Coronavirus - Covid-19

Coronavirus, Covid-19 blog, immunity, mental health and general advice

Coronavirus

 

If you are worried about Covid-19, please visit

www.gov.uk/coronavirus

 

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

The National Health Service(i) recommends you do not leave your home if you have:

  • a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
  • a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)

 

For further professional healthcare information on this please visit:

Early diagnosis and treatment can prevent long term problems, if you are worried, please call 111

As the World Health Organisation (WHO) declares Coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic, there has been a global quest for knowledge.

Experimental trials are underway and experimental therapies are being considered, including Remdesivir, a drug developed to treat Ebola and Kaletra, a drug to treat HIV. Much focus is on the anti-malarial drug chloroquine, and hydroxychloroquine.

Highlighted by Touret and de Lamballerie(ii), promising studies show that the growth of many different viruses can be inhibited in cell culture by both chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, including the SARS Coronavirus (iii). A recent study suggests Remdesivir and chloroquine effectively inhibit the recently emerged novel Coronavirus (iv); all trials are in their early stages and data is changing from day to day.

 

Whilst the trials are underway, what can we do to tackle the problem today?

There is currently no treatment for Covid-19. WHO spoke about an urgent need for therapeutics whilst Professor Stephen Holgate of the Medical Research Council says  

"In the absence of a suitable vaccine, increasing the hosts own immunity to enhance protection and virus elimination would seem a logical therapeutic approach." (v)

There are serious issues to address and a need for early detection to prevent the disease spreading; this is everyone’s concern and anything that can be used or done to reduce the impact on our services, should be done.

 

Taking this into consideration

  • Never before have we stressed the importance of super boosting your immune system, when our immune is on point, it may possibly be a lifesaver.
  • What we also know, is that of those who have sadly lost their lives, most have had an underlying health condition. So, if an underlying health condition is a common denominator, there is a greater significance to investigate whether you can take actions to support or even reverse your underlying health condition; this may be naturally and holistically whilst being mindful to continue with support from your GP.

 Government guidelines are:

  • Stay at home and wash your hands

WHO (World Health Organisation)

  • Are keeping us informed.
  • In these unprecedented times, WHO has a solidarity trial in place and stress that “the world must unite”(vi)

This is everyone’s business, what can we do to:

  • Optimise our care of others and ourselves
  • Optimise our health and wellness
  • Optimise our mental wellbeing

Optimise our care of others and ourselves

Stay alert, stay home, and stay safe and well; look after each other.

Studies have found that loneliness has been found to lower the immune (vii). Build trust and engage with your community, stay united and work as one, we are all in this together.

Keep yourself occupied and try to stay in a routine. Take this time to reorganise and re-evaluate what is important in your life.

 Optimise our health and wellness

It’s what’s on your plate! The Physicians Committee of Health and Wellness recommend cruciferous vegetables saying they are the most powerful and immune-boosting foods that exist, these include broccoli, bok choy, cabbage, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, radishes and mustard greens(viii). If available, try to include 3-5 portions of these foods in your daily diet.

!!!!!!! Stress can zap our stores of vitamins and minerals !!!!!!!

As well as improving your diet, we recommend you strengthen your arsenal today and for the long-term; take:

Vitamin C Plus as a supplement

  • Assists in white blood cell formation and supports the immune
  • Help provide resistance to infections
  • Food source: Citrus fruits, guavas, blackberries, parsley, green peppers, strawberries, watercress, brussels sprouts, kale, potatoes, tomatoes, alfalfa seeds, rosehips, raw cabbage

Organic Supergreens with vitamins as a supplement

  • 11 green foods
  • 8 fruits and berries
  • 7 vegetables
  • 7 plant derived bio-active enzymes
  • with vitamin C

Organic Multivits with Superfoods as a supplement

  • 14 food-based ingredients of fruit, vegetable and herbal combination

Krill Oil as a supplement

  • Essential fatty acids (EFA’s), which the body cannot make itself.
  • Thought to be more effective as an immune support than either fish oil or astaxanthin on their own.
  • EFA’s help transports important nutrients into cells and keeps harmful toxins out.
  • Omega-3’s are important components of the cell membranes which surround each cell in the body.
  • Critical for cell membrane structure
  • Improves the function of cellular membranes to protect cells from free radicals.
  • Thought to have greater bioavailability
  • Efficiently absorbed

Zinc as a supplement

  • Most important trace mineral
  • Supports immune
  • Supports the integrity of the respiratory tract
  • Assists the thymus gland in making T cells
  • Food source, oysters, seafood, red meat, pumpkin seeds

Vitamin B complex as a supplement

  • Vitamin B is easily depleted during stressful times
  • Supports the healthy function of the nervous system

Optimise your mental wellbeing

It is important to stay calm, studies show that stress lowers the immune system (ix), There are tools in place if you are struggling in this challenging situation and there are practitioners sharing some of their work online for free; we have put together some of their tried and trusted techniques as follows:

Meditation

Meditation is a mental exercise and mindfulness practice, which is used to quieten the mind and curb our reactivity to thoughts and feelings, especially in highly stressful situations; focusing on breathing techniques, meditation is thought to improve lung health.
Here are some tried and trusted links to help you through this time:

 

Qigong

Qigong involves coordinated, postural movements, which is combined with breathing techniques and mindfulness, for the purpose of health and spirituality.

Emotional Freedom Technique

Emotional Freedom Technique works by releasing blockages within. It is often referred to as "Psychological acupressure", and is thought to release limiting beliefs, fears and behaviours. There is an abundance of amazing therapists out there, however during these challenging times; here are some trusted links:

We need to take the advice given by our government about reducing the risk of catching the Coronavirus. This text is intended as additional information; it is not intended to replace government guidelines or recommendations. All of this text is with our very best intentions for your health and wellbeing.

As the globe is uniting we need to remind ourselves that we are all in this together!

 

References

(i) NHS, 2020. [online]. Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ [Accessed 30th March 2020].

(ii) Touret, F and de Lamballerie, X. 2020 Antiviral Research of chloroquine and Covid-19 [online]. Available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166354220301145#! [Accessed 30th March 2020].

(iii) Keyaerts, E. Vijgen, L. Maes, P. Neyts, J. Ranst, M.V. 2004 In vitro inhibition of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus by chloroquine [online]. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006291X0401839X [Accessed [30th March 2020].

(iv) Manli Wang, M. Cao, R. Zhang, L. Yang, X. Liu, J. Xu, M. Shi, Z. Hu, Z. Zhong, w. Xiao, G. 2020. Remdesivir and chloroquine effectively inhibit the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in vitro [online]. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41422-020-0282-0 [Accessed 31st March 2020].

(v) Holgate, S. 2020. [online]. Available at:  https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/uk-coronavirus-patients-trial-experimental-lung-drug-synairgen-cure [Accessed 29th March 2020]

(vi) WHO. 2019. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Pandemic [online]. Available at https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019 [Accessed 30th March 2020].

(vii) American Psychological Association, 2006. Stress Weakens the Immune System [online]. Available at: https://www.apa.org/research/action/immune [Accessed 30th March 2020].

(viii)  Morey, J.N.  Boggero, I.A. Scott A.B and Segerstrom, S.C. 2015. Current Directions in Stress and Human Immune Function [online]. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4465119/[Accessed [30th March 2020].

(ix) The Physicians Committee of Health and Wellness. 2020 [online]. Available at: https://www.pcrm.org/news/exam-room-podcast/asthma-and-coronavirus-how-plant-based-diet-could-help [Accessed 30th March 2020].

 

 

 

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