Natural Remedies for COVID-19
The best way to fight any illness is to start with a healthy and strong immune system. I strongly suggest that we always eat a plant heavy diet, avoid processed foods and sugar. Getting enough sleep and clean water is so important. In this difficult time, it is important to take extra zinc, vitamin C and vitamin D. Remember that vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin, so make sure to take vitamin D with some foods that contain fats.
Please refer to Dr. William’s site for recommended doses. I have included a few of Dr. William’s suggestions below. I have followed Dr. David William’s for 15 years.
https://www.healthydirections.com/articles/immune-health/natural-cold-and-flu-treatments
Vitamin D- It is important to take vitamin D with foods containing fats. This is a fat soluable vitamin.
Adequate amounts of vitamin D are essential for your innate immune system to function optimally. Typically, vitamin D levels begin to drop during the winter months as our exposure to the sun also decreases. I feel one of the best things you can do to strengthen your immune system this time of year is for you and everyone in your family to supplement with vitamin D.
At the first sign of flu, up your daily vitamin D dose to 1,000 IU per pound of body weight per day for a week.
Example: 170 lbs X 1,000 IU vitamin D = 170,000 IU daily
Continue this protocol until symptoms improve, and then scale back to your usual maintenance dose (below).
Vitamin C
Loading up on vitamin C beyond your daily maintenance dose provides extra immune support during a bout of the flu. In addition to its own antiviral activity, vitamin C also:
- Protects white blood cells
- Boosts levels of virus-fighting interferon and natural killer cells
- Fortifies the mucous membranes
- Has its own antiviral activity
At the first sign of illness, take 500–1,000 mg of vitamin C every waking hour. To avoid possible gastrointestinal upset, build up gradually by taking 500 mg every two hours on the first day and moving up to the higher dose on the second day. Take no more than 10,000 mg per day, and ease back to your usual dose as symptoms improve.
- Glutathione/N-Acetylcysteine (NAC). Glutathione is a tripeptide composed of three amino acids: glycine, glutamic acid, and cysteine. It’s a compound that is present in every cell of your body and essential for life itself. If each of us had a “glutathione gauge” on our body, similar to the gas gauge in our car, we’d want to keep it as full as possible because it’s so important to healthy immune function and healthy aging. Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, kale, bok choy, cress, mustard greens, horseradish, turnips, rutabagas, and kohlrabi are the richest sources. Because these aren’t diet favorites of many people, I suggest that you supplement to get adequate amounts of glutathione. Glutathione is not very well absorbed in supplement form, so I recommend that you use its precursor, N-acetylcysteine (NAC). This form is metabolized or converted by the body into glutathione, and it has been proven to do a better job of raising your body’s glutathione levels.
- Propolis is the brown, waxy, sticky resin that bees collect from oozing tree buds that has amazing antiseptic, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, anti-amoebic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic (fever-reducing) properties. The recommended maintenance dosages are generally 500–1,000 mg per day in tablet and capsule form. It’s rare, but some people can be allergic to bee products, so it would be wise to start with small doses of propolis first to see if you experience a problem.
- Selenium is a trace mineral that the body incorporates into proteins to make over 25 different selenoproteins (like the enzyme glutathione peroxidase)—some of the strongest antioxidants that work to prevent cellular damage from free radicals. Selenium deficiencies cause viral mutations that could turn a harmless flu bug into a worldwide, life-threatening flu pandemic. I recommend that you get 400 mcg of selenium daily.
Recommended Daily Allowances for Zinc
Depending on your age, sex and life stage, 12 mg or less of zinc is required as the recommended daily allowance, according to the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements. Men 19 years or older need 11 mg, as do pregnant women. Lactating mothers need a little extra too, topping the RDA at 12 mg. When not pregnant or lactating, women should take 8 mg of zinc daily.
With the current situation, I would aim to get more zinc in your diet through foods high in zinc. https://draxe.com/nutrition/foods-high-in-zinc/
Studies out of France and Spain are confirming that people with adequate or abundant zinc in their body seem to fight off COVID-19 better.
- A recent study examined the links between zinc levels in people hospitalized with COVID-19 and both disease progression and outcome.
- The study found that participants with low zinc levels had a 21% mortality rate compared with 5% in those with healthy zinc levels.
- The time to clinical recovery was approximately three times less in those with healthy serum zinc levels.
- The authors conclude that serum zinc levels could help predict the outcome of individuals with COVID-19.
Zinc is a trace element that is naturally present in certain foods and also available in dietary supplements. The human body requires zinc to maintain a range of biological functions.
For instance, hundreds of enzymes require zinc to function properly. It also plays a role in protein synthesis, DNA synthesis and cell division, wound healing, and immune function.
Zinc possesses an anti-inflammatory effect and has direct antiviral activity. As a result, zinc deficiency may reduce both innate and adaptive immune responses.
In people with a viral infection, such as SARS-CoV-2, the innate immune system is the body’s first-line response to prevent the virus from penetrating and replicating before the adaptive immune system develops targeted protection.
Are zinc levels a risk factor?
People with a SARS-CoV-2 infection have a broad spectrum of possible clinical outcomes ranging from asymptomatic to severe disease. Understanding the risk factors that determine COVID-19 severity is crucial in developing effective early stage treatments.
This need prompted doctors and researchers at Hospital del Mar, Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, and the Pompeu Fabra University, all in Spain, to investigate the effect of zinc levels in people with severe COVID-19 on disease progression and clinical outcomes.
The scientists also examined the effect of zinc supplementation to block SARS-CoV-2 replication in the laboratory.
Dr. Robert Güerri-Fernández, a doctor at the Infectious Diseases Service of Hospital del Mar and one of the authors of the study, explains the rationale for the study:
“Zinc is an essential element for maintaining a variety of biological processes, and altering its levels causes increased susceptibility to infections and increased inflammatory response. […] zinc levels and zinc supplementation may prove useful tools to tackle the COVID-19 crisis.”
In the study, which appears in the journal Nutrients, the researchers analyzed data from 249 adults admitted to the hospital’s COVID-19 unit between March 9, 2020, and April 1, 2020. The median age of the participants was 65 years, and 51% were male.
In all, 28% of the participants required intensive care unit admission, and 9% died while in the hospital.
Quercetin is another supplement to consider taking to fight COVID-19 naturally. Feel better!