My brush with Covid and how I got over it

After 2 years plus of dodging the covid bullet, I finally succumbed at the end of April and got those 2 dreaded lines on the RAT. A fabulous birthday gift from my loving partner who also got covid few days before me. 

Where did we get it? Maybe on our Easter trip to Tassy, on the plane, at a family gathering, who knows? With over 10,000 daily cases in Victoria at the time of writing, Rona is definitely doing the rounds. It is or maybe is it inevitable that we all get it at some stage?

I wanted to share my experience so those of you who have not yet had it I can be confident that there is definitely support you can have while you are sick and prevent any lingering effects. The good thing is that as a Naturopath I have already treated many people with Covid and the feed back is that what I gave them really helped. Now that I also have personal experience of having covid there is really nothing to be worried about.

Regardless of vaccine status, everyone is susceptible to catching the virus. Some more than others and everyone will have a different experience based on their own immune strength and how much preventative and supportive measures they invested in before they get it. 

My covid experience…

I’m a sneezer! I reckon I have definitely sneezed several peoples lifetime sneeze quotas and if I never sneeze again, this would be a brilliant achievement!! So when I was a little more sneezy than usual for a day I thought nothing of it. My partner was also a bit sneezy and spent a day on the couch watching tv and feeling flat as he called it. He did 2 RATs (Rapid Antigen Test) and both came up negative so he was unfazed and the following day was up and about working from home running his business. I felt fine and carried on with my day, however I got him to start some of my signature Naturopathic Immune boosting herbs and nutrients. I will write about and explain the rationale behind these herbs and nutrients a bit later on. 

The following afternoon I started to get mild sore throat and noticed my body was a little off. I started taking herbs as soon as I noticed the sore throat. The next morning I woke with a fever which progressed to 38.8C, and developed a banging headache because of the fever. Naturally I stayed in bed, took my herb mix every 2 hours and slept for most of the day. 

I’m a fever advocate so I did not take any panadol or nurofen to stop it. Fevers are our bodies NORMAL way to deal with an infection so letting them get as high as they need to is the BEST thing you can do, despite the fact that they are uncomfortable. Bed rest, a cool compresses and plenty of room temperature water and lemon and garlic tea is the best medicine. That night I did a RAT and sure enough 2 little lines appeared. I looked at my fella and said “If I have it you definitely have it too as you got it first. Oh and thanks for giving me Rona for my birthday!”. He did a RAT and it was positive as well. Happy iso birthday for me!

The next morning my fever broke a bit and dropped down to 37.1C, then hovered up to 37.7 in the afternoon. I started sneezing more that day and began having a dry annoying cough. I continued my herbs every 2 hours and nutrients 3 times a day. That night I coughed a fair bit as I felt an incessant tickle in my throat. Day 3 my fever was 37.1 for most of the day and I continued to cough and blow my nose, but started to feel better. Day 4 was my first day without a fever and I felt well enough to progress from bed to the couch. I was still coughing but a bit less. The following few days I continued to feel better each day, as my symptoms decreased. By day 7, I felt totally fine except for some clear excess mucus in my nose and a chesty cough every now and then. My energy was back to normal and I could go back to work again. My partner was a little bit different than me. He didn’t really rest, didn’t have the fever like I did and wasn’t coughing as much but my day 7 he was still flat and tired. His tiredness persisted much longer than mine so I put him on a convalescence herb mix for 2 weeks which made all the difference. 

Overall covid was like having the flu for me. When I have had the flu in the past, I always get a high fever for a few days and by 4 to 7 days Im over it and feel fine again. Covid was no different. A few extra days of residual mucus was the only thing that lingered beyond the 7 days. Two weeks later felt totally back to normal. 

What I did to get over Covid

By body did what it needed to do with the absolute assistance of my MMM (Martas Magical Muck) immune boosting herb mix and the nutrients Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Zinc, NAC and Quercetin. My partner was on our evidence based Covid Immune herb mix. I could not take that one as I am pregnant and some of the herbs are contraindicated in pregnancy. Was I worried about how covid would affect by baby? Well no not really. My body was doing all their right things with the fever and I was resting and taking all the herbs and nutrients I could take to help as well. My baby was just as supported and protected as me and we got over it together without any problems. 

Research into herbal and nutritional medicine for covid

Covid has certainly turned the world upside down and scared the bejezus out of many people, with the media, medical industry and governments touting that there is nothing other than vaccination which will “save us”. Research is proving otherwise showing clear evidence that several key nutrients and herbs are not only protective against covid19 but also important treatments to use independently or along side mainstream advice. Research has long known that Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Zinc, N-Acetyl cysteine (NAC) and Quercetin are powerful immune supportive agents. This well established knowledge sparked further research into the effect they have in the prevention and treatment of covid19.  

Vitamin C, Vitamin D and Zinc are the absolute bare minimum staples that everyone should take as a preventative to support their immunity on an on going basis (especially in winter) and boost their intake if they have any kind of respiratory infection. Current research favourably points to the role of these and other nutrients such as Vitamin A, Selenium, Quercetin and NAC as front line immune modulators vital for the immune system especially in the support, protection, resolution of viral respiratory infections including covid19 (Pecora et al 2020; Carr and Gombart 2022). 

Several studies show that the use of Vitamin C, Zinc, Quercetin and NAC reduce the cytokine storm responsible for serious illness from covid infection especially in the elderly who have weaker immune systems and get minimal protection from the vaccines. Colunga et al 2020 suggest co-administration of Vitamin C and Quercetin be used in high-risk groups (the elderly and immune compromised) for both prevention and for the treatment of COVID-19.

Herbal medicine research is also showing favourable results with several key herbs for the prevention and treatment of covid19. Our Covid herbal prescription is made up of several key evidence based immune boosting herbs which have been found to have an affinity at blocking and disrupting the covid spike proteins from replicating as well as reducing inflammation and down regulating mucus secretion.

Shine Health Herbal and Nutritional medicine protocol for covid

If you have had covid you know its not a nice ride, it you haven’t had it, there is nothing to be afraid of. Given the right support you will get through it and come out the other end smiling with natural immunity! There is plenty of evidence based herbal and nutritional support available to you to help you through it.

Please contact the clinic as soon as you start to feel you are coming down with something or one of your household members is. The faster you get herbs and nutrients into your body the less severe and protracted your experience will be. 

If you have had covid and feel that you have lingering symptoms of long covid such as fatigue, coughing or just can’t shake the mucus please contact us as a Post covid convalescent prescription may be appropriate for you. 

You can book an ONLINE Immune support appointment here. During this 15 minute session we will assess your symptoms and needs, prescribe the appropriate medicines and deliver our Covid Rescue pack to you as soon as possible.  

As always prevention is always better than cure, so keep maintaining all the good hygiene and protective measures you feel comfortable with and definitely start taking Zinc, Vitamin C and D now that winter is on our door step. Covid is probably here to stay so do yourself a favour and take some herbs and nutrients to keep you healthy so you can Shine…from inside out.

References:

Baeke F, Takiishi T, Korf H, Gysemans C, Mathieu C. Vitamin D: modulator of the immune system. Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2010 Aug;10(4):482-96. doi: 10.1016/j.coph.2010.04.001. Epub 2010 Apr 27. PMID: 20427238.

Carr AC, Gombart AF. Multi-Level Immune Support by Vitamins C and D during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic. Nutrients. 2022 Feb 6;14(3):689. doi: 10.3390/nu14030689. PMID: 35277048; PMCID: PMC8840673. 

Colunga Biancatelli RML, Berrill M, Catravas JD, Marik PE. Quercetin and Vitamin C: An Experimental, Synergistic Therapy for the Prevention and Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 Related Disease (COVID-19). Front Immunol. 2020 Jun 19;11:1451. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.01451. PMID: 32636851;

Derosa G, Maffioli P, D’Angelo A, Di Pierro F. A role for quercetin in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Phytother Res. 2021 Mar;35(3):1230-1236. doi: 10.1002/ptr.6887. Epub 2020 Oct 9. PMID: 33034398; PMCID: PMC7675685.

Pecora F, Persico F, Argentiero A, Neglia C, Esposito S. The Role of Micronutrients in Support of the Immune Response against Viral Infections. Nutrients. 2020 Oct 20;12(10):3198. doi: 10.3390/nu12103198. PMID: 33092041; PMCID: PMC7589163. 

Mohanty RR, Padhy BM, Das S, Meher BR. Therapeutic potential of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) in preventing cytokine storm in COVID-19: review of current evidence. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2021 Mar;25(6):2802-2807. doi: 10.26355/eurrev_202103_25442. PMID: 33829465.

Shi Z, Puyo CA. N-Acetylcysteine to Combat COVID-19: An Evidence Review. Ther Clin Risk Manag. 2020 Nov 2;16:1047-1055. doi: 10.2147/TCRM.S273700. PMID: 33177829; PMCID: PMC7649937.