Hantavirus Outbreak: Virus Expert Explains Risk, Immunity, And Diet Impact | Dr. Roger Seheult
The Exam Room by the Physicians Committee
Physicians Committee
4.9 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A deadly hantavirus outbreak linked to a cruise ship is making headlines around the world. But how worried should you really be?
Dr. Roger Seheult joins Chuck Carroll on The Exam Room Podcast to explain what is known about the outbreak, how diet and lifestyle may impact the risk of becoming sick, how Andes hantavirus spreads, why this situation is different from COVID-19, and why health officials are taking it seriously while still assessing the risk to the general public as low.
Dr. Seheult is the co-founder of MedCram, an Associate Clinical Professor at UC Riverside School of Medicine, an Assistant Clinical Professor at Loma Linda University, and is quadruple board-certified in internal medicine, pulmonary diseases, critical care medicine, and sleep medicine.
🧠 In this episode, Dr. Seheult will teach:
- What hantavirus is
- What makes Andes hantavirus different
- The possible role of diet in the body's ability to fight the virus
- How concerned the average person should be
- Why this does not appear to spread like COVID-19
- How inflammation may affect infection risk
- What sleep and circadian rhythm have to do with immunity
- Why morning sunlight may support health
- How light at night can interfere with melatonin
- Why Dr. Seheult says "dark days and bright nights" are a major problem
The conversation begins with the breaking news about hantavirus and expands into a larger discussion about how food, sleep, sunlight, and everyday habits may help support the immune system.
This episode is not medical advice. Always speak with your doctor about cancer screening, treatment, and any changes to your diet or lifestyle.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today on the exam room. |
| 0:05.0 | There was a study that was done that used a network of physicians and nurses. |
| 0:10.0 | And ostensibly, everybody in this network of physicians and nurses, this was both, by the way, |
| 0:14.0 | the United States, Canada, and many countries in Europe that were in this network, they were all trying to be as healthy as possible. |
| 0:20.0 | But obviously they had different ideas about what healthy meant. So there were those that were in this network. They were all trying to be as healthy as possible, but obviously |
| 0:20.9 | they had different ideas about what healthy meant. So there were those that were vegans, |
| 0:26.0 | vegetarians, even pescatarians, and those that were on a low-carb, high-protein diet. And it |
| 0:31.6 | wasn't because that was what they fell into. They were doing that type of diet on purpose. |
| 0:36.8 | And that's an important distinction. I bring |
| 0:38.4 | that up only because many epidemiological studies on diet have this healthy user effect as an excuse |
| 0:44.9 | of why we see vegetarians and vegans doing better. That's not the case here. Everybody here was |
| 0:49.5 | doing their diet because they felt it was the best and it was during a pandemic. Well, when the results came out, |
| 0:55.0 | it showed that those that had a vegan or even pesca vegetarian diet had four times less risk |
| 1:01.4 | of having severe COVID-19 infections in this study compared to those that had the low-carb, high-protein diets. |
| 1:13.6 | Welcome to the exam room podcast, brought to you by the Physicians Committee. |
| 1:17.9 | Hi, I'm Chuck Carroll, raising health IQs coast to coast and around the world. |
| 1:23.4 | Hi to the exam room. |
| 1:24.2 | He's listening in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Dover, Delaware, and Tallinn, Estonia. |
| 1:30.2 | Wherever you are, we appreciate you helping to make the world a healthier place. |
| 1:34.8 | This is episode 36 of season 9, number 735 overall. |
| 1:39.8 | And today we are leading with a breaking health story that has captured the attention of the world. |
| 1:46.8 | We're talking about a deadly Hanta virus outbreak that has been linked to a cruise ship that departed |
... |
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