Fighting Coronavirus Post Lockdown

India and CoronaVirus

While writing this post today, India has completed its first phase of 21 days lockdown. Government has extended the lockdown further till 3rd of May 2020 to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. As We don’t have any vaccine or a full proof drug to treat coronavirus so far. The final question arises “How we are going to fight coronavirus post lockdown?”

Coronavirus Update

India has contained the spread of virus very effectively by announcing the lockdown when the spread was at infancy. Till today (14th April) total number of cases in India stands at 10,776 with 361 deaths which is 3.35% of total confirm cases. The numbers are far lower than the European countries such as Italy or Spain. Italy has 1.60 lakh cases &  with total deaths of 20,500 which is 12.8% while for Spain it is almost 11%. Till today, USA is standing at 5,87,000 with death rate of 4% while at the same time the eastern countries such as Singapore stands at 3%, Thailand 1.5%, Japan 2% and China approximately 4%.

Solution to the Coronavirus

Since there is no cure for Coronavirus yet and we don’t know when we have the one. The only solution left with is to prepare our body’s defence system  to handle or manage this viral infection as a normal viral flu or infection. When lockdown will be over, and, we are ready to move out for work or job, everyone will be at the same risk of getting infected.

But how virus will affect each one of us depends upon our immune system response, whether it is going to be fatal or not? So we can do many things to improve our immunity or improve our immune response to fight coronavirus post lockdown.

Current data suggests that people with age older than 60 are more prone to deadly effect of coronavirus. At the same time, people suffering from inflammatory diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, lungs or kidney disease and autoimmune diseases are more prone to fatal effects of Corona.

One common trait among these diseases is the Inflammation. This makes sense that people with these conditions and old age don’t have their immune system in great shape. The lower our defences higher the chances that virus will over power our system and become fatal.

Stress (S), Inflammation (I), Gut Health (G), Deficiencies (D), High Sugar (S), and Infections (I) are key drivers for compromised or sub optimal immune response. I term them collectively as an abbreviation “DIIGSS”.  The real solution lies in correcting or treating all these drivers from root to improve immunity and body’s defence system. We can easily treat these drivers by creating a balance among Four Pillars of Health.

Four Pillars of Health 

According to RH+, there are  Four Pillars of Health; Food, Sleep, Gut and Activity. These four pillars when out of balance or one of them is missing is root cause of any disease and ill health. When these are taken care of the DIIGSS can be controlled and regulated. 

 

Food

Food plays an important role in providing essential nutrients to support our metabolic and physiological functions. It also plays a key role in maintaining a healthy balance between healthy  and unhealthy. We call these intestinal bacteria as microflora or microbiome and our digestive contains trillions of them. The type of food we consume can affect this ratio of 70:30, where 70 % constitute the healthy microbes and 30% unhealthy. This balance is important for a healthy digestion, assimilation and excretion process.

The fibre in the food is fermented by healthy microbe in the gut to produce short chain fatty acids which are anti-viral and anti-inflammatory in nature. They also produce other fat soluble vitamins such as D and K.  The quality of food we eat can affect our sleep and gut health to large extent.

• Remove processed foods, sugar and refined flours 
• Eliminate toxins such as alcohol, smoke and chemicals 
• Add more fibre 30 gm per days by including more lentils, beans, plants and fruits (avoid legumes and lentils, if lectin sensitive)
• Eat three meals per day (no snacking to prevent unwanted insulin spikes) 
• Use cold pressed oils and ghee instead of refined oils 
• Use a variety of spices and herbs (they support immunity) when preparing food [Study]
• Eat rainbow colour of foods (red, yellow, green, purple)
• Use smoothies to include more varieties in one meal
• Low carbohydrate diet is best (when not active enough)
• Drink 3-4 litres of water 
• Use herbal and green teas 
• Avoid caffeine and stimulants 

Gut

Three other pillars; Sleep, Activity and Food all can affect Gut functioning. Loss of sleep is interpreted as stress. Stress increases inflammatory cytokines and activate the sympathetic nervous system (excitatory). Both of these inhibits digestion and increase intestinal permeability affecting digestion and increases risk of leaky gut syndrome.

Leaky gut increases the risk of food allergies and food intolerances which can cause immune system to produce higher antibodies which means an inflammatory conditions. The chronic food sensitivities and leaky gut syndrome lowers our immune defence exposing us to higher risk of getting sick with infections.

Gut health also increases the risk of nutritional deficiencies which can lead to suboptimal immune response during an infection due to lower WBC and lymphocyte counts.

• Treat Gut Infections, if any 
• Remove possible allergic and sensitive foods 
• Avoid dairy, gluten and sugar 
• Add yoga and breathing exercise to daily routine 
• Ginger, garlic and apple cider vinegar aids digestions and keep pathogenic bacterias at bay
• Astringent and bitters aids digestion by stimulating digestive juices 
• Don’t watch TV while eating food as it interferes with digestion 
• Stretching or light yogic exercise before meals aids digestion

Sleep

How loss of sleep can increase inflammation, is mentioned in the Gut section. Food, activity and gut health affects the quality and quantity of sleep. Higher blood sugar levels interfere with deep sleep so as the Activity. Loss of activity or exercise decreases release of serotonin and GABA which interferes with sleep quality and quantity.

Gut is connected to brain via enteric nervous system and they both send and receive information from one another. Any problem in gut is reflected in our mental health and vice versa. More than 60% of inhibitory neurotransmitter Serotonin is produced in Gut, so any. The file below have many techniques which will help you sleep better.

Activity

Everyone knows the importance of activity or exercise. Exercise improve gut motility, lowers the inflammations, aids digestion, improve sleep and increases immunity.

I have compiled a list of Nutritional and Lifestyle Modifications which can help you improve immunity on short term basis. But for long term effects all these four pillars of health has to be taken care of. Implementing these strategies in your daily routine helps you fight Coronavirus post lockdown by improving your immune system.

You can download the file here.

Nutritional & Lifestyle Modifications During COVID-19

 

Watch this Video if you need latest information about Coronavirus and possible ways to deal with it.

 

Note: This is not a medical advice and not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease. Kindly contact the medical practitioner if you have any symptoms as mentioned by health authorities and WHO. This information is for educational purpose only.