PSA on Self-Care for Reducing the Impact of Viruses (including Covid-19)

It’s time to create your Self-Care Plan for Covid-19 – Boost Your Immune System and Become Resilient

Let’s flatten the curve even more by implementing some basic self-care.  I’m putting on my “Dr. Mom” hat today for some motherly advice on how to take care of yourself in the age of Covid-19.  These self-care techniques can be done with regular items most of us have in our homes or can easily find at the local grocery store.

Basic Daily Self Care to Boost Your Immune System* 

1. Whenever you’re around others – use Sani-Sniffer – it kills virus’ in your nose.  While you’d like to think most people are honest when they say they have been vaccinated, the truth is you never know, plus they could still transmit virus’ that can make you very ill if you get a high enough viral load.
2. Use Stay Healthy Steam to relieve or prevent any respiratory congestion, sniffles, scratchy throat.
3. Get your rest – now is not the time to binge-watch Netflix until 2 AM, do drinking zoom parties with friends, etc.
4. Get some exercise – it stimulates your immune system.  Do dance parties with your friends on zoom, go out biking, hiking, running, gentle stretching.  Get outside in the sun where the air is fresh, and move.  Make this a priority right now.
5. Wash your hands frequently, especially before and after you run to the store for a quick errand.
6. If you have touched your earbuds, a blue tooth, phone, earplugs, ear protection, or hearing aids when around others – sanitize those too before putting them to your ears again.  In the event you did not follow sanitizing procedures before putting anything back in your ear or to your ears,  you can put hydrogen peroxide in your ears to kill the virus.  It’s not known how long the virus can live in ear wax.
7. Follow a standard daily hygiene ritual even if you are stuck at home – get up, shower, get dressed for the day.  A friend’s Dad was a prisoner of war in WWII. His CO realized to keep morale high, the men under his command needed to follow their daily rituals to take care of their basic hygiene every day.  Keep your own morale high – it strengthens your immune system.
8. Stay away from others – yes this works. Being around others for 10 – 15 minutes or more who may not know they are infected exposes you to a larger viral load that makes it harder for your body to fight off this infection if your immune system is not as strong or resilient as it could be. Taking care of the essentials – going to the grocery store and maintaining social distance may expose you to a little viral load –  your body can learn, adapt, and become resilient to this virus at that lower viral load level.
9. Take a good multi-vitamin, a tablespoon of Cod Liver Oil (Vitamins A and D),  Vitamin C (1000 IU), Zinc, and Lugols Iodine 6 drops per day in a glass of water.   This is very helpful to boost your immune system for this and other similar viruses.
10. Pay attention to your food choices.  Eat your greens, raw fermented veggies (boosts your microbiome), and high vitamin C fruits and veggies.  Aim to eat “right” 80% of the time with a focus on savoring and enjoying mealtime.  Avoid sugar, refined carbohydrates (pastries, cake, white bread etc.).   When at all possible, eat locally raised foods where they use minimal pesticides (many foods contain glyphosates that destroy gut bacteria.).  Educate yourself on where your food originates and how it is processed.
11. Drink enough water – about 4 ounces every hour suffices.  Add in some lemon and a little salt for more of a boost.
12. Gargle several times a day with warm water, salt and baking soda – the baking soda can help break up any mucous. Especially helpful if you have post nasal drip from allergies.
13. Don’t smoke or vape ANYTHING.  You need your lungs in tip-top shape right now.
14. Meditate by focusing on your breath – breathe in deep for a count of four, hold it for four, exhale for four, hold it for four. Do this at least ten minutes at a time several times a day.  It will calm your mind and help your ability to breathe deeply.
15. Cultivate an attitude of gratitude and a way of being that brings value to others and meaning/personal fulfillment to you.  Set and meet small daily goals aligned with achieving your larger personal vision of how you would prefer your world to be.  Remember, your thoughts become your actions developing habits that create your reality.  Consider keeping a daily journal recording that for which you are grateful, your accomplishments of the day, thoughts, and feelings.
16. This report shows that using a .5% nasal solution of medical grade iodine kills the Coronavirus within 15 seconds – There is a new study out that shows a .5% iodine solution can kill Covid in 15 seconds when it’s in your nose – https://jamanetwork.com/…/jamaotola…/fullarticle/2770785

Feeling a Scratchy Throat?

Go after any symptoms fast with an overkill of abundance.  Do not wait until your symptoms get more severe.  Hit this hard at the stage of I have a “tickle in my throat.”  If you never get more sick – AWESOME.   I’ve read 20 stories or more from people who got really sick from Covid-19.  From what I can tell, few if any of them, did these very common and easy “Dr. Mom” self-care things.  (I’m not saying these can cure Covid-19)  What I’m saying is the people getting really sick don’t seem to be doing any of these very basic self-care things.  Actually some of the things they do seem to make it far worse (like drinking sugary sports drinks and taking tylenol or ibuprofen).  These self-care suggestions are not a replacement for social distancing – that is the first order of business – avoid extreme exposure.  Now is not the time to ignore that scratchy sore throat thinking you can just suck it up and soldier on.

At the first sign of a scratchy, tickle in your throat, or really any symptoms of COVID-19 (sore throat, headache, cough, achiness, sweats/chills, fever), implement the second line of Dr. Mom’s Self-Care.  Do these for a week and then if/when any more symptoms appear, do it again for another week.  Do not wait for a diagnosis to start taking care of yourself.  The healthcare system does not want people who have mild symptoms to take up their time and PPE resources.  Even if you can’t get an appointment or a diagnosis,  make the effort to do all these self-care techniques, with or without definitive proof of what it is you have.  You’re going all out here to make sure you stay healthy.  You do not need anyone’s permission to take care of yourself.

1. Gargle with warm water, baking soda and salt every other hour – this is soothing and helps break up mucous – something that becomes a HUGE problem as it hardens in your lungs.  Drinking warm liquids (teas, broths, etc) is comforting but does not replace doing the gargle.  Avoid sugary lozenges as they can create yeast infections in your throat and make it feel like there are razor blades in there.  This gargle creates a healthy environment in your throat and relieves throat pain.
2. This one is important to keep this virus from taking hold in your lungs and to get relief from a cough. Even if you don’t have a cough do this.  Every four hours as a minimum (or more frequently if you need relief from a persistent cough), put a small pot of water on the stove with 4 cups water, one crushed garlic clove, 1/2 tsp of oregano and 1 tbs baking soda in it, heat it up to boiling.  Pull it off the stove and put it on a hot plate.  Put a towel over your head and make a tent with the steam.  Close your eyes and keep your face about 8 inches from the water. Breath it in deep into your nose and lungs – the warm steam will keep your airways open and help relieve any congestion.  The heat can kill viruses.  Garlic and oregano are also great antivirals.  The baking soda helps break up mucous.  Hardened and thick mucous in your lungs can create breathing problems.  I call this the “pizza tent” as the garlic and oregano smells like you’re inhaling a pizza.  Any time you have a dry hacking cough, add more water and reheat your garlic/oregano/baking soda water to boiling and do the “pizza tent” treatment.  A nebulizer is a much more high tech way of doing this.
3. If you get a fever of 102 degrees or less, let it run its course.  Do not try to reign it in.  Your body is doing its job.  Do not take ibuprofen or Tylenol.   Here is the Mayo Clinic’s guidelines for treating a fever – https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/fever/in-depth/fever/art-20050997
4. Get in a hot tub with Epsom salts.  Do this twice a day until you’re feeling better. The Epsom salts quickly get magnesium into your muscles that helps your immune system.  Raising your body temperature in the hot bath can help reduce the severity of viruses. The Mayo Clinic recommends three cups of Epsom Salts in your bath. For more information  – visit – https://www.epsomsaltcouncil.org/health/treat-cold-flu-with-epsom-salt/
5. Do some gentle stretching – ending with your legs up the wall – this helps activate your lymphatic symptom that helps your body fight off viruses.  Do your meditative breathing mentioned in the basic self-care. More oxygen is good for self-care.
6. Make yourself a big pot of chicken bone broth.  This age-old cure works by reducing inflammation in your respiratory system – https://www.unmc.edu/publicrelations/media/press-kits/chicken-soup/.  We like the recipe on Alaska Spice Shop – https://alaskaspiceshop.com/recipes.  Drink several warm/hot cups of the broth a day – a little squeeze of lemon and salt make this a delicious treat.  Chicken bone broth helps your liver do its job of removing toxins from your body and works with your lymphatic system to help you pee and sweat out the toxicity created from your body’s assault on a virus or infection.
7. Sit in the sun and get some fresh air.  You need to keep the air flowing around you.  Sitting in the sun activates your vitamin D – an immune booster that helps your body fight off viruses.
8. Short walks can help boost your immune system and you’ll feel better.
9. Avoid eating any sugar (this includes alcohol).  Sugar makes your body have to work harder when it’s already taxed fighting off whatever bug you have.
10. If you have stomach upset, make sure you stay hydrated.  Make a tea with ginger root.  We like the Mother’s Magic Cure tea from Alaska Spice Shop for mild stomach upset.
11. Avoid sugary sports drinks like Gatorade.  Stay hydrated by drinking warm water with a little sea salt and lemons for the electrolyte boost.
12. Stay away from other people – who knows what you have (or what they have) and you don’t want to be exposing yourself to their germs when you’re not feeling well or exposing them to your germs since with limited testing there is no way to really know what you have – especially if it’s mild.  Why wait until you are at death’s door to find out what you have – kick it to the curb early.

More Advanced Immune Boosters

I took care of my Mother when she had brain cancer and learned about more immune-boosting remedies.  The above remedies work great but I also learned more aggressive “Dr. Mom” immune boosters I now do especially when I’m traveling and teaching to keep myself from catching anything flying around (and reduce my risks of getting cancer).

1. My Community Medicinal mushrooms (this is the brand name) – these are super immune-boosting and proven anti-virals – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6044372/
2. Elderberry cough syrup and lozenges have been clinically shown to reduce the severity of cold and flu viruses – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11399518.
3. Boost the gut’s immune-boosting microbiome by eating fermented veggies (sauerkraut or kimchi you get in the refrigerator case in the deli) to flood your system with pro-biotics.  https://cen.acs.org/biological-chemistry/microbiome/Sauerkraut-bacteria-signal-immune-system/97/i21.

Be safe and Stay Well

Michelle LaBrosse

www.cheetahlearning.com