Fear No More! 10 Tips for COVID Immunity

With the cooler days and nights approaching, my mind always turns to the inevitable impact that the change of seasons has on our immune system.

It’s normal to catch a cold or otherwise feel a little under the weather when the seasons change, as the body has to adjust to new patterns, weather, levels of daily light, etc.

With this upcoming season change it feels more imperative than ever to keep really good tabs on our immunity and make sure we are as protected and strong as possible going into the Autumn. 

What we now understand about the COVID-19 infection is that the cytokine storm that happens in response to the infection is what causes the damage that can lead to more severe illness or death.

This is much like a fire raging through a forest, leaving nothing untouched in it's wake.

The Cytokine Storm:

“The problem occurs when your body’s reaction to an infection goes into overdrive. For example, researchers have observed that when the COVID-19 virus enters the lungs, it triggers an immune response that prompts immune cells to fight the virus and to create localized inflammation. In a small number of patients, however, the body releases excessive or uncontrolled levels of cytokines, which results in hyper-inflammation and may lead to serious complications or even death. This hyper-inflammation and consequent damage are called the cytokine storm.” Dr David Jockers, MD

Cytokine storms are not exclusive to COVID-19. They are a previously known phenomenon that occurs in other viral illnesses and even some non-infectious diseases that have inflammation as a root cause.

When it comes to the body’s natural inflammatory response, we want just the right amount of inflammation to fight an infection, but not too much inflammation to cause the runaway freight train effect of a cytokine storm.

According to ongoing research as cited by Dr Jockers, the main nutrients that can calm a cytokine storm and/or are generally anti-inflammatory and immune-protective are:

1) Vitamin D

With a host of observational data to date, as well as multiple randomized control trials on Vitamin D, it does seem very clear that vitamin D deficiency is indicated with worse outcomes for COVID-19.

According to one researcher I follow, Dr. Chris Masterjohn, PhD, there is quite extensive data showing the importance of an adequate Vitamin D status for prevention of, reduction in severity of, and reduction in mortality for a COVID-19 infection.

Vitamin D is essential in SO many functions in the body, and unfortunately deficiency is pretty rampant in general in the Northern hemisphere, and will become increasingly so as our hours of daylight lessen. 

It is a bit difficult to get adequate Vitamin D in the diet, especially if you are vegetarian or vegan, as it’s naturally found only in animal products like oily fish, egg yolks and red meat. Mushrooms do contain Vitamin D2, but that is generally considered to be less effective than Vitamin D3 (which is what is found in animal products) for humans.

Thus, supplementation is often warranted, and luckily it’s easy to test for your levels to determine your status, and if you need to supplement!

There are certain nutrients that are associated with one’s ability to absorb/utilize Vitamin D, and so often you will find it comes paired with Vitamin K2 in supplements. Another important nutrient to consider for adequate uptake of Vitamin D is magnesium.

Please do consider talking with your doctor and requesting a Vitamin D test as we make our transition into these colder Autumn months. I do believe a good Vitamin D status is really the very best friend we can all have right now.

This article from the Mayo Clinic shares some contraindications with Vitamin D, so do check here for more info and of course talk with your doctor, especially if you are taking meds.

And now lets continue with the nutrients and foods that are helpful with reducing the cytokine storm and generally keeping the immune system strong, balanced and able to do it’s job effectively without causing any harm (through a hyper-inflammatory response) to the body.

2) Resveratrol

Red wine is famous for being a source of this nutrient, but it might be even better to go straight to the source and get it from black/purple/red grapes as well as berries. You can of course supplements with resveratrol too if you prefer. I personally do both right now - eat lots of dark colored fruits and berries, and supplement with it daily.

* Daily Tip - Have a handful of berries with a daily bowl of oatmeal, or as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack.

3) Quercetin

This nutrient continues to be recommended in COVID-19 early treatment protocols, and for good reason! It’s an amazing support for the immune system, especially for anyone with a higher histamine load or Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. Also, if you have seasonal allergies/histamine intolerance you may already be aware that quercetin can be a wonderful support for you! Top foods sources include red onions, apples, raspberries, cherries, berries, broccoli, leafy vegetables.

* Daily Tip - Make a leafy green salad with chopped red onions, apples, berries, etc.

4) Curcumin

Turmeric (where curcumin is derived from) is of course the food you want to focus on here. My favorite ways to incorporate turmeric are in curries/soups, and also Golden Milk - a steamed/warm milk drink with ample amounts of turmeric, and usually some black pepper and a few other spices too. Dairy and non-dairy milks all work great for this drink. It makes a delicious and relaxing pre-bedtime drink as the weather gets cooler.

* Daily Tip - Enjoy a Golden Milk on the regular! (see recipe below)

5) EGCG

You may have already heard of this nutrient too. It’s one of the active ingredients that green tea is famous for!

Besides being cancer-preventive, heart-healthy, beneficial for the brain, and also showing impressive support for healthy weight loss, EGCG is also anti-microbial!

Green tea truly is a super food. Green Tea matcha is a wonderful choice for anyone looking to kick the coffee habit, though my all-time favorite green tea is the roasted rice version - Gen Mai Cha. For all green tea, do consider getting it loose rather than bagged, and steeping for just a short time if you are turned off by any bitterness in the tannins. 

* Daily Tip - Enjoy a cuppa of any loose-leaf green tea, or if you’re feeling more adventuresome, a matcha! I personally love an oat milk matcha latte. The perfect warming drink and pick-me-up on a cool day.

6) Beta-Glucan

You may or may not have heard of this one, but if you read the ingredients in most immune-supportive supplements, you’ll find this is a key ingredient. Beta-Glucans are also famous for being heart-protective because they naturally help to lower cholesterol levels. This is why oatmeal is sold as “heart-healthy”. Oats and barley are the two cereal grains highest in beta-glucans. Other rich sources are medicinal mushrooms like reishi, shiitake, and maitake mushrooms. Seaweeds and algae are other sources. 

* Daily Tip - Incorporate oats, barley or mushrooms into at least one meal a day (see recipe below for an easy overnight oatmeal that always gets rave reviews during my cleanses) and/or purchase or make a seaweed gomasio shake to add to salads, stirfry's, etc. (see recipe below)

7) Melatonin

The food with the highest natural amount of melatonin is the tart cherry. I personally love a glass of tart cherry juice before bed. Tart cherry is anti-inflammatory and is also cancer-fighting, cholesterol lowering and blood pressure reducing. So, this is a great all around healthy choice, with the added benefit of supporting healthy sleep if taken an hour or two before bed. Other foods with decent levels of melatonin are goji berries, eggs, milk, fish and nuts. For therapeutic effect, and especially in the early treatment COVID protocols I’ve seen, a supplement is often recommended, but for now you can definitely increase your intake of these foods, and know you are doing something healthy and protective.

* Daily Tip - Try a glass of tart cherry juice before bed (this is the brand I use) or add a small handful of goji berries to oatmeal, a smoothie, or a healthy trail mix (see recipe below).

8) Probiotics

In my experience in recovering from Long COVID, probiotics were an essential part of my healing. COVID-19 can be quite hard on the gut (remember that wildfire I mentioned above?), and so bringing back the right probiotics to support gut healing is a great choice.

***As a slight aside, I have more recently become aware of a newly released probiotic (with years and years of research behind it) that is very beneficial for folks recovering from Long COVID. This has been released by the microbiome company I work with in my gut healing protocols with my clients - Microbiome Labs. It is only available through a practitioner. If you wish to discuss if this might be beneficial for you, please get in touch.***

Probiotics have been very well studied for their immune-supportive and immune-protective capabilities. But the extra info to know about probiotics for COVID treatment/prevention is that choosing a low histamine version may be a wise choice. One of the inflammatory markers that is released when the body gets extra inflamed is histamine. Some probiotics are naturally high in histamine, and so would increase the levels of histamine in your body if you're not able to break it down in the gut effectively. Other probiotics are naturally low histamine.

Since choosing low-histamine strains might be a wise choice right now, here are a few of the low or no-histamine strains I've researched.

Bifidobacterium infantis

Lactobacillus gasseri

Bifidobacterium breve

Bifidobacterium bifidum

Lactobacillus salivarius

Lactobacillus rhamnosus (especially GG)

Bifidobacterium longum 

Bifidobacterium lactis 

Lactobacillus plantarum

bacillus coagulans, MTCC 5856 (lactospore)

*Daily Tip - consider adding a daily probiotic into your routine. My current favorite is a spore-based probiotic called MegaSporeBiotic, which is low histamine and has the capacity to support a significant level of gut "remodeling" - meaning it can bring back to a higher population level some of your gut's innate beneficial probiotics that may have been mostly killed off by antibiotic usage and other harms to one's gut through daily living...If you're into house remodeling, you might imagine that this is like turning a dilapidated abandoned shack that's leaky, has mold growing on the walls and is infested with various types of pests, into a cozy "as new" home with a healthy veggie garden in the back yard and beds of blooming flowers in the front yard!

Sadly, more of us have an internal gut health situation akin to that dilapidated shack than we might imagine!

I also really like this Spore Based Probiotic, which not only supports gut healing, but also reduces levels of glyphosate in the body.

I've been working with the second one I mentioned, Biome Medic for several years now with my clients to good results. And the recent successes I've noticed with my clients taking the MegaSporeBiotic (which is what I currently take daily) has been very heartening. I'm especially impressed and excited to see so many of my Mast Cell and Histamine clients having much less reactivity and being able to eat more foods since working with this probiotic. Both of these probiotics create resiliency in the gut (and immune system - 70% of the immune system is in the gut!), which is what we need most right now.

9) Vitamin C

You probably already know that Vitamin C is necessary and beneficial for immunity! It acts as a natural anti-inflammatory, and does even better when paired with bioflavonoids. What this means is: buy organic, and eat the peels/skins to get more of the bioflavonoids that come packaged with Vitamin C the way we get these nutrients in nature.

If you don't like your kiwi's with the peel, peel it, eat the skin first, and then enjoy the sweet fleshy part. Also eat the white part of grapefruits and oranges first. My recommendation when it comes to citrus is to suffer through the facial constrictions, and then eat the sweet part as a nice treat. Ahh... :) If you can't find organic it may be best to not eat the peel/skin. For fruits like watermelon, papaya and cantaloupe you can cut very close to the outer peel and so retain more of the healthy bioflavonoids that way. 

Fruits with the highest sources of vitamin C include:

• Cantaloupe.
• Citrus fruits such as orange and grapefruit.
• Kiwi fruit.
• Mango.
• Papaya.
• Pineapple.
• Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and cranberries.
• Watermelon.

Vegetables with the highest sources of vitamin C include:

• Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower.
• Green and red peppers.
• Spinach, cabbage, turnip greens, and other leafy greens.
• Sweet and white potatoes.
• Tomatoes
• Winter squash.

* Daily Tip - With so many different foods to choose from in this category it’s hard to NOT be taking in Vitamin C as long as you are incorporating some fresh veggies and fruits ever day. Cooking destroys some of the vitamin C found in fruits and veggies, so fresh and raw is best. If you wish to supplement, this is my favorite food based Vitamin C, which I take to support my immunity as needed.

And last but not least… 

10) Zinc!

Some of the top food sources of zinc include: Fresh oysters, sardines, beef, lamb, turkey, soybeans, split peas, whole grains, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pecans, Brazil nuts, almonds, walnuts, ginger root, maple syrup.

Because zinc is naturally found higher in quite a few animal products, if you are vegetarian or vegan, you may want to watch this one a little more closely, and make sure you are regularly eating the vegetarian foods highest in zinc. My husband and I have found a great pumpkin-seed butter which we enjoy on oat cakes (zinc and beta-glucans paired together in one healthy snack! Enjoy with a cup of golden milk or green tea, and you can check three things off on the list above!)

*Daily Tip - So many of the nuts and seeds high in zinc are great added to oatmeal or muesli, sprinkled on salads, eaten in their ground “butter” form, or even taken in in a slightly more processed form of nut mylk. Keep these nuts and seeds on hand - but do buy fresh, and or soak/dehydrate for optimal absorption, and store in the fridge to keep from going rancid. (see heathy trail mix recipe below)

I hope these ideas help to inspire you to incorporate more of the foods that are high in the nutrients that just might make a difference this Autumn for you and your family!!

I find my stress and anxiety levels about current world events lessen when I am actively doing something about it in my personal life.

The great news when it comes to eating is that it’s a 3x a day sort of habit! So that’s three times a day you can be choosing to be proactive about your health to boost your chances of maintaining a well-functioning immune system.

As always, blessings for your health and wellness in all ways!

-Ellen

p.s. Of all the recommendations above, the top 2 to tend to in my estimation would be to get your vitamin D levels checked, and supplement as needed (talk with your doctor), and to consider getting on a really good probiotic, as this will do wonders to support your immune system in your gut, which is where a lot of focus is needed when/if we get an infection. Please be in touch with me directly with any questions you have.

p.p.s. Remember, prevention is KEY!! Get started now on these healthy habits and give your body the best chance it has! I cannot stress enough (hah), the impact stress has on our immune system! Making proactive choices can help to mitigate fear, which has a lasting biochemical effect! SO, positive biochemical an immune changes + the benefits of feeling better because you're a little calmer. Sounds like a good deal to me!

Medical disclaimer: ***Everything shared above by myself, Ellen Kittredge, CHC, is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice and should not be relied on as health or personal advice. Always seek the guidance of your doctor or other qualified health professional with any questions you may have regarding your health or a medical condition. Never disregard the advice of a medical professional, or delay in seeking it. Do not start supplements without the guidance of a health professional, as there are possible contraindications between supplements and medications, as well as contraindications in general given different health conditions. Please discuss everything with your doctor or someone who is your trusted healthcare professional.***