Quarantining Well: Tips to Stay Healthier and Happier

by
Optimizing Your Health
While you are staying at home most of the time, most of you are going out to do shopping for essentials, getting gas, or picking up  a curbside meal delivery.  (Some of you are still going to work — medical workers, first responders, police, firefighters, food service and grocery workers, any others I might have left out — thank you).
Whether at home or doing what is necessary outside the house, you may find some of these tips helpful for boosting your immune system:
Immune Boosting Tips
  • The basics:  get at least 7-8 hours of sleep.  Drink plenty of water — 6-8 8 ounce glasses a day.  Exercise daily — socially distanced walks, bikes or runs, yoga at home (shameless plug for Yoga with Adrienne on YouTube), machines at home, whatever works.  At least a half hour a day.
  • Healthy food:  I am NOT judging here.  We are all craving more comfort food during this crisis.  Try to include in your meals as many vegetables as you can.  Make soups, especially chicken soup.  Cook with onions and garlic, or leeks, or shallots.  All those foods have antiviral properties.  Drink ginger tea, preferably from the fresh root.  Warming spices, including cayenne, cumin, cardamon, turmeric, all have antiviral properties.
  • Supplements:  I will cover this topic in detail in the next newsletter.  Please reach out with any questions in the meantime.
  • Limit your sugar consumption (see above).  Try to shop for low sugar snacks.  Unsweetened popcorn, nuts, dark chocolate, nut butters, are all good choices.
  • Saline rinse:  doing regular nasal rinses (twice a day is ideal) with a good solution and delivery system helps keep passages clear and may help kill any early invaders.  I like Alkalol (either the spray or the wash).
  • Wet Sock Treatment:  a classic and favorite naturopathic method to boost immunity.
  • Epsom Salt Baths:  A great way to relax and raise your core body temperature.  Don’t also do this on days when you’re doing Wet Sock.
Ways to Reduce Stress and Worry
  1. Watch/Consume Less News:  I don’t know about you, but watching the news these days makes me pretty stressed.  I’m not a big TV news watcher to begin with, and these days are no exception.  I stay up-to-date on statistics both nationally and in Connecticut, and am interested to see how areas are coping and for hopeful signs from places who have learned to manage their outbreaks.  News watching can be addictive — just say “no”.
  2. Do Yoga:  while not for everyone, yoga, for many, is a way to combine exercise with mindfulness, a way to quiet your mind while moving your body.  Again, I recommend Yoga with Adriene as a great place to start.
  3. Meditation:  give your mind and spirit a chance to relax and recharge.  Give yourself a way to get out of worrying and stressing about the future, the “what-ifs”.  I use and have recommended to many of you the most popular app out there, Insight Timer.  Just go to the App Store or Google Play to install on your phone.  Use the free version.  I have been using this meditation for the last few days.  It’s not too long, it’s informative and I find it very reassuring.  Novice meditators can do it, too.  Do as many times a day as you need or want.
  4. Acupressure:  a way to do acupuncture on yourself.  A safe and effective way to change how your body and brain are doing.  You can do any or all of these points several times during the day.