With the rise of covid-19 cases both nationally and locally it is becoming more import to understand how the virus interacts with the immune system. Gaining this insight can go a long way in helping us learn ways we can protect ourselves and decrease our risk factors for developing severe symptoms and complications.

To this end,  I will be giving a lecture entitled "Nature Cure and the Biophilia Effect" at Shared Harvest Community Gardens in Coeur d'Alene. This presentation will be supported by Pilgrims Market as they will be broadcasting it live on Facebook, Wednesday August 12th at 6 pm. It was originally scheduled for July 22nd inside the Market's education center, but we decided with the rise in Covid-19 cases, it would be better to have it outside, and what better a place than the beautiful Community Gardens.  Shared Harvest Community Gardens is located at 1009 E Foster Ave.

l will review the science behind the healing bond between humans and nature and how interacting with nature through nature cure and forest-bathing increases the immune system, helps fight viruses, and heals the body, mind and spirit. In addition, I will share my personal healing journey in the Alps of Tirol, Austria and relate this to current research in nature cure therapies.

“Nature Deficit Disorder” is rampant and a major obstacle to health. One of the most important things we can do at this time is get outside and get our vitamin N – nature, this includes being outside in the sun and raising our vitamin D3 levels. Vitamin D3 is just one example of why it is important to get outside and reconnect with nature. Currently, there are over 20 international studies looking at the benefits of having sufficient vitamin D levels in relation to a number of aspects of this pandemic.

Dr. Joseph Mercola, DO, in his self published paper entitled “Vitamin D in the Prevention of Covid-19” documents in great depth the case for how important it is to raise your vitamin D3 blood levels to over 60 ng/ml. He states, “Vitamin D deficiency represents a global pandemic afflicting more than one billion individuals across all age groups worldwide  and it has been estimated that in excess of one billion people have vitamin D deficiency. The current pandemic of vitamin D deficiency has collided with the COVID-19 pandemic and likely radically increased the number of deaths because of vitamin D insufficiency.” I have included a pdf copy for download in my Handouts section which can be accessed by clicking here. I believe having sufficient vitamin D levels is one of the most important things we can do during this pandemic.

For more detailed information, please join me for my lecture at the Shared Harvest Community Gardens or stream live on Pilgrim's Market Facebook site. This is a timely lecture I am very much looking forward to presenting and I hope to see you there.

In light of several news reports concerning fraudulent and untested covid-19 antibody testing, we want to assure you, our patients, we have been diligent in choosing which labs we are using for antibody testing. The 2 labs we are using for covid-19 antibody testing are Boston Heart Diagnostics (a division of Eurofin Diagnostics) and LabCorp of America.

Due to the urgent need to proceed need for testing, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)needs more time to fully approve test kits because this process is detailed and time-consuming. Since this pandemic has circled the globe so rapidly, and continues to affect entire populations, FDA personnel understand the extreme urgency in using all tools possible to contain this novel coronavirus. Antibody testing is one such tool.

At this time, there are no specific vaccines or uniformly successful treatments for COVID-19. However, emerging research on several specific botanical and nutraceutical agents is promising, as such agents can improve the body’s ability to fight off and recover from the illness.  Pasted below is a link for a good summary, much of which I have discussed in earlier blogs.

 Who thought in our life time we would live through a world pandemic? Certainly not me, but here we are finding ourselves wondering…. What in the world is going on.  Are you like many people who are uncertain of the accuracy of information being poured all over the news and social media. Are you scared and not sure what your best options are to stay heathy. Recently a live webinar hosted by Dr. John Chen, Ph.D., Pharm. D., O.M.D., L.Ac. was made available to people in the medical community focusing on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). My goal with this blog is to summarize and break down the information in the webinar, explaining what the Coronavirus (Covid-19) is, the pathology, symptoms and treatment options that are being discussed today in both Western conventional medicine and TCM and then focus on TCM’s role in treatment, prevention and recovery.

The biggest fear surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic is developing pneumonia and what is sometimes called severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). It is not the coronavirus which is actually killing people, it is the acute respiratory syndrome resulting from a cytokine storm, leading to sepsis, hypoxia, the inability to breathe and organ failure that can follow it. Most people that get coronavirus will have a mild case; some will have the virus and not have any symptoms at all and for many others it will feel like the flu. We don't have an accurate figure of how many people are infected because so many have mild or no symptoms and are not getting tested. The people most at risk of developing ARDS and dying tend to be the elderly and those that are immune-compromised.

Deepak Chopra does the best job I’ve found outlining the disease process and what makes COVID-19 so debilitating. A link to his webpage is here. He says that it is not just the virus that harms the infected, but their own immune systems.

• “The pneumonia which accompanies COVID-19 is not directly caused by the virus but rather through fibrosis caused by runaway cytokine storms within the respiratory system. The virus sabotages the infected person’s normal immune response with a scorched earth strategy, destroying antibody cells while it is being destroyed itself. The resulting chaos elicits an ever-increasing intensity of inflammatory immune reactions, which eventually begin damaging the person in addition to the virus.
  
  
• The cyclical nature of the infection/inflammation feedback loop means that recovery from the virus can take many weeks until the immune system succeeds at clearing the viral load, and during that time the inflammatory response can spiral out of control at any time. Recovery from COVID-19 is not necessarily gradual progress, especially in the most severe cases. A cytokine storm resulting in respiratory damage can occur at the end of the infection as easily as the beginning.
  
  
• Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and septic shock ensue. These potentially fatal conditions are not caused by the virus itself, but rather the immune system’s inflammatory response to the virus, with older groups possessing more chronic conditions that increase inflammatory load, thus more rapidly spiraling into complications that require hospitalization.
  
  
• Critical condition rates are also spread among demographic groups, with a significant increase in older groups and those with preexisting conditions. This is likely because higher rates of inflammation accelerate the progression to cytokine storms that damage the respiratory system and require critical care.
  
  
• Mortality rates are dramatically skewed toward the elderly and those with preexisting conditions, which is in keeping with the premise that a heightened inflammatory load is the deciding factor in whether the patient’s immune system is able to rebalance and clear the virus without fatally damaging the patient. Those with systemic inflammation are the most likely to die because their systems are already out of homeostasis.
  

The official statement of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP), for which I am a member, states emphatically that “All healthcare providers should refrain from making health claims or proclamations about a "cure" or product that can "prevent" or successfully treat COVID-19. There are currently no nutrients, botanicals, vaccines, pills, lozenges or other prescription or over the counter products available to prevent, treat or cure COVID-19 specifically”. They also advise naturopathic doctors to follow public health guidelines, and standard preventive medicine protocols, including basic naturopathic and lifestyle protocols that can support the immune system and mitigate the risk of exposure to infectious diseases.

I agree with the above assertions. As the COVID-19 is a novel virus, this means there has been very little proven research with this particular virus. However, we are learning a lot about how this virus works and how it can cause quite a lot of harm to a number of individuals. Most medical doctors and the profession of conventional medicine look to pharmaceuticals, a major arsenal in their tool bag to treat and help their patients. As a naturopathic physician, I don’t want to shy away from using the tools I have been trained in and have been using successfully to help patients over the last 16 years I have been in practice. As a primary care physician in Washington and soon to be licensed in Idaho as such, there are recommendations I can make based on experience and also looking at the science behind the disease process of this current pandemic and on extrapolating research on botanical extracts and neutraceuticals which have already been learned on similar viruses to the COVID-19. As “There are currently no nutrients, botanicals, vaccines, pills, lozenges or other prescription or over the counter products available to prevent, treat or cure COVID-19 specifically.” I believe in embracing the founding principles of naturopathic medical practice during this time of disruption and uncertainty and I see this as an essential service to the community in which I deeply care about.

On March 14, 2020, the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) announced the first cases of COVID-19 in Spokane County. At this time, Spokane Regional Health District (SRHD) encourages community members to follow CDC recommendations for preventing illness. If you have questions about COVID-19, please call the DOH call center at 1.800.525.0127 and press #.