Immune Boosting Essentials
Reduce and manage stress load. Your Natural Healthcare Practitioner can help you more specifically with this. Naturopathically, for example, we would be looking at ways to improve resilience and adrenal tone, to create a buffer for and effectively manage life’s stresses.
Prioritise Sleep: aim to go to bed earlier and get more of it. Also look to keep evening meals light and early so your sleep time is spent on rest, repair, and restoration; not trying to digest.
Keep well-hydrated: this helps keep our mucosa (part of our first line of immune defense) and elimination channels flowing. Herbal teas or the juice of a lemon squeezed into boiled water are excellent choices.
Tune up your Gut Health: enrich your diet with prebiotic and probiotic foods, drink more homemade bone and veggie broths.
Get your skin into the sunshine to activate your immune system, and spend time outdoors, in nature and fresh air. It’s good for everybody!
Moderate Physical Activity: A 30-45 minute walk each day, especially in nature, sunshine, fresh air. Or a 45 minute walk like-you’re-running -ate 4 x week. It’s important not to stress your system with high intensity workouts/exercise when exercising to build or maintain immune health. Err on the side of rest and taking it easy if you are feeling under the weather rather than pushing yourself.
Look after your Liver: avoid sugar, alcohol, processed foods, and chemicals e.g. household cleaning products, personal products -deodorant, moisturiser, body wash, shampoo/conditioner.
You might also consider Fasting e.g. 16/8, with herbal teas etc. First, check in with your Healthcare Practitioner to discuss what might be best for your specific needs and constitution.
Immune-Boosting Diet
Foods to avoid
Sugar (depresses the immune system), Alcohol, Processed foods ~including breads, pastas, Confectionery, Dairy etc, and Fried foods.
As a rule of thumb, look to eat a real/wholefoods diet abundant in plant-based foods (the great news is these foods appear to be in good stock at the farmer’s markets and supermarkets)
Eat fresh, organic produce and whole foods where possible (increasing nutrition will help your body fire on all cylinders, including immune-strengthening activity)
Be sure to keep well-hydrated with filtered water, coconut water, and herbal teas. This will support our mucosa and ‘first lines of defence’, and also elimination channels.
Ensure adequate protein intake (important for immune system activity). Try to have roughly your body weight in grams/ per day. This can mean adding more spirulina, nuts, seeds, hommus, tofu, lentils, chickpeas, hommus, tahini, beans, sprouts, tempeh, quinoa, buckwheat, hempseeds, chia seeds, wild caught fish, organic and pasture-fed eggs and meats to your daily meals.
Increase fibre intake to support healthy elimination e.g. through wholefoods -fresh produce, leafy greens, nuts, seeds, legumes or even slippery elm and psyllium husks.
Some Specific Immune-Boosting Foods
1 tbs organic, cold-pressed extra virgin coconut oil daily (antiviral, anti-inflammatory)
Add loads of garlic, fresh and cooked to your diet (anti-viral, antimicrobial, & immune-boosting). One of my favourite ways to do this is making a punchy coriander & garlic chutney (recipes available online).
Load up on ginger (immune-boosting, anti-inflammatory, circulatory stimulant, warming, indicated in acute infections, fever, common cold, acute and chronic bronchitis): make a tea/infusion and add it to your food.
Shiitake mushrooms (immune modulating, adaptogenic i.e.increases resilience, especially indicated in stress and immune conditioning, chronic infections, post-viral syndromes, chronic fatigue syndrome). Add them to your stews, stir-fries, broths, and you can check out more ways to put them in your diet online.
Turmeric (potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant). Put it in your cooking and perhaps try a ‘turmeric latte (dairy-free) or ‘turmeric health shot’ (recipes available online).
Fire Cider (recipes available online) loaded with all the goodies like onion, garlic, lemon, ginger, horseradish, thyme, black pepper, dried elder berries, and cayenne pepper, and apple cider vinegar.
Elderberry tea or syrup (anti-viral and immune-enhancing).
See your practitioner for individualised recommendations and a more powerful personal prescription using high-grade therapeutics and prescription-only formulas for enhancing immune health/function and an anti-viral healthcare and recovery plan.
Essential Oils
Essential oils is a branch of herbal therapy, many with antimicrobial, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, and immune-boosting properties. You might also consider using them as a sanitiser when you’re unable to access soap and water e.g. adding to a small mist spray bottle to spritz surfaces or hands; using to wipe clean surfaces at home like phones, tablets, computer keys, benchtops, tables, taps, and door handles; and diffusing in your home as an environmental support.
Useful oils include:
Lavender
Frankinscence
Clove
Sage
Eucalyptus radiata
Cinnamon
Lemon
Tea Tree
Being mindful of your Mental Health
We’ve collectively taken somewhat of a beating over the Summer with the fires, smoke, hail, floods, and now COVID-19. It’s a surreal time right now. If your mental health is feeling a bit vulnerable you’re not alone. Here are a few things you might consider:
Reduce exposure to media sources and choose carefully where you go for news and who you follow so you can reduce your exposure to all the hype and fear mongering as it can exacerbate our anxieties, cause feelings of overwhelm, and be more unhelpful than not. Now would be a good opportunity to pick up that book you’ve been meaning to get to, join that online class e.g. on Skillshare.com, or getting your creative juices flowing in some other way.
Seek professional support. This could mean engaging a therapist, or calling a service such as LifeLine or Beyond Blue.
Pick your company wisely (on-line and other) and make a point to seek positive, affirming, and uplifting social interactions (and be this yourself where you can; connecting as humans and buoying each other’s spirits counts for a lot during times like these). You might choose to catch-up with friends or family over the phone, a cuppa or a shared meal, a walk, or a games day/night. It’s a comforting and healing experience to come together in these times.
Meditate: use guided meditations, apps, visualisations, the breath, whatever works for you! It’s medicine for your whole being and will improve your baseline, outlook, resilience and ability to cope.
Be in your body: Even if it’s 5-10 minutes of stretching in the morning and before bed, a sunbath or actual bath, breathing and noticing what’s there for you ~any areas of tension or other sensation? Going bare-footed on the grass, laying on the earth, sitting with your back against a tree, watching a sunrise and/or sunset or the waves coming and going, the mountains standing majestically, or star gazing to feel into yourself and regain some peace and perspective.
Choose to use your thoughts and words with care and be a positive force in these times.
Community
In a time like this we need to not only take care to look after ourselves, but also one another. Our choices, efforts, and how we contribute counts. This could look like:
Being mindful of a sense of community wellbeing in how you choose to use your words and express with others, and how you’re using social media (you might refrain from a hasty comment or share, or unfollow certain profiles/people). It’s interesting to note the people you come across who make you feel a sense of comfort and hope in amongst all this chaos and uncertainty, and what they’re doing differently to others. Keep these folks in your orbit!
Keeping up connection with a call, text, or email to loved ones/friends and even neighbours (especially those living by themselves). Let people know if there is anything you are happy to offer e.g. I wrote to our neighbours who have a newborn just to let them know we’re around if they need anything and are happy to pick groceries etc up for them and drop it off, and we’ve let a few people know we have some toilet paper spare if they need it. There’ll no-doubt be some nature dates, shared meals, and games days/nights in amonsgt it all too!.
Think especially of those who are elderly or living alone and extend whatever kindness, help, and comfort you can. That might be a regular text to say hi and check-in, or checking that they have what they need, or going and just introducing yourself to your neighbours.
There are people in our community who are particularly vulnerable and it’s incumbent upon each of us to take responsibility for both ourselves and others with regard to not taking chances if we suspect we’re beginning to come down with something (even if it’s a Common Cold), please stay home and self-quarantine.
Looking on the brighter side of the situation, this COVID-19 pandemic may be the nudge we/our society needs to take better care of our health by calling a day or two off at the first signs of illness, sparing others we would otherwise come into contact with and creating space to rest-up properly and bounce back quicker. Normally if we catch it early and impose a good rest day or two (with plenty of sleep, hydration, sunshine and fresh air where possible, and the appropriate food and supplementation) it can be nipped in the bud quickly. Imagine if it was the norm to call in sick and self-quarantine at the first signs of illness, rather than push through it...
You may also choose to peel back and stay away from places where there are crowds of people ~shops, events, public transport (if you can use alternatives) in a bid to slow the rapid spread of the virus.
If you’re able to work remotely this is an excellent option. There are many organisations and companies now beginning to put this option on the table.
Support small businesses and sole traders where you can, as many in our communities will likely take a hit financially/to their businesses.
Considering Alternative Options
I think by now we’ve all probably tried to get some groceries and supplies to find they’re out of stock. While it’s uncertain right now what this is going to look like as the months roll on, it might be useful to consider:
Pulling back from the tp/tissue panic-buying and shortages by visiting the ‘old days’ before we became such a disposable society; you might stock-up on handkerchiefs for blowing noses, face-washers in place of toilet paper (if needed; keeping a bucket with a lid and disinfecting e.g. with oxygen bleach (not chlorine bleach) or a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and borax powder), and microfibre cloths as ‘paper towels’.
Preserving/freezing fruit and veg e.g. tomatoes, herbs, lemon juice, cooked legumes etc.
Consider taking the opportunity to dig out all the unused food items in your pantry and fridge and cook up a storm to freeze (this is what I did over the weekend), try making your own bread and wraps/roti, tomato sauce/chutney.
Offer swaps with friends/neighbours/local Buy-Nothing Community Groups e.g. if you grow fruit and veggies in your garden, or have some extra stores and supplies.
The Personal Hygiene Factor
Most of us are probably becoming increasingly aware of all the different surfaces we come into contact with on a daily basis and the need to wash our hands more frequently. Aside from being more vigilant with handwashing (you might like to keep clean handtowels in more frequent circulation also) and taking care to sneeze and cough into one’s elbow or shoulder to reduce potential infection spread.
There is one habit that would make a significant difference in avoiding infection i.e. being conscious not to touch your face, particularly your eyes, mouth, and nose, which is how we often unwittingly infect ourselves. Also look to disinfect (preferably using a natural agent such as essential oils) frequently touched surfaces like phones, tablets, computer keyboards, door handles, taps, tables, benches, steering wheels. It’s a great time to stop taking the phone into the toilet too.
