Protect Yourself In A Pandemic

Well. I'm not a nutritionist or even a college grad, so folks should research for themselves and take what I say with a grain of salt...but I have actually learned a lot these last few years.

The immune system is a complicated series of chemical and biological reactions within the body that people have written books about, but basically we need to know how to give our bodies the raw materials they need to maintain homeostatsis and ward off invading pathogens. The time to begin is well before any crisis. I believe the place to begin is with the digestive system, for several reasons. In the first place, most people have a lousy diet that provides very little in the way of serious nutrition. And second, this is the main avenue for nutrition and medicines to enter the body as well as how we get rid of wastes.

The work of digestion takes up to 80% of the energy our bodies use. This means everything else we do - walking, talking, thinking, driving, working out - comes out of the remaining 20%. Anything we can do to streamline the process, freeing up energy for other metabolic processes, is to our advantage. Most people do not absorb nutrition efficiently, and they don't excrete waste efficiently either. The average out-of-shape American constantly has anywhere from 5 to 50 pounds of rotting waste in the gut that never gets eliminated. This is the source of a great deal of disease and mortality. So to begin with, getting the bowels working right is awfully important. One simple way to maintain bowel function is to take about 1000 mg of magnesium in the form of citrate, malate or asporotate in the evening before going to bed. Magnesium is a muscle-relaxer, so it helps us sleep, but it also attracts moisture into the large intestine and has a mild laxative effect in the morning. Very few people ever think of enemas, but they are a valuable health tool. Folks don't even like to talk about that....but once a week is a good health practice.

The best way I know to tone up the entire system is with enzymes. There are some very good enzymes supplements on the market, and when used properly they not only enhance digestion but address inflammation and immune response. You can't overdose on enzymes. Taken with meals they enhance digestion; taken between meals they are absorbed into the bloodstream and help arm the body's defenses. There are basically three classes of enzymes: protease, amylase, and lipase. Each of these is actually a category made up of literally thousands of individual enzymes, each with a specific purpose. Protease breaks down proteins, lipase breaks down fats, and amylase breaks down carbohydrates.

I'm trying to keep a complex topic real simple, especially because I don't want to get in over my head and give you wrong information. But I've become a huge believer in enzymes, and I suggest using them as an adjunct to any program of supplements. Protease-heavy enzyme formulas, taken between meals, helps break down the protein wall surrounding viruses, and this is how they are useful in the instance of a flu epidemic. There is, of course, lots more on this topic.

Enzyme supplements should be bought from a company that specializes in enzymes, and the label should be checked not only for specific enzymes in the mixture, but for a guarantee of potency at the time of consumption, not at the time of manufacture. The same applies to probiotics. Enzymedica, Enzymatic Therapy, Rainbow Light, and Garden of Life are all good companies. There's a German product called Wobenzym that is fantastic.

I think everybody should take five types of supplements: an organic, food-cultured multivitamin; fish oil for omega 3; a wide-spectrum antioxidant such as grapeseed extract; probiotics, and enzymes. This is just the basics. But you can break the bank buying supplements, so I try to take as few as possible. I'm in the fortunate position of getting free samples all the time from the companies, so I get to try many and even stockpile certain products.

If you get sick, there are specific items which are good to have around. Colloidal silver is one. I like to keep it around in both a dropper bottle and a nose spray. Any exposure to someone's cold or flu has me squirting my sinuses with this great germicide. Oregano oil is both antibacterial and antiviral, and can be bought in gel caps to taken by the drop. Grapefruit seed extract - called GSE so as not to confuse it with grapeseed extract - is also a strong antibacterial. It is a very thick liquid, like syrup, and it's used by the drop or taken in gel caps. There are many herbs that support the immune system. One of my favorites is graviola. Of course, everyone knows about echinacea and golden seal. Lomatium OSHA is an herbal tincture that is both antiviral and antibacterial. Anytime I'm around sick folks I squirt a few droppers full daily.

One of the simplest and greatest health aids is the neti pot.  These have been around for thousands of years.  A neti pot looks like a cross between a tiny teapot and a gravy separater.  You fill it with warm salt water and use it to rinse out your sinuses.  It's designed to create a seal between the rounded end of the spout and the opening of the nostril:  you just close your throat, tilt your head, pour the water in one nostril and it runs out the other.  This rids the body of dust, pollen and other allergens and pollutants.  I use mine every day, and can tell the difference if I don't.  If you think you're coming down with something or have a sinus infection, about 6-8 drops of GSE can be used instead of salt in the water.

I'm shooting from the hip here, and I know I could think of more things if I was sitting down to really pull info together from books and websites. The point is, natural supplements can and do perform better than pharmaceuticals when it comes to immunity and health. I'd have to be pretty darn sick to even consider taking anitbiotics or other pharmaceuticals, and I have not had anything like that in almost 20 years.

If this bird flu thing happens, the last place I'll go if I get sick is to the hospital. I'll go to bed, drink fluids and fast. I'll take Lomatium OSHA, colloidal silver and oreganol, and in 72 hours I'll either be dead, or on the road to recovery.

One thing I almost forgot to mention is kombucha tea. This is a fermented, living food that is probably the best single dietary supplement I know. Google it; you'll find thousands of pages. It's been in use for perhaps 5,000 years.

Hope this is helpful info.

8-D

Hey Chris,

Please understand I'm not an expert on nutrition - pretty well informed perhaps, but that's about it.  I know what works for me.  Spirulina is a blue-green algae, one of those super-foods that packs concentrated nutrition.  It has a long history as a food, being used by the Aztecs and also in Chad for over a thousand years.  It is farmed in numerous locations around the world.

My problem with supplements like this is the cost.  Whether one company is better than another I don't really know.  Most of the companies that market spirulina specialize in algae products, so this lends credence to their quality.  I use spirulina mainly to color soap.

As for the "greens" supplements that are available, most of them incorporate not only blue-green algae but also vegetables and other phytonutrients.  They're very concentrated nutrition - and they cost accordingly.  I like some of the products a lot.  When I go to work this evening I'll see what I can find out about specific products.  I do like a small company right here in Escondido CA called Health Force.  They specialize in superfoods and do a great job.  I don't know if their products are available over a wide region, however.  They're local and pretty small.

8-D

I agree that these foods may play a major part in our future diet.  Poor farming methods and soil depletion have resulted in a large drop in the nutritive value of food crops since the 1940s.  It was right after WWII, when munitions manufacturers were casting about for something else to do with the nitrates and other chemicals they'd been producing for explosives, that intensive chemical fertilizing became the norm.  This produced beautiful and bountiful crops, but with only a fraction of the nutrition they'd contained previously.

These days, there is not just the fact that farmland is shrinking across the country.  What farming facilities do exist are being snapped up by the corporations as fast as they can.  I think a lot of us are going to wind up subsisting on what we can grow and barter.

8-D