What's a Viral Flu?
Each winter, millions of people suffer from seasonal flu. Flu—the short name for influenza—is caused by viruses. Viruses are very small germs. Outside a living cell, a virus is a dormant particle, lacking the raw materials for reproduction. Only when it enters a host cell does it go into action, hijacking the cell’s metabolic machinery to produce copies of itself that may burst out of infected cells or simply bud off a cell membrane. Some viruses can spread easily from one person to another. They cause illnesses or infections like the flu. But humans have far more power against viral infections than most people know.
Be Prepared
Truthfully, no one is as invested in your own wellbeing as you are. Not even your medical advisors. From every angle, only you have primary responsibility for your wellbeing, not your primary care physician. Learn for yourself what really works, and take your doctors advice as just that, another opinion.
At Tumtree, we're prepared for Spring flu season including Covid, Influenza, Swine flu, viral warts, Epstein Barr and any other viral infection or immune deficiency by employing the natural measures below.
These methods have been highly effective at keeping my own family of 11 healthy year after year, while flu shot takers who don't know about these measures fall to the flu a week or two at a time all around us. Our family has stayed in the game year round, never missing out on life for more than a day every few years.
Natural Health - The Road Less Traveled
After a bad reaction to childhood vaccines for one of our babies, I woke up to the inherent risks of innoculating small bodies and brains with inappropriate levels of aluminum and preservative. I also discovered the rising epidemic of autism that calls into question vaccine safety and talked with so many parents of autistic kids with the same heartbreaking story -- Healthy baby until multiple vaccine doses changed their babies brain for the worse.
For 25 years now, I've not revered flu shots or vaccines as the holy grail of health that the establishment believes them to be. Instead I prefer focusing on building a strong immune system and sharing this knowledge and understanding wherever I have influence. Whether you vax or not, the information that follows will help you witness for yourself how powerful letting "food be your medicine" can be.
Here are my 11 best tips for building a strong balanced microbiome to create your best natural protection against infection from microbes of all kinds, including viruses.
Number 1: Avoid simple sugars and processed/junk food
Did you know that your blood shows lab evidence of a lowered immune system within 30 minutes of eating simple sugars (like glucose, refined sugar, and fructose). First it causes a 50% reduction in your white blood cells’ abilities to kill germs. White blood cells are our “friendly fighters” that surround and gobble up bacterial, fungal and viral invaders. This effect is most noticeable 2 hours after eating sugary treats, but is still present even 5 hours later. Read the study here.
In a 2020 study, How Blood Sugar Can Trigger a Deadly Immune Response in the Flu and Possibly COVID-19, the research revealed at a detailed molecular level how high levels of glucose in the blood can be activated by flu infection and lead to an out-of-control immune response called a "cytokine inflammatory response" or cytokine storm.
Keeping blood sugar levels healthy has been shown to improve immune system activity on many levels, including the insulin/glucagon cycle where blood sugars release insulin and insulin triggers the manufacture of histamine and cortisol... all not good for healing the body or fighting infection.
Help your kids see the connection between their intake of sugars and feeling unwell. You don’t have to harp on it or be the sugar Nazi, just help them uncover how much was too much sugar for their immune system to take. They'll find it within about 24 hrs of feeling ill. The correlation is amazing.
Memo to the Moms: Stock up on ready snacks that are low glycemic or keto friendly especially during flu season. We like fresh veggies with dip (carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, Terra Chips (root vegetables) or Sweet Potato chips dipped in hummus, guacamole or Unranch dressing from The Feel Good Cookbook.). Treat your family to delectable keto desserts like Chocolate Mug Cakes, Berries N' Fairies or French Vanilla ice cream using no sugar sweeteners from my new Reboot Recipes Cookbook. If you're selective about your sweeteners, no one needs to feel deprived, even during flu season.
Number 2: Load up on foods and spices with antiviral properties
These include coconut oil, raw garlic, oregano, ginger, kimchi and other fermented foods. (Thankfully our Korean Exchange Daughter introduced us and we always have some in the fridge.) Body Balance capsules and Body Balance Liquid both contain antiviral herbs like mediterranean oregano and myrrh gum which kick virus in the booty at first signs of illness. In addition to having antiviral properties, the combination of herbs in Body Balance hits a broad spectrum of invasive species from E.coli, strep, staph, to candida yeast and fungus.
Number 3: Eat lots of colorful fruits and vegetables
They are full of antioxidants which will destroy the free radicals that weaken our immune system and are responsible for making us feel sick when we catch a bug. Each color provides different antioxidant power – so be sure to eat a rainbow every day! If your kids aren’t the hugest vegetable eaters yet, give them their antioxidant dose in a smoothie packed with fruits AND veggies (see The Feel Good Cookbook for several sweet veggie smoothies we love). Use that smoothie to make jello with grass-fed gelatin or popsicles, sneak pureed vegetables into your spaghetti sauce, soups, chilis, or whatever else you can think of – be creative!
Number 4: Stay well-hydrated.
Stick to water, coconut water, herbal teas, and bone broth. No soda or sugary drinks. We love Izzy fruit sweetened sodas for a special treat, but even those will go if there's infection in the house. How do you know how much water to drink? Divide your body weight (in pounds) in half and drink that number in ounces! Do you come close?
Number 5: Drink more bone broth
Bone broth has amazing immune-supporting properties. Use it in breakfast smoothies, soups and curry sauces. Glutamine is the nutrient in bone broth that keeps the gut, muscles and bones supplied with materials for repair. If bone broth doesn’t suit you, take supplemental glutamine a spoonful a day in water.
Number 6: Eat fermented foods
The probiotics contained in fermented foods have tremendous immune boosting powers. In fact, the fermented Korean cabbage, kimchi, was found to have significant effects in preventing and fighting the H1N1 influenza virus! Other examples of delicious fermented foods to try include sauerkraut, pickles (try “real” pickles without added vinegar like Bubbies), miso, kefir, and kombucha.
Number 7: Get fresh air and moderate daily exercise
Getting out in the sun for 20 minutes a day will help your body produce it’s own Vitamin D (the “pro-survival molecule.) Plus, moderate exercise can boost the production of macrophages, the kind of white blood cells that “eat” bacteria and viruses. However, intense exercise can actually temporarily decrease immune function – so don’t overdo it!
Number 8: Get enough sleep
An increase in sleep actually increases the number of your white blood cells. For optimum immune function, kids need 9-10 hrs. Teens (age 13-18) need 8-10, and adults age 18-65+ need 7-9 hrs. according to the CDC.
On the other hand, loss of sleep even for a few hours at night, increases inflammation in our body which makes us more susceptible to catching the flu and having more severe symptoms. So make sure your whole family is getting enough zzzz’s.
Number 9: Cut the stress
Emotional stress creates physiological stress in our bodies that lowers our immune defenses and makes us more vulnerable to illness. Stress has been shown to lower our white blood cells’ abilities to kill germs, and actually creates more inflammation that may make us feel even sicker. For guidance on how to help manage your child’s stress naturally, take a look at Releasing Anxiety in Kids - One Simple Tool for some great tips.
Last is best of all the game...
I've saved the best for last. Here are the 2 most powerful secrets that keep my family on their feet during flu season. They're always in my back pocket, or kitchen cupboards rather, and they unplug my stress concerning any kind of illness. I'm SO deeply grateful for both of these!
Number 10: Sweep away early symptoms
Make infections “tap out” by sweeping the gut with Exodus Prebiotic Sponge and following with Body Balance capsules or liquid to escort invasive species out of the body. Begin your sweep by taking 2-3 teaspoons of Exodus Prebiotic Fiber mixed in diluted juice or water and drink it down every 2 hrs until you've taken 10-15 teaspoons total.
Number 11: Vitamin Therapy (C, D and Zinc)
Every adult over 30 should be taking 5000 units of vitamin D during the winter months when people aren’t outdoors in the sun producing their own vitamin D and when the wave of COVID-19 cases spikes annually around the globe. Also 2-3000mg of vitamin C, and no more than 40 g of zinc.
Vitamin D therapy
Some super exciting insights have arisen out of COVID research in the last 18 months about the necessity of Vitamin D in combating viral infection, particularly COVID19. Everyone who goes into the hospital with severe Covid infection is apparently deficient in vitamin D …across-the-board. And it’s not that Covid is using up their D. It appears that it actually wasn’t there to begin with.
Vitamin D has a handklaviyo_trigger on the lever that regulates cytokine activity from the immune system. Without it, this regulation doesn’t exist. It also acts as a steroid hormone to cut and calm inflammation. So it’s super important to the body‘s immune response during an infection.
A major reason why people of color have been more susceptible to Covid19 than lighter skin people is now thought to be because the natural melanin in their skin blocks the sun‘s UVB rays from forming vitamin D under the skins surface. These people are naturally deficient in vitamin D and therefore more susceptible, but so are a whole slew of lighter skin people who don't get outside in the sun, especially as you get over 40.
Dr. Roger Schuelt (4 times board certified) of the medical site MedCram recommends everyone, even healthy people take just 4-5000 IU per day during flu season and winter months to protect against viral infection especially Covid19. When you take your 5k iu with 90 mg of vitamin K2 the uptake is complete and this eliminates any vitamin D3 toxicity. You can find D3 with the appropriate amount of K2 encapsulated together for convenience.
A 20,000 participant study of people with Covid infection hospitalized in India over many months (known as the Shade study) found Vitamin D deficiency to be true across all participants. They put half of them on megadoses of vitamin D3 (10 times the normal RDA) over a period of seven days and had really promising results in breaking the virus. According to Roger Schuelt MD, the Placebo group had 50% of patients needing intensive care, 7% died, and in the vitamin D group, only 2% of patients needed intensive care and none of them died. That is a remarkable difference. One that ever person should know about.
Of 20,000 participants none had toxic effects from taking this much vitamin D over 7 days.
Vitamin C therapy
Vitamin C therapy is the secret weapon that few of our mothers understood. We need only a small daily amount of it (less than 100 mg), that is UNLESS we’re fighting off infection. At that point, the body actually can absorb and make use of up to 20 times the Recommended Daily Allowance. To review a very encouraging recent study using vitamin C therapy on patients succumbing to COVID Sepsis click here.
I’m stocking supplemental Vitamin C in 2 forms - sodium ascorbate powder (provides fastest uptake and is inexpensive) plus liposomal vitamin C capsules (for great absorption and convenience).
How to do a Vitamin C Flush
To top off your body's stores of Vitamin C in order to give maximum fight to infection, Take 1,000 milligrams Vitamin C every hour from morning til whenever you get a sloshy bowel movement usually by dinnertime. Then stop for today. That’s your flushpoint or the maximum amount your body can absorb into your tissues. The next day. Take 75% of the flush point amount in divided doses (every 1 or 2 hours spread evenly throughout the day. Do this over the next 4-5 days. You’ll feel the affects as congestion breaks up and lungs become relieved throughout that first day. Keep going with the Vitamin C at intervals daily until you feel sloshy or until symptoms are all gone. This technique has worked wonders for acute respiratory infection in our big family and in our online community. Vitamin C fact sheet from National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Take the opportunity to learn from circulating viral flu in 2022 just how powerful your body's microbiome can be against it, when it gets the support it needs.
Does this plan make sense to you?
What else are you doing to build your defenses?
Please leave a comment.
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Hi, I'm Jonell Francis, an expert in Leaky Gut Syndrome, a nerd when it comes to the science of feeling fabulous, and obsessed with guiding women (and those they love) back to vibrant health.