Greetings,
In these bizarre times that we are now in it seems that all of us are searching for some common sense. The purpose of this chiro-blog is to give my perspective on the COVID Pandemic so that if (or when) you become infected as I have, you can possibly learn from my experience. Many of my patients have been seeking my perspective, so I will provide this as I am still in quarantine and have nothing else to do. This is not intended to be medical advice for any of you, but it is my personal journey and how my immune system responded to this virus. Throughout the following paragraphs I will give a few resources and try to educate a little along the way.
Pre-COVID:
When this pandemic started back in late February, I personally started reading research daily on this virus from a variety of resources. I wanted to get a good perspective as a business owner and to help our patients and staff navigate through a pandemic. I also wanted to make sure my family was also prepared for the coming weeks and now will be years. Information was and still is changing all the time and I personally have a different lens of how to view all of this. I have spent my last 30 years of my life studying health, wellness, nutrition, supplementation, spinal function, chiropractic, and optimal performance. During these years I have developed a philosophy based upon anatomy, physiology, research, personal experience, and thousands of patient’s experiences of all ages and abilities.
Early on in this pandemic I quickly realized that what was being talked about in the news was not what the research was saying. Soon after that the public policy by the politicians did not match what the science says or what we know about the immune system. It seems like everyone had an agenda based upon politics or financial gain. I just wanted unbiased research to make informed decisions and then come up with a plan. So, the only thing that really stood out for me was that it is difficult to trust WHO, CDC, FDA, and of course the news.
Back in March the experts deemed that COVID virus was a pandemic. As soon as this was determined, my understanding is that this virus was not contained as it spread across the world. There is no stopping this until we get herd immunity or a strategy to help us when we get this virus. Our world is so interconnected from travel, airlines, cruises, and business that there is no possible means to stop the spread of the virus. So, when public policy of social distancing and other measures of wearing a mask, and washing hands were recommended the intent was to possibly slow the spread. This makes sense to give our healthcare ample time to prepare and treat those who need support. The problem with this policy is that if it does slow the spread it will elongate the time period until we reach herd immunity.
At this point in time, I researched as much as I could about the immune system and how to boost it naturally. We know we can’t control the virus other than to possibly avoid it, so, it makes sense to boost the host the best you can. From years of clinical practice, I have seen thousands of patients over the years get healthier from Chiropractic care. People under regular care would not only get pain free but those who choose wellness checkups had less sickness, less allergies, better digestion, better sleep, and a host of other benefits. Therefore, I have a relatively large wellness practice at this stage of my career. I know that all medications have a pro and a con. The con is that it is a chemical (a toxin) that affects normal physiology and therefore by definition it is a stressor to the human body. Going back to our immune system it is important to minimize stress as it always suppresses immune function. There are 3 types of stressors to the human body which can be broken down into physical stressors, chemical stressors, and emotional stressors. These combined stressors in life affect our immune function and needs to be managed.
The media, medical organizations, government agencies all focused on the virus not the host. If the host is strong the host will win. This has always been our strategy and is what our family and most practice members practice. After many hours of research, it became very apparent that vitamin D seems to be the best supplement that can help with a respiratory virus. Which is why I was preaching get as tan as you can since the beginning. So, the weeks before I got this virus Allison and I were tanning several days a week plus supplementing with vitamin D.
The one thing many of you have asked in an overwhelming outreach of great vibes and prayers this last week was how or where did I get this COVID virus. Since the pandemic started in March, I do not think I have seen a patient that has been sick during their Chiropractic adjustment. Before this, it would be common for me to adjust 6-10 people per day who would have the flu or a cold during the winter season. My thought over the years of giving patients care was that these exposures to me has built my immune system up as I rarely get sick. So, we have been very grateful that all our patients had been “healthy” during their visits. I personally have been wearing an N95 mask since the middle of March all day every day to possibly help slow the spread. The research I have done on masks does not support the policy, however, to make everyone feel safe Allison and I have been diligent about wearing these daily in the office and out of the office in public. I also realize that wearing a mask jeopardizes my personal health and ultimately will weaken my immune system. Limiting exposure to others suppresses immune function and breathing in my own breath can’t be good for you.
So, during the 2-week time period before our vacation with our family, our circle was extremely small. We did not go to the gym or go out to eat. We did go to the store for groceries and did some last-minute shopping at Walmart for our little vacation. I did go to lifetime fitness but only went to the pool to swim a mile or so. Our weight workouts were done at home in our home gym. Our goal was to see our boys and do some beach time. At this point, COVID was becoming rampant in Arizona.
The first few months we had only known 3 families that have had it or had family members who were infected. I would ask a lot of you if you knew anyone with COVID and every one of you said no. However, the 10 days before vacation we had started to hear about families daily on how they had been exposed and were starting to cancel their appointments until they got tested. I remember telling Allison that our vacation timing was perfect and that it is probably a good time for a little break due to the exploding cases in AZ. Luckily, all of our patients that got tested were negative and we felt great about our little beach vacation. San Diego County beaches did not close, and we were headed out for our only vacation of the year. So, to answer the question of where I got this virus it is still a mystery. Allison and I do everything together and to this date she has not gotten this virus.
On our vacation we are always very active. Our typical day includes a 3-4 mile walk/run, then a basketball game with my boys. Sorry Brandon, my game sucks as I was the weak link as Ryan and his friend Jake killed us. Hours of spike ball, paddle ball, and of course riding waves for hours. It’s so fun to try to keep up with my extremely athletic boys (both college athletes). I was quite surprised I wasn’t too sore after the first 3 days. Day 4 of vacation I started some soreness everywhere and thought I’m just sore and dehydrated. I was a little better after eating and drinking water but started to feel that achy feeling which is more than just muscle soreness. The first thing that hurt was my low back which is an old injury of mine from over 12 years ago. I haven’t had a problem with my low back in years as I have developed a daily routine that has worked. So, I was a little perplexed. I thought my low back pain was from trying to get a rebound in basketball against a 6’4 and a 6’5 college guys who play above the rim. I think I tipped the ball once. I was starting to get achy everywhere which is understandable after all the activity but immediately shut everything down and isolated myself just in case. I took some Tylenol and felt 100% in 25 minutes but continued to keep my distance from everyone. I went to bed and Allison started getting worried and she slept on the pullout couch in the Condo just in case I was sick.
The next morning I woke up a little achy especially in the spine but my energy was pretty good. I decided to take my second dose of Tylenol and again felt almost 100% with in 25 minutes. I ate some breakfast and started hydrating and felt good enough for a walk along the beach. It was gorgeous out and I decided to not go too far and ended up sitting just studying the waves and watching some surfers. I started to head back to the condo and on the way back I started to feel lightheaded. My thought was I’m going to faint and pass out, so I laid down and was afraid to move. I called Allison and she came over to me as I was laying on a walkway. It was an interesting experience. I was checking my pulse, respiration, and capillary fill rate on my fingers for oxygenation. About 20-25 people walked passed me with masks and only 1 person asked if I was ok. I was laying down in sandy mud concrete walkway next to the wall in 2 feet of shade about 20 feet from a restroom. It was kind of gross, but I could not move. I broke out into a cold sweat as I waited for Allison for some support. My next goal was to get to the condo. We did it in stages with sips of COKE for instant sugar and bubbles as my stomach had some severe cramping. I made it back and felt ok and just took it easy. I was still not sure that I was sick as I felt pretty good with the Tylenol and was actually a little hyper. It was hard to sit still but managed to watch a few movies, look at the ocean from our balcony, and checked in with Allison periodically as she was staying away from me on the beach with our boys.
At about 6 hours after my last dose of Tylenol my low back and now upper back started to really ache. Within about 20 minutes my pain escalated to about 8/10. I was getting miserable now and was trying to hold off the Tylenol as I get a terrible rash with it and am allergic to it. At this point in time I knew I had something. It is now 4 pm and after my next dose of Tylenol I felt almost 100% again. My drug of choice would be Advil but I know that I am allergic to that also. When Allison came up from the beach, we started to pack up to go back to Arizona the following day.
In the beginning of an immune response the purpose of a fever is to stimulate the immune system. So, we always try to ride the fever as long as we can before taking anything that suppresses it. This beginning phase of immune response is called innate immunity and is responsible for fighting most viruses and pathogens. This is our first line of defense especially with a novel or new virus. The innate immune response is responsible for initiating the Humoral or Adaptive immune response. This part of our immune system makes specific antigens for specific pathogens and can take 7-10 days in a normal functioning immune system to make enough antigens. These antigens allow lymphocytes to bind to these foreign viruses and destroy the specific virus completely. If the virus mutates or changes the adaptive immune response must learn how to make new antigens and is why vaccines may have limitations.
Vaccines work specifically by creating an immune response or antigens (Adaptive Immune response) specific to that virus. This is why the flu vaccine obviously doesn’t work very well. If it did, then we would be done with the flu as we have had vaccines since 1940. The flu virus mutates or changes from year to year and it is difficult to guess which strain or mutated form will be prevalent from year to year. I want to educate about vaccine adjuvants (other ingredients) that help us have an (Adaptive) immune response. Some of these include Thimerosal (Mercury), Aluminum, MSG, egg protein, and formaldehyde just to name a few. Go ahead and just google adjuvants and vaccines to learn more. I wanted to bring this up because many of us are hopeful for a vaccine for COVID. It is important to at least understand what’s in theses vaccines to make sure they are effective and even more importantly safe. In the coming months we may be forced into having a vaccine. History tells us that vaccines approved without safety studies can have devastating health consequences. Just look at/research the 1976 swine flu vaccine that was rushed and look at Guillain Barre syndrome. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_swine_flu_outbreak
The above adjuvants are neurotoxins and affect the brain and nervous system. So, if we get a vaccine for COVID looking at the adjuvants is important. If you follow the money trail, a vaccine will be worth Trillions of dollars. There will be a lot of financial motivation for the vaccine. If the virus mutates like the flu, then yearly or semiyearly vaccines will be needed.
To concludes Part 1 of this blog. I thought I would bullet point lessons learned.
- Avoid the COVID if you can. I still don’t know what I would have done differently today.
- Make sure you have a good nutrition and supplementation habits. Specifically, appropriate vitamin D levels.
- Manage Chemical, Emotional, and Physical stressors and they can suppress immune system and responses to COVID.
- Be careful of the sources of information you listen and or read. This is the most difficult as it is very hard to determine motivations and agendas. Have multiple sources and have plan of what you would do when or if your time comes to deal with this.
In the Next Chiro-Blog called THE COVID DAYS. I will discuss symptoms, my vitamin protocol, dealing with emotional stress, how to get the COVID test, my research on medical interventions, and my daily routine. Thanks for reading. Stay tuned.