COVID Diet Inflammation Foods

Lifestyle choices in reducing covid severity

Disclaimer: This information is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease. It is presented for education purposes only, does not constitute medical advice and should not replace the advice of your doctor. If you feel unwell, especially if you suspect covid, please seek medical attention.

Consider this question 

Why do some people infected with SARS-COV 2 develop life threatening symptoms while others get off so lightly?  

Of course, it’s a question we’d all like a definitive answer to as the pandemic rolls on, but if you speak to most people, the general consensus seems to be that beyond age and certain conditions, we don’t really know. It could strike anyone. But is that really true?

For sure there is still a great deal to learn about covid, but the reality is that it has become one of the most, if not the most researched disease in history. And as a result, we can now do a great deal to reduce our risk of either getting it or developing serious complications. 

So in this article, I’m going to talk about how the virus causes damage, and why focusing on improving your health by improving your diet & nutrition, sunshine exposure, exercise, sleep, inflammation, stress management and emotional wellbeing are so important in determining how well your immune system can fight off the virus.

At this point we’re all aware of the current measures that have been employed worldwide, from masks to social distancing to vaccines, and while they may have their place in certain situations, none of them address the root causes of what makes people more susceptible to developing severe covid. These measures are all aimed at stopping the virus from getting into our bodies, or if it does - to block it from entering our cells - but our ability to resist serious disease is really determined by how effectively we can deal with the virus once it does get into our cells: and that depends on our general state of health, the health of our immune system, our metabolic system and many other factors that I’m going to outline in this article.

Of course, we should try to avoid being infected, as there are still many unknown reasons why someone might do badly. But what we do know is that by improving these lifestyle factors I mentioned like sunshine, diet, sleep, exercise and stress management, we stand a good chance of significantly reducing both our risk of negative outcomes and spreading it to other people if we do get infected. Not only, but being proactive with your health also greatly decreases your risk of developing chronic diseases, which are covid risk factors by themselves, and many of these aspects also improve vaccine responses as well should we choose to go down that road. That’s right, if we want the best possible antibody response from a vaccine, we need to be well rested and have sufficient vitamin D & magnesium amongst other things. So no matter what other measures are taken, focusing on general health should be a foundational part of everyone’s response to the virus, particularly as variants evolve to be ever more contagious. It literally improves every aspect of what we’re already doing, and as a side effect we reduce our risk from other physical and mental diseases.

Before we start, we need to better understand how viruses and our immune system interact.

So how does the immune system fight off the virus? 

Sars-cov-2 is a single stranded RNA virus that is a part of the beta coronavirus family. There are 6 other coronaviruses that can infect humans - 4 being milder, common cold viruses, and two being much more deadly: Sars and Mers. These two viruses caused outbreaks around 2002/2003 and 2012 and have infection fatality rates of around 10% and 30% respectively, so although they are far, far more deadly than sars-cov-2, people get so sick that they are confined to their home or hospital so these viruses never really got to spread globally. Sars-cov-2’s evolutionary advantage is that the majority of people don’t get that sick, so they carry on with normal life and the virus gets to spread around. The problem though, is that it does cause serious problems for a small subset of people, which means that on a global scale, it has been far more devastating than either Sars or Mers.

So how does it spread? The main way we get infected is through air transmission, and nearly always in a closed, unventilated space. We are actually very safe outdoors, especially if there is a breeze, but the real danger comes when we spend a long time together in the same space as a contagious person. The virus particles drift in through our airways and settle on the mucosa which lines our respiratory system. 

If we have a good mucosal lining and a good immune system, we recognise and destroy the virus at this stage with minimal symptoms and probably without becoming contagious - and this is the response of most kids and young people. So maintaining good mucosal immunity is a great place to start, and we can ensure this by staying well hydrated , managing our stress levels, and getting plenty of vitamin A, D, E and zinc from our diets and the sun. Vitamins A & D are particularly important, but our modern day diets and indoor lifestyles often leave us deficient. Hydration is especially important in winter time, as heating systems can dry our mucosal membranes out, and this is one reason why things get worse during the winter months. Chronic stress and chronic inflammation also have a negative effect on our mucosal immunity, because the immune system becomes overburdened in dealing with other threats.

So most cases end with mild symptoms, a normal immune response and long lasting immunity… but if our immune system has been overburdened with stress, inflammation and poor nutrition, the virus can get the upper hand and breach our mucosal immunity.

If we don’t manage to knock the virus out early, it can continue to replicate and spread deeper into the lungs. Viruses need our cells to replicate, and sars-cov-2 gets into our cells via a receptor called ACE2. It’s also helped out by some proteases called TMPRSS2 and furin, but ACE2 is important because it’s also a key part of our blood pressure system. Physiologically, this protein on the surface of many different cells converts angiotensin II to angiotensin 1,7, which helps lower your blood pressure and is an important antioxidant and antiinflammatory. If this receptor gets destroyed by viral entry, we make less angiotensin 1,7 - and this not only affects blood pressure, but also increases oxidative stress, because Angiotensin 1,7 helps to neutralise superoxide. The dysfunction of ACE2 is actually a key hallmark of aging and chronic disease, because this compound it produces, angiotensin 1,7, is so important for overall health. This all makes  hypertension one of the most important risk factors - not only because of the blood pressure itself, but mainly because of the changes in coagulation factors and oxidative stress that usually precede it, as well as the lower levels of reduced glutathione common across many chronic diseases. If we already have problems with coagulation, our immune system, our metabolism and our internal antioxidants when we get the infection, those same systems have less capacity to resist and we are more likely to go on and develop the disease..

The more the virus replicates, the deeper it goes into the lungs until it finally reaches the alveoli, and in some cases progresses towards ARDS. The alveoli are the little sacks where we swap oxygen for carbon dioxide in order to oxygenate the blood, and they are particularly sensitive due to the Type II pneumocytes which have many ACE2 receptors on them. These cells produce surfactant which helps the gas exchange to work properly, so when these cells start to become infected and destroyed, our blood oxygen levels start to fall and breathing difficulties are not far away. By this time, there is a much more robust immune response including many parts of the complement system and the innate immune system. Macrophages, neutrophils and natural killer cells rush to the scene and start attacking. They use interferons and inflammatory cytokines to help destroy the virus and the infected cells. Many people will also recover from here with no major problems, and at this point the adaptive immune system has matured T cells and antibody producing B cells which continue the fight towards it’s resolution, but…

…if the immune system fails to overcome the virus now, an exaggerated immune response will lead to more severe tissue damage and coagulation problems and more systemic issues as the virus gets into the bloodstream.

The coagulation issues are really the hallmark of covid, and at this stage the actual virus can be long gone, but the inflammation and coagulation problems continue in a positive feedback loop that continues to cause ever increasing damage. Under these conditions, oxygen levels drop further due to microthrombi choking up our microcirculation, and blood pressure and heart rate increase to try to get oxygen to these hypoxic tissues. By now, we’re all aware of the cytokine storm, but there is also this coagulation storm and a rush of other chemicals like bradykinin and histamine that kick in.

Why does the immune system spin out of control?

Our immune capacity is vitally important then, but how about the virus? What tricks has it developed in order to survive?

The immune system recognises the virus, but this can be inhibited because viruses have evolved ways of going under the radar. Certain viral proteins do this by turning down our immune response, and in particular by inhibiting our early warning system, the pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). Think of it like thieves breaking into a building: it’s like the security cameras are covered over and the phone lines have been cut. A strong immune system has more security cameras and the guards are like elite soldiers, reacting straight away to neutralise the threat. A weak immune system is already understaffed, and the security guards are out of shape, and this allows the virus to get a foot in the door, start replicating and start causing mayhem.

What does a weakened immune response look like?

So our type I interferon response, which is essential in clearing viruses, is inhibited. And this has knock on signaling effects on all sports of important immune pathways. Two of these pathways, STAT1 and STAT3 are dysregulated. STAT1 is associated with an enhanced innate and adaptive response, but when it is inhibited, STAT3 steps in to try to save the day. STAT3 isn’t as effective, and what we see in the long run is reduced immune cell numbers and increased fibrosis. This shift is detailed in this very interesting paper by Matsuyama, published in Nature, and these researchers hypothesise that this STAT3 upregulation can explain many of the clinical observations we see in severe covid.

This leads to our Natural Killer cells not responding properly, our lymphocytes reducing in number, and overactivation of our neutrophils and macrophages, which cause excessive inflammatory cytokine release. The neutrophils also release too many NETs which increase coagulation further. Other viral proteins are also able to inhibit the mitochondria activation of the immune system, and all this increases PAI-1, a coagulation factor. This likely feeds back positively with STAT3, so both increase exponentially, and as tissue gets damaged HMGB1 increases too. PAI-1 and HMGB1 both then bind to TLR4, a PRR receptor, which causes immune activation, more inflammation and more coagulation through the inflammasome NLRP3 and nuclear factor NF-kB as well as increased PAI-1 and NETosis. 

At the same time, ACE2 is being damaged, and we have less Angiotensin 1,7, and so superoxide builds up, which damages the endothelial lining and stimulates more clotting factors like Von Willebrand’s Factor. Platelets also get activated to repair the damage in the endothelium, but when hyperactivated via TLR4 they can cause thrombosis and potentially serotonin dumping, which increases heart rate and constricts blood flow to essential organs. The spike protein also causes clotting issues by itself by creating complexes with fibrinogen. These processes also trigger antibodies to be made to the platelets, so sometimes thrombocytopenia is seen. Antibodies may also be created against ACE2.

At this point, the person is likely in need of hospitalisation, but it’s important to recognise that only a small percentage of people develop severe symptoms. Most kids, young adults and healthy people get rid of the virus with mild symptoms before it has the chance to progress towards these serious outcomes. So what is it that protects this demographic from developing severe disease? There are likely many factors, but as a general rule of thumb we can say that these people have stronger innate immune systems and immunity in general, and although age is an important factor, research shows that age and genetics are not the only things that determine how well our immune system works. The way we live our lives has a huge effect on the health of our immune system, so it’s something we should be thinking about long before we get infected:

Most people think that the problems begin when you come into contact with the virus, but really the problems begin decades before as environmental factors like poor nutrition, stress, lack of sun, sleep and exercise, air pollution and so on overburden and degrade your immune function. These gradual changes lead to premature aging of the immune system and suboptimal responses when faced with viruses or other pathogens.

There is undoubtedly a decrease with normal aging, but just as you can choose to stay more active as you age, you can also do things to keep your immune system younger.

So what can you do to maintain healthy immune function as you age?

• Reduce chronic inflammation

Immunosenescence means the aging of the immune system, and is a normal part of aging. We can't change our biological age, but the way we live our lives can greatly speed up or slow down this process.

Immunosenescence is characterised by immune cells that are no longer able to mount an effective attack against an invader. Instead they just continually spit out low levels of inflammatory cytokines causing chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is not only the result, but also causes immunosenescence. So if we maintain an antiinflammatory lifestyle by avoiding junk food, getting good exercise and sleep and getting out in the sun, we can maintain better immune function for longer. Being social is also a big factor, and loneliness and chronic stress have been shown to be key drivers of immunosenescence. And the good news is that it’s never too late: studies have shown that lifestyle changes can reduce or even somewhat reverse some of these parameters. For example, many studies like this and this highlight the importance of exercise in  reducing the progression of immunosenescence, and some studies have even shown partial reversal. This study found a strong correlation between exercise parameters such as VO2 max and certain immune characteristics, and concludes the following: 

“Based on the flow cytometry analysis, we concluded that lifestyle exercise could lead to rejuvenation of the immune system by increasing the percentage of naïve T lymphocytes or by reducing the tendency of the inverse CD4/CD8 ratio.”

And this pre-post randomized clinical trial conducted during the pandemic found significant benefits in the group that exercised (TG):

“Participants of TG showed an increase of the CD4+/CD8+ T cell ratio over time (p < 0.05). Significant decreases in systemic levels of interleukin (IL-) 6, IL-8, IL-10 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) (p < 0.05) were observed.”

The combined strength and endurance training in this study was less than 2 hours a week, divided into two sessions - so it really doesn’t take much to make significant changes, and when you combine exercise with other lifestyle changes such as better nutrition, more sun exposure and better sleep, you will likely see much better overall immune function.

• Improve your leaky liver & heal leaky gut in 2 weeks 

Another big source of chronic inflammation is poor gut and liver health. When we have chronic infections and dysbiosis in the gut, our immune system is constantly activated trying to sort out the mess. This also causes leaky gut, which allows lipopolysaccharide and microbial metabolites into circulation, which has been linked to all sorts of chronic diseases due to the systemic inflammation they cause. The majority of our immune system is found lining our digestive tract, and it plays a really important role in modulating our response to pathogens, so that we can have strong, dynamic responses when necessary and turn things right down when not. We have billions of bugs in our microbiome, and when they are in balance, so are we.

Our microbiome also acts as an early warning system for our immune system. A growing body of research suggests a strong link between gut health and lung health, based on the microbiome interactions between them. This is known as the gut-lung axis, and suggests that people suffering from gut dysbiosis will have impared lung immunity. One study quotes: 

“Changes in the taxonomic composition and decreased diversity and function of the gut microbiota, known as dysbiosis, can affect the immunity of the lungs (6). On the other hand, the respiratory tract has its own microbiota (7) and lung inflammation can lead to intestinal dysbiosis”

Dysbiosis may be both a cause and a result of sars-cov-2 infection, and given what we know about the link between gut health and lung health, and the effect of gut health on overall immunity and metabolic health, it makes sense to get your gut as healthy as possible.

The liver is another important source of inflammation if it gets overburdened and overworked. Ancient cultures have known this for millenia and Traditional Chinese Medicine has linked dysfunction in the liver meridian with anger and frustration for thousands of years - a link which is being confirmed by our modern scientific understanding of cytokines and other immune chemicals that can travel around the body and interact with the brain to change the way we think and feel. An overburdened liver also negatively affects immune function as accumulation of waste products triggers the immune response and subsequent inflammation, and the liver is also essential in maintaining good levels of many essential nutrients necessary for good immune function, so find out about natural liver detox. 

The liver is also very important in maintaining good methylation balance. Methylation is an important biochemical process which attaches methyl group to hormones, neurotransmitters and many other compounds in order to either activate or deactivate them, and problems in methylation can lead to a wide range of different disease conditions. Poor methylation raises homocysteine, which has been shown to be an important risk factor in covid, correlating closely with disease severity.This may be because it increases inflammation, oxidative stress, vascular injury and resulting coagulation problems, but may also be because good methylation is important for good immune function.

Another aspect of poor liver function is an increased expression of ACE2. As we’ve seen, ACE2 is the receptor entry point for the virus, and some studies suggest that poor liver function increases ACE2 expression and covid susceptibility. This may also be tied to insulin resistance, which is one of three leading global causes of fatty liver and liver issues in general. Do you know your  Reducing insulin resistance is very important for good liver health and many other aspects to do with covid which we’ll cover below.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning glutathione. Glutathione is perhaps our most important endogenous antioxidant and has shown to be very important in curbing covid progression, especially in protecting the lungs. Poor methylation and oxidative stress result in low glutathione levels, both because methylation is essential in it’s production, and because oxidative stress upregulates NOX enzymes which exhausts NADPH and our ability to recycle glutathione. Paracetamol also decreases glutathione in the liver as a metabolite, NAPQI, gets bound to glutathione for excretion. Some say that problems only occur in the event of an overdose, but research shows that glutathione is significantly depleted even at the upper end of normal doses, and this effect is accelerated by certain things such as drinking coffee. So if possible, talk to your doctor about alternative pain medications and the use of NAC to stimulate glutathione production.

The importance of the liver is one reason why I’ve spent so much time researching and writing holistic medicine books about liver health and also gut health books. You can learn more about how to improve your gut and liver health and heal your emotions at my online course at (insert link here).

• Get sunshine & darkness

The modern world has radically changed our circadian rhythm. From an evolutionary point of view, we need sunshine during the day and darkness during the night, but many modern humans have inverted this relationship, working indoors all day and staying up late under artificial lights during the night. This translates into significant changes in our vitamin D levels, which we usually get from the sun, and melatonin levels, which is produced primarily during the night. And these two hormones are absolutely essential for proper immune function. Without them, some essential immune functions are inhibited and others are exaggerated leading to a dysfunctional response that can set the stage for increased covid severity as well as a whole host of other immune and metabolic issues.

If we distill this down to a basic concept, it’s that living according to nature’s 24 hour light/dark cycle is one of the most profound things we can do to improve covid outcomes and our health in general.

Many observation studies on Vitamin D and covid have shown that increased levels result in decreased severity. There have also been some mixed results which will take more studies to clarify, but at this point it’s my opinion that levels above 30ng/ml are protective, and closer to 60ng/ml are really protective, and this makes sense given what we know about how it works. The same isn’t necessarily true for supplementation, because sunlight gives us so many extra benefits, and low vitamin D levels are often a reflection for poor metabolic health, so we should be careful not to try to supplement our way out of poor health choices in other areas of our lives. This study showed increased hospitalisation for people with deficient levels below 20ng/ml. And this study of over 190,000 subjects in America found a clear increased rate of PCR positivity with decreasing levels of vitamin D. Subjects with levels above 50ng/ml seemed to have more protection. Many studies are limited because they are observational, so it is difficult to identify Vitamin D as the cause, and studies are also mixed when looking at vitamin D levels months before the infection, as levels change significantly throughout the year, but we mustn’t forget the wealth of research we have on the mechanisms and on previous respiratory infections. 

Vitamin D - mechanisms of action

Vitamin D has been shown to reduce inflammatory cytokines like il-6 which is significantly elevated in covid, and it does this by inhibiting NF-kB. It also increases T reg cells, which help to balance the immune system and prevent exaggerated responses, but at the same time it’s essential for proper function of our white blood cells, so it has this modulating effect: being necessary for proper function, but also in reducing excess. It is essential for proper innate immunity as well as adaptive immunity, and if we want a decent antibody response, we need to have sufficient vitamin D. So, it is also essential in creating a proper response to vaccines, and numerous studies have noted suboptimal vaccine responses in subjects who don’t have enough vitamin D. Vitamin D also stimulates the production of Cathelicidin, which is an antimicrobial peptide important for lung health. This may be the reason why vitamin D has been shown to be so effective in previous respiratory infection research, but this hasn’t yet been confirmed with covid. And finally, vitamin D is essential in preventing many different chronic diseases which predispose to covid. It reduces renin expression, which is elevated in hypertension, and it also helps to balance blood sugars by improving insulin sensitivity and reduce chronic inflammation.

There have also been some encouraging RCTs, like the small pilot study from Spain using the partially active form Calcifediol to achieve a 98% reduction in ICU admissions. The study was very small, however, so more studies are needed. RCTs are difficult because supplementing large doses of vitamin D as we get sick takes about a week to convert through to the active form, so we really need to have good levels in the run up to an infection, which means getting plenty of sun in the summer months, improving your metabolism, reducing inflammation and increasing your magnesium and fat soluble vitamins. 

Melatonin is often thought of as the sleep hormone, but it’s so much more than that. It is essential for immune function and a healthy metabolism, and plays a key role in mitochondrial health. Numerous studies have demonstrated its importance in improving immune function, while at the same time reducing the exaggerated response and excessive cytokine release that we see in advanced cases of covid, and it may also interfere with viral entry by binding to the receptor CD148, although research is divided on the importance of this. 

• Get enough exercise

Beyond the long term effect on improved immunosenescence, exercise also has many other benefits for immune health. We don’t often think of exercise as important for the immune system in this way, but this study of nearly 50,000 people found a strong association between covid hospitalisation, ICU admission and death and a lack of exercise. Although we cannot establish causation from this study, the association was strong and it echoes what we know about the positive effect of exercise on the immune system and on our metabolic health. In the short term, exercise seems to stimulate certain immune cells such as Natural Killer cells which are essential for proper viral defence. Although their numbers may decrease, their cytotoxic capacity appears to increase, suggesting that they may be more effective at killing infected cells. The study above found that this effect lasted for 1-2 hours following exercise.

This review study looked at some of the reasons why exercise may be so beneficial in reducing covid severity. During and after exercise, pro and anti inflammatory cytokines are released, lymphocyte circulation increases and certain immune cells become more active, which may be mediated by increased Type I Interferons. When we look at severe cases of covid, type I interferons and natural killer cell activity are both suppressed, so increasing them through exercise is likely to be very beneficial.

Exercise also reduces stress hormones and inflammation over the long run, and is one of the best things we can do for insulin resistance, so not only does it improve immune function, it also has a profound effect on improving metabolism and reducing chronic disease risk. The reduced stress hormones also help to optimise sleep, and improve our mood, which is great when we’re dealing with the stress of continued restrictions and uncertainty around the pandemic management. Getting outside in the fresh air and exercising in a way that’s suitable for your level of fitness is one of the best things we can do in these times. But as with everything, balance is key, and you should avoid overexertion and extreme endurance exercise as there are still question marks around the impact of this type of exercise on immune function. 

• Optimise your sleep

Getting good sleep is perhaps one of the most underrated things we can do for our health. With busy modern life, sleep often gets neglected, but aiming to get 7 hours or more of good quality sleep has a profound effect on your metabolic health, immune health and nearly every other parameter we can measure.

In this study of healthcare workers on sleep and burnout during the pandemic, each extra hour of sleep was associated with a 12% decrease in covid susceptibility, and this study found an increased severity for people with reduced sleep in the week leading up to the infection. Sleep quality is also an issue, with this study finding that people with obstructive sleep apnea had a greater risk of hospitalisation even if no difference in the positivity rate was observed.

So why could this be? For the human body, the time we’re asleep is actually an active time for the immune system as it clears away old issues. During our sleeping hours, there is a rise in pro-inflammatory cytokines, and when we’re awake, we see a rise in anti-inflammatory cytokines and Natural Killer cells. Inflammation is a key healing mechanism, so it needs to be able to manifest, and then resolve successfully - and if it can’t complete this cycle, we tend to get chronic low grade inflammatory cytokine release that never fully resolves. So sleep is important in working through this process so that we wake up the following day renewed and ready to go.

Our circadian rhythm is also important in determining immunity, as clock genes have been shown to be integral in controlling our immune function. These are a series of genes that follow our sleep/wake cycle, and when this cycle gets disrupted our immunity suffers. So it’s not just how long we sleep that is important, but also when we go to sleep that matters.

The pandemic has been particularly tough on people’s sleep, so we need to make a conscious effort to protect it. A good approach is to set an evening alarm between 8pm and 9pm and turn all technology off, including the news and social media, with it’s constant fear. Better evening activities include reading or doing puzzles with the family so we can better wind down before bed. We also need to ensure the place where we sleep is completely dark and free from technology, excessive EMFs and other things that could disturb our sleep, and of course - if you have got some sun, exercised and eaten an anti inflammatory, nutrient dense diet earlier in the day, your sleep will likely be much more restful, because good sleep is both a cause and a result of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

• Eat a nutrient dense, whole foods diet

Nutrition is important in so many ways for our immune system. Firstly, our immune system needs lots of energy and nutrients in order to work properly, so that means enough calories and nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Our fat soluble vitamins play an important role in immunity and in mucosal barrier integrity, our B vitamins are important for energy production and vitamin C is essential for proper white blood cell function. Zinc and selenium are particularly important for immunity in Covid, and magnesium is essential for so many things including blood sugar regulation, energy metabolism and antibody production.

Next, an antiinflammatory diet will help take the pressure off the immune system. When we eat junk food, we initiate an inflammatory immune response shortly after eating, which is blunted when we eat a whole foods diet rich in plant chemicals, and as we’ve seen, anything to reduce chronic inflammation will improve our covid outcomes. When thinking about maintaining an antiinflammatory profile, we also want to maintain a good ratio between the omega 3s and omega 6 fats, so this means avoiding seed oils where possible and balancing nuts and seeds out with fresh fish and flaxseed to increase our omega 3 levels. 

Functional foods can be a great addition for good immune health, and foods such as spirulina (from a clean source), mushrooms such as shiitake and reishi, garlic, onions, berries, greens, herbs and spices are great foods to incorporate to help improve immune function. The compounds in these foods help to balance the microbiome and improve metabolism as well as aid in immune health. Many spices themselves have powerful antiinflammatory effects, and some are being researched with covid. While it is too early to say with certainty the precise effects of these spices, generally they help to maintain lower inflammation and coagulation issues, which may be very helpful, and certain spices such as turmeric may also reduce viral entry and replication by other mechanisms. Garlic is great for cardiovascular health, and may also optimise out STAT1 response, and some onions are rich in plant compounds such as quercetin and apigenin which help to modulate immune function and oxidative stress.

Mushrooms deserve a special mention as an immune boosting superfood, as the polysaccharides in many mushrooms help to increase the number and activity of certain innate immune cells like Natural Killer cells. One study found that just 5 to 10 grams per day of dried shiitake had a significant effect on boosting both the number and activity of natural killer T cells and gammadelta T cells that mostly preside in the gut mucosa. The use of mushrooms may also reduce the immunosuppressive effects of some viruses on our natural killer cells by activating the NKG2 receptors, which is an important step in host defense.

Nutrition should also be adapted to the seasons, so as we come into the winter season, we want to be aiming for more soups and stews and less raw food and smoothies as these foods are too cooling coming into winter. Herbal teas such as ginger, olive leaf, green tea and licorice have demonstrated many positive immune benefits, and may be particularly helpful in covid as they help reduce inflammation and oxidative stress 

• Manage stress & trauma with holistic trauma therapy
  
  

I’m sure you’ve heard that stress has many negative effects on your immune system, but how true is this? When talking about psychological stress, we need to think about the difference between acute and chronic stress, because there are big differences for your immune system. Acute stress that lasts perhaps a few minutes actually has a stimulating effect on the immune system, but this benefit reverses as stress becomes more chronic and lasts for days to weeks to months. Studies have found that even after a few hours of exam stress, certain parts of our immune system start to reduce in function, and there's a good evolutionary reason for this. As cavemen, when we were out and about, we risked getting attacked, bitten our wounded, and so we needed a boost in immune function in case this happened to us. But activating the immune system takes a lot of energy and resources, so sustaining this for a longer period becomes a costly investment.

So when thinking about stress and immunity, we need to focus on the long term, chronic stress, and that includes trauma. Traumatic experiences can raise stress hormones for long periods of time, sometimes years, and this kind of stress is toxic for the immune system, along with things like financial worries, bad relationships, long term health issues, living in a noisy and polluted environment like a city and of course dealing with a pandemic.

The problem is that many of these chronic stresses aren’t always easy to remove from our lives, so we need to find better ways of coping with them. The other things mentioned in this article help a great deal by taking the strain off the body in other areas, but you can also adopt coping strategies to lessen the psychological stress as well. Meditation and spending time with family and friends are great antidotes to stress, as well as talking about the problems at hand. Sometimes chatting with close friends is enough to make you feel better, and sometimes perhaps you’ll need to talk to a therapist who can help reframe some of the bigger issues you may face.

There are also bodywork approaches that can help a great deal. The body holds stress as tension, osteopath, massage or craniosacral visits can help release this tension along with physical activity like running. TRE, or trauma release exercises, are also a great way to remove the built up tension, and can also be done at home as a great daily exercise to reduce the buildup of tension.

And above all, a good approach is to figure out why something is stressful. Very often, our belief systems can amplify something in our environment - so for example, financial worries can be exasperated by the belief that we’re not good enough or that we don’t deserve financial success. Or relationship worries can be amplified by the belief that all marriages should be perfect. These sorts of reactions depend on our cultural and family upbringing, and the way in which we see the world, so when dealing with a stressful event, it can also become an opportunity to learn something about ourselves, put our belief systems to the test and move beyond the stories we tell ourselves about how ‘things should be’.

• Metabolic Health

Another big factor in determining proper innate immune response is good metabolic health. In fact, we can think of the metabolic system and the immune system as two sides of the same coin, but what do we mean by metabolic health? Well essentially, our metabolism transforms compounds into other compounds and is the basis of all life, but when most people talk about metabolism, they’re talking about transforming food into energy. So what’s this got to do with the immune system? Our metabolism provides the energy that powers our immune system, and when it’s fighting pathogens it needs a lot. But beyond that, it is also in constant communication. The mitochondria don’t just make energy - they also sense the environment and signal accordingly. They are key in triggering the innate response.

This is especially relevant for covid. It was found that the sars-cov-2 protein ORF10 was able to inhibit a key mitochondrial protein MAVS which is essential in rallying the troops of our innate immune system. Other ORF proteins also seem to inhibit the mitochondrial response, so if we’ve already got poor mitochondrial function and chronic inflammation, we’re making life easier for sars-cov-2. So what causes poor mitochondrial function? All of the lifestyle factors I mentioned above have profound impacts on their health. They work best with plenty of sunshine, a seasonal whole foods diet, proper sleep, good stress management and emotional wellbeing and of course exercise. Nutrients from our food help them thrive whereas chronically elevated stress hormones, certain inflammatory cytokines and toxicants from our modern lifestyle as well as certain pharmaceuticals significantly inhibit their function.

Another ever present aspect of metabolic health is our hormones, and particularly leptin and insulin. Insulin resistance is reaching epidemic proportions globally, and its impact goes way beyond blood sugar control, being implicated as an important factor in nearly all chronic diseases. It may be especially important in covid as raised insulin increases certain clotting factors like PAI-1 mentioned earlier, as well as compounds related with hypertension and endothelial damage such as angiotensin II and endothelin 1. Insulin also increases the expression of TLR4 and ACE2 which may set the stage for increased viral replication and the exaggerated inflammatory and coagulation response we see so often in covid. Insulin resistance is also associated with reduced glutathione levels and increased oxidative stress, and it disrupts the NOX enzymes and the pentose phosphate pathway that is essential in recycling glutathione via NADPH. 

Leptin is another important hormone that goes far beyond energy partitioning. With obesity, leptin resistance leads to high levels of leptin which causes adipocyte dysfunction and increased inflammatory cytokines like il-6. And the same study suggests that leptin issues also crush our interferon response which is so essential in overcoming the virus early on.

Although obesity is not reliably linked to greater infection rates, it is linked to worse outcomes in hospital and a greater chance of developing ARDS, or acute respiratory distress syndrome, most likely for these changes in insulin, leptin and many inflammatory cytokines that follow along.

When people maintain good leptin sensitivity, insulin sensitivity, and good mitochondrial health, their risk from both chronic and infectious diseases falls greatly. 

In closing

I hope you now have a better idea of how to protect and improve your immunity during the pandemic so that you can reduce your risk of serious outcomes should you come into contact with the virus. If you found this article helpful, consider signing up to my newsletter, following me on social media and look out for my online course which goes into more depth with some of these topics mentioned here, and gives lots of actionable information that you can use to improve your physical and mental health and become more resistance to chronic and infectious disease. 

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