Given the Corona Virus scare, I wanted to share my best advice for preparation (keep water by the bedside), and prevention (Vitamin D3, Zinc, coconut oil).
Contents
Preparation
If you happen to catch the Corona Virus, or any other really virulent strain, this advice could quite literally save your life:
Keep plenty of water by your bedside.
The reason is fairly simple: When you are comatose in a bed for a few days, your body burns fat for fuel. But to burn fat, it needs water. Meanwhile, your increased temperature is an indication of all the metabolic activity that is going on to fight the virus. You need water for that, too.
So water is key to your inner defense system. You want plenty of it, right where you need it. It’s a lesson I learned the hard way.
Way back in my college days, I had a bout of flu that had our entire household flat on our backs for several days.
At one point, I remember being extremely thirsty—but so weak that I couldn’t drag myself out of bed to get water.
Since everyone else was down with the same thing, there was no one to bring me any.
I lay there for another day and a half, thirsty as heck, wondering if I was going to survive. (Hint: I did. But barely.)
Ever since, I have kept a couple of tall containers of water next to the bed. It’s close to half a gallon, but in a couple of easy-to-lift containers. (Yeah. I was that weak. So no big, heavy containers for me!)
I’ll sip on one from time to time. When it’s nearly empty I’ll finish it, refill it, and rotate to the other container for sipping. That way, the water stays fresh, and there is always at least one full container at hand, and part of another.
Here’s hoping it’s a tip you don’t need. But if it winds up you do, it’s a godsend being able to get some water without having to get out of bed.
Prevention
Vitamin D3 and Zinc
Dr. Eric Berg has a great video that presents these tips:
Keep your body well-supplied with vitamin D3 and zinc.
His video does a good job of explaining why they’re critical.
Coconut Oil
This video by Dr. Berg explains that monolaurin is the best nutritional remedy for fighting a virus. Know where you find monolaurin? In coconut oil.
As I explain in Coconut Oil: Miracle Medicine and Diet Pill, a virus puts that fatty acid into it’s outer shell—but the oil is so volatile that the shell dissolves, effectively killing the virus. So coconut oil is a great thing to have in your system—all day, every day.
It’s most effective for keeping the virus at bay, before it infiltrates your cells and begins to replicate. So add coconut oil to your list of defense measures, along with vitamin D3 and zinc.
In Your Food
I put a heaping teaspoon of solid coconut oil in my morning coffee (along with butter). So I have that going for me.
In Your Mouth
I brush my teeth with coconut and salt, and swallow when I’m done. So I’m better protected than most. Still, I’ve caught virus or two in the past. So after writing this, I did what they do in India:
I took a teaspoonful of solid coconut oil and let it dissolve
in my mouth. (Effective, and it tastes yummy! :__)
On Your Skin
One great way to absorb oils is through your skin. liquid coconut oil is great for that. I put it on my hair and face after a shower.
Tip:
In the baking aisle of the supermarket, I found bottles of coconut oil that stay liquid at room temperature. How they do that, I don’t know, but I keep that version next to the sink for use after showering. I keep the solid stuff in the kitchen.
Coconut oil is a good conditioner, and it darkens the hair at the same time. It’s also decent way to keep your hair in place. (Just work it in, instead of plastering your hair down with it.)
Most importantly, the transmission of a virus generally from hands, to face, to eyes. So coconut oil on the hands and face gives you two layers of defense before the virus even has a chance to enter your body.
Note:
I’d love to see a comparison of coconut oil and hand-sanitizer. Are they equally effective at killing a virus on contact? I wonder.
Lymph Flow
The other important thing to understand is that when a virus enters your body, it goes through your lymph system first. That’s where all incoming molecules go when they are too big to get into the bloodstream.
The lymph is a system of tubes that carry the clear, viscous lymph fluid. As that moves through the body, it passes through lymph nodes, where the body’s immune system has a chance to attack and kill the invaders.
Once nice thing about having coconut oil on the hands, face, and scalp is that it puts the oils right next to the lymph channels that carry an incoming virus, where the oils can continue to do their work, even beyond the skin.
But beyond that, it helps to make sure your lymph system is working well, by pushing the fluid through the system.
The lymph system doesn’t have a heart muscle to pump it. So it depends on muscle squeezes to move the fluid. (The system consists of many short tubes connected end-to-end. Each tube has a one-way valve at the end. When a muscle squeezes, it pushes the lymph fluid out of one tube and into the next.)
Now exercise is one way to move the lymph. But there are two other useful ways to move it:
- Use a loofah in the shower.
A soft sponge squishes when you press on. But a loofah sponge is hard, so your muscles compress, instead of the sponge. That compression squeezes the lymph tubes, which makes it flow. (Tip: Work from top to bottom, pushing upward with each stroke. That is the direction the lymph needs to flow. Pushing upward moves the lymph from one tube to the next in line. Starting at the top creates a partial vacuum in upper tubes, making it easier on the tubes just below them.) - Add a bout of cold water to your showering routine.
Because a dose of cold water squeezes internal and external muscles like nobody’s business!
Interestingly, Elaine Morgan’s gave a brilliant TED talk: I think we evolved from aquatic apes. In my article, What’s Wrong with Academia?, I expand on the idea in the section Evolution and the Aquatic Ape, particular with regard to the lymph system.
When we dive into water that is cold, relative to the air around us, we not only squeeze the muscles in a way that moves lymph, but we are at least partially inverted, which makes it easier for the lymph to flow.
So, given that the lymph system is important for health, it makes sense to include lymph-moving strategies in our daily routine!
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