March 27, 2020

Dear Friends,

Dozens of people have asked me to write a group email about COVID-19. I’ll skip the statistics regarding the epidemiology of the disease because they change on a daily basis and are easy to find and follow online.

Some of you might not know that the word COVID-19 refers to COronaVIrus Disease which first occurred in 2019. For the sake of clarity, I refer to the coronavirus as the pathogen and COVID-19 as the disease.

What is Coronavirus? 

This family of viruses can cause symptoms ranging from common cold symptoms to serious pneumonia. Old people and people with underlying chronic health conditions are most vulnerable.

The coronavirus has spikes on its surface that allow it to attach to receptors on the membrane of our cells, with a preference for cells in the lungs. Once it has attached, the virus hijacks our DNA operating system in the cells and injects information into our DNA. The DNA passes the information to the RNA, with instructions to make millions of photocopies of the virus. Once this happens in the lungs, the infected cells cannot adequately take up oxygen and transfer that oxygen to our blood when we breathe.

Tips for Protection against getting COVID-19 

Viruses cannot be killed because they are not living organisms. They are made up of genetic material surrounded by a shell, or capsid. They can be inactivated by several methods, one of which is heat.

Viruses in general are heat sensitive which is why fevers play such an important role in healing. The fever interferes with viral replication.

Coronavirus is especially heat sensitive. At temperatures between 130-140 degrees F, the capsid collapses, inactivating the virus. We can take advantage of that trait by using heat to protect us.

Given that water boils at 212 degrees F, you can protect yourself from being colonized by the virus by inhaling steam into your nose and sinuses where the virus attaches before moving down into the lungs. Researchers report that the virus can remain in your nose and sinus cavities for up to three days.

You don’t need to inhale the steam into your mouth because, when you swallow liquids, the virus will get washed into your stomach where the gastric acid will inactivate the virus.

When you return to your home after being in contact with the public, try to remember to inhale steam to give yourself some extra protection. Bring water to a boil in a pan and then turn off the heat. Put a towel over your head and inhale the steam for two full minutes. Be sure not to burn your mucous membranes. I add a couple drops of eucalyptus essential oil to disinfect my airways.

If you are fortunate enough to own a sauna, you could sit in the sauna at 140 degrees F for 15 minutes every day.

It’s important to wash your hands with soap and water after you have been in a public place. Since the viral capsid is made up of fatty acids, simple soap will emulsify the fat and disrupt the shell. Hand washing with soap after touching surfaces that might be contaminated is vitally important. The virus cannot hurt you while on your skin. But when you touch your face with a contaminated hand, the virus gains access to you through your nose, mouth, or eyes.

Masks that make a complete seal are hard to find anymore, such as the N95 mask. More commonly used masks are not well sealed. If you are in a public place, you might consider wearing a mask anyway to keep yourself from touching your mouth, nose, or eyes. We touch our face frequently without even realizing it.

In my home, I use grapefruit seed extract to wipe down surfaces. The product is called BioKleen All Purpose Cleaner. The cleaner contains a surfactant that emulsifies the fatty acids that make up the outside of the capsid, similar to what soap does. In addition, the grapefruit seed extract itself renders the virus inactive.

My patients use grapefruit seed gel to wash their hands in the bathroom adjacent to the exam room. The product is called Nutribiotic Skin Cleanser.

You might find this video about the use of grapefruit seed extract for eliminating viruses, bacteria, and fungi helpful. I always travel with a bottle of liquid GSE to take orally if I get sick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GJ7XGGT0SE

Prevention 

If you are my patient, you know that the best action that you can take to prevent getting a viral infection is by following a healthy diet high in vegetables, preferably all organic, without heavily processed food, avoiding sugar and simple carbohydrates, and avoiding common food allergens.

Prevention also includes regular exercise, getting sun exposure, adequate sleep, taking specific supplements, lowering your exposure to wireless radiation, nasal douching twice a day with a saline solution, and managing stress levels.

Fear and anxiety about the virus can interfere with rational thinking and can place a burden on our nervous and immune systems. Finding ways to lower our anxiety levels can be very helpful, such as regular vigorous exercise, spending time in nature, meditation, qi gong, and listening to classical music.

The virus is spread by close contact with an infected individual through coughing and sneezing. Avoid getting closer than six feet to anyone while in public since we don’t know who might be “shedding” the virus. It is possible for a person to be colonized by the virus without having symptoms.

The flu shot does NOT protect you from the coronavirus.

You might find my blog post “Flu Prevention and Treatment” helpful. Put this URL in your search bar: https://www.musingsmemoirandmedicine.com/2015/10/flu-prevention-and-treatment/

You will discover in the blog post that there are many vitamins and herbs that can be helpful in the prevention and treatment of upper respiratory viral infections in general. Some supplements are especially helpful. According to a study in the Journal of Virology, “Quercetin offers great promise as a potential drug in the clinical treatment of SARS.” Resveratrol is another antioxidant that could be useful. It’s been shown to inhibit MERS-CoV infection, at least in vitro.

Testing for the virus 

Two days ago I spoke with a physician at the New Mexico Department of Health regarding the status of testing for COVID-19. Sadly, our state is still experiencing a serious shortage of test kits. You can only get tested if you have a fever, cough, and shortness of breath. I asked about people who have come from abroad or elsewhere and have returned to New Mexico by plane and want to get tested to assure that they don’t they have the virus. No testing permitted for those people. The governor mandated that travelers quarantine themselves for two weeks once they return to New Mexico. The physician I spoke with went on to say that testing asymptomatic people produced high rates of false negative results. In other words, people who carried the virus but had no symptoms could still test negative.

I asked about people who have had the infection and want to get tested to see if they are no longer infectious. The physician told me that those people are told that three days after their temperature returns to normal they are no longer infectious. No testing.

On top of this egregious lack of test kits, the physician stated that people who are tested often don’t get their results for up to a week! The results can be read after 12 hours, but the labs are woefully backed up and cannot get back with the patient’s doctor right away. 

What to do if you get sick

The physician that I spoke with at the Department of Health said that the hospitals are so full that most people who test positive for COVID-19 are sent home to recover.

If you think you are getting sick, start the heat treatments right away. In addition to steam inhalations several times a day, drink hot ginger tea throughout the day, take hot baths, use your sauna if you have one, and use a heating pad on your chest. Don’t forget to stay hydrated.

In addition to the heat treatments, you could take high doses of vitamin C throughout the day. I prefer using liposomal vitamin C. Liposomal means a “body of fat” surrounds each molecule of vitamin C, much like putting each molecule of vitamin C into an envelope. The fatty envelope allows us to take huge doses of vitamin C, which otherwise would cause us to have severe cramps and diarrhea.

Doctors in China successfully used intravenous vitamin C to help save the lives of their patients with COVID-19. I have been using 25,000 mg of intravenous vitamin C in my medical practice for almost 30 years to successfully treat viral infections.

Since many outpatient doctors are not seeing patients in person unless there is an emergency, you won’t have access to intravenous nutrients. Instead, you can take your liposomal vitamin C and increase the amount you take each day, from 2,000 mg twice a day, up to 10,000 mg twice a day for three days. If you don’t tolerate this amount, reduce the dose.

A few of my patients have ozone machines and know how to give themselves rectal ozone and inhalations of ozonated olive oil. A tiny amount of ozone can oxidize the pathogens in your body. If you don’t have experience using this method of viral control, I would discourage you from doing this procedure on your own.

If you have a sore throat, gargle with salt water, suck on zinc acetate lozenges, and slowly lick a level teaspoon of Manuka honey. Do these things three or four times a day.

Be sure to take the antiviral remedies that I wrote about in my blog post “Flu Prevention and Treatment.”

Misdiagnosis 

Over the past two weeks I have received countless calls from people who feared they had COVID-19 because they had a sore throat and felt deeply tired. They also complained of headaches, stuffy nose, sinus pressure, and “clogged” ears. Most of the people with these symptoms were experiencing reactions to high counts of juniper pollen. With reassurance and a protocol to follow for mitigation of allergy symptoms, their anxiety subsided, thankfully.

For the allergy sufferers, I recommend nasal douching twice a day, and again when returning from outside. I suggest a supplement called QBC by Solaray, 2 capsules four times a day, freeze-dried nettles as directed on the bottle, removing dairy, gluten, and sugar from the diet, using a HEPA air filter in the bedroom, closing the windows at night, and getting Nasalchrom from the drugstore, used to spray up the nose.

Nasalchrom is cromolyn, a harmless substance that stabilizes the membranes that surrounds the mast cells. The mast cells are part of your immune system. They contain the histamines. When you are exposed to inhalant allergens, the membrane on the mast cell ruptures, releasing vast amounts of histamines that make you sneeze, cough, congested, and tired. You snort the Nasalchrom up your nose four times a day. It takes a few days for the cromolyn to prevent the mast cells from releasing the histamines.

If these methods don’t help, then it’s time to use other methods like Chinese herbs and acupuncture.

My status 

Many people have expressed concern for me, knowing that I have been consulting with patients from morning until evening, and even on the weekends, both on the phone and by email.

The last two weeks have been really exhausting, but I can assure you that I follow my own advice. I walk in nature every day for about 45 minutes, 20 minutes of yoga when I get up in the morning, 15 minutes of qi gong or meditation. On Sundays, my day of rest, I try to go high into the mountains where I feel a sense of joy—in spite of it all. I eat a super healthy diet, and I take the same supplements I recommend to others. Every day I look for something humorous to laugh out loud about. I try to give equal energy and focus on what I am grateful for, as opposed to dwelling exclusively on that which I find distressing.

Today I completed my two weeks of quarantine after returning from an ill-advised book tour in Tucson. Donning my mask, I ventured to our local coop down the road. I felt like a convict who had just been released from prison—full of excitement, yet with a vague feeling that I was doing something illicit. I hoped that none of my patients in the health food store would notice that it was their doctor behind the mask.

In reality, my quarantine was not substantially different from the way people in Santa Fe are living currently, most of them diligently following the governor’s mandate to shelter in place and to maintain social distancing.

I think I’m doing as well as one can under the circumstances. Thank you for your care and concern.

Please feel free to share this post with anyone whom you think would benefit from this information. You might mention that anyone is free to subscribe to my blog posts at www.musingsmemoirandmedicine.com  

I am grateful for all of you and send you my love,

Erica