These are difficult times for all of us – each experiencing unexpected changes in our own ways. While we can’t do anything about our outside circumstances, we can take hold of our health to keep inflammation at bay. Small adjustments to our lifestyle can make a big difference.
Transcript
00:00:02
Hello to you all. I hope that are doing well, that you’re in good health. In these challenging times. These are difficult times for all of us, for each and one of us, each of us in a different way. We are faced with unknowns. We are faced with changes in our life that we did not expect. Naturally, it brings up fear and anxiety and stress, and the simple principle of facing the unknown. As a result, it brings out our survival drive. We’re really only in survival mode all over the world. We are only in the same boat. There’s not a lot that we can do about our outside conditions. The only thing we can do is we can affect our response the way we respond and what we can do to protect our health. Stress is natural in such a situation. The issue is stress.
00:01:03
Over time causes inflammation, the stress response. Start with a neurological response through the sympathetic nervous system, and then shifts into a metabolic response guided by galectin three and either cytokines inflammatory compounds. When these are turned on, you get a storm of inflammation. What we call medically cytokine storm, the cytokine storm can be worth worse in chronic diseases. And that’s why we are. We hear all the time that people with chronic diseases, which are driven by inflammation, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, these kinds of patients have this kind of people have a greater risk. Now it’s a time where what we can do is we can reduce our inflammation. The first way to do it is through lifestyle. Inflammation is heat. Everything moves very fast. One thing that we can do is try to slow down as much as we can, like disconnect from the TV disconnect from the news for a few hours.
00:02:13
One of the hallmarks of inflammation is that it shifts the metabolism from a normal oxygen driven metabolism through the mitochondria that is very efficient to anaerobic glycolysis and metabolism of survival. That is very fast but produces inflammation. We need to bring a lot of oxygen to our body, into our tissues. There are few simple ways to do this. We do this through exercise, any kind of exercise that raises our heart rate. If you’re in a place where you can go outside and walk in your garden in a park close by if it’s allowed anything that can allow you to increase your heartbeat and move your body. Especially if you can be out is very beneficial.
Also, try to exercise your lungs by simply doing deep breathing exercises. There are many different ones, but simply sitting and feeling your lungs, filling your dire from coming down and your whole lungs opening and exhaling, letting go and relaxing and doing this small slow, deep breath for 10, 20 times every hour, whenever you remember.
00:03:32
These things, exercises and breathing will improve the oxygenation in our body. The other thing is that we need to control our stress and we can do it through meditation. I’m offering such a session on Thursday, April 2nd, at 10:00 AM, and I will be offering it here on an ongoing basis and there will be videos, but also through whatever works for you. If it’s dance, if it’s listening to music, if it’s doing out, if it’s reading, if it’s doing yoga or to go along with it, whatever your cultural interests are, but find a way that you feel it. Your body’s becoming more relaxed because when the body is more relaxed, there is more space in the body. There’s more space between the tissues. Once there’s more space, there’s less inflammation. Our immune system functions better. It can see better how to respond and it will respond with less inflammation is inflammatory cytokine response that causes the side effects in the deterioration, in different infections, including in this specific pandemic and can cause morbidity and mortality.
00:04:51
So it’s really about controlling inflammation. The other part is simple thing with our diet essential to cut refined sugars, drive inflammation. If you can cut on your gluten intake, which is not as easy these days, because we don’t have the same selection of food. It’s also extended. Also, look at what supplements you can use. If your diet is not balanced enough, you may want to use some minerals and vitamins. You want to take zinc, but the most essential supplements are the ones that will regulate immune response that will prevent the cytokine storm. In the two leading ones is modified citrus, respecting that blocks. Galectin three, the alarming protein in our body that starts the inflammatory response, especially in acute conditions like infections and medicinal mushrooms of different kinds that have a regulatory effect. It can be reishi. It can be Cordyceps. It can be maitake.
00:05:57
It can be tacky. It can be Coriolis, different mushroom that will regulate your immune response. Your immune system functions well, but it can relax pretty quickly. Into this, you can add some other herbs that help your stamina. Like astragalus like ashwagandha, like ultra Cocos. This is a generalized way of looking at your health and supporting it. Make sure that you are well-hydrated and see if you can have your last food three hours before you go to sleep. Your sleep times, there is no food in your stomach and the body can repair itself in a better way. These are all very simple tools and advice. I specifically want to keep it short and I wish you all the best. You can write and ask question and I will try to address them. I’m here for you using my extensive background in different kinds of medicine in my decades of experience.
00:06:58
Good luck stay healthy, keep the social distance. And we’re all connected by the heart.
