Immune Strategies for COVID-19
Completely avoiding all exposure to the novel coronavirus probably won’t be possible, but three factors affect your likelihood of infection even if you are exposed. Those factors are: dose, duration, and virulence.
The bad news is that you can’t control virulence. Virulence is the ability of an infectious agent to debilitate a host. So if a virus is highly virulent, it is quite capable of wiping out the fitness of the person exposed to it.
The good news.
You can control dose and duration. By social distancing and careful hygiene, you can reduce the amount of virus that gets into your system at any given time and how long you’re breathing or taking in virus from the environment.
Microbiologist Dr. Shawn Thornton recommends this inside-out strategy for reducing your chance of COVID-19 infection.
-
Wash your hands with hot, soapy water for 20 seconds and don’t touch your face/eyes/nose/mouth
-
Reduce stress because cortisol overexposure suppresses the immune system
-
Sleep to refresh your immune system and to help maintain the delicate balance of your gut microbiome
- Essential nutrients are necessary to the proper function and repair of the body’s tissues (vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, amino acids, fiber, water, antiodidants, vitamin D)
- Avoid “overstimulating” immune system by avoiding known allergens, food intolerances, or other things that typically lead to auto-immune flare-ups
- Support gut health with fiber-rich whole foods, low-sugar content, and few (if any) processed foods
I start out most mornings with an antioxidant rich bowl of organic mixed berries and vitamin-D laden yogurt.
If I’m in the mood for a smoothie, I use organic mango, raspberries and carrot, lime juice, tumeric, vanilla pea protein, seed fiber and yogurt. DELICIOUS!
For more details on priming your immune system to resist COVID-19 infections, listen to Dr. Shawn’s video. He discusses how probiotics, prebiotics and phytonutrients work together to prevent disease.
I can attest to the results Dr. Shawn talks about. I reduced my systemic inflammation and put my 30+ year history of hypothyroidism into remission. I’ve been taking the pre- and probiotics Dr. Shawn talks about since 2018. To boost the immune system response, triple up on the phytonutrient immune blend, MentaSync, is paramount.
