Vaccine Is Incentive to Improve Overall Health.

• Position: COVID-19 IMMUNIZATION

While we wait for our turn to get vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, we could--and probably should--use the time to make sure we bring our healthiest emotional and physical selves to the treatment, a review of previous research suggests.

Researchers at Ohio State University, Columbus, reviewed 49 vaccine studies dating back 30 years that document how stress, depression, and poor health behaviors can have a negative effect on the body's immune response to vaccination, and how improving health factors can enhance that response.

The impaired immune responses tended to fall into three categories: interference with the development of antibodies against the pathogen; more-rapid erosion of antibody protection that does develop; or intensification of vaccination's side effects.

The steady stress of navigating our disrupted routines and social lives during the pandemic may have set us back when it comes to maintaining healthy behaviors, the researchers say. They report on data from across the world documenting higher depressive and anxiety symptoms and more insomnia during lockdown, increased alcohol sales and overeating, and fewer average step counts recorded by Fitbits.

However, the good news is that the power to make improvements that give us the best chance for a healthy response to the coronavirus vaccine is almost completely in our control. Managing stress through exercise and mindfulness meditation; getting enough sleep; quitting or curbing tobacco use; and improving our diets--even in the short term, right around the time of vaccination--could influence how our bodies respond, the evidence suggests. For those struggling with depression, now would be a good time to seek professional help.

HEALTH BEAT

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