Coronavirus Protection
March 7, 2020
As of this date the coronavirus is spreading throughout the world with anxiety and fear now a part of our everyday concern. We know that it is a viral disease that is highly contagious; our immune systems have never encountered this virus before so we are under attack by a new enemy. This is an enemy that wants to take over our bodies so they can grow and infect others; we have to figure out how to protect ourselves. The two primary techniques that are being promoted is to frequently wash our hands in hot soapy water and cover coughs. Keeping your surroundings and surfaces clean, avoiding close contact with large groups of people and protecting your family are also very important. But the reality is that at this time there are so many unknowns which increases our anxiety; now this is a good thing.
Anxiety and fear are emotional cues that protect us; these are rational responses because it allows our bodies to be alert to impending dangers. These emotions set off processes in our brain to protect us. This area of our brains gives us our unique personalities but more important it is the area of the brain that gives us the ability to use human cognition for problem solving and decision making. Because of this cognitive ability we can make decisions on solving problems or situations; such as developing a specific set of plans to combat the coronavirus. During our time on Earth we have fought battles with wars, natural disasters, and disease. Today, a new disease that we have never faced before is facing us; that’s precisely the reason it is so contagious…our defensive army, our immune system has never faced this enemy before.
Our primary defense system is to keep the enemy away…we know transmission is very similar to previous viruses such as the flu in which the spread is by tiny droplets by coughing, sneezing, or even talking. Even touching surfaces that has a living virus on it can be transmitted to us if we touch our mouths, noses or eyes. This is important…if we know how the virus is transmitted then we can develop a plan that protects us. Thus we must avoid the enemy as our primary external defense system. We also have an internal defense mechanism to fight the enemy; that is our very own defense team, our Immune System.
Our immune system is our internal defense system and is one of the most complicated and sophisticated systems in our body. Various parts of our body such as lymph nodes, spleen, and thymus can produce macrophages and lymphocytes to attack foreign bodies when they enter our body. Thus we can have weakened Immune Systems due to many factors; in fact this system is so sensitive that it can attack itself; we call those disorders Auto-Immune Diseases which include rheumatoid arthritis, Type 1 Diabetes, and lupus. There is even a virus that can attack our Immune System called the Autoimmune Deficiency Syndrome, commonly known as AIDS.
Our Immune System is part of our body and studies have shown that we have an important role in supplying our defense system with strong support systems. For example we know that sleep has an active role in strengthening or lowering our immune response. The consumption of animals actively promotes inflammation…a key indicator in all Immune Disorders. A lack of movement can also lower our immune function as well; we are designed to move and be active like we can find in the Blue Zones throughout the world. What we have found in medical science is that a healthy lifestyle is our primary source for a healthy Immune System. Let’s take a look at what we can do to give our Immune System the best advantage to keep us healthy. Here are the five lifestyle tools to follow for peak performance of your Immune System:
- Diet………..a Vegan Diet with little to no animal products is key. The World Health Organization states that 70 to 80% of diseases are from animal sources.
- Exercise………increasing our cardio-vascular system is incredibly important.
- Sleep……….any disruption in our circadian rhythm (sleep/awake cycle) can lead to dysfunction.
- Stress………our present social lifestyle promotes stress; time constraints, fears, work, family, lack of social support systems, etc.
- Substance Abuse…..smoking, drinking, excessive use of medication or illegal drugs greatly impair immune function.
Maintain a healthy lifestyle and enjoy life, Vegan Doc, 3/7/2020
