COVID-19: Lung Support

The immune system is your front line of defense. With the right diet and lifestyle support, your soldiers will be armed and ready to fight off whatever pathogens come your way, be it COVID-19 or the common cold. Given that this specific strain of coronavirus targets the lungs, taking extra steps to boost your respiratory system is crucial at this time.

Keep your lungs healthy with these lifestyle practices:

1. DRINK, DRINK, DRINK Plenty of Water – even if the virus gets into your mouth, drinking water washes it down your throat and into the stomach where the stomach acid is strong enough to kill most microbes, including COVID-19. Water also helps lubricate the lungs, supports healthy mucus production and assists in clearing pathogens. If you are not adequately hydrated, the virus can enter your windpipe and get into your LUNGS which is very dangerous!

We recommend drinking at least half your body weight in ounces of water per day between, rather than with, meals. This is best accomplished by taking a few sips of water every 15 minutes. Room temperature or heated beverages such as warm lemon water, Nourished® Flu Bombs and herbal tea are much preferred to ice-cold, constrictive fluids. In fact, drinking warm water with just one tablespoon of lemon juice is an effective way to fight ALL viruses. It provides immune-boosting vitamin C, increases virus-fighting stomach acid and lubricates the mouth and throat.

Note: if you are a coffee drinker, we recommend proceeding with caution at this time. Given its diuretic properties, having more than 1 to 2 cups per day can easily dry out the mucosal lining of your lungs and leave you more vulnerable to infection. If you are continuing to drink coffee, it is important to source high-quality beans. At Nourished®, we sell organic, mycotoxin-free and low acid ground coffee. We also sell individually-packaged adaptogenic matcha lattes and variety of café lattes that are lower in caffeine and sugar, yet packed with flavor—great for these colder weather days.

2. Lung-Supportive Diet – an anti-inflammatory, whole food-based diet helps prevent an overproduction of sticky, sluggish, pathogenic phlegm. Foods that are especially helpful for the lungs include onions, garlic, ginger, radishes, cabbage, mustard greens, medicinal mushrooms, broth, peppers (including chili pepper, cayenne pepper and bell pepper), turmeric, thyme, oregano, apples, oranges, grapefruit and sea vegetables. Foods to avoid, or at least significantly limit, include dairy products, sugar, refined carbohydrates, and greasy, fried, processed foods.

From pastured chicken bone broth and adaptogenic vegetable broth to superfood smoothies, seasonal soups and immune-boosting seasoning blends, our Kitchen Market has a wide variety of items that will help keep your lungs strong, nasal passages open and fighting soldiers ready to protect against any incoming invaders.

3. Daily Exercise – from walking and cycling to yoga and rebounding, daily exercise stimulates the lymphatic system. This network of vessels and nodes releases lymphocytes, a specific type of white blood cell that helps monitor and destroy or eliminate waste products, bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi and damaged cells.

Exercise also increases your lung capacity, breath and heart rate which aids detoxification and helps tonify the lungs, keeping them healthy, strong and flexible.

4. Air Filtration – indoor air can be up to ten times as toxic as outdoor air. From the nanoparticles emitted by cleaning products, perfumes and room fresheners to the off-gassing of furniture, carpeting and paint, many of the common household items are inflammatory agents that irritate the lungs, kick up allergy symptoms and constrict the air passages.

As often as possible, we suggest cracking a window, running an air purifier and diffusing essential oils into your environment. The fresh air, antimicrobial agents and added attention to detail in your immediate environment will help drastically reduce the toxic burden on your lungs.

Whether you are a healthy individual or experiencing seasonal allergies, asthma or other lung-related issue, it is more important now than ever to take that extra step of self-care. By drinking plenty of filtered water, eating a clean diet, incorporating daily exercise and filtering your air, you will give your lungs a much-needed booster so if, or rather when, you are exposed to COVID-19, you can go unscathed, or at the very worst, experience minimal symptoms and recover quickly.

Note: a simple self-test that you can do every morning includes taking one DEEP BREATH and holding for at least 10 seconds. If you can complete this task successfully, without coughing or discomfort of any kind, stiffness or tightness, you most likely do NOT have fibrosis in the lungs, indicating no infection. If you cannot complete this task, we recommend that you contact your medical professional for COVID-19 testing.