This week Fred and I review the news on Myocarditis that has now been added as a possible side effect to the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) and the details in the latest CDC update and what you need to know
⬇️Incidence remains rare
👨👨👦Occurs more frequently in younger adults and males
👍Risk reward ratio remains clear to get vaccinated
We discuss some new ideas around singing therapy to help mitigate and treat some of the impact of LongCovid that continues to impact people who are infected with SARS-CoV-2
Raw Transcript
Nick van Terheyden
Hi, this is Dr. Nick on the incrementalist here with incremental insights for better business better health.
Fred Goldstein
And I’m Fred Goldstein with accountable health. Thanks so much for joining this week. I’m here to help employers employees bring their employees back to work in a safe environment looking at their benefits plans. So Nick recently changed some of the guidance around the two vaccines, I believe the Pfizer maternal one having to do with myocarditis. So what is that? And what does it mean?
Nick van Terheyden
Yeah, so what is my myocarditis inflammation of the heart muscle. So, you know, in medicine, a lot of history, the I was an old school guy, I actually learned Latin. And that made some of the terms that we use makes sense, because they were Latin terms. And if you understood the Latin, you could determine what that meant. My oh carditis. Carla, is to do with the heart muscle. So it’s basically the actual muscle, you might also hear a term pericarditis, that’s the lining that surrounds so all of this muscle, and then we have a pericardium that sits around the heart, organ. And those can get inflamed in the same way that your muscles get inflamed. If you have an injury, you will feel aches and pains. But in the case of the heart muscle, that’s a little bit more of a problem, because that’s beating all the time, it’s kind of essential to life. And what you’re talking about is the new guidance, it’s now being put on the warning labels. For those vaccines by the CDC. I think we saw it in other countries, particularly in Israel, that they’ve seen it, and it veers a little bit to the younger generation. Interestingly, there’s also a gender difference. So it seems to be in the males versus the females, although not exclusively, again, one of these things that we don’t sort of exclude just because you’re a female, younger age group doesn’t mean say we would exclude it, but it’s less likely. So these are all statistical. But here are the highlights in all of this. So we’ve seen clearance of the vaccines, Pfizer specifically for 12 and up so parents that are thinking about this, should I get my kids vaccinated? Well, if I had children of that age group, and I have in the past, they’ve, you know, increased in age, so they’re no longer in that group, I would say, absolutely, I would be getting my children vaccinated, because the risks are very, very small, and far less than the impact of this covid 19 infection, and the long term problems that we’ll talk about in a second. So I think it’s about one in a million. And importantly, it responds well to therapy, you just have to stay aware of potential symptoms. So you know, if you’re getting a little bit of chest pain, maybe shortness of breath, you know, flattering people sometimes feel their heart or pounding, you know, that can be a warning sign. And you know, you should seek medical care, but in almost all of these instances, they resolve of their own accord, we don’t have to do anything, there’s no long term instance, it just seems to be causing some inflammation that resolves. But, you know, the statistical numbers here, are very clear. If you look at it from a relative risk standpoint, this is a low risk in the same way that we see that with other vaccinations, there is nothing as risk free, you can’t walk out of your house without wires, you can’t live in your house without being at risk. Let’s be clear. So this is always a risk reward. Very clear, statistically, in my view, that this is something Yes, we need to watch it. Yes, it’s important. But you know, the risk reward is very clear. Get your kids vaccinated if they’re 12. and above, I would be doing so.
Fred Goldstein
Yeah, really make some sense that I was wondering, you know, so really, it’s apparent, they just need to understand potentially what some of the symptoms are and to really watch for those, I guess, once they’ve had their children vaccinated.
Nick van Terheyden
Exactly. And, you know, let’s talk about the downstream impact of this and why the risk reward is so important. When we think about long term consequences. We’ve seen all of this long COVID there’s a number of names, but I think most people can understand that. You’ve been looking at this. There’s been some interesting therapy right for long COVID
Fred Goldstein
Yes, still early, but an interesting Thought is, you know, obviously, a number of these individuals end up having difficulty breathing, you know, and talk about not being able to walk across a room or things like that. There have been examples of using music therapy, in the case of people with asthma and COPD, to help them better develop their breathing. And so a couple of music therapists are one that was in this article is actually started. He interestingly, suffered from long COVID and had issues breathing, and began to do simple songs, where he would sing and see how long he could sing something simple, and then added longer and longer songs. And he’s now put a group together of individuals. And also obviously, this is therapeutic from a mental health standpoint, you’re connecting with other people, similar issues, things like that, and can discuss that as well. But ultimately working up to longer and longer songs and even trying to sing when you walk, which has been helping to build back some of that breathing. Apparently, there’s still some studies going on about this.
Nick van Terheyden
So I, you know, I’m just going to make some suggestions. So what you should do is work up to Bohemian Rhapsody from Queen because if I recall, that’s the longest song. And I have to say, I’m gonna date myself here. That was the first song I think I learned and knew all the words. I think I still do, but don’t challenge me. Wow. So we’re going to get to the extended edition of Bohemian Rhapsody, which always the way doesn’t make any sense. But it’s still a fantastic song. unbelievably great. So
Fred Goldstein
we’re gonna sit in a song in a car and go like this.
Unknown Speaker
It’s one of the all time greats I wish I had anything 1/1000 of a voice. He has unbelievable. Freddie Mercury
Nick van Terheyden
was something special. So yeah, I you know, the interesting thing that you highlight at the end of that is being able to sing and walk at the same time. One of the things that we talked about from an exercise standpoint is if you’re running, you should still be able to talk. So actually having that capacity, so that’s inducing, you know, the appropriate level of exchange in the lungs. And that seems to be doing great. What a great idea, you know, and people don’t have to listen to you. They certainly don’t want to listen to my voice. I’ve been told that very clearly by my
Fred Goldstein
no mind, neither one of us is Freddie Mercury. There was only one unbelievable incredible. So once again, thanks so much. Nick has been a fantastic week. This is Fred Goldstein with accountable health. If you’d like more information, please go to accountable health LLC COMM
Nick van Terheyden
And this is Dr. Nick on the incrementalist here with incremental insights for better business, better health.
