Wearing a simple cotton mask (Photo by Robert Wilkos from Pixabay)
Since I've posted my last article on hydration and Covid-19, I've been doing further research into what other people are researching when it comes to Covid-19 (the disease) and the pathogen, Sars-Cov2 (the virus) and hydration. This article was just posted to MedRxIV (aka Med Archive) on December 23rd, 2020.
For those of you that don't know, medRxiv is a place for scientists to rapidly share new research that they have been working on. Causal language is not permitted on this site - meaning that people that post articles can't say that doing X will undoubtedly produce result Y. Once these papers have been verified by their peers, the paper can be published in medical journals. And that language restriction lifted.
A number of people who read my original article, reminded me that the authors of the hydration and Covid article were hypothesizing that hydration might affect Covid infection outcomes. That correlation does not mean causation. Just because my mom survived a dehydration/Covid-19 infection with hydration, doesn't mean that hydration is the answer to Covid-19. Hydration might lead to lower incidents of Covid-19 infection. But now its been left to scientists to prove/disprove that theory.
Fine by me. We have one positive case study. We just need a few hundred or thousand more.
The article postulates how wearing a mask during times of low relative humidity benefits the wearer, in ways never imagined when we first donned these things. In as concise an explanation as I can put together, the hypothesis goes like this.
1. During periods of low relative humidity which leads to very dry air (like we have indoors during cold weather) the epithelial lining inside our throats leading to our lungs, lose a lot of moisture to evaporation.
What is an epithelial cell? The NIH website states:
"Epithelial tissues are widespread throughout the body. They form the covering of all body surfaces, line body cavities and hollow organs, and are the major tissue in glands. They perform a variety of functions that include protection, secretion, absorption, excretion, filtration, diffusion, and sensory reception."
2. As you breath out, you expel not only Carbon Dioxide, but also water. Easy enough to verify if you live in Canada in the winter. You can see your breath liquify into tiny droplets of water which form the basis of a mist-like cloud every time you breathe out in cold weather.
"Epithelial tissues are widespread throughout the body. They form the covering of all body surfaces, line body cavities and hollow organs, and are the major tissue in glands. They perform a variety of functions that include protection, secretion, absorption, excretion, filtration, diffusion, and sensory reception."
2. As you breath out, you expel not only Carbon Dioxide, but also water. Easy enough to verify if you live in Canada in the winter. You can see your breath liquify into tiny droplets of water which form the basis of a mist-like cloud every time you breathe out in cold weather.
3. It has been shown by multiple sources, that wearing a face mask lowers the chances for Covid-19 infection. 1 2 3
4. The scientists postulate that masks that have great water absorption qualities (like double layered cotton masks) absorb the moisture in our breath when we breathe out. When we breathe in the low humidity dry air, the moisture in the mask gets reabsorbed as it rushes past the mask and into our lungs rehydrating the epithelial lining in our throats.
5. The hydration of the respiratory epithelium is known to be beneficial to the immune system. Hence it is important to keep this lining hydrated.
In a 2004 article about the Sars virus (the same family of viruses that Sars Cov2 comes from) and the ACE-2 receptor that the Sars virus used, the author stated:
"The most remarkable finding was the surface expression of ACE2 protein on lung alveolar epithelial cells and enterocytes of the small intestine."
"The most remarkable finding was the surface expression of ACE2 protein on lung alveolar epithelial cells and enterocytes of the small intestine."
And remember, that the ACE2 protein receptor was where Covid-19 got into your cells.
The interesting thing about the mask article, which all these authors continue to assume, is that the patient or person wearing the mask, is properly hydrated in the first place. Which is why I am once again citing the article by Jodi Stookey et al. They have over 148 articles cited in their seminal work about why we should be hydrating before during and after Covid-19. To make sure we have water in our breath in the first place.
Hydrate people. Wear your masks. Keep your epithelial cells hydrated and the pathogens at bay this winter.
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