We are starting this new thing at the clinic called Soulful Sundays, in which we will be posting content straight from our hearts to yours. These will be, for the most part, short and informal ramblings, ponderings, and curiosities. At the end of each Sunday post there will be a place for you to send us your questions and comments, and every few weeks we will address them in a special Q and A post. So, here we go. I know that I am playing with fire here, but I would like to tackle the most prominent topic in current events I can think of--the Brave New World of COVID. More specifically, I want to talk about what is not being addressed in the mainstream media. I am in no way an anti-masker (which sounds eerily similar to anti-vaxxer, but that's a topic for a whole other post), and I agree that coverings are protecting folks who are in high concentrations of the virus, unable to maintain social distancing, and otherwise immunocompromised. What I do want to push back on is the fixation on masks and distancing as being what will promote our health and safety in the long term. They are, like most other Western health solutions (blood pressure medications, heart surgeries, and chemotherapy included) emergency bandaids on an otherwise broken system.
What I'm talking about here is addressing the underlying issues surrounding the COVID Pandemic. There is no discussion in most media channels of the immune system being the adaptive and powerful force that it evolved to be, and the fact that it is highly subjective to our daily life choices. Why are some populations hit harder than others? Check out this podcast with Ben Greenfield and Zach Bush for more information on how environmental toxicity contributes to infection rates. Go through the major areas of healthy living in your own life and see where you need more attention: are you sleeping less than 7 hours each night, are you eating fewer than 3-4 servings of fruits and vegetables each day, are you a ball of stress at work or at home, are you spending enough time out in the sunshine, are you regularly exercising, are you drinking enough good water, are you eating enough protein, etc.? These are the simple things that the mainstream/Western culture neglects to address. Why? Because they are simple, cheap, and boring. They are not easily monetized and take a lot of dedicated effort for people to actually implement. But they pay dividends for those who practice them. Yes, be as cautious as you need to be with COVID, but check off the other boxes of health before you blame your non-mask-wearing neighbors for the outbreak. At least that way you will have an immune system that can fight, and not rely entirely on the bandaid to hold things in place. Eventually, it will leak. How are you improving your immunity? Let us know your comments by posting below. Have a great week.
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