War on COVID-19. Preventing coronavirus victory.

“When you are ignorant of the enemy, but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If you are ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril. If you know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never lose.”

-Sun Tzu The Art of War

This is a multi-part series. Here is part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6,part 7, part 8

Want a quick overview with recommended supplements? If you want to skip to the good stuff, click here for the cream of this series.

War, a brutal match. Two opposing forces. Blood. Violence. Eradication. This is war. War occurs every day in plain sight or hidden. It wages in you right now. War, a balancing act between two forces keeping each other in check. One rises, the victor, the other overstepped their boundaries, or lowered their guard, the loser. The lore of the body’s war rages in you.  

Illness. Plague. Contagions. Miasma. All names for the same thing. A disease that spreads by sneeze. An invisible enemy we don’t see but feel. We can’t hear but fight. A raging war inside you. Coronavirus a.k.a. COVID-19 has no heart and no cure. Two options are present before you. Learn to use your army while learning to fight COVID-19 or let COVID-19 relish as you perish.

How strong is your army? What do they do and what troops do you have? After all are you not the commander? Do you know the enemy COVID-19? Well enough to take matters into your own hands? Have a plan? By your hands you will safeguard yourself. Purell won’t cut it either.

Immune system

The beginning of it all. This is your army. Your own personal protection against COVID-19. An army that learns and adapts against enemies. Tirelessly watching over your territory and keeping those infringers out. Never expecting thanks or payment. They only want the supplies they need to win. Sever the supply line, good bye blood line. The supply line gives life to those on the frontlines. The immune system does not react, it acts, communicates and stands guard. A brief description of the army entails. Learn well. Be well. Give the enemy hell.

Two types exist. The innate immune system, a general one, and the acquired system, a specialized one. The innate system has several parts, a well-oiled machine. Physical barriers exist to prevent entries. The skin, for example, is a wall with barbed wire. On its surface exists, sweat, oils, and other “traps” to prevent unauthorized entry or unauthorized life. Remember the best defense is a great offense make no expense.

The Innate immune system.

Phagocytes. These are eating cells. Gorging on invaders and chomping on dead cells. They are the clean up crew. Located amongst high traffic areas like a military or police check point. They haul off the bad guys. Natural killer cells. They take out viruses and bacteria mercilessly. Using a substance called interferon, they tear and rip apart diseased cells or viruses. Interferon is like a grenade bombarding baseless bandits and villains.

Other minor supporting roles exist. Cytokines, like radios that communicate to central command, the brain, when something is spotted. Antioxidants, the bullets of the body. They immediately neutralize and take down harmful substances whether alien or not. With this “basic” army how could you lose?

The specific immune system

The adaptive system. Like the Navy Seals of the body. Two heavy hitters take center stage. T-cells and B-cells truly a great team. Working with a complex system called humoral, a.k.a. antibodies.  Antibodies are the ninjas of the immune system. Patrolling in secret. Upon finding their specific target, they ensnare and imprison them to be disposed of by the T-cells. They are specially trained against a specific enemy. They cannot lose. Do the same, you can achieve the same level.

Ancillary systems

One is fever. Fever, although a mild discomfort, plays an important role. Fever starts the response responsible for fighting the invaders. It is a siren signaling the body to prepare for war. Fever plays an important role, do not suppress its function.

 Invaders like to steal from our supply lines. They are after our precious metal, iron. Extra iron is bound by the body so the invaders are unable to use it. If your supplies are kept in a vault, the enemy cannot access it. If the siren known as fever is prevented, this may not occur as quickly or as effectively.

The last is inflammation. A war time rule that opens roads and paths into the area of interest where the enemy is hiding. If the lungs become inflamed, the enemy is there. This pours our soldiers, the white blood cells into the fight more easily. Inflammation brings more blood to that area. That means more tools, weapons, and soldiers.

How the system works

When an invader is found, the patrolling system sends signals (cytokines). Nearby cells are warned and begin to activate their sirens. Central command (the brain) is notified. Fever may take place to start mobilizing troops (natural killer cells) and inflammation occurs to bring more phagocytes (cell eaters) and other soldiers to fight. If the battle wages longer, the Navy Seals (adaptive) take over and start to fight the invaders. The T-cells will destroy invaders while the B-cells begin to make anti bodies to ensnare the enemy so they cannot escape. Best case scenario is complete eradication of the enemy. Antibodies will circulate keeping watch incase that enemy tries to invade again.

A few more key notes. Healthy tissue is never inflamed. Any tissue that remains inflamed is like the boy who cried wolf. The body will ignore it as it’s always there. Do not suppress these responses to the best of your abilities. There is a reason for a runny nose, that is the enemy being dumped out. Help remove them. Do not prevent the dumping of the enemy.

Cortisol is released after a stressful event. Whether it is a virus, a tiger, or your boss cortisol will show its face. Cortisol reduces inflammation in the body. If cortisol is always present, the body tunes it out. The army never eases up on the situation and tensions stay high. Cortisol helps mobilize Phagocytes. If their signal is constantly on, they will eventually ignore it as background noise. This allows inflammation to linger, making a heated situation worse.

Speaking of heated, fever starts the process of fighting off the enemy. A fever that stays under 102 degrees F can be managed at home if no other issues are present. Though uncomfortable, do not stop the fever directly. Take a cool bath if needed but trust the army in you to do their best.

What can disrupt our platoon of soldiers that fight for us? It’s possible that our comfortable lives free of worries have weaken our soldiers.

Where it can go wrong

During times of peace, is when one must be most ready for war. Have we let our guard down? How so? Colds should last no more than a week. In some people, it is 10 days or 2 weeks. Why is it that we are getting more ill? Why are newer and stronger diseases, like COVID-19 showing up? Are they stronger, or are we weaker?

Coronavirus. COVID-19. Many people who have died by this enemy also had other issues present. There was a man who died of this virus at 21. The same day he was found to have had leukemia. With so many invaders attacking from different places, his army was scattered and could not keep up. He passed. For some of us it is inevitable to avoid having such conditions. However, many conditions can and should be avoided. Here is what lowers our guard/immune system.

1. Malnutrition. A form of starvation. Not eating enough calories or not eating enough micronutrients like vitamins or minerals counts as starvation. The basic building blocks of the battalion A.K.A. the immune system. No ammo, No fighting. Try winning a gun fight with a knife. You can be fat and yet still undernourished. Accept no substitutes, your soldiers deserve the best you can provide. Include high quality food to improve this. More on this later, no questions yet.
2. Pre-existing chronic conditions. Any illness preoccupying your soldiers weakens your army. Less soldiers are available to fight when a new enemy shows up.
3. Chronic stress. A child screaming, rush hour, and the news are stressful events. Occasionally, not a problem. Every day and all the time, it breaks you. A constant cacophony of chronic cortisol rising stress. No better than propaganda. It lowers the morale of your army. It forces constant hypervigilance only to lower themselves back to a normal state. One cannot always be on high alert without consequences.
4. Sleep. This is major, no rest equals an aggravated and inefficient army. Overworked soldiers without adequate rest will collapse. Get some shut eye. Lights out means lights out, not screen time.
5. Toxins. Poisons of the environment. Remember the immune system is also a cleanup crew. Constant pouring of toxins into you means someone must remove it. Poison is similar to being overwhelmed by more than one enemy. Mutagens cause cell changes, the body will dispose of it. PCBs and other chemicals must be treated. The body will dispose of them. Heavy metals, pesticides, alcohol, and drugs both prescription and illegal. The body will dispose of them. Do not make the army work harder than it needs.
6. Aging. You cannot fend off this one forever. Death forever stalks us. You can delay its arrival and thus improve the situation but avoid accelerating it at all costs! Accelerated aging is playing into the enemy’s hands.

Part one of Basic training is done. Part two is next. Weapons class comes later. First we must discuss coronavirus in great detail. In learning of COVID-19, we better arm ourselves. Sun Tzu said it best himself. In order to win every battle, know yourself and know the enemy.