How to survive COVID at any age.
Mon 12:32 am +01:00, 1 Feb 2021Here we go:
1. First and foremost, try to get your blood levels of vitamin D at least between 50-80 ng/ml. Most of the severe cases and deaths are people with blood vitamin D levels in the teens and 20s. Once you’re over 60 or 70 ng/ml, there are very few severe cases, and almost no deaths at all. Sun exposure is the best source of vitamin D, but unless you’re in the southern states like SoCal, AZ, TX, FL, Hawaii, etc this winter, you won’t get enough vitamin D from sun exposure alone. Once you get north of about 35 degrees N latitude, the sun’s rays are too weak from Nov thru Feb to produce any real vitamin D in your skin.
Supplement with at least 5000 IU of vitamin D3 all winter long as a general way to keep immune strength high this winter, but consider doing at least 10,000 to 30,000 IU a day at first signs of a Covid infection. Do NOT take more than 10,000 IU per day for LONG periods of time if you do not know your blood levels. You don’t want to go over 100 ng/ml as you can start to reach a level that becomes more toxic above those levels. But 50 to 80 ng/ml blood levels appears to be the sweet spot in my opinion to maximize immune strength and proper functioning. Remember to always take vitamin K2 in combination with vitamin D3 to prevent calcification problems in soft tissues, and always take these 2 nutrients with fat-containing meals, not on an empty stomach.
Here’s a more detailed article about vitamin D status and your immune system if you want to read more about this topic.
2. NAC supplementation (n-acetyl-cysteine) — this helps your body produce more glutathione, the master antioxidant, and studies seem to show that NAC supplementation (or other ways of raising glutathione levels in your body) can lead to less severe cases of covid and quicker recovery. If you get infected, I’d take at least 1000 mg of NAC twice a day until you recover. You can also consider a glutathione IV if a clinic near you does those.
Here’s an article about glutathione importance to so many aspects of your health if you want to read more about that. Note that NAC appears to be a better way to boost internal glutathione than taking an oral glutathione supplement since it’s not well absorbed. Plus, NAC has other benefits such as thinning mucus, and lowering inflammation in lungs and bronchial tubes.
3. A combination of Quercetin and zinc appears to have a similar effect to hydroxychloroquine, but most likely without the side effect concerns of hydroxychloroquine. My understanding is that the quercetin has anti-viral properties in various ways, but it also acts like hydroxychloroquine and helps force zinc into your cells, which helps slow down viral replication, letting your immune system get ahead of the infection. I’d also take quercetin and zinc as a preventative measure too to help lower your risk of infection in the first place. Here’s an article with more info about the anti-viral benefits of quercetin.
If you get infected, dosages for quercetin that should help slow the viral replication could be between 600-1200 mg per day…perhaps on the lower end as a preventative, and the higher end for an active infection. Zinc doses would be between 15-50 mg a day, and some doctors recommend higher doses at the beginning of an infection, such as 75mg a day.
4. Vitamin C is another nutrient that’s probably worth taking high doses at least during the beginning phases of a known infection. Perhaps 1000 mg a day in the beginning, or if you can get a vitamin C iv at a clinic, it could be helpful. Although vitamin C doesn’t necessarily seem to reduce the risk of infection, it does seem to have at least some evidence on lowering the duration and severity of viral infections, so it could help to recover faster and have a more mild case. It certainly can’t hurt, but I don’t think of vitamin C as nearly as important as vitamin D levels, NAC, and quercetin and zinc. Here’s a more detailed article on vitamin C and your immune system if you want to read more.
5. Regular sauna use can be a great preventative measure, because it has a significant impact on your immune strength as well as cardiovascular and metabolic health. I’d absolutely recommend prioritizing daily sauna sessions if you can, especially at the first signs of an infection. Sauna use can also help raise your internal glutathione levels too. 20 minutes minimum in the sauna seems to be what the studies say is best. I do about 35 minutes a day in my infrared sauna in my basement. I’ll send out a more detailed article coming soon on the powerful health benefits of regular sauna use…it’s impressive! For now, here’s one article to check out on sauna benefits.
6. There are some other anti-viral herbs that might be helpful too… I’m not gonna claim there’s much research around these specifically for covid, but they also can’t hurt to use at least temporarily at the early signs of an infection just to get more anti-viral substances in your body… these could be herbs or nutrients such as astragalus (boosts T cells while also having anti-viral properties), olive leaf, garlic, licorice root, lomatium, oregano, elderberry, calendula, and monolaurin (an anti-viral substance isolated from coconut oil)… Here’s an article on 10 anti-viral herbs that show general anti-viral characterics against most viruses.
I could probably add a few more immune boosting tips, etc, but I think I covered the most important stuff for today. And don’t forget that one of the BEST preventative measures for avoiding severe cases of covid is simply to be metabolically healthy, and that means losing weight if you need to, reducing inflammation, improving insulin sensitivity, and reversing conditions like type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. Most of the data shows convincingly that between 94 to 99% of the deaths from covid are people with other health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.
Here’s a page to read about how to reverse type 2 diabetes naturally.
And here’s an article about fixing high blood pressure problems too.
Also, one little interesting tidbit I heard on a podcast from a doctor was that people with the highest levels of omega6 polyunsaturated fats in their bodies had the highest risk for ARDS, which is what is killing most covid patients… so by all means, AVOID polyunsaturated vegetable oils (corn oil, soybean oil, cottonseed, canola, deep fried foods, chips, etc) to lower the amount of omega6 fats in your cells. Vegetable oils are the #1 worst thing in our food supply (worse than even sugar in my opinion, and we know how bad sugar is,) and vegetable oils are one of the MAIN causes of degenerative disease which is making people more susceptible to severe covid.
Remember that most processed foods have vegetable oils added, so avoid them as much as you can. I personally like grass-fed RED meat as the main food that I eat, since it has very low levels of omega6 fats (2-3%) compared to chicken and pork, which are more around 20% omega6. Plus, with red meat, you get the added benefit of high levels of zinc, which we already talked about the benefits of zinc on fighting viruses. But fish and shellfish is also healthier than chicken and pork too in my opinion.
