One of my patients asked me to write an article about the current coronavirus pandemic.  I replied that this was such a new virus out in the public that I had no information about this critter.  All the research has been done in top secret Biolabs, which don't publish their findings.  The commercial press has stated that this particular virus is being studied in the CDC labs in Atlanta, and the Biolabs in Winnipeg, Canada, and Wuhan, China.  So I don't have any better information than anyone else on this virus.  She insisted that I could at least write about what we could do to fight viruses in general and how to relate to the information being presented.  So I said okay.

First, what are the symptoms of coronavirus?  There are three signs: a high fever over 100.4, a dry cough, and difficulty breathing.  Other common flu symptoms are rare, and runny nose and sneezing are not coronavirus symptoms.

As of this moment, Thursday, March 12^th, this virus is said to have infected 132,300 people and at least 4934 people have died.  See here  That is almost 4% of the infected patients not surviving.  That is pretty nasty.  By comparison, the swine flu epidemic back in 2009 had a death rate of only .08%.  Never the less, that means 96% of people that have gotten this virus have recovered or are recovering.  The transmission rate is only 7.4% if you are in contact with an infected person and only 1 in 6 even if you are living with an infected person.  See Here  So this is nothing compared to the Black Death plague back in the middle of the 13^th  century that wiped out half of the population of Europe.  Depending upon which form you contracted the death rate varied from 80% to 100%.  The fact that 96% of people are recovering from the coronavirus says that a strong immune system will kick it out of the body.  This is emphasized by the fact that those that are dying are the aged  – those with poor immune systems.

So what strengthens our immune system?  I know you would all like a magic pill for this, but it does not exist.  The immune system is part of the integrated whole body, so the same things that support the health of the body as a whole will also support the immune system.  For example, the amount of sugar in a single piece of pie ala mode (about 35 grams of sugar) will suppress your immune system by over 50% for several hours.  A 12 oz. can of soda has more sugar than that.  More than half of all Americans consume over half a pound (226 grams) of sugar daily.  Who do you suppose might be likely to contract an illness in America?  

Your lungs need to be strong to keep bugs out.  Smoking anything destroys lung immune function.  That is another 14% plus of the population asking to get sick.  There are a boatload of drugs, both illegal and legal that suppress immune function.  The most common are the steroid medications like prednisone, drugs for autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, and many cancer medications.  Street drugs like cocaine, opiates, nicotine, and alcohol all increase the susceptibility to infections.  As you can see, there are several populations of people that are more likely to contract coronavirus and be less likely to survive.

Of course, the biggest suppressor of the immune system is age.  Our ability to fight infection drops each year as we age.  The more we do to keep our bodies young metabolically, the stronger our immune system will be.  The two most powerful techniques found to date to keep us young are calorie restriction and intermittent fasting.  In general, eating 30% less than the general recommendations for our age and sex has been found to extend lifespan considerably.  Limiting our window of eating each day to 6 to 8 hours gives us 16 to 18 hours of fasting each day which greatly increases the destruction of weak diseased cells and replacement with stronger healthy cells.  This pruning away of the junk in our body is essential to health, and this does not happen if we are eating all the time.

Are there any specific nutrients that support the immune system?  Yes, there are.  The most important is probably vitamin D.  Everyone needs about 4000 IU of vitamin D per day – 10 times the recommended dose.  Why is this?  Because way back in the '70s a vitamin D researcher made a math error with a decimal point and what should have been calculated as a need for 4000 IU became 400 IU.  That mistake became the recommended dose for the last 50 years.  Vitamin D boosts and balances the immune system.  Zinc is another huge supporter of the immune system.  In fact, you can go here  for a whole list of nutrients that will help you fight off viruses.

I am sure you have already been bombarded with all sorts of public health recommendations such as washing your hands, avoiding human contact, hiding in your closet, and whatnot.  Some of these are good advice and some are not.  Ordinary soap and water is good advice, hand sanitizer is not.  Several studies have demonstrated that the use of hand sanitizer and antibacterial soaps actually increases the contraction of disease by killing off the healthy protective bacteria that are supposed to be on our skin.  Wearing face masks is good advice if you are infected, bad advice if you are not.  Face masks help stop the outward spread of disease organisms, but they only trap and concentrate the bacteria in the air and hold it close to our face where it is spread to susceptible areas when we touch the face mask.  So some advice is good and some not so much.

My biggest concern is the huge fear-spreading machine the media has become.  Why is this a concern?  Because fear will suppress your immune system faster than most anything else.  Remember I mentioned how steroid drugs suppress the immune system?  Well, when you are afraid your adrenal glands pump out loads of cortisol – the stress hormone – which is the same thing as hydrocortisone the steroid drug.  Fear disrupts neurotransmitter production and hormone production throughout the body.  Fear makes you weak and susceptible to infection.  This is what actually enticed me to write this article.  I have been watching this wave of fear building and spreading across the nation.  Look at what has happened to the stock market.  Public schools have closed in some states.  Conventions of all sorts have been canceled.  Even choir practice and any other activity where people can not be at least an arms-length apart have been canceled in any Sacramento county buildings.  When I went to Costco last Friday, many of the shelves were bare.  It was like Y2K all over again.

All this fear puts our bodies into fight, flight, or freeze sympathetic dominance.  This is a major stressor for our bodies.  People are fighting over toilet paper.  Others are running around like Chicken Little screaming “the sky is falling”.  But most are like rabbits hiding in the briar patch frozen still and hoping this all just goes away.  None of these responses is effective or helps us stay strong.  The goal is to calm and center within and respond to real situations with a clear vision and a sharp mind.  This is what professionals like Navy seals are taught to do.  They are able to stay focused and alert without going into that adrenal fight or flight state when they are facing threat.  We need to develop this skill ourselves.  Prayer helps, as does mindfulness meditation.  Controlled focused movement as in dance, Tai Chi, martial arts, Yoga, and the like help teach this state.  This is the time to delve deeply into these practices to stay balanced and not buy into the fear program being offered by the media.  Filling yourself with love is the best builder for the immune system I know.  

As someone, maybe John Lennon, once said: love is the answer, now what was the question? 

Take care,

David 

One of my patients sent me this picture - funny...