People are figuring out what they can do to boost their immune system with the COVID19 virus running around the country. I have been amazed at stores and online suppliers running out of herbs, homeopathics and supplements that might relate to immune boosting for a virus. What I am not hearing is how to take good care of yourself when you get the virus. If we start treatment immediately that supports our body’s best efforts, then it should be less severe.
Don’t blow it in the home stretch! Taking NSAIDS or acetaminophen for reducing pain and fever, for example, aspirin, ibuprofen, celebrex and Tylenol, when you finally get the virus will short circuit your body’s best immune response, fever. Viruses are very heat sensitive, they have a fatty coat around them that melts when it is too warm. A fever is your body’s best defense! Don’t get in it’s way and trip it up when the going get’s tough. If you regularly take NSAIDS for arthritis or pain, think about whether you can stop them temporarily, so you don’t interfere with your fever. It will allow your body’s immune system to do its best work right from the beginning.
Some ideas for staying comfortable, but still supporting your body’s best defense mechanism are:
1. Use hydrotherapy to ease symptoms and keep the body working. I have a small book on Amazon, Naturally Healthy at Home, holistic first aid, herbs, homeopathy and nutrition. (It is also on Kindle.) The chapter on water therapy explains about warming socks, hot foot bath, in addition to other water therapies. The best way to do a foot soak is to alternate hot and cold water three times, starting with hot water with Epsom salts and ending with cold. Your feet should end up very red and warm from excellent circulation. The pumping action stimulated by alternating the hot and cold affects the whole body positively. Since the body is a closed system and it gets all the blood moving. Doing this at the beginning of a virus can sometimes be all you need to do.
2. A normal body temperature is generally around 98.6 F or 37 C. If it goes above that at all, it is a good thing for you and bad for the virus. So a fever of 100 to 101 is a good thing. This current virus does not generally create a real high fever initially. We want it to go high enough to deactivate the virus and speed up the enzyme response. Try not to get in it’s way if possible. If you are very uncomfortable, a tepid (not cold) bath can be helpful. Cool cloths on the neck or forehead can feel good. Know that short term pain is long term gain.
3. Another way of helping the body deal with the fever is to drink or steam with some hot herbal teas that are known to be diaphoretic, or sweat inducing. Sweating cools us back down again. Some herbs you might make a tea with, would be chamomile, tulsi (holy basil), peppermint or yarrow. There are other diaphoretic herbs you might be able to get more easily in your area. I get chamomile and tulsi tea bags at Trader Joe’s. These herbs also have a calming and anti-viral effect.
To do a steam, place the herbs or tea bag in a large bowl, add hot water, then sit with a towel tent over your head and the bowl, for 15 minutes or so. It will soothe your upper respiratory system and be anti-viral both
4. Of course there are homeopathic remedies that help your body feel better thru the course of the virus. I have read and listened to homeopaths all over the world to see what is the genus epidemicus remedy for COVID19 virus. The most recent and reliable information I have seen is from a homeopathic doctor in France where 50% of the patients were helped significantly by Bryonia or Arsenicum album. If you are not familiar with homeopathy, so this information isn’t helpful to you, please schedule with me for a free fifteen minute consult on my website, DrValeria.net/Book an Appointment,(under Contact).
5. When people are coming down with the COVID19 virus, before they even have any symptoms, they are reporting a loss of taste and smell. Taste and smell can be closely linked to adequate Zinc in your body and taking Zinc is helpful when the body deals with a virus. So, I have added a Zinc capsule into my current regime.
6. Humidifiers with diffusers can be used in your home or office with some of our lovely, good smelling and anti-viral herbal essential oils. I really like Thyme, but cinnamon, sweet orange, sage and rosemary are all good possibilities too. You get the herbs right to where you need them on your mucus membranes.
7. I have recently found fresh oranges to taste very good to me and have been eating one or two a day. I was pleased to hear an herbalist explain that they are high in Hesperetin which theoretically prevents COVID19 from attaching to my cells. It is always nice to have some confirmation of our intuition. Usually with a fever, it is better to eat very lightly, but drink plenty of fluids.
I hope this is helpful and calming to you. You have more control than you may have thought in dealing with any virus and especially COVID19. Research and history have shown, for a virus, not starting with a NSAID that suppresses fever is hugely helpful to your recovery. The homeopathic doctors of 1918 lost very few patients using no aspirin in their treatment. Aspirin was newly discovered in 1918 and used a lot conventionally. Probably in the next three years, as it ebbs and flows, we will all have a version of this highly contagious virus, mild or severe and I want you to have your best shot at coming through it safely by avoiding NSAIDS and appreciating your fever.
Go to my website www.DrValeria.net and schedule a free consult with me if you have any questions.
Be well, Dr. Valeria
