantime, most efforts have focused on reducing exposure to SARS-CoV-2, which, of course, is vital: staying at home, social distancing, hand washing, wearing gloves, wearing masks and disinfecting. However, very little has been written about the other half of the equation: how to enhance immune function and overall health so that, if you are exposed to COVID-19, you can potentially reduce the risk of becoming seriously unwell and therefore reduce the death rate. Most of the mortality from COVID-19 has occurred in people who have one or more chronic diseases.4 Most physicians are trained to view coronary heart disease, type two diabetes, early-stage prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, autoimmune diseases, hypertension, dementia and other chronic diseases as fundamentally different illnesses, with different aetiologies, requiring different treatments. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that these and many other chronic diseases have more in common than might be expected, as many share similar biological mechanisms, all of which are powerfully affected by the lifestyle choices made every day, for better and for worse. These include: Therefore, making …