What dietary and lifestyle choices can I make to prepare for and to optimize the Covid-19 vaccine experience?
Preparing the body and specifically the immune system can be accomplished with targeted supplementation and some specific lifestyle choices.
Co-morbidities that have been given air time during the Covid era have included diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and more. These factors can also be addressed specifically with nutritional evaluation and targeted support.
One can begin to implement upgraded, healthy habits now to reduce the likelihood of a negative reaction to a Covid vaccine.
Lifestyle choices:
Sleep:
Sleep is a major determinant of health. Adjusting your time schedule, changing your sleep environment or simply prioritizing your sleep time can make a vast difference in your body’s ability to cope. Lack of adequate sleep can actually trigger a diabetic-like state within four days! If you are struggling to get to sleep or sleep through the night with deep sleep, consider having a sleep review with our health coach, Jean Hilton.
Cut your toxic load:
Eating refined sugars and processed foods, smoking and alcohol consumption are all habits that contribute to nutritional depletion and increased inflammation. By cutting these substances out, you can give your body greater bandwidth to manage the inflammatory processes of Covid and the vaccine.
Stress:
We hear from all of you that you have been more stressed this past year. Isolation and fear have statistically increased this past year. This can create a stress response that dampens the immune system and leaves us vulnerable to a more severe response to the virus. Research studies have shown that isolation reduces wellness and longevity.
You can counteract this by:
· Turning off the news and social media that is upsetting
· Reaching out and connecting with people who bring light and love into your life
· Practicing self-care – which could include meditation, prayer, walking in nature, gratitude journals, scrapbooking, yoga, arts, music, or any other thing that lifts your heart.
Breathing exercises:
Breathing exercises can have a dramatic influence on your stress response, or autonomic nervous, system. Here are a couple that you can use at home regularly or on the fly during a stressful moment.
· Try word-pair breathing today! Simply breathe in and out slowly (and deeply) while repeating a word pair in your mind. For instance, the words love and peace are a favorite. One might say the word love on the in-breath and peace on the out-breath.
· Another classic is to breathe in to the count of 5 and out to the count of 7. This exercise triggers a relaxation response and healthier blood oxygenation.
· Visualizations can be helpful as well. For today, give yourself a quiet moment and visualize a small but beautiful pebble being placed at the top of your head. For a moment, visualize your body as a pool of water and feel the stone sinking gently through your body and down to your toes. Breathe gently as you enjoy this peaceful shift.
Build your microbiome:
Bridging the line between lifestyle and nutritional support is the idea of probiotics to prepare the immune system. While adding a targeted probiotic that suits your specific needs is powerful, adding fermented foods can increase your microbiome diversity as well. Consider growing and/or eating fermented foods like cashew or coconut yogurt, kimchi or water kefir.
Nutritional Support:
Various organizations have released their basic protocol to prepare nutritionally for the Covid-19 vaccination. Here we summarize a few components that are reliably included in most plans.
Vitamin D:
Just as scurvy was discovered to be a disease of Vitamin C deficiency, many indicators point toward Covid-19 targeting those with low Vitamin D. Recent studies have proven what we already know, that Vitamin D is most effective if taken before the most acute stages of Covid illness. Taking regular dosing, if needed, prior to infection or vaccination is recommended. Our favorites include LiquaD from Apex Energetics and Liposomal D Supreme or Vitamin D Supreme from Designs for Health.
NAC or Liposomal Glutathione:
N-acetyl-cysteine or NAC is a pre-cursor to glutathione, but it has a special affinity to the lungs. In the early days of the Covid experience, recommendations were to use NAC early and often and then move to glutathione once an infection occurred. This was specifically recommended to preserve supplies of glutathione for the acutely ill. Now that we are past times of glutathione shortages, we recommend adding liposomal glutathione in preparation for and during recovery from the Covid-19 vaccine. Our favorites include Trisomal Gluathione from Apex Energetics which contains both liposomal glutathione and NAC.
Quercetin:
Quercetin, bioflavonoids, turmeric and Boswellia provide support to lower inflammation and to lower histamine responses. During this allergy season it is especially important to lower the histamine load as it can lead to more severe reactions to the vaccine. We suggest HistoX or Bio-Fizz Immune (contains Vitamin C, Quercetin, Zinc, Vitamin D and more).
Vitamin C:
Vitamin C is a powerful anti-oxidant, repair of all body tissues, and essential for a healthy immune system. Food that are high in Vitamin C include: citrus fruits, peppers, strawberries, spinach, leafy green vegetables, potatoes and tomatoes. We suggest Vitamin C in doses of up to 2,000 mg. per day (not derived from sources of corn).
This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.