The state of our teeth has consequences for our overall health. This is especially important now.

If our dental hygiene is poor, then our immune system will waste resources fighting this threat, and have less resilience to withstand the coronavirus.

Don't stress your body by making it fight what's going on in your mouth when it could be doing better things for you. This is especially important as we get older and our immune response weakens.

Viruses cause inflammation.

An over-exuberant inflammatory response characterises both coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Moderate exercise helps fight the inflammation. 

In particular, exercise fights age-related inflammation. Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and several other chronic diseases  - are now known to be strongly linked to inflammatory processes.

Exercising has been found to reduce chronic low-level inflammation i.e. exercise keeps us healthy and helps minimise the negative effects of age-related inflammation.

I am a big fan of the Harvard Health blog. I enjoy reading it - it's science-based and trustworthy.

That's why I was disappointed with the article "Six ways you can help your immune system".

Of the "six ways" five were rather trite. I immediately thought of four better ways than the article suggested, especially in these days of Covid-19.

People always seem puzzled by vibration plate machines, at least that's what I've noticed at my local gym. They fiddle with the settings -- looking a little perplexed -- and then push the Start and either leap off with fright at the whole-body vibration sensation, or they stand and enjoy the experience.

But in either case, they rarely come back and even more rarely make the power plate a systematic part of their regular exercise regime. I can empathise with this as that initial whole-body vibration can actually be quite shocking, in the physical sense. 

A study by Harvard Medical School found that the G-forces induced by commonly used whole-body vibration platforms can transmit forces into our brain which exceed ISO-2631 guidelines for safety - unless you flex your knees. (In fact, it is never wise to lock out your joints when using a vibration plate machine.)

So the nub of the problem in people not using the machines regularly is that they don't know how, when and why to use them. 

Luckily for me, the gym keeps buying new machines to replace the old, and I keep using them.

Vibration plates can maintain and grow muscles, improve circulation, and the combination of these two benefits can improve bone strength - if you know how to use the machine. On the other hand, vibration machines are not effective for weight loss, and professional power plates are capable of transmitting excessive vibrations to the cranium. 

Last night was an unusual one for me. My usually painful right knee wasn't painful.

I've been scratching my head all day as to what I had changed, and I've only come up with one thing.

The results seem too immediate. Could this simple change be associated with my pain relief?