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Immune booster

The Magic is in Your Nose

I was wandering around in a hardware store the other day, feeling rather hot and stuffy in my mask – and also a little anxious – when I realized my… Read More

Empower Your Health during Coronavirus … and Always. (audio cast)

Check out this interview I did on The Raw and Wild Hearts Podcast! We talk about how to strengthen your immune system, keep infections mild, and manage the psychological, emotional,… Read More

Neti: the missing link in your immune routine

My 12-year-old is always asking me to tell her stories from my childhood, so I recently described the time when I got into big trouble for making long-distance calls to… Read More

Keep Breathing. Any time you feel stressed, bring your attention back to your breath. The breath is a built-in mindfulness tool. You watch your breath come in and go out and instantly you’re in the present – rather than letting your mind run away with you. Besides simply bringing your attention to your breath throughout the day, you can also practice making your exhale very long, and as you breathe out, imagine you’re releasing tension and fear. The Vietnamese monk, Thích Nhất Hạnh, has written that many of his fellow monks lived through atrocities during the Vietnam War, but were able to maintain their sanity and inner peace through Buddhist mindfulness practices. Another reason to practice breathing is to keep your lungs strong and resilient. All day long we fall into the habit of shallow breathing. Our lungs have a capacity of about 6 liters of air, but we usually take breaths of only half a liter in size! Imagine as you inhale that you’re filling up the bowl of your pelvis, that your breath goes so deep that you can feel your hips expanding from the inside as your belly expands.
Avoid Lung Pollutants. If you’re interested in healthy lungs, it’s a good time to stop smoking, wear a mask while doing sanding or painting or other dusty activities, and quit toxic air fresheners and cleaners. It has been theorized that the high mortality rate in China is due in part to air pollution and smoking.
Maintain Healthy Digestion. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the digestive system is considered to support the respiratory system (in TCM terminology, “Earth is the mother of Metal”). It’s why we find that so many kids with asthma and allergies have digestive problems, and why so many food sensitivities cause respiratory symptoms. In biomedicine, there’s a growing understanding that the lining - or epithelium - of the digestive tract, especially the intestines, has a relationship with other epithelial tissues - like the lining of the lungs. A healthy digestive tract goes hand-in-hand with healthy lungs. For this reason it’s always a good idea to follow good nutritional practices (if you don’t know what these are, check out my online course, How to Eat), including frequent consumption of fermented foods like sauerkraut and/or occasionally taking probiotics.
Exercise. Exercise tones virtually all systems of the body, including the respiratory tract and the immune system. I recommend getting exercise of an intensity that makes your breathing labored, and ideally not doing it in frigid or polluted air. Just don’t overdo it - ideally, you’re exercising enough to build energy, not exhaust yourself.
Avoid Sugar. Eat Nutrient Dense Foods. Sugar can increase inflammation and suppress immune function. Besides, it’s just empty calories. Many times I’ve had patients tell me about how an infection worsened dramatically after they ate a big dessert. Instead, why not make this an opportunity to eat super nourishing foods?
Wash Your Hands and Don’t Touch Your Face. You know this, of course. Just make a rule with yourself that you don’t touch your face unless you’ve just washed your hands. And you don’t need hand sanitizer - soap and water work better. Be sure to get under your nails. Also, if you’re finding - like me - that your hands are getting dry and irritated from all this hand washing (!!) use lotion. We happen to make some that you might like.
Get Enough Sleep. Nothing supports the immune system like a good night’s sleep. If we could all go to bed at the first inkling of sickness, much of the time we wouldn’t even get sick.
Keep Playing and Connecting. Play has a singular value in reminding us how to be lighthearted. Even in the midst of hoarding and hysteria, we must take time to play and to connect with our loved ones and the natural world. It grounds us. It pacifies our hearts. It gives us perspective. Even if we can’t touch, we can still be connected.
Take Supportive Nutrients and Herbs. Authorities discourage saying that anything helps the coronavirus, but there are a number of supplements that I trust as immune enhancers. I take them myself, I recommend them to my patients, and I give them to my family. I can’t promise that it will prevent or mitigate the coronavirus, but you can do your own research and decide for yourself.
- Selenium. Adequate dietary selenium helps us fight RNA viruses like COVID-19, but many parts of the country have minimal selenium in the soil, leading to crops with minimal selenium. That said, unless you’re eating everything from local farms, the selenium status of soils in your area might not say much about your selenium status. You can get selenium capsules in the form of selenomethionine. 200 micrograms a day is plenty (half that is probably enough for most people). A single Brazil nut contains about 75 micrograms of selenium, so you could also skip the pill and eat just two nuts a day.
- Jade Wind Screen. This Chinese herbal formula was first recorded in a text in 1481, so it’s been in use for 539 years. The name comes from the idea that it is a screen against “wind” - i.e., airborne pathogens. It’s intended to simultaneously strengthen the lungs and digestive system while simultaneously promoting the circulation of “defensive Qi” (superficial immune cells), and it is generally taken as a preventive supplement rather than as a treatment for sickness. TCM physicians in Wuhan have had considerable success in treating patients with COVID-19 with herbal formulas. They have developed protocols for each stage of the illness and a modified version of this formula is their basic “preventative” formula. You can find Jade Wind Screen in liquid or pill form through numerous companies. I am in the process of making a large batch of the formula as a tincture, with my own additions based roughly on the Wuhan variation. We will have it available for sale soon (at our usual tincture prices). We can’t claim that it cures or prevents COVID-19, but I have my whole family taking it, and it means something to me that TCM has a millennia-long history of treating epidemic diseases.
- Vitamin D. Blood levels of vitamin D are directly correlated with immune function, and deficiency is common, especially in the winter. I recommend - with or without the threat of coronavirus - that people take at least 35 units of vitamin D per pound of body weight per day (e.g., a 100-pound person can take 3500 IU’s of vitamin D a day).
- Vitamin C. Besides its ability to enhance immune function, vitamin C may help prevent the progression of lung infections to pneumonia and may also help to clear fluid from the lungs in active pneumonia. If you get sick, I believe vitamin C works best for infections when consumed almost to “bowel tolerance” - that is, just below the quantity that causes diarrhea. Any vitamin C is fine, but I particularly like the “liposomal” or fat-bound forms of vitamin C - they seem to be more active and have less effect on digestion.
- Vitamin A. Vitamin A enhances immune function also. I usually take a high dose of 100,000 to 200,000 units per day for the first few days of an infection and often that stops it in its tracks. Because there are reports of liver toxicity with very high doses of vitamin A for prolonged periods, I generally don’t recommend using these kinds of doses for more than a week. If you have liver problems, you should skip it. Also, large amounts of vitamin A are a bad idea for pregnant women – it can cause birth defects. (Beta carotene, which is converted by the body to vitamin A as needed, is safe for pregnant women.)
- Rhodiola. Rhodiola rosea is a mountainous herb with adaptogenic and calming properties. Taken over time, it improves our ability to adapt to stresses of all kinds. It reduces fatigue and builds resilience.
- Mushrooms. Virtually all mushrooms help improve immune function. Some of my favorites are ganoderma (reishi), maitake (grifola), agaricus blazeii, chaga, and cordyceps. Many companies now make mushroom extracts for immune support. I like Host Defense because their founder, Paul Stamets, is an expert and pioneer in the world of medicinal mushrooms.
- Sang Ju Yin. This TCM formula (also known as Mulberry Leaf and Chrysanthemum Decoction) is used by Wuhan doctors for the very earliest stage of infection - especially when there’s a dry cough, fever, and maybe a sore throat. It’s available from many companies in liquid and pill form. If you can’t procure any, a practitioner of Chinese Medicine may be able to make you some. Otherwise, our Cold & Flu Formula is a reasonable substitute.
- Lactoferrin. Lactoferrin is a protein that occurs naturally in the human body, especially in human milk (particularly the first milk, known as colostrum), saliva, tears, and other fluids. It can also be extracted from cow’s milk. It’s a powerful component of our immune system, exhibiting anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-bacterial activity. It’s specifically been shown to help prevent viruses like COVID-19 from entering our cells.
If You Feel Sick, Act Fast. Whether it’s one of the supplements above or something else, have it with you at all times so that you can take it at the very first feeling that you’re unwell. Then take a nap and when you wake up, take some more! This ensures the best chance of effectiveness. Meanwhile, do the right thing and stay home until you know you’re well.
Meditate. Meditation has a unique value in times of turmoil. It opens up space in our consciousness which helps us to not be run by our minds. We see that we’re not our thoughts, and further, that we don’t even need to believe our thoughts. We receive insights. We reset our nervous system. And we reconnect with a Self that’s more authentic, more consistent, more honest, more loving and ever-present than the unbalanced ego we’ve been giving all our attention. Meditation is the antidote to hysteria. (If you feel you need additional mood support, you might benefit from our Anxiety Herbal Formula and check out this Anxiety White Paper I wrote.)

Finally, let’s all Stay Rational. People are often talking about fatality rates of COVID-19 rather than survival rates. And for most healthy adults, your chances of surviving an infection with this virus is 99% or better. Raging and freaking out won’t help, and may even compound the stress on your system. (Forgive yourself.) Keep looking for the silver linings. Stay in touch with your community. This too shall pass! Love, Dr. Peter Borten [1] How COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) is Currently Treated in China with TCM [2] Vitamin C may affect lung infections

[3] Vitamin C for preventing and treating pneumonia

[4] Vitamin C Infusion for the Treatment of Severe 2019-nCoV Infected Pneumonia - Full Text View

[5] Vitamin C and SARS coronavirus | Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

[6] Inhibition of SARS Pseudovirus Cell Entry by Lactoferrin Binding to Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans

[post_title] => 11 ways to create peace in the time of coronavirus [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => 11-ways-peace-health-coronavirus [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2020-03-17 15:53:18 [post_modified_gmt] => 2020-03-17 15:53:18 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://thedragontree.com/?p=7815 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) [1] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 7851 [post_author] => 5 [post_date] => 2020-04-10 08:00:22 [post_date_gmt] => 2020-04-10 08:00:22 [post_content] => Numerous members of the Dragontree community have told us they’re dealing with a lot of anxiety these days, and it happens to be something I’m very familiar with. I think my half-Jewish DNA blessed me with a substantial dose of fear and paranoia. Although there have been plenty of times I wished I weren’t wired this way, I’ve worked through it enough to recognize that many good things have come out of it – including that it has allowed me to help many others with anxiety. I’ve found that there’s no single approach that works for everyone, so I like to give people a few things to try together, and I’ll share some of these today. A good place to start is with an understanding of how our survival mechanisms work – and malfunction. Most of us had our first taste of intense fear in childhood and it made a strong impression on us. The feeling itself is often as memorable as whatever it was trying to warn us about. After a few incidents in which a strong feeling of fear accompanied a situation in which we had a strong desire to avoid an unpleasant outcome – e.g., getting hurt or losing something or someone, perhaps our own life – we began to trust fear. “Why would I be feeling this way,” the mind rationalizes, “if there weren’t something bad about to happen?” Fear is the emotional mechanism our survival instinct uses to get our attention and to cause us to prioritize security above all else. It makes sense that fear feels bad, that it jars us, that it causes us to react without thinking – and that, since it arises when big things seem to be at stake, it’s trustworthy. It’s not. Our trust in fear began at an age when we didn’t know how to discern whether or not it was legitimate. It turns out much of the time that fear is aroused by our survival mechanisms, it’s misinformed and exaggerated. Just think of all the times you’ve gotten scared about something that turned out to be nothing. We even feel fear while sitting safely on our couch, reading or watching a story in which a fictional character is threatened. For most people with anxiety, fear is an error nearly 100% of the time. We just got into the bad habit of letting it take over whenever it arises. Breaking a habit takes work, but anyone can do it. When it comes to anxiety this means, as often as possible, doing something different than usual when you feel fearful.

1) Slow down and deepen your breathing. The mind follows the breath, so slower, deeper breathing – especially with a long exhale – will slow down your mind and open up space in your consciousness so you can notice and question this feeling without being at its mercy. Let your inhale go all the way down to fill up your pelvic bowl, and let the edgy feeling pour out of you on the exhale.

2) Turn toward it with curiosity and bravery. Fear goes hand-in-hand with the fight-flight-freeze reaction. That is, we tend to fight it (resist it, hate it, throw everything at it, spend all our savings on toilet paper, etc.), run away from it (any of various avoidance mechanisms, including getting on our devices or moving to a bunker), or freeze (become physically and/or mentally immobilized). These are all animalistic reactions; we can be smarter and braver. Instead of letting the feeling run you, get interested in it. It’s just a feeling. Examine it. What is this thing? What triggered it? What does it look like? What does it feel like? What does it sound like?

3) Don’t resist it. While meeting the feeling with bravery and curiosity, can you soften yourself in relation to it? What if you just let the feeling be here without fighting it? What if you even invite it to stay? What if you allow yourself to feel it with total willingness? Resistance makes fear stronger. You’ve probably heard “What you resist persists,” but maybe you haven’t heard the corollary: “A feeling fully felt finally fades.” The moment you say, “Bring it on,” it changes.

4) Turn the relationship around. When you have one or more intensely anxious experiences it’s easy to develop an aversion to fear. You may find yourself experiencing it as a monster that’s chasing you, which you need to destroy or run away from. But as soon as you run, you define the relationship. You make fear bad. You make yourself a victim. You relinquish your power.

When you start chasing it instead, it stops controlling you. Tell it, “I will find you. I will learn all of your appearances, all of your hiding places,” and you’ll stop fearing fear.

I know these are uncertain times. No one knows what tomorrow will bring. But I promise you, whatever happens, certain things will still be here. Love will still be here. Grace will still be here. Kindness will still be here. Peace will still be here. I hope these different ways of relating to anxiety are helpful for you. Next time we’ll look at broader self-care strategies for “down-regulating” your nervous system. I’m honored to help however I can, Dr. Peter Borten P.S If you need extra support, I've crafted our Anxiety-Relief tincture to do just that. [post_title] => 4 Steps to Breaking Your Anxiety Habit [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => 4-steps-to-breaking-your-anxiety-habit [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2020-04-09 21:37:27 [post_modified_gmt] => 2020-04-09 21:37:27 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://thedragontree.com/?p=7851 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) [2] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 7675 [post_author] => 5 [post_date] => 2019-11-06 19:24:03 [post_date_gmt] => 2019-11-06 19:24:03 [post_content] => Every winter people ask me what they should do to get over colds and flus. In the past I’ve written long lists of all sorts of interventions, including numerous herbs and supplements. I still think those things are useful (and I’ll share a revised list later in the article) but 12 years of parenthood has helped to evolve my thinking on the matter. Having daily contact with small humans who think nothing of sneezing directly into my mouth, I know that exposure is inevitable. If I now had to rank the value of immune-supporting interventions, number one would be REDUCE YOUR ACTIVITY. I know it’s kind of like announcing that tonight’s dessert is prunes. Most people either don’t want to slow down or don’t feel they have the time to slow down. But I believe that being always engaged takes a big toll on us, both physically and psychologically. And there’s no supplement that comes close to the restorative value of REST. So learn to recognize your first symptoms of infection. Maybe it’s a certain quality of lethargy – you’re tired in a way that feels different from just a poor night of sleep. Maybe it’s a sore throat or just a tickle. Maybe it’s a headache or a stiff neck. Maybe it’s a runny nose while you still feel otherwise fine. When you notice this, it’s a message – not just that a foreign critter has taken up residence in you, but that you are out of sync with what your being needs. If you honor this message and reduce your activity immediately, you will almost never get sick. “Reduce your activity” implies a few different things. Most often it means: sleep. If you check in – you can close your eyes and ask internally, “Should I sleep now?” – you’ll be able to feel if the answer is yes. Often, when you perceive your first symptom of infection and you respond by taking a nap, you’ll wake up and that symptom will be gone. Easy. But if you’ve been feeling like you’re constantly staving off infections or you’re always operating at less than 100%, reducing your activity may mean lessening your overall expenditure of energy. For optimal health it’s good to aim to consume less energy than we generate. That may sound overly simplistic, and it can sometimes be hard to gauge, but it’s basic economics. If you generate lots of energy through ample deep sleep, high quality food, loving and supportive community, spiritual practice, and other forms of nourishing self-care, you can burn more energy without needing to tap into your reserves. If you don’t sleep much and/or it isn’t restful, if you don’t eat great food (or you have digestive problems that impair your ability to extract the nutrients from it), if you don’t engage with community in a supportive way, etc., you will have less energy available to you, and unless you curb your activity level, your immune system (and other systems) will flag. Besides reducing your activity, you can support yourself even more by tuning in when you slow down and asking, “What needs my attention?” Our susceptibility to infection is often higher during times of transition – such as transitions between seasons – because there’s a demand for attention and adaptive energy. If we don’t give any direct attention to finding our balance amidst change, we’ll unconsciously expend more adaptive energy to restore balance. Or, said in a more positive way, if we proactively slow down and tune in during challenging times so that we’re able to recognize how to adapt, we save energy in the process and usually avoid getting sick. When you reduce your activity at the first sign of a cold, you can avoid getting sick and that’s good. But I’d really like to encourage you to voluntarily slow down even when it’s not motivated by the desire to avoid something unpleasant. This practice actually yields real, tangible, measurable improvements in calmness, happiness, and life satisfaction. So don’t wait for that sore throat. Now, I said I’d tell you some of the other interventions I recommend for colds and flus. They’re grouped for simplicity. Dietary:

Avoid sugar (it suppresses immune function).
Eat lightly and stick to whole, natural, unprocessed, and easy-to-digest foods (which usually means cooked).
Drink plenty of room-temperature or warm fluids (water, broth, electrolytes, tea).
Almost all aromatic herbs (such as thyme, mint, ginger, garlic, oregano, sage, etc.) have immune supportive effects, so use them liberally in your soup and tea.
Make it easy for your body to get the nutrients it needs with a minimal expenditure of energy.

Lifestyle:

Don’t touch your face. Just make a rule with yourself that you don’t put your fingers in your ears, eyes, nose, or mouth unless you just washed them.
Keep the surfaces you touch clean (cell phone, computer, counters, door knobs, sponges, etc.)
Stay warm. Research shows there isn’t much truth to the longstanding notion that cold weather makes us sick – at least not in a direct way – but it does play a role. If you’re feeling too cold, chances are you’re using adaptive energy to keep yourself warm, and this means less energy that’s available for immune function. Also, cold weather is usually dry too, and dry mucus membranes are less effective at trapping viruses. Finally, viruses are more stable, and therefore survive longer on surfaces, in cold weather than in warm.
Reduce stress.
Get enough good-quality sleep.
Get acupuncture and massage.
Exercise (not when you’re actively sick though)

Supplements:

Whatever you do, do it fast. Almost all immune-enhancing supplements have the best chance of success when taken at the absolute first sign of illness.
Herbs: There are lots of great immune enhancing herbs, and many are specific as to when and how they’re best utilized. It’s beyond the scope of this article to get into those specifics, so I encourage you to consult a trained herbalist or do your own reading on the nuances of these herbs, but here are some of my favorites: lemon balm leaf (gentle anti-viral), echinacea root (I like the tincture form best), umckaloabo root (umcka for short), osha root, olive leaf, fresh ginger, andrographis (exceedingly bitter, so best taken as a pill), elder berry and flower, and the Chinese pill formulas Yin Qiao [Yin Chiao] and Gan Mao Ling.
Mushrooms. Nearly all edible mushrooms have immune enhancing properties. Some of the most potent include: ganoderma (reishi), maitake, shiitake, coriolus, chaga, agaricus blazeii, turkey tail (trametes), agarikon (fomitopsis), lion’s mane, and mesima. I believe these strengthening fungi are best taken before you get sick, but they can also be taken while you’re sick (especially if it’s a prolonged illness).
Vitamin D. I generally recommend 35 units per pound of your body weight as a maintenance dose, though for myself, I double or triple this when I’m fighting an infection.
Vitamin A has anti-viral activity in high doses, though it can be toxic to the liver over time and it isn’t safe for pregnant women. For non-pregnant individuals with healthy livers, you can take 100,000 to 200,000 units of vitamin A for the first several days of an illness. Often a single big dose is enough to stop an early infection.
Vitamin C is a great, safe immune enhancer. All forms are useful, though I prefer the kind that’s bound in a layer of fat for better absorption. This is sometimes called “lipospheric” or “lypospheric” vitamin C. A similar form is known as ascorbyl palmitate. I recommend about 500 mg of vitamin C per hour when actively fighting an infection (or just below the dose that gives you loose bowels).
Zinc lozenges, specifically in the form zinc gluconate, has been proven to reduce to the duration of a cold. It’s best to suck on one slowly, repeatedly throughout the day. The downside is that, especially on an empty stomach, zinc can give you a stomach ache.
Glandular extracts. If you don’t have a problem with animal products, some have potent immune supportive effects. They are mostly derived from otherwise discarded organs from the meat industry (beef, pork, and lamb), except in the case of the company Standard Process which raises them on their own century-old organic farm. The most common glandular extract for immune support is thymus, the gland in your chest that produces T lymphocytes. Some of the products my patients have had the most success with include Pro-Boost, X-Viromin, and Congaplex.

There are two last points I want to make. One: when you start to feel better, keep taking good care of yourself and reducing activity for at least one more day. A major rookie move is to respond to the message from your body, see positive results, and then jump right back in to high activity and crappy diet, just to get hit hard with a relapse you can’t immediately clear. Two: nothing wastes energy like fighting with reality. I’ve been able to sail through a cold by focusing inward, finding my feelings of resistance to being sick, and letting them go. I believe anyone can do this. Think about your illness and notice the feelings in your body – particularly the lack of ease. Often there will be a feeling of tightness, tension, or bracing somewhere, or some other unpleasant feeling that isn’t due to the virus itself, but to your reaction to it. If you just keep bringing yourself back to your body and letting go of this resistance, your whole experience of being sick can change. Let your cells do the fighting, not your mind. Be well, Dr. Peter Borten [post_title] => Colds, Flus, and the Incomparable Value of Rest and Calibration [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => colds-flus-and-the-incomparable-value-of-rest-and-calibration [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-11-06 19:24:03 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-11-06 19:24:03 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://thedragontree.com/?p=7675 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 2 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) ) [post_count] => 3 [current_post] => -1 [in_the_loop] => [post] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 7815 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2020-03-13 20:00:05 [post_date_gmt] => 2020-03-13 20:00:05 [post_content] => Lots of people are anxious about this illness – and the impact of mass hysteria – so I want to share some rational advice on what you can do to stay well in both body and mind, including some specific supplements that may help. I’ll also explain what we’re doing at our spas to make them a safe place for you and our employees. It is our mission to create a more peaceful world through more peaceful individuals. In order to give you and our staff the best chance at peace of mind, we will be temporarily closing the Spa until further notice. We will be monitoring COVID-19 the situation closely and plan on reassessing each day with plans on reopening as soon as possible. We invite you to join us on our Facebook group, Dragontree Community and Conversations. There, you will find community, connection, and on-going wisdom from our Founders, Dr. Peter and Briana Borten. You can find our online community here: thedragontree.com/community Here is a replay of our Facebook Live where we share more details on each of these points for our community. [embed]https://www.facebook.com/TheDragontree/videos/211888856841144/[/embed] Here are my top recommendations for staying peaceful and healthy:

Keep Breathing. Any time you feel stressed, bring your attention back to your breath. The breath is a built-in mindfulness tool. You watch your breath come in and go out and instantly you’re in the present – rather than letting your mind run away with you. Besides simply bringing your attention to your breath throughout the day, you can also practice making your exhale very long, and as you breathe out, imagine you’re releasing tension and fear. The Vietnamese monk, Thích Nhất Hạnh, has written that many of his fellow monks lived through atrocities during the Vietnam War, but were able to maintain their sanity and inner peace through Buddhist mindfulness practices. Another reason to practice breathing is to keep your lungs strong and resilient. All day long we fall into the habit of shallow breathing. Our lungs have a capacity of about 6 liters of air, but we usually take breaths of only half a liter in size! Imagine as you inhale that you’re filling up the bowl of your pelvis, that your breath goes so deep that you can feel your hips expanding from the inside as your belly expands.
Avoid Lung Pollutants. If you’re interested in healthy lungs, it’s a good time to stop smoking, wear a mask while doing sanding or painting or other dusty activities, and quit toxic air fresheners and cleaners. It has been theorized that the high mortality rate in China is due in part to air pollution and smoking.
Maintain Healthy Digestion. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the digestive system is considered to support the respiratory system (in TCM terminology, “Earth is the mother of Metal”). It’s why we find that so many kids with asthma and allergies have digestive problems, and why so many food sensitivities cause respiratory symptoms. In biomedicine, there’s a growing understanding that the lining - or epithelium - of the digestive tract, especially the intestines, has a relationship with other epithelial tissues - like the lining of the lungs. A healthy digestive tract goes hand-in-hand with healthy lungs. For this reason it’s always a good idea to follow good nutritional practices (if you don’t know what these are, check out my online course, How to Eat), including frequent consumption of fermented foods like sauerkraut and/or occasionally taking probiotics.
Exercise. Exercise tones virtually all systems of the body, including the respiratory tract and the immune system. I recommend getting exercise of an intensity that makes your breathing labored, and ideally not doing it in frigid or polluted air. Just don’t overdo it - ideally, you’re exercising enough to build energy, not exhaust yourself.
Avoid Sugar. Eat Nutrient Dense Foods. Sugar can increase inflammation and suppress immune function. Besides, it’s just empty calories. Many times I’ve had patients tell me about how an infection worsened dramatically after they ate a big dessert. Instead, why not make this an opportunity to eat super nourishing foods?
Wash Your Hands and Don’t Touch Your Face. You know this, of course. Just make a rule with yourself that you don’t touch your face unless you’ve just washed your hands. And you don’t need hand sanitizer - soap and water work better. Be sure to get under your nails. Also, if you’re finding - like me - that your hands are getting dry and irritated from all this hand washing (!!) use lotion. We happen to make some that you might like.
Get Enough Sleep. Nothing supports the immune system like a good night’s sleep. If we could all go to bed at the first inkling of sickness, much of the time we wouldn’t even get sick.
Keep Playing and Connecting. Play has a singular value in reminding us how to be lighthearted. Even in the midst of hoarding and hysteria, we must take time to play and to connect with our loved ones and the natural world. It grounds us. It pacifies our hearts. It gives us perspective. Even if we can’t touch, we can still be connected.
Take Supportive Nutrients and Herbs. Authorities discourage saying that anything helps the coronavirus, but there are a number of supplements that I trust as immune enhancers. I take them myself, I recommend them to my patients, and I give them to my family. I can’t promise that it will prevent or mitigate the coronavirus, but you can do your own research and decide for yourself.
- Selenium. Adequate dietary selenium helps us fight RNA viruses like COVID-19, but many parts of the country have minimal selenium in the soil, leading to crops with minimal selenium. That said, unless you’re eating everything from local farms, the selenium status of soils in your area might not say much about your selenium status. You can get selenium capsules in the form of selenomethionine. 200 micrograms a day is plenty (half that is probably enough for most people). A single Brazil nut contains about 75 micrograms of selenium, so you could also skip the pill and eat just two nuts a day.
- Jade Wind Screen. This Chinese herbal formula was first recorded in a text in 1481, so it’s been in use for 539 years. The name comes from the idea that it is a screen against “wind” - i.e., airborne pathogens. It’s intended to simultaneously strengthen the lungs and digestive system while simultaneously promoting the circulation of “defensive Qi” (superficial immune cells), and it is generally taken as a preventive supplement rather than as a treatment for sickness. TCM physicians in Wuhan have had considerable success in treating patients with COVID-19 with herbal formulas. They have developed protocols for each stage of the illness and a modified version of this formula is their basic “preventative” formula. You can find Jade Wind Screen in liquid or pill form through numerous companies. I am in the process of making a large batch of the formula as a tincture, with my own additions based roughly on the Wuhan variation. We will have it available for sale soon (at our usual tincture prices). We can’t claim that it cures or prevents COVID-19, but I have my whole family taking it, and it means something to me that TCM has a millennia-long history of treating epidemic diseases.
- Vitamin D. Blood levels of vitamin D are directly correlated with immune function, and deficiency is common, especially in the winter. I recommend - with or without the threat of coronavirus - that people take at least 35 units of vitamin D per pound of body weight per day (e.g., a 100-pound person can take 3500 IU’s of vitamin D a day).
- Vitamin C. Besides its ability to enhance immune function, vitamin C may help prevent the progression of lung infections to pneumonia and may also help to clear fluid from the lungs in active pneumonia. If you get sick, I believe vitamin C works best for infections when consumed almost to “bowel tolerance” - that is, just below the quantity that causes diarrhea. Any vitamin C is fine, but I particularly like the “liposomal” or fat-bound forms of vitamin C - they seem to be more active and have less effect on digestion.
- Vitamin A. Vitamin A enhances immune function also. I usually take a high dose of 100,000 to 200,000 units per day for the first few days of an infection and often that stops it in its tracks. Because there are reports of liver toxicity with very high doses of vitamin A for prolonged periods, I generally don’t recommend using these kinds of doses for more than a week. If you have liver problems, you should skip it. Also, large amounts of vitamin A are a bad idea for pregnant women – it can cause birth defects. (Beta carotene, which is converted by the body to vitamin A as needed, is safe for pregnant women.)
- Rhodiola. Rhodiola rosea is a mountainous herb with adaptogenic and calming properties. Taken over time, it improves our ability to adapt to stresses of all kinds. It reduces fatigue and builds resilience.
- Mushrooms. Virtually all mushrooms help improve immune function. Some of my favorites are ganoderma (reishi), maitake (grifola), agaricus blazeii, chaga, and cordyceps. Many companies now make mushroom extracts for immune support. I like Host Defense because their founder, Paul Stamets, is an expert and pioneer in the world of medicinal mushrooms.
- Sang Ju Yin. This TCM formula (also known as Mulberry Leaf and Chrysanthemum Decoction) is used by Wuhan doctors for the very earliest stage of infection - especially when there’s a dry cough, fever, and maybe a sore throat. It’s available from many companies in liquid and pill form. If you can’t procure any, a practitioner of Chinese Medicine may be able to make you some. Otherwise, our Cold & Flu Formula is a reasonable substitute.
- Lactoferrin. Lactoferrin is a protein that occurs naturally in the human body, especially in human milk (particularly the first milk, known as colostrum), saliva, tears, and other fluids. It can also be extracted from cow’s milk. It’s a powerful component of our immune system, exhibiting anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-bacterial activity. It’s specifically been shown to help prevent viruses like COVID-19 from entering our cells.
If You Feel Sick, Act Fast. Whether it’s one of the supplements above or something else, have it with you at all times so that you can take it at the very first feeling that you’re unwell. Then take a nap and when you wake up, take some more! This ensures the best chance of effectiveness. Meanwhile, do the right thing and stay home until you know you’re well.
Meditate. Meditation has a unique value in times of turmoil. It opens up space in our consciousness which helps us to not be run by our minds. We see that we’re not our thoughts, and further, that we don’t even need to believe our thoughts. We receive insights. We reset our nervous system. And we reconnect with a Self that’s more authentic, more consistent, more honest, more loving and ever-present than the unbalanced ego we’ve been giving all our attention. Meditation is the antidote to hysteria. (If you feel you need additional mood support, you might benefit from our Anxiety Herbal Formula and check out this Anxiety White Paper I wrote.)

[3] Vitamin C for preventing and treating pneumonia

[4] Vitamin C Infusion for the Treatment of Severe 2019-nCoV Infected Pneumonia - Full Text View

[5] Vitamin C and SARS coronavirus | Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

[6] Inhibition of SARS Pseudovirus Cell Entry by Lactoferrin Binding to Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans

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