Episode 92: COVID-19 Plan
In this episode:
Why I'm disappointed with a lot of people in the health community
Parts of the immune system
What does it mean to boost the immune system?
4 step plan on how to do it
Herbs for coronavirus infection
What’s up with elderberry syrup? Why isn’t it safe for COVID-19?
Resources mentioned:
Carb Compatibility Project (Available for free within the Funk’tional Nutrition Collective)
Eat to Achieve (Available for free within the Funk’tional Nutrition Collective)
Immune Support for Coronavirus
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Erin Holt [00:00:05]:
Welcome to the Funk'tional Nutrition Podcast. I'm your host, Erin Holt and I'm a board certified, integrative and functional nutritionist. I live on the seacoast of New Hampshire and work with clients in my virtual practice all over the world through private consultations and online nutrition and functional medicine programs. Functional Medicine nutrition is all about diving deep with people to get to the root cause of their health issues. And that's exactly what I tackle in this podcast. All things health, food and nutrition, unpacking current research, and almost a decade of clinical experience. I love to bring experts and thought leaders to the table so we can all learn together. Please keep in mind this podcast is created for educational purposes only and should never be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment.
Erin Holt [00:00:55]:
Thanks for joining me. Now let's dive in. Hello there friends. Chances are you're listening to this from Quarantine. So I am releasing this a day early. Actually today is my birthday. Releasing this a few days early just because I got to get this information out there. I'm going to be talking about COVID 19 coronavirus.
Erin Holt [00:01:21]:
A really clear, concise plan. This is going to be a shorter episode. I might trickle out some additional like bonus episodes this week or the upcoming weeks. I might deviate from my weekly long form content plan. It's kind of like tbd just because I want whatever relevant information I have, I obviously want to pass that on to you guys. And that's kind of been my whole shtick over the past couple of months. I've been talking about coronavirus since the end of January and I've basically been preparing for and collecting information since then. And I just kept thinking like, I don't want to stockpile this information in my brain.
Erin Holt [00:02:04]:
I want to share it with as many people as I can. And that's what I'm going to continue to do. And fortunately, I have this podcast as a platform with a lot of listeners and I really just hope that this information helps you guys in some way. So that's the name of the game today. What the hell does it mean to boost the immune system? We're talking all about boosting the immune system. So what does that mean and what is a very clear, concise plan? You guys know I'm long winded. I'm gonna try to be very short and to the point and I'm not gonna swear in this episode. I know I just said the H word.
Erin Holt [00:02:38]:
I'm not gonna do it again. In case you have little ears around. I got you. I was planning on releasing an episode on intermittent fasting today or this week and I'm gonna push that off. I just feel like it's kind of hard to retain information right now. Everyone's hyper focused on handling what is in front of us directly right now. When I poled Instagram, the majority said they wanted to hear this brief, clear, concise focus plan for COVID 19. So here we are.
Erin Holt [00:03:06]:
So next week I'll probably let that intermittent fasting episode go. It's going to be chock full of information. It's a really big episode. So. But I'm going to put it on the back burner just for a minute. Just going to take it week by week like everybody else on the planet right now. Don't forget, I have not canceled the Carb Compatibility Project as of right now. It's still going to launch April 13th, hopefully.
Erin Holt [00:03:31]:
Well, I'm not going to say anything. We're going to, we're going to run it April 13th. If we have to make some game time decision decisions, we will. But that's going to roll out. I've got my Eat to Achieve program. That's the self study nutrition program. And if you want to bundle those up together, you can save $50 when you do. So.
Erin Holt [00:03:48]:
I am also throwing in my What the Gut workshop. If you buy the Carb Compatibility Project by April 1st, you will get immediate access to the What the Gut workshop. That is two and a half hours all about gut health. It's a huge deep dive. It's very important right now to understand your guts because they are a key player of the immune system Anyway, so let's talk more specifically about coronavirus. I'm very, very glad that the rhetoric, the collective rhetoric has changed from well, most people will just be fine, it's no more than the flu, to a more deeper understanding of the fact that there are certain people who are not well prepared to deal with this threat. We're all collectively putting a greater focus on community health. We're taking massive efforts to flatten the curve to give our health care system a fighting chance.
Erin Holt [00:04:45]:
Currently here in New Hampshire, schools are closed for at least, least three weeks. So they are taking this very seriously. I heard on watching the news last night because the news is just now omnipresent. And I heard somebody say I'd rather be criticized in the future for doing too much than for doing too little. And I mean, right, right, you know? I also saw something on Instagram. It was from Dr. Christine Marin.
Erin Holt [00:05:16]:
She said, you know how everyone rushed to the stores at the same time and bought everything out at once instead of staggering their visits. Now imagine the same thing in a hospital, but instead of toilet paper, it's ICU beds and ventilators that are out. That's why everything is canceled. So if you're still running around being like, this is crazy what's happening. That's why, right? We want to make sure that we can support our health care system. And before we just, we weren't looking to other countries and saying maybe we should prepare for this. Instead we were like, well, not happening here, not my problem. We just have such a myopic view of things and when it lands on our doorstep, we're like, oh shoot, panic mode.
Erin Holt [00:05:54]:
But I mean, the truth of the matter is this has been a long time coming. We've had a lot of signs. And now when it's like, it's frustrating to see that when it affects somebody on a personal level, then they're like, oh, okay, got it right. But maybe that's just human nature, I don't know. But what you probably noticed, if you follow a lot of wellness health accounts, you probably noticed a very sudden about face of many of the wellness professionals, kind of depending on who you follow. At first there was this dismissive or even cavalier attitude about what was happening. And then all of a sudden people started hooting and hollering about immune tips. It went from being like, this isn't a big deal to here's the top five ways to boost your immune system.
Erin Holt [00:06:41]:
And quite frankly, and I think this needs to be said. So I'm going to say it and then I'm going to move on. I'm really disappointed with a lot of people in the health community. What I learned over the past few weeks is that many people are more concerned with what's with saying what's popular and going with the zeitgeist. Wellness professionals were either uninformed about what was going on, which I view as a massive problem, or they were unwilling to say the unpopular thing, which I also view as an equally massive problem. People with a large platform pass information off as facts. And because they have a large platform, they're in a position of power, meaning people listen to them. So if you're going to toot your horn as a health expert, be an expert, do your research.
Erin Holt [00:07:29]:
Don't just get your information from Internet memes and headlines. And the reason that I bring this up to you guys, it's to continue to implore you to know where you're getting your information from. Be sure you're leaning on trusted sources. I've said this since day one of the podcast. There are a lot of experts and influencers who are just out there regurgitating information. And this echo chamber creates a lot of problems. We are seeing the fallout of it right now. Every time I heard people downplay coronavirus, I was getting more and more frustrated.
Erin Holt [00:08:05]:
I'm like, clearly you haven't done your research. Anyway, one thing I will say, I am very grateful to the people who stuck their necks out and started talking about this early and often, even though they caught flack for it, even though they were accused of being fear mongers, they did it because they knew it was the right thing. And I just have such deep respect for the people who are out there doing the real work, uncovering truths, sharing that information with people, educating people, and just getting this good, solid information out to the masses. So kudos to those people. Deep, deep respect. Okay, so we're hearing all this. Everyone's flapping their gums about supporting the immune system, but what does that actually mean? So first, let's look at what the immune system is. We have two different.
Erin Holt [00:08:54]:
I mean, it's all one immune system, but there's two different parts. We have the innate immune system and then the adaptive immune system, which is also known as an acquired immune system. Innate immunity is really our first defense against invaders. It's like surface barriers. So skin is one of them. You guys hear me talk about the mucosal layer of the gut all the time, that's another one. The mucosal layer of our respiratory tract, that's another one.
Erin Holt [00:09:22]:
These are all ways that we, like a pathogen will first come in contact with these things, and they act as a physical barrier system. So when you talk about. When you hear about leaky gut, for example, that is a disruption in the lining of the small intestine. And that small intestine has so much of our innate immunity within it. So they can act as physical barriers, but they also act as chemical barriers. But you think about things like hydrochloric acid. How many times have we talked about stomach acid on this show? Right. When pathogens hit that very acidic environment of our stomach, ideally they are killed off.
Erin Holt [00:10:03]:
So we have chemical barriers as part of our innate immune system. The microbiome is part of our innate immune system. All the bacteria that live there, we have inflammation, right? So if you get a cut, it's why it turns red and swollen. Right. An inflammatory response as part of the innate immune system. And fever. Right. That's why I don't treat a fever or I do so with.
Erin Holt [00:10:27]:
I'm not going to even get into fevers because I talk so much about it. On episode 86, if you, if you're just here for the first time because you want to hear about COVID, be sure to go back to episode 86 where I talked about cold and flu prevention because I also talk about corona in there. And so it'll tie up some loose strings of today's episode. We also have the ability to go after viruses in our innate immune system. And just quick, quick thing, just so I don't. I'm not like super confusing people when I'm talking about stomach acid, hydrochloric acid in the stomach. I'm just using these as examples of our innate immune system. I'm not saying that hydrochloric acid is going to kill off coronavirus.
Erin Holt [00:11:12]:
Different viruses have different modes of entry into the body, and obviously that one is via the respiratory tract. Okay, so then we have the adaptive immune system or the acquired immune system. And this is where we get those immune cells that are known as lymphocytes. So we have B cells, we have T cells, we have T helper cells. TH1, TH2, TH17. I think I've talked about these on the show before. I mean, I know I have. I don't know why I said think.
Erin Holt [00:11:43]:
Definitely have B cells secrete antibodies which are highly specific protein molecules that bind to a specific pathogen. So we come in contact with a pathogen, your body recognizes it as a bad guy and it creates antibodies against it. So it's this tagging and memory system. So your body, your innate, or excuse me, your adaptive immune response has this memory too. A few weeks ago, I went to Boston to visit my friends. Everyone we were out with that night came down with the flu the next day, except for me and my friend Molly because we'd already had the flu this year, we were quote, unquote, immune to it. Right? So that's the whole adaptive immune response.
Erin Holt [00:12:32]:
We also. Part of the adaptive immune response is something called apoptosis, which you might have heard about, which is basically killing off damaged cells. So we get the old damaged, dirty debris out of there. And that's part of the immune system. So with coronavirus, we don't have any herd immunity because it's novel, it's new. We haven't been exposed to it before. So more people are getting sick from it, particularly the immune compromised. And I'm sure you've heard that word or that term thrown around quite a bit lately.
Erin Holt [00:13:07]:
Because we know that with this particular virus, like with most viruses like the flu, the elderly and the immune compromised are more at risk. And that just basically means there's some sort of imbalance in their innate and or their adaptive immune system. Something about their immune system is off. It could be a low total white blood cell count. I was recently, recently listening to Dr. Joe Smith and he said that if you have a total white blood cell count below five, then you're starting to show signs of, of depletion. I am sorry, it's not funny, but I'm laughing at the way I'm talking. I'm so determined to make this be a 30 minute episode because I'm like I promised, I promised a quick episode that I'm talking really fast and saying my words in a really bizarro way.
Erin Holt [00:14:00]:
So maybe I should slow down. I know that I have low immunoglobulin production just kind of consistently and chronically. So that would be another imbalance. I have low secretory IgA, but I also have low total IgG and my daughter does too. I've only had her tested once so I don't know if that's a chronic thing for her or if that's just was like a flash in the pan. But either way that's an issue for me. I know. So when we talk about supporting the immune system there are certain goals.
Erin Holt [00:14:35]:
I'm gonna go over four different things that we want to talk about as it relates to this particular virus. One, we wanna get our immune cells in a happy environment so they can thrive and do their job well. Number one is extremely important. Number one is a lot of the stuff that we talk about on this show. I'll go into more detail of things really focusing on during this time. But just understand that the immune system isn't going to work in chaos. So your internal environment, we got to get your terrain acting appropriately. Number two is we want to support our innate immune response.
Erin Holt [00:15:20]:
So help the immune system get to the virus before it affects the tissues. Those that, that physical barrier system, those chemical barrier systems, we want to make sure the innate immune system is able to do its job. Number three, we want to stop the virus from replicating when we come in contact with the virus. And number four, we want to help our immune cells modulate, which, that's a concept we'll talk about in a little bit. But essentially we want our immune system to attack the virus without attacking our own tissue. And to be clear, we're not talking about treating the virus. These things don't treat the virus, but instead they support the immune system to do its job. So a deeper dive on each one of those.
Erin Holt [00:16:07]:
Number one, we want to get the immune cells in a happy environment. This is where we talk about diet and lifestyle support. It is the bones of your immune system functioning well. So if we're talking about boosting the immune system, this is where we start. And right now there's a lot of hysteria and there's a lot of anxiety. Times of uncertainty can be a massive trigger, massive safety trigger for us. If we don't know what to expect, that really rings a lot of the alarm bells. If our body, if our brain doesn't perceive safety, then that starts a whole cascade of stress chemicals and inflammatory response and suppressed immune system in the body.
Erin Holt [00:16:52]:
So we need to do everything in our power to try to get ourselves. Even though we don't know what's going to happen, even though we don't know what to expect, we have to do, we have to take some time, carve out some practices to somehow convey to ourself that we are in fact safe. I mean, right now I'm sitting in my office recording a podcast for you guys, looking out my window and I'm perfectly safe. I'm perfectly safe. And just kind of dropping into those little mini moments of I'm safe right now. I'm completely safe right now. And that, you know, your, your brain responds, your body responds to what your brain is processing. I mean, maybe that's the best way I want to say it.
Erin Holt [00:17:38]:
We have to continue to talk ourselves down. It's really, really important. Meditation can be massively huge right now. I have made 30 minutes of meditation a non negotiable. So my husband and I sat down yesterday. We figured out like, what are the priorities here? We came up with two hours of outdoor time. Whether that's hiking as a family or just doing, he's doing like outdoor school with Hattie. We each need at least an hour of exercise time, which I'll talk about in a little bit.
Erin Holt [00:18:13]:
And we need uninterrupted work time, obviously. So we're, we've got this rotation system going on with Hattie, but I also need meditation time and if Hattie's around. So I meditated with her today. I'm going to meditate by myself later. She knows it's quiet time. She respects that. She will sometimes follow along with guided meditation. Sometimes we practice mantras together.
Erin Holt [00:18:36]:
It's not bad for her to hear those things, right? So any way you can swing it. It's a really important tool, especially right now. Anything that you can do to calm yourself down. Because the truth of the matter is the immune system can't function appropriately if you're in fight or flight. So if your brain perceives lack of safety, it's going to trigger the fight or flight response. It just suppresses your immune system. We've talked about this on the show a bunch before, I'm positive. But there's different mechanisms of action, but it happens in a very real and profound way.
Erin Holt [00:19:13]:
So we have to somehow get ourselves to calm down. The other ways you can support the nervous system and I would sort of layer these on to a different type of practice, whether that's meditation or Reiki. I have a somebody that I, I get distance Reiki from. A lot of practitioners are taking their, whatever their modality is and they're doing more online stuff with that. So you can look if you have a favorite practitioner for Reiki or whatever, you can reach out to them to see if they would be willing to do distance stuff. My gal is called, her name is Caroline Woolard and I will link her up in the, in the show notes. But you know, do that sort of stuff. I, I hired her for a distance Reiki session last week and it really helped to kind of reset me.
Erin Holt [00:20:15]:
I'm doing a lot of those self care practices. I hate saying that term, but everybody knows what I'm talking about when I say it. But basically like nervous system down regulation practices, I'm doubling down on those right now. It's so important. Other ways to support your nervous system. There are certain herbs, so CBD or full spectrum hemp oil. We can, we got the nervine herbs, things like skullcap, passion flower, magnolia. Skullcap is really good for this particular virus.
Erin Holt [00:20:43]:
So it's like kind of like a double whammy because it also calms you down. Magnesium is a great one. L Theanine is a very good one for anxiety. Phosphatidylserine I really like. You can make matcha tea. I just posted a recipe to my blog for Matcha tea latte. I've been drinking one of those a day. Matcha contains L Theanine, so it has, it does contain caffeine, but it has like this calming effect on the body too.
Erin Holt [00:21:12]:
So those are all important things to do. Lower inflammation is a good thing. If we can lower in the inflammation, we can get the immune system more happy, more healthy. Eat really well. Eat like it matters. I wrote a blog post last week and I said eat like it matters because it does. It really does. Now is your time to shine people.
Erin Holt [00:21:32]:
Eat well. Your immune system is reliant on good nutrition. I cannot slice and dice it any other way. Feed yourself well. Nutrient dense food. Limit your processed foods. Limit them. Consume very little sugar, little to no sugar.
Erin Holt [00:21:51]:
We're doing a lot of berries, but outside of that, not much sugar. I usually will let Hattie snack on like dates and stuff like that. And I'm kind of minimizing that right now. No alcohol. It suppresses the immune system and is a direct gut irritant. I see a lot of people like out, like cleaning out the liquor stores. Cool, cool, cool, cool. Do what you got to do, but just know that you're suppressing your immune system.
Erin Holt [00:22:19]:
So good luck with the immune boosting tips because that is a direct immune suppressant. Eat a ton of color pigment rich fruits and veggies. Consume as many naturally antiviral foods as you can. Oregano, sage, rosemary, thyme, astragalus, garlic, ginger, shiitake mushrooms, peppermint, cinnamon, turmeric. I've got resources for you all over my website. Erinholthealth.com Just go into the search bar and type in immunity. Also, join the Carb Compatibility Project. We will be spending four weeks applying literally all of these principles.
Erin Holt [00:22:54]:
Now is the time to do it. I have an autoimmune disease. Immune system support is very important to me. So that is peppered into all of my programs. Gut support, liver support. We cover all bases with the Carb Compatibility Project. So sign up and we all get to walk through it together. The virtual community is amazing and we all can interact with each other even if we are still in quarantine.
Erin Holt [00:23:22]:
I want you to prioritize sleep. Sleep at least seven to eight hours a night. All the processes that support the immune system happen when you sleep. Other ways to support your sleep, stay away from screen time. Eyes off the nighttime news. It can raise cortisol right before bed, which prevents you from sleeping. Limit your screen time in general. That blue light from your phones, from your tablets, from your computers, from the tv, it suppresses the production of melatonin, which is your sleep hormone.
Erin Holt [00:23:49]:
It keeps you from falling asleep and staying asleep. So really work that sleep hygiene right now. Move your body, but don't overdo it. Exercise supports immune health, but too much of it can suppress the immune system. So know your limits, but don't give up altogether, especially if your schedule just got wacky. I think sometimes what happens is like our schedule. You're like, I'm in a good groove. And then the schedule shifts and all of a sudden everything, you know, goes to pot.
Erin Holt [00:24:18]:
I have to say, I have been live streaming classes from Steam House and from Blaze. I will post the link in the show notes. They have been phenomenal. I mean, I've done online fitness before and online yoga forever. And it's fine, it's fine. You know, for whatever reason, I think it's because they're, you know, it's, I'm part of the community and it feels like I'm really there. They're just very, very hard workouts, but they're, you know, efficient. You get it done and then you move on with your day.
Erin Holt [00:24:50]:
And there's just something about the interval training combined with the yoga that is making me feel really, really, really good, and sane and quite healthy. So I highly recommend even if you're not local, you can sign up for the live streaming. I mean, I would recommend getting like a 10 class pass or a monthly membership just for the live streaming. Truly, it's that good. And I'm picky with live streaming. So I am, I'm saying that like for real deal. I will post the links in my show notes. I make exactly a zero, a zero dollars off of saying this.
Erin Holt [00:25:27]:
So this is not something that I'm like promoting for any other reason than I love it. So do it. Okay? Give your gut some love. I was saying this earlier, but gut health is very, very important. The majority of our immune system resides in the gut so we want to reinforce this barrier system. Doing some good quality probiotics is a good idea. They do help to modulate the immune system.
Erin Holt [00:25:50]:
Very important right now. You also want to eat to support your gut health. This is one of the pillars of the Carb Compatibility Project. So that is a good, good thing to do. And FYI, the program doesn't start until April 13th. But like I said, when you sign up, you'll get access to the GUT program or the GUT workshop and you will get access to the prep week. So there's some recipes in there and some like ways to build your, build your plate so you'll get some resources right out of the gate. But again, I don't want you guys, I'm going to move on to supplements because they're, I think they're, quite frankly, I think they're extraordinarily important right now.
Erin Holt [00:26:34]:
Don't do the supplements without doing all of the basics first. Those are all really important. Do those first. I was talking about inflammation earlier and two helpful things to bring down inflammation are turmeric and resveratrol. Which I will talk about in a moment. So that was number one. That was number one. Get your immune system in a happy place.
Erin Holt [00:26:56]:
Number two is support our innate immune response. Help the immune system get to the virus, but before it affects the tissues. So ways to support our innate immune response. I was talking about probiotics. Anything that you do to support your gut right now is going to support your innate immune response. Drinking bone broth, making lots of soups and stews, doing the Carb Compatibility Project, all that kind of jazz. If you're not interested in the Carb Compatibility Project, do Eat to Achieve that is a gut healing program, nutrition program as well, but really support your gut system. But also reishi mushroom, vitamin C, astragalus, and skull cap.
Erin Holt [00:27:45]:
Okay, that's like your. Those are four really powerful ways to support that innate immune response. Of course, there's plenty of other things that will do it, but those are the ones that I'm going to say in this episode. One thing I was. I was talking about the barrier system. You know, be cautious of the overuse of hand sanitizer. Of course we want to wash our hands, but if you start to use that hand sanitizer and you get cracked skin, that's a barrier breach. Because your skin, right, is a barrier system.
Erin Holt [00:28:17]:
So just be mindful of that. I mean, we're all, you know, we're all a little dry and cracked in our hands these days, but think about that. Okay? Number three, we want to stop the virus from replicating. This is probably the most important stuff just in terms of, like, oh, shoot, what happens if, like, corona is, like, really up in my kitchen? Turmeric, resveratrol, glutathione, and N acetylcysteine. These are going to be your best friends. The glutathione product that I use has N acetylcysteine in it. NAC.
Erin Holt [00:28:52]:
And it has it in it. So I like that product. Kind of packs a one, two punch. Plus it's liposomal delivery. So you actually absorb the glutathione. Both the resveratrol and the glutathione are in my boosted immune kit. Often that I'll do in the show notes here is link to Amazon products for your convenience. But understand that as a practitioner, I actually don't send my clients to Amazon to purchase supplements because there's just some.
Erin Holt [00:29:23]:
Some things that happen if the. If the company itself. The company. The supplement company itself has a direct Amazon shop, it's fine. But a lot of them don't so it's not great to get practitioner lines off of Amazon for this exact reason. There's a lot of counterfeit that goes on where you buy a product that's not actually the product. A lot of expired supplements are sold at the exact same cost. So there's a lot of shady things that go on.
Erin Holt [00:29:51]:
So obviously, as a healthcare practitioner, I can't send my clients there. That's just not good practice. So what I do is I have a online dispensary. And what I did for you guys, just for some convenience, is I packaged up two different immunity kits on my online dispensary. We have the basic immune support and then we have the boosted immune support. So again, in the boosted immune support, it's those two products, glutathione, which also also contains N acetylcysteine and resveratrol. I would say these are probably two of the most important things. I am fully stocked.
Erin Holt [00:30:31]:
I have bet. I got. I. I got these a while ago. I got them for family members. I was pretty serious about this. I'm not just doing. I'm not just saying this stuff just to say it, but this is how I.
Erin Holt [00:30:45]:
I feel really strongly in it about all of this. So in those two kits, the exact supplemental lineup that I'm taking, that I'm giving to my family and including the elders that are at a greater risk, they are all practitioner lines. All supplements and expiration dates have been verified. I want to say full disclosure and transparency. I do make a small percentage off the purchase of these supplements. I. This allows me to research supplements. So I'm only recommending the best of the best.
Erin Holt [00:31:19]:
It also allows me to spend time creating as many free resources that I do. I want to really be honest with you guys. For those of you who have followed me for a while, you've noticed that I've been pumping out a lot more extra content as it relates to COVID 19. I essentially took two weeks off of paid work to put in the time to do all of the research. That is not even a word of exaggeration. That is the truth. And I do this stuff because I'm interested in it.
Erin Holt [00:31:49]:
I do this stuff because I feel like it's very, very important for my own family, but also for everybody else that is in my audience. And I do it gladly. Quite a few people have reached out to me to say, like, hey, can you set up a Patreon account so we can pay you for your services? Which is honestly so amazing and sweet and I love that people feel like they're getting such a benefit from this free podcast and from, you know, other resources that I create. I don't really feel great about doing that. I mean, a lot of people do it. I think that's great. For me, I don't think personally that makes sense, but ways that you can support me are to, you know, purchase my paid work, obviously, like the Carb Compatibility Project. But also, you know, if you're going to buy supplements anyway, you can buy them on my online dispensary.
Erin Holt [00:32:43]:
That's a really wonderful way to support my work. And as always, I deeply appreciate any purchase you make through me. I really, really appreciate it. So I just wanted to say that. Okay, number four, we want to help the immune cells modulate. That means attacking the virus without attacking our own tissue. So we don't want to self attack.
Erin Holt [00:33:07]:
Right. Autoimmune. We don't want to push that. We. What's really important here is T regulatory cell support. I talked about Treg cells on the episode that I did about preventing autoimmune flares. The ways to do this are vitamin D, vitamin A, glutathione. There we are again.
Erin Holt [00:33:26]:
And short chain fatty acids. Short chain fatty acids are things like butyrate that your gut bacteria, your happy gut bacteria are supposed to produce on their own, which I've talked about on the show before. Okay. Now. So I would, I would highly recommend or consider some or all of those supplements. Now moving into herbal treatment for coronavirus infections. Like, if you actually get infected with the virus, what can you do? I am going to. I've mentioned herbalist Stephen Buhner before.
Erin Holt [00:34:03]:
I am going to link up his exact protocol in the show notes. It's very long. There's a lot of herbs mentioned. So you really need to spend some time with it if you're interested in it. I don't want to go through the whole thing because it is so long, but really, because many of the herbs are herbs I discussed in the flu episode, episode 86. So go back and listen to that. And I just don't want to. I don't want to border on potentially giving medical advice.
Erin Holt [00:34:32]:
I am not giving medical advice. I probably should have posted that disclaimer at the very start of the show. But this is not medical advice. Oh, I do. It's in my opening little song and dance. Okay, never mind. But the truth of the matter is you don't really treat viruses.
Erin Holt [00:34:47]:
Right. You support your immune system's response to the virus. Some herbs for reducing the cytokines that are associated with this virus are Japanese knotweed. So, hey, guess what? Japanese knotweed is in that resveratrol product that I am talking about in my immunity boosting kit. That's why it's one of the reasons why it's so important, for the other reasons that I talked about. It lowers inflammation, it stops the virus from replicating, and it can squash the cytokines. So resveratrol is very important right now. Chinese skullcap is another one.
Erin Holt [00:35:31]:
Cordyceps medicinal mushroom. I like the cordyceps powder. I put that into smoothies and I make a lot of elixirs and drinks with it. You can put it into the matcha latte recipe. Kudzo is another one. And boneset. So you could consider those herbs. What I did again a while ago is created a home
Erin Holt [00:35:53]:
apothecary. And I added a lot of these supportive herbs to it. And then we have to tackle this. I posted this on Instagram and got a lot of. A lot of, I guess, suspicious commentary. Maybe that's the best way to approach it. People were like, not sure I fully believe in this, but okay. All right.
Erin Holt [00:36:24]:
The post said, elderberry syrup for COVID 19. Maybe not. The reason that I posted it was because quite a few folks were tagging me and letting me know that they were making my elderberry syrup recipe. I started to get a little squeamish about it. I wanted to let people know that I'm not recommending elderberry syrup at this time for coronavirus. I'm not saying that elderberry syrup is all of a sudden gonna kill you. I am saying that I'm not publicly recommending it as a solution for everybody for this particular virus. I am personally taking a conservative approach based on the information that I know about elderberry.
Erin Holt [00:37:05]:
And I'm not using it for myself or for my family right now. So I really felt compelled to share why. I am all about transparency. So I didn't want people out there being like, well, Erin Holt Health said to drink all the elderberry syrup. So here we are doing it. Meanwhile, I'm not, you know, I'm not giving it to my family or my friends. I want. Wanted to be really clear about that.
Erin Holt [00:37:29]:
Again, not medical advice. But you'll notice that I haven't mentioned elderberry at all during my discussions about coronavirus and COVID 19. Elderberry can be effective for influenza. We know that to be true. We don't know if it's effective against COVID 19. First of all, the truth is we don't know what it will or won't do. But as far as I've seen, there's not direct evidence that elderberry syrup is necessarily bad for COVID 19. But we do know that it pushes cytokines, and we do know that cytokine storms are what cause the complication of this virus.
Erin Holt [00:38:12]:
I'm not an herbalist. This information comes from Steven Buhner's Facebook post on March 13. So everybody listen up if you're a Buhner fanatic. He did make a post on March 11 saying that Elder is an immune modulator. And then he clarified two days later. He said, elder leaf stem and berry are not the same things. They do not contain the same constituents. They do not act identically in the body.
Erin Holt [00:38:38]:
Elder leaf is a Th1, Th2 modulator. That is, it modulates cytokines, raising them if low, lowering them if high. However, with elderberry, there is some evidence that it raises cytokines. When used by itself in large doses, it can increase th1, which is not something to do with coronavirus. So elderberry. This is the distinction that I kind of had to make over and over and over again yesterday when I posted. Elderberry is not a modulator because it up regulates the immune system during a cytokine storm. That's not what we want to do. Elder leaf has a modulating effect on cytokines.
Erin Holt [00:39:28]:
So there are different parts of the plant. And this distinction is important. My recipe for elderberry syrup uses elderberries. So that's why I posted this. That's why I'm talking about this in case you're my elderberry syrup, or any elderberry syrup as a way to tackle COVID 19. So let's. Let's just talk for a minute because I just said cytokines a lot. Cytokines are inflammatory chemicals that your body produces in response to an infection.
Erin Holt [00:39:59]:
It is not the infection itself, whether that be flu or coronavirus. It's not the infection itself that causes the pain and the body ache and the potential fatality, but it's your immune system's response to the infection, something known as a cytokine storm. It's like the immune system is producing a lot of cytokines at once. Anything if you are sick. This is not talking. I'm not talking about prevention right now. If you get sick, anything that reduces the cytokines will lessen the severity of whatever you're fighting. It will lessen the lung damage of COVID 19.
Erin Holt [00:40:42]:
So if you do get the coronavirus, the goal is to dampen that cytokine response. And I talk more about this concept in episode 86. I did go over that in how to prevent the flu and what to do if you get it. So if you get coronavirus. Listen to the second half of that episode. The what to do if you get it half.
Erin Holt [00:41:05]:
Cytokine storms happen with both. They happen with the flu, they happen with coronavirus. I'm not a virologist. I'm not. So I can't really give specifics beyond what I've said because I don't really understand specifics beyond what I've said. My understanding is that the cytokines released are specific to each virus. And Buhner's book goes over that to some extent. His anti, I think it's called Natural.
Erin Holt [00:41:34]:
Let me look. It's right behind me. Herbal Antivirals. That's a good book. His book goes over that whole concept to some extent. So here's the deal. I, when I was with, when my, how do I say this? I was using elderberry syrup for flu prevention, but I stopped taking it once I got the actual flu. Does that make sense? So I was using it for prevention, but then I, I discontinued it when I, when I actually got the flu because of this whole cytokine situation.
Erin Holt [00:42:15]:
You'll notice in the podcast that I mentioned it in the prevention section, but I didn't ment mention it in the treatment section. It's for this exact reason. Now, for the folks who want to continue to take it for prevention, what I might consider is stopping it if you do get sick or at the very first signs of the virus, or at the very least don't mega dose when you have the virus. At that point you really want to focus on the immune modulating nutrients and herbs, not the immune stimulating nutrients and herbs. Elderberry is more in the stimulating category. Like I said, taking a conservative approach just based off of this info. I'm not using it for it for myself. I'm not using it for my family.
Erin Holt [00:43:04]:
And then the one more thing that I want to say with elderberry is that you do want to. This is for everybody and not just as it relates to corona, but if you have an autoimmune disease, elderberry can sometimes be too stimulating and it can promote a flare. That's pretty, well, that's a, that's a pretty known thing amongst autoimmune folks. I can take it just fine. Doesn't bother me in the slightest. But some others, because it can raise th1 if you're. If you have. If you're th1 dominant or you have more of that arm of the immune system working overtime, it can be problematic.
Erin Holt [00:43:43]:
So just keep that in mind. I just read today somebody wrote it's contraindicated for autoimmune disease. I wouldn't go that far. I think that's not true. But I, I would just be very cautious of it if you do have autoimmunity. And again, I recommend going back, listening to episode 86.
Erin Holt [00:44:07]:
I make specific recommendations on dampening the cytokine response and how to soothe down your symptoms if you do get corona. Again, I have been talking about this, believe it or not, since January and then getting Dr. Steven Buhner's antiviral book. If you want to do more of a deeper dive, I will, like I said, post his whole corona protocol in the show notes so you can check that out, too. All right, you guys. So not 30 minutes. Not 30 minutes at all, but a lot of information.
Erin Holt [00:44:39]:
Wanted to make sure you guys had the good information. I'm looking outside right now. My husband started a fire, so I might need to go help out with that. Good luck out there, everybody. Stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Funk'tional Nutrition Podcast. If you'd like to submit a question to the show, fill out the contact form at erinholthealth.com if you like what you hear, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review in itunes. Take care of you.
