Winter 2020 and your Immunity – You are NOT a sitting duck

Winter 2020 You are not a sitting Duck, you have an Immune System

Update to this blog as of March 25, 2020 Maui County is now under orders to “Stay at home, work from home” until April 30th.  During these times of unknowing I decided to make a meditation on Calm & Positivity amidst CoVid19, here is the link to my audio clip.

Who knows for sure at this time, the extent of this years coronavirus outbreak — or pandemic, aka Covid-19.  And honestly we may never know the final death count or impacts it will truly have.  The final death tolls will be subject to scrutiny, some saying the numbers were inflated and others stating facts they were deflated … along with concerns being heard over the efficacy of tests.  If it does turn out to be not as bad; some theories will be that is because our efforts worked to control it, and other theories will be that it was never that bad to begin with.
So I have accepted to not know, and probably to never know.  Which opens the doors for me to trust my intuition~

What I am thankful for right now… Maui aina (Aina is Hawaiian for earth) is getting a break.  There are no tourists on the island for the first time since I have been here — and probably for the first time since the planes started flying here.  While this is not great for our economy it is allowing the earth to breathe and to detoxify.  And in time, the tourists will come back, but I am hoping the power that be in Maui will go back to agriculture as a main source of income with tourism a second source (it is has been vice versa).

All the rental cars that would be on the roads and emitting fumes are sitting in fields around the airport the size of multiple football fields.  The planes that carry 5000-7000 people on and off this island daily are now only brining about 5-7 people per day here!  And the plane traffic over my garden is greatly reduced.  There are parking spots 🙂 and our roads are so much easier to drive without the additional traffic.  While I am concerned about how the economy for the whole nation will recover; I remain in optimism over some of the good of taking a break.

What I also know is that I am not a sitting duck, just because someone coughs around me who may have a virus does not mean I will get it — though I will take the precautionary measures.  Be sensible, without being fearful.  Fear is a contagious disease too. You have an amazing immune system.
“You have nothing to fear except fear itself” FDR

 I am viewing this time as a time where the world just steps back for a bit, takes a deep breath, and evaluates where we all are and what is going on.  Hopefully some shifts will take place that bring us all into harmony.

Also use this time for self care!  Now is the time to start the meditation practice you’ve been dreaming of doing, establish a short home yoga/exercise/ breathing practice, plan some meals- what do you enjoy cooking?  Stock up on vegetables and make a big pot of soup.

Before the virus can infect you, it’s gotta make a long journey in:
The virus has to make it inside a cell(s) inside your body to actually effect you – on the journey to your cell the virus will come into contact with what is in your bloodstream — and maybe even in your nasal passages and lungs.  And your immune system is on the lookout for pathogenic microbes too.  We have a powerful immune system, protect it from stress to allow it to do it’s job effectively.

What do you want in your bloodstream to come into contact with a virus?  Vitamin C, anti-bacterials, anti-virals, anti-fungals — anti-microbials in general.  How do you get these compounds in your bloodstream?  

  • Eat your phytochemicals (vegetables and fruits)
  • Drink your herbs (tea) – teas made with fresh ginger and a cinnamon stick are warming, anti-microbial, and anti-inflammatory.  You can even add a squeeze of lemon.  Fresh or dried Thyme also makes a nice herbal tea with a squeeze of lemon.
  • Breathe in phytochemicals — the plant compounds that protect us.
  • Keep vitamin C in your bloodstream, vitamin C has been used to support the body during colds and flus over our history, and it can be used along with other treatments during illness supporting their efficacy  — and has been used to help prevent the flu.  You can see the research here.
  • Wear phytochemical — see below.
  • Eat your preventative medicine!
    Speaking of prevention, now is a good time to start to eat your preventative medicine; Eat Citrus – eat the whole citrus fruit as far as oranges, tangerines, and grapefruits go, which happen to be in season in the winter when we need them. The threads that line the wedges of citrus are good for your lymphatic system.  For Lemons and limes keep a slice of in your water or use the juice in water or teas.  I recommend citrus fruit every morning and night along with citrus in your water during the day until cold and flu season passes.
     
  • Wear essential oils — you can use them in your toiletries, their anti-viral components are able to easily pass through your pores to your bloodstream.  There are a lot of essential oils that are both anti-viral and respiratory oils, I will list just a few common ones here: 
    • Eucalyptus
    • Thyme (better to diffuse, has some concerns topically)
    • Tea Tree
    • Spearmint & Peppermint
    • Silver Fir
    • Pines – scots pine, pinon pine, Juniper berry
    • Black Spruce
    • Laurel
    • Fragonia
    • Body Oil – Here is a nice body oil recipe you can make.  This will be a somewhat stimulating, clearing and opening body oil so best for morning use.  
      2 oz of carrier oil – sesame is best, combining 1 oz each of sesame and hazelnut is a lovely mix, hazelnut is not as common so you could use sunflower or olive oil — or could use just straight sesame oil
      Essential oil Blend:
      11 drops – Fir – I like douglas fir, any fir oil you have will work.
      8 drops – Pine – pinon pine is lovely and my absolute favorite — any pine oil you have will work.
      4 drops – Laurel
      13 drops – Sweet Orange or Grapefruit
      Drop essential oils into the bottom of your 2 oz jar, add in carrier oils and roll the jar around in your palms for a few seconds.
      To Use:  Use just after shower while skin is still damp (or spray your skin with a hydrosol) and massage in oil.  If you have aches or pains, use a little more pine and rub it especially over your achy areas for additional healing.
    • And I made a Yarrow Chest Clearing Oil:
      Yarrow Chest Oil – for 2020 covid-19 pandemic
      1/2 oz. Tamanu
      1 tsp approx. Sea buckthorn
      1/4+ oz. St. Johns Wort
      EO synergy ~5% dilution
      Eucalyptus Stageriana – 5 drops (or any Eucalyptus you have)
      Rosemary ct. cineole – 9 drops (or any rosemary you have)
      Yarrow – 14 drops
      peppermint – 9 drops
      Hyssop – 14 drops
  • Diffuse into the air — this works two ways: 
    • one by breathing in the molecules you will absorb them through your lungs and they will get into your bloodstream from there.  
    • And secondly, IF the virus comes into contact in the air with the essential oil components it has the ability to kill them airborne.

Lemon and thyme are potent anti-virals, pines, spruces, and firs are also great respiratory oils and anti-virals

  • Here is a nice diffuser blend made with common oils, you can substitute with any of the oils listed above:
    Peppermint – 2 drops
    Pine (Pinus sylvestris) – 4 drops
    Pinon Pine – 4 drops
    Laurel (Laurus noblis) – 2 drops
    Bergamot – 8 drops
  • Here is a recipe for an Air Spritzer I made that I keep in my car:
    2020 CoVid19 Air Spritzer
    1/4 oz vinegar
    3/4 oz high proof vodka or 91% Rubbing Alcohol
    9-10 drops of a conifer (any pine or fir essential oil)
    5 drops Sweet Orange
    5 drops Litsea cubeba aka May Change
    3 drops Rose Geranium
    2 drops Thyme

  • Use a personal inhaler or steam inhalation or a shower floor blend
    • Shower floor blend – You can use the same diffuser blend above in  stock bottle to drop a couple drops in your shower or just simply drop couple drops of a pine or fir oil in the back of your shower while showering where the vapors catch the volatile components but not the water.  For a shower floor / diffuser blend stock bottle:
      Peppermint – 10 drops
      Pine (Pinus sylvestris) – 20 drops
      Pinon Pine – 20 drops
      Laurel (Laurus noblis) – 20 drops
      Bergamot – 40 drops
    • Nice personal inhaler recipe I found in a blog from my school NYIAS: 
      Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus or radiata) – 8 drops
      Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) – 4 drops
      Lemon (Citrus limon) – 13 drops
    • Nasya – Oiling your nose!  The nose is an excellent place to have some anti-microbial oils since this is one of the first entry ways for the virus to get in, hopefully the virus will come into contact quickly with the anti-viral and be eradicated.  
      • Sesame oil is an excellent oil to use in your nose, nasal passages tend to be dry in the winter and this allows the virus to spread easier.  If you are new to oiling your nose just start with a little sesame oil on your pinky finger and rub it inside your nostrils.
      • If you are ready to try a full on nasya oil, I have a lovely recipe here that you can make or buy from me, or you can simply add 2-3 drops of eucalyptus to one ounce of sesame oil. Each morning place a few drops up to half a dropper full in each nostril and sniff it up into your sinuses until you feel it hit the back of your throat.

The more phytochemcials you have in you the better.  Phytochemicals (and their anti-microbial compounds) do have the abilities to eradicate viruses, IF they come into contact with the microbe in your bloodstream before the microbe gets into your cell.  Notice I said IF and before it gets into your cell.  The microbe or virus needs to come into contact in your blood stream with the anti-microbial for it to be effective — and once the microbe has made it into your cell … well … you’re down for the duration, then the best you can do is support your body with rest and fluids and vitamin rich foods to shorten the intensity and duration.   

How do you insure the virus comes into contact with the anti-viral in your bloodstream?  Use as many different routes of entry as you can!

  • Orally eat your vegetables and fruits
  • Inhalation – both diffusing and inhalers
  • Cutaneous – skin!  Make a nice body oil with carrier oils and essential oils.

Polyvalence – Why do you want to use plant chemicals? 

While a pharmaceutical can certainly eradicate one pathogen such as a virus with one chemical — it can only do so one specific way. A  plant is polyvalent, meaning it has multiple chemicals in it that kill multiple paths in pathogens via multiple routes, for example; not letting the virus proliferate (like vitamin C does to flu viruses), or breaking up their “shells”, destroying their biofilms so your immune system can find them, etc.  One herb has many different ways to kill a single microbe.  A pharmaceutical only can use one of those “weapons” at a time.

Let’s take clove as an example it has 30 different plant chemicals that can kill a variety of viruses bacteria and fungi in a variety of ways … And not only that it’s smarter. The pharmaceutical chemical will kill the good with the bad, a plant chemical is more smart, it can kill the bad and support the good in us.

Other supportive information to help prevent catching a virus

Don’t forget surfaces
And you can use vinegar, vodka, and essential oils on surfaces like doorknobs, phones, light switches, counter tops, etc. to kill viruses on surfaces. Here is a nice recipe for an easy homemade disinfectant spray.  You could also put 91% isopropyl (or a high proof vodka) alcohol in a 2 oz. spray bottle with 3-4 drops of thyme essential oil and 6-7 drops of oregano essential oil to carry around and use the spray to wipe down counters, phones and devices, door knobs, any place public you have to touch.

Wash your hands often – You can also make a hand protective wash and an anti-bacterial hand gel with aloe vera gel and some essential oils. 

  • A nice anti-viral/bacterial hand wash soap can be made in a plastic or glass bottle with a pump top for by your sink, or in a 2 ounce round bottle with a cap or oil pump you can carry with you.  Here is a recipe for a two ounce bottle, for a 4 oz bottle with a pump, double your ingredients:
    1-1/2 oz Unscented castile soap
    1/2 oz aloe vera gel
    4 drops peppermint
    7 drops rosemary (if you have different chemo types I like rosemary ct. cineole for this)
    25 drops sweet orange.
  • For an anti-bacterial hand gel to carry with you here is a recipe:
    Hand Sanitizer for 2020 CoVid19 Pandemic
    2 oz. Vodka
    1.5 oz Aloe Vera Gel
    1 tsp Tamanu oil (or neem oil or black seed oil)
    Rosemary ct. cineole – 26 drops (or any rosemary you have)
    Eucalyptus Stageriana – 20 drops (or any eucalyptus you have)
    Inula – 40 drops (yarrow could work here too, especially combined with hyssop)

  •  HUMIDITY in the air — keep your air humid — an ultrasonic diffuser is perfect, it will put antimicrobials in the air while it humidifies your air.   There are multiple  studies (and this one) showing dry air allows microbes to float in the air longer and further.  Humid air traps them and pulls them down — and possibly even kills them.  A balance of humidity is important though — too much humidity and you have the risk for mold, too low humidity (such as winter months and when your heat is on) you have a higher chance of circulating microbes.  It seems somewhere around 40-50% humidity is ideal to trap microbes while not allowing mold.

CoronaVirus – Is it really that scary?  I heard that there has been some success in China with IV Vitamin C ~ in fact there are now three clinical trials in process testing it.  

Funny though, the WHO (world health organization) met with google and facebook to have these postings stopped by declaring it false information or fake news … While fact checking is necessary, I hope it’s not so the pharmaceutical companies can come up with some expensive drug or vaccine before something alternative or cheaper works.

Here is the announcement of the studies in orthomolecular.org

While this virus may be scary due to it’s ability to spread, it is not a death sentence, now is the time to keep yourself healthy, get extra sleep and stay out of the hype. 

I have read conflicting data about it’s airborne life, it seems rather short – it can only spread within approx. 6’ before it dies, however I also read it can last on a surface for a long time.  
How’s that song go?  “Don’t stand so close to me”.

And as I mentioned at the start of this article … YOU HAVE AN IMMUNE SYSTEM.  You want to keep your immune system healthy, if you are stressing about the virus, the stress alone will impair your immune function.  

You have all heard me say many ways to keep your immune system healthy:

  • Keep stress low – learn techniques to release your stress
  • Exercise and get fresh air
  • Practice meditation and breathing exercises
  • sleep good
  • eat your vegetables and fruits and a healthy diet
  • avoid sugar!
  • stay hydrated

And here are a few more plant food medicines that have shown to be protective and anti-viral for SARS and Ebola coronaviruses. 

Amazingly these work through their plant lectins (plant compounds thought to be not good for us — turn out to have a purpose — be careful what you demonize!).  The lectins break the glycoprotein shell the virus builds around itself effectively stopping its’ replication.

  • Red algae (you can find in supplement form) – several species, and one species of Blue-Green algae as well was found to stop the virus replicating.
  • Licorice – glycyrrhiza glabra.  Licorice has been used in the herbal medicine world to treat lung viruses, it helps clear phlegm and mucus from the lungs.  It has also been tested to be antiviral against SARS and HIV-I.  If you plan to take licorice long term, make sure you get a form marked DGL (de-glycyrrhized to reduce effects licorice has on blood pressure).  Also if you are taking licorice long term make sure to eat extra potassium rich foods such as bananas, potatoes, leafy greens, fruits, etc.

Other food lectins that have been tested to inhibit replication of coronaviruses:

  • Leeks!  Delicious here are a few recipe ideas for you
    Leek & Celery Root soup  or Potato Leek soup or Velvety Vegetable soup
    Leek Gravy
  • Taro – This is a Hawaiian native food, it is a bit trickier to work with but a very nutritious tuber.  If you don’t live in Hawaii you can probably find them in specialty areas of your produce market. It is what poi is made from.   If you do experiment with it, it needs to be well cooked and preferably twice cooked to remove the oxalates it contains (Never attempt to eat uncooked taro roots and leaves. This plant contains needle-like calcium oxalate crystals, which can lead to extreme irritation in your throat and mouth, resulting in a burning and stinging sensation.)
  • Black mulberry tree
  • Stinging nettle – Make tea.

More on this here.

I also read some studies showing green tea and some herbs that are useful for killing viruses, here is the list:

  • Green tea
  • Oregano
  • Turmeric
  • Ginger
  • Elderberry
  • Garlic
  • Citrus Peels – You can make tea or salt from these.  Make salt!  I have some available for sale … dried organic and local (never been sprayed) lemon or orange or tangerine peels, powdered and mixed with Hawaiian aalea salt.

 

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