Loss Of Smell And Taste With CV19. What Your Immune System Is Telling You.

This Pandemic Should be a wake up call for your health.

First and foremost keep your hand to yourself and off your face. This goes for not just the current virus but for all viruses… your eyes, nose and mouth are the easiest ways for germs to enter your body. So wash your hands while singing a verse from the song “My Sharona” and insert Corona. Its ok to laugh!

Your immunes system is your body’s defense against infection and illnesses. When cells enter the body that do not belong there your body attacks. Its like specialized armed forces that go to war against this invasion. But what if your army isn’t trained properly? What if your army is tired from already fighting a constant battle everyday. What if your immune system is turned on constantly from all the stress you’ve done to it over the years and now it might engage in friendly fire because its already weak? What if your immune system can’t send out messages so it can bring other specialized forces in to help? What if your sniper is already taken down?

If I could give you ONE advise to stop doing now that would make the most impact on your immune system. Do you know what that would be? It would be to STOP EATING SUGAR!! Sorry Mary Poppins, you can keep your spoon full of sugar.

Why is it so bad? I can do a whole article on this but Im just talking about your immune system. So here we go.

1. Sugar stimulates a physiological stressor on the body every time you ingest it. So if your diet consist of processed or refined carbohydrates, added sugar and all the sugar derivatives like high fructose corn syrup throughout the day, everyday then your body is constantly battling low level inflammation. This eventually leads to insulin resistance which I believe most Americans have.
2. Excess production of AGE’s– Advanced Glycation End Products are very harmful to the body and cause oxidative stress. These occur when proteins or fats combine with sugar; Those donuts you eat every morning, the fried maple bacon, that mound of pancakes and syrup, that sugary cereal. Yep, if thats your daily breakfast you should probably change that to some good ole scrambled eggs with veggies and avocado.
3. Can increase gut permeability. It destroys the homeostasis of gut flora. If your gut isn’t strong it can leak bacteria, toxins or undigested food particles into your blood system which causes inflammation.

Your body wants homeostasis. This chronic inflammation is a continuous attack on your immune system and if it never gets checked the immune system prompts white blood cells to attack nearby healthy tissue. This is the basis for many chronic diseases. So if you’re constantly fighting all these fires throughout your body your immune system is hyper alert and can’t prioritize a true threat like a invading virus or bacteria.

News Flash! If you just start eating whole, real food you will eliminate a lot of this inflammation and sugar by default. Plus it will give you all the beautiful micronutrients you need to build up your immune system.

The Stars Of The Show For Immune Health.

Did you know that vitamin C, vitamin D, magnesium and zinc are all important when an invader shows up but they all can’t fight it individually. They need each other to work properly. This is a team effort with important coordination between systems.

• Vitamin C: Humans do not make this water soluble vitamin. So we must get it from our diets. Citrus fruits, tomatoes, peppers are great sources. If you’re supplementing take it on an empty stomach. Immune cells have vitamin C transport molecules embedded on the outside of their cell. This molecule actively transports vitamin C into the cell when we are sick. Natural Killer (NK) Cells soak up most of your Vit C. These are the bad ass special force officers that find the virus and contain it. Then they send out the army T-Cells to attack it. Vitamin C is like the NK cells night vision goggles. Vitamin C also helps build collagen. Collagen forms infrastructure of mucous membranes that line the inside of your mouth and nose. These membranes help trap invaders before entering the body.
• Vitamin D: Activates the immune cells. For those T-cells mention above to be activated it sends a signaling devise to Vitamin D. It’s like the beacon for your immune response. If T cells cannot find enough vitamin D in the blood they won’t even begin to mobilize. When they find vitamin D and are activated they become either killer cells that attack the pathogens or they become helper cells that send messages to the immune system so that it can remember this foreign invader for the next encounter. Vitamin C is needed to convert vitamin D to its active form. There is a free way to get vitamin D. The big yellow thing in the sky called the sun. All you need is about 10 to 20 minutes of sunlight directly on a large portion of your body. Like your upper thighs, your back or your abdomen. Just enough time for your skin to turn light pink. Food sources of vitamin D include fatty fish like tuna, mackerel and salmon. Cod Liver oil, beef liver, Egg yolks, sardines, and mushroom is also good sources. But nothing will get you the high amount you need like the sun.
• Magnesium (Mg). Guess what can’t be metabolized without sufficient magnesium levels? Vitamin D. Magnesium is involved in hundreds of biological reactions in the body including enzymes that play a role in vitamin D metabolism. Because magnesium is required for so many things in your body I believe a majority of people are deficient due to our western diets and because our soils are so depleted. Some signs of magnesium deficiency include: Muscle cramps, anxiety, sleeplessness, muscle weakness, constipation, high blood pressure or arrhythmias, low energy and calcium found in soft tissues (kidney stone, spurs, cataracts). Alcohol, diuretics and antacids will deplete magnesium. You can find Mg in green leafy vegetables, whole eggs, nuts and seeds. Supplementation is usually necessary. Here’s a great video on which ones to use and which ones to avoid. I take Magnesium Glycinate before bed to help with sleep.
• Zinc– zinc acts as a cofactor for over 1000 enzymes in the body. Enzymes are the worker bees in our system. What does it due specifically for our immune health? It works as a parallel to an invasion. It makes sure that the inflammation that is happening doesn’t get out of control and effect other areas of the body. It encapsulates it to the one area.  For example it makes sure your head cold doesnt turn into a pneumonia. MY THEORY OF WHY WE LOOSE SMELL AND TASTE WITH CV19. One of the symptoms of zinc deficiency is loss of taste and smell. I believe that since this is a new virus that are body is at war with its using all the available zinc to keep it from invading other parts of the body. Humans do not store zinc so you have to constantly take it in with your diet. Foods high in zinc include shellfish like oysters and crab, pumpkin seeds, 100% grass fed beef.

Do you see the commonality of all of these? Whole food diets rich in micronutrients. This is not a complete list of how to protect your immune system. You also need to sleep, decrease stress and move more. I always tell people to start with the low hanging fruit that will get the most bang for your health buck and thats changing your diet. Once you do that the other factors will most likely fall into place. Like sleeping better and having less anxiety.

Tell me what you think in the comments.

---

If you want more health and fitness fun please follow my FB page below. This is where you will get information on when my next group coaching and my 1:1 health coaching is open for sign ups.

https://www.facebook.com/bodybuilderRN/

Your Primal Health Coach,

Jamie