The hysteria over the Coronavirus has been increasing. My husband told me yesterday that all the shelves at Target were totally bare for antibacterial cleaning products (like wipes and sprays).
While it’s wise to be prepared with masks and cleaning products…the BEST thing we can do is to support our immune systems to fight off the virus just like we should be able to with any other pathogens we come into contact with through our lives.
So, here are some top tips with nutrition, lifestyle, and supplements you can use with your family to help you feel better armed to fight the Coronavirus. These may seem simple but they are fundamental, foundation for you always but especially at this time!
Nutrition Tips for Immune Health:
Amidst all the stories of fear on the news, my colleague Dr. Ana-Maria Temple’s news interview was educational and entertaining! She advised that we stop eating fast food and drinking pop, and eat whole foods to support our immune systems! View her interview here.
I couldn’t agree more. This is what we should be doing! Did you know that eating an excessive amount of sugar suppresses the immune system? Rather than snack on a candy bar try a homemade trail mix with healthy nuts and seeds.
Stop the pop and consider carbonated flavored waters like Lacroix, Waterloos, or Bubly.
Eat to truly fuel your body. Consider soups and smoothies that will equip your body to fight infection.
Chapter 8 of my book Your Longevity Blueprint includes an easy Immunity Broth Recipe which you can consider cooking once/week sharing with your family:
- Two cups organic chicken broth
- Four chopped shallots
- Two chopped carrots
- Five shiitake mushrooms
- Two cloves of garlic
- Two ounces cooking greens like chard, kale, spinach, or mustard greens
- *Could add protein of choice like chicken or
- *Could add 1 scoop 20 mg Pure or Savory Herb bone broth protein powder.*
Like smoothies instead? Try this Immune Boosting Smoothie Recipe
- 10 oz. Orange Juice
- 4 oz. Non Dairy yogurt like Coconut yogurt
- 1 cup Strawberries, fresh or frozen
- 1/2 cup Pineapple Chunks, fresh or frozen
- 2 Tbsp fresh ginger (peeled // 1 small knob yields ~1/2 Tbsp)
- 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
- 1-2 scoops collagen protein powder or a protein powder of your choice
- Handful of Ice Cubes
Instructions: Blend all ingredients until smooth. Serve immediately.
Note: Avoid adding cow’s yogurt to your smoothie. Dairy increased mucous and can make it more difficult to recover from respiratory illnesses.
Lifestyle Tips for Immune Health:
You must sleep! Your body needs sleep to recover and rebuild for the next day. Adults really need 7-8 hours/night. If you are not getting this, then check out my blog specifically on sleep for tips to help.
Stressing out accomplished nothing BUT suppresses our immune systems! Try to stay calm 😊.
Your immune system won’t be functioning at its best when you are stressed. Focus on stress reduction techniques that can be found here: https://yourlongevityblueprint.com/sleep-like-a-baby-with-these-6-lifestyle-changes/
Also, don’t overwork yourself with exercise. I’m so serious here. If you are addicted to exercise you need to reconsider training when you aren’t feeling well. While studies have shown that 20-40 minutes of moderate activity actually reduce risk of upper respiratory infections by 50%, if you aren’t feeling well but think you need to push through a workout this can actually increase your risk by 3-6 times. Take it easy. This is not the time to force yourself to workout. If you are working out 2 hours/day that is overtraining. That is too much!
Make sure you take time for yourself and honor your body’s need for mental downtime. Time to heal and recover and fight infection is needed.
Supplements for Immune Health:
Remember what I always say, “There’s no pill potion or powder that will replace lifestyle changes,” but once you have incorporated the changed above, it may be time for supplements.
My last blog actually focused on nutrients to help you recover from a cold. You can view that here: https://yourlongevityblueprint.com/avoid-getting-sick/
I’m going to repeat some of that content here as it applies and introduce a new supplement I haven’t mentioned in any blog yet.
Firstly, my FAVORITE go to for fighting infections is silver.
Silver is antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal. For daily immune support through flu season, I take 1 tsp per 100 pounds of body weight.
That means if you are 50 pounds take ½ tsp, 100 pounds = 1 tsp, 150 pounds =1.5 tsp, and 200 pounds = 2 tsp daily under my tongue and wait 60 seconds before swallowing. This will allow the silver to get into your circulation, your bloodstream so if you come into contact with pathogens, like a virus, your body can combat that virus.
IF you get sick you can dose this several times/day. I’ve taken it 5+ times/day when ill.
This silver is nanoparticle size, so it cannot hurt you and it’s easily excretable, so it won’t build up in your tissues. I can tell you right now, it’s flying off the shelves!
We carry the liquid, also in a nose spray, eye dropper, and even throat spray.
Even babies can use this. William has had a cold and I started spraying just a few sprays into his little mouth which he really seems to like and guess what? His cold cleared up in a few days! That’s incredible!
Read my blog on Silver here: https://yourlongevityblueprint.com/immune-system-benefits-of-silver/
Next, most people know how important taking Vitamin D and Vitamin C are.
You can’t build a military if you don’t have materials, money, people right?
You can’t build an immune system from nothing either. You need the right food and nutrients thinks like Vitamin D and C.
A general rule of thumb is to take 5000 IU D3 and 1000 mg Vitamin C per day to help you fight infection. Some of my patients require much higher dosages, but it’s not necessarily safe for me to the listeners to take me without knowing their levels.
You can take D3 with K2 to help prevent calcifications/kidney stones.
Thirdly, probiotics like Probiotic Support provide you with good bacteria to fight off the bad.
If gut is unhealthy, immune system can be unhealthy. Most functional medicine providers practice on this principle. Chapter 1 of my book Your longevity blueprint is entirely focused on building a healthy gut. This involves removing inflammatory foods for you but also nourishing that micobiome.
Probiotics are probably the most utilized foundational GI product in functional medicine which is how I practice. They are very affordable and effective.
What I recommend are the most prominent transient strains, decent potency with a high level of survivability once swallowed. Look for billions not million of colony forming units which is how probiotics are doses. Lactobacillis and bifidobacter species.
Read my blog on Probiotics here:
https://yourlongevityblueprint.com/best-probiotic-supplements/
Our Mitochondrial Complex is a fancy multivitamin. It’s the Cadillac of multivitamins. It includes antioxidants that help with detox. I always feel better when I am taking this. This has been studied on athletes and high stressed individuals and they were less likely to get sick when taking this product. This is something that I would highly advise to be taken if you are traveling. Substitute this for your multivitamin during this Coronavirus scare.
On top of that we also offer a viral support product called Vira Support this is loaded with antiviral properties. Vira Support boosts immune defenses by providing nutrients such as L-lysine, vitamin A, C, pantothenic acid, B12 and zinc, as well as the synergistic blend of botanical extracts black elderberry, astragalus, echinacea and andrographis that have been used traditionally for their clinically effective immunomodulating properties. This is something that should be taken right away when you’re coming down with an illness, whether it be the flu or an upper respiratory infection. You can take one to two every few hours for 24 hours when you first start coming down with an illness. Then you can take 1-2 ongoing from a maintenance standpoint daily.
Not all supplements are created equal. You want to make sure your herbal products are standardized to contain constituents that have been using in clinical trials proving their efficacy.
For instance with Elderberry look for standardized to contain anthocyanins. This has been shown to inhibit or interfere with viral adherence to host cells. Viruses hack our cells to replicate and elderberry blocks that.
Astragalus helps identify invaders and sound the alarm for attack.
Echinacea has been shown to compete with pathogens by blocking viral receptors on cell surfaces. Has been used for thousands of years starting in Ayurveda all the way to medicines that have been used today. It has a long history of safety.
Andrographis can helpsto decreasing throat irritations and nasal secretions.
With Olive leaf you want to look for another standardization oleuropein. Oleuropein is a potent antioxidant and helps maintain normal inflammatory balance. Studies have indicated that oleuropein boosts host immune defense and supports a strong immune response during seasonal and respiratory challenges. It’s a natural killer cell booster. Those are the navy seals of your immune system.
These herbs all increase immune efficiency. Basically, they tell your immune system to build the army and train it to be more effective at killing the bad guys (foreign invaders).
This Vira Support blend we carry contains many of the above mentioned herbs and is something that should be taken right away when you’re coming down with an illness, whether it be the flu or an upper respiratory infection. You can take one to two every few hours for 24 hours when you first start coming down with an illness. Then you can take 1-2 ongoing from a maintenance standpoint daily.
Biocidin® is a proprietary combination of botanicals and essential oils directed at addressing microbial balance and the biofilms which often form around communities of microbes. I use this often with my Lyme/mold patients. However, botanicals contained like (echinacea, bilberry, goldenseal, milk thistle, shitake) support the body’s ability to address bacteria, fungi, parasites. So, this is not just great for my Lyme and mold patients. It’s also great to have around in times like this!
Lauricidin (monolaurin) is one of the most important fats found in breast milk and partially responsible for the milk’s and partially responsible for the antibacterial, antiviral properties. Research indicates that it can help inactivate bacteria, yeast, fungus, and viruses. This basically attacks the lipid envelope of the virus, which helps to disrupt the virus’s ability to replicate, weakening it and making it susceptible to destruction from your immune system. It comes as little pebbles. Start with a low dose even like a few pebbles, and work up to 3 scoops/day.
A really exciting relatively new product to hit the market is serum derived immunoglobulins. In my practice, we call this SbIgG. The magic here is that is can bind to pathogens like viruses so you can eliminate them. Raw material is called Immunolin. This has been show to bind H1N1, C diff, flagella, and different bacteria. I can’t make any claims regarding it and the current health crisis we are facing, but I believe this product has the potential to be far more reaching that it has already proven.
I know this was a lot, but I continue to get asked questions on what can be taken to help fight viruses and so I wanted to give you a wealth of knowledge!
If you have any further questions on the above-mentioned product stop on into the Integrative Health and Hormone Clinic or call 319-363-0033.
Although there is no known 100% guaranteed treatment at this time, hopefully, these tips on nutrition, lifestyle and supplements will help keep your family healthy and less hysterical around the Coronavirus!
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