[Beginnersmind]

This question is for the doctors out there. With COVID-19 going around, does playing a wind instrument help avoid the complications, or does it open up the lungs enabling viruses and other microbes to have easier access to your lungs? I did a google search and a search here and didn’t come up with anything except mentions of bagpipe/saxophone lung. Thanks for any thoughts on the matter?

 

[notes_norton]

I have no idea, but if I don't play, I don't eat.

My guess is that wind players have healthier lungs, but I could be wrong about that.

I had acute bronchitis when I was a child, the saxophone cured that. Whether it works with COVID is anyone's guess.

Insights and incites by Notes

 

[paulwl]

We are all different, and with viruses mutating everywhichway I would say you have a better chance, but not an ironclad one.

I got pneumonia in my 20s and after that, I was subject to acute bronchitis every few years. Then in 2017 walking pneumonia was epidemic and I got a case that would just not go away. It developed into congestive heart failure.

 

[MLucky]

I am no doctor, but I would venture to say that if wind playing brings you joy and relieves stress, that would be very beneficial to your mental and physical health. Remember that stress is a significant risk factor in many illnesses, and please do what you can to keep your stress level under control.

 

[jgreiner]

I'm more concerned about some idiot crossing the center line on the highway and hitting me head-on, but I digress....

 

[martysax]

Sax and flute playing saved my life. Play, just stay clean. If you aren't familiar with me I suggest you google "Tufts Heart Sax"

 

[kreacher]

It depends, if you play for 20hours a day you are imune to everything, even death. Sounds stupid right? Right

 

[Sacks Of Phones]

Do some light cardio.

 

[BH9]

I’m another not a dr, sorry, but my work required me to do an annual lung function test, and mine was always astoundingly great. Never failed to get a wow comment from the tech. The only thing I can attribute that to is playing wind instruments, but it just measures the volume you can process. My guess is that playing a wind instrument has little to do with viral lung infection, positive or negative, but just a guess.

 

[Jazz Is All]

I don't know, but if you are going to go out and play in public, especially indoors I suggest gargling with vodka during the gig. You don't necessarily have to swallow it, just rinse your mouth with it. Alcohol kills this virus they say and a good high proof vodka is about as close to that as you can get.....although pure grain alcohol would be even better I guess. Okay, revision, get a bottle of Everclear at your neighborhood booze store and use that. Ain't no Covid gonna survive that barrier to your trachea. You can use it to sanitize your hands with it too.

 

[jazzbluescat]

I'm going with the vodka treatment.....don't swallow? ha

 

[Sacks Of Phones]

I'm going with the vodka treatment.....don't swallow? ha

As of right now, my Tuesday gig is still on. I may swish but not spit. That's a waste of perfectly good disinfectant.

 

[Jazz Is All]

I'm going with the vodka treatment.....don't swallow? ha

As of right now, my Tuesday gig is still on. I may swish but not spit. That's a waste of perfectly good disinfectant.

Well vodka might be okay, but I learned when I was 19 that Everclear is not something to trifle with. My buddy worked in a chemistry lab and had access to pure grain alcohol and purloined a large container of it for us to use at a dance party in a Lions Club hall we rented or someplace like that. We had kool aid and made bug juice with it. Let me tell you that when they rolled me down the grassy hill to the lake edge an hour later I was spinning in all directions. It was one of the heaviest hangovers I can remember having. Two days at least. Never drank that again......oh wait.....I did one other time, but was lighter handed with the alcohol bottle. That stuff is 98.9% pure.

It might kill the virus simply by killing the host. LOL

 

[Sacks Of Phones]

Well vodka might be okay, but I learned when I was 19 that Everclear is not something to trifle with. My buddy worked in a chemistry lab and had access to pure grain alcohol and purloined a large container of it for us to use at a dance party in a Lions Club hall we rented or someplace like that. We had kool aid and made bug juice with it. Let me tell you that when they rolled me down the grassy hill to the lake edge an hour later I was spinning in all directions. It was one of the heaviest hangovers I can remember having. Two days at least. Never drank that again......oh wait.....I did one other time, but was lighter handed with the alcohol bottle. That stuff is 98.9% pure.

It might kill the virus simply by killing the host. LOL

I remember Everclear. It is much like the Polish Spiritus. Can be dangerous. I remember the time that I........................wait..........no I don't.............

 

[Jazz Is All]

Sadly I do although I don't remember the spinning and the pain of the hangover just the waking up with a technicolor nightmare on my pillow. We always would go to The Pad which was a club/restaurant with music and poetry readings and great red pepper and meat ball subs. Then pass out from all the wine or booze and wake up with the sub and wine all over the pillow. Once I reached 20 I no longer did that too much, mainly because passing out in the snow in a Wisconsin winter was not conducive to continuing to live.

 

[Keshr]

I remember Everclear — my Mom used to mix it with brandy to make flaming deserts that were popular in the 70s. You got the taste of the brandy, and the spectacular multicolored light show from the Everclear. Otherwise I know nothing at all about it

 

[turf3]

I hate to tell you but Everclear is an industrial solvent, not a drink.

My story:

I was in college and someone got the idea of making Everclear punch for a party. So they made it up, you know, the Kool-Aid, the Everclear, etc. Now I don't drink horrible concoctions when there's a couple cases of nice cold beer nearby, so I had no intention of sampling the "jungle juice". But, I got curious. You know how when you pour out a bottle of booze, there's always quite a bit left on the walls, and it flows back down to the bottom after a bit? Well, I guess there was maybe a half teaspoon of Everclear still in the bottom of that bottle. So out of curiosity, I tipped the bottle up and swallowed that half teaspoon of 95% ethanol. It made me instantly drunk, just due to the instantaneous absorption through the mucous membranes of the mouth. So I will never treat that stuff casually, and I strongly urge you all NOT to do things like gargling with ethanol.

How I heard about Everclear was that my high school biology teacher would regularly prepare biological specimens for inspection under the microscope; progressive infusion with increasing concentrations of ethanol is the standard technique. He told us that while he could theoretically order ethanol from an industrial supply house and not pay the liquor tax, his usage was so small that he just went to the liquor store and bought a pint of Everclear every couple years.

Now that I'm middle aged, I just can't imagine any school teacher these days letting loose with that kind of information. Never mind turning us loose with bottles of ether (for the fruit fly genetics experiments) or showing the VD slides in biology class.

 

[Beginnersmind]

...get a bottle of Everclear at your neighborhood booze store and use that. Ain't no Covid gonna survive that barrier to your trachea. You can use it to sanitize your hands with it too.

Lol! Love it!

 

[Beginnersmind]

...if wind playing brings you joy and relieves stress, that would be very beneficial to your mental and physical health. Remember that stress is a significant risk factor in many illnesses...

Agreed!

 

[Jazz Is All]

I hate to tell you but Everclear is an industrial solvent, not a drink.

My story:

I was in college and someone got the idea of making Everclear punch for a party. So they made it up, you know, the Kool-Aid, the Everclear, etc. Now I don't drink horrible concoctions when there's a couple cases of nice cold beer nearby, so I had no intention of sampling the "jungle juice". But, I got curious. You know how when you pour out a bottle of booze, there's always quite a bit left on the walls, and it flows back down to the bottom after a bit? Well, I guess there was maybe a half teaspoon of Everclear still in the bottom of that bottle. So out of curiosity, I tipped the bottle up and swallowed that half teaspoon of 95% ethanol. It made me instantly drunk, just due to the instantaneous absorption through the mucous membranes of the mouth. So I will never treat that stuff casually, and I strongly urge you all NOT to do things like gargling with ethanol.

How I heard about Everclear was that my high school biology teacher would regularly prepare biological specimens for inspection under the microscope; progressive infusion with increasing concentrations of ethanol is the standard technique. He told us that while he could theoretically order ethanol from an industrial supply house and not pay the liquor tax, his usage was so small that he just went to the liquor store and bought a pint of Everclear every couple years.

Now that I'm middle aged, I just can't imagine any school teacher these days letting loose with that kind of information. Never mind turning us loose with bottles of ether (for the fruit fly genetics experiments) or showing the VD slides in biology class.

Education was different back then as was the world. Hell, cars didn't have seatbelts until I was already in my 20's but as a kid we all sat in the back and front seats and there weren't baby seats either. Then again 1940's cars were built like tanks compared to the pieces of plastic foil on the roads now. I had a 1950 Dodge 4 door sedan in 1970. It had belonged to my buddy's grandmother and actually only had 13,000 real miles. I drove it from Wisconsin to New York and Mass and it was my ride. One day on our narrow country road in Putnam Valley N.Y. I had to stop for a schoolbus that was turning around to go back the way it had come. So I backed up suddenly. What I failed to see was that someone in a WV bug had come around the blind curve and suddenly appeared right behind me. The distance was maybe 10 feet and I couldn't have attained more than 5 mph accelerating in reverse with that heavy car. I totalled the entire front end of the beetle and there wasn't even a scratch on my car. It had just crumpled the VW up like a piece of aluminum foil.

The lesson is that if you want to be safe on the road these days, get a 1940s car, retrofit seatbelts and you won't need airbags because anything you hit, other than a concrete or steel wall will be destroyed and your car won't have even a scratch.