SUMMER OF 2020: Social Distancing, Masks and More?

I strongly recommend listening to my two colleagues at International University Hospital (IHU) of Marseille, France. Professor Didier Raoult and Director Professor Jean-Christophe Lagier, service chief of tropical and infectious diseases:  A propos du COVID-19. (​Interview of August 19, 2020 – ​​10 min 38”)

 1/ Adopt Mostly-Vegetarian High Quality Nutrition Habits

It is necessary to ensure the consumption of a large amount of local vegetable-based products, that are fresh, and eaten in season after washing thoroughly with water.
Fibers from fresh fruits and vegetables must be thoroughly chewed before swallowing. They maintain the gut microbiome, which is made of billions bacteria, fungi and viruses living in symbiosis with our body and continuously stimulating our immune defenses.

Our digestive system’s microbiome, when balanced, is responsible for the activation of 70 to 80% of or immune cells. It is the same for other microbiomes: the microbiome of the liver, the lungs, the skin, the reproductive system and urinary tract. Some organs might also have their own microbiome.

The balance among nonpathogenic bacterial, viral and fungi populations is part of a fascinating system of protection against external aggressions. These various populations “occupy the room”, and do not let pathogenic bacteria develop. They also play a role in the maintenance of digestive functions, which are essential to the protection against environmental pollutions, and even more to the optimal absorption of micronutrients.

Besides vegetable proteins and legumes, we can also consume animal protein from quality seafood and fish, and no more than once a week big animal protein like beef. They provide red meat that should not be consumed too often.

More importantly, avoid transformed, refined and processed foods for they are poor in nutrients. Despite its apparently boundless ingenuity, humans are far from able to match the quality of foods provided by nature. Let us take advantage of what nature provides us without transforming it too much. Nature has enabled us humans to survive for dozens of millennia, not talking of animals…

 2/ Soft Steam Cooking, a Quick Cooking Method Heating Without Boiling Off Nutrients (no higher than 95-97°C or 203-204°F)

For all foods you have to cook, the most nutritionally interesting  cooking method is soft steam cooking – not pressure cooking often marketed as “steam” cooking, which cooks foods under pressure and in which temperature raises well above the boiling point, thereby destroying vitamins, fibers, and many nutritional qualities. Avoid aggressive (e.g. deep frying) cooking methods or hours-long (e.g. slow cooking) methods that degrade your foods’ nutritional qualities.

Cooking too much at a high temperature or too long even at lower temperature destroys particularly vitamins and the best molecules of the totum of the food. A couscous-cooker-type stream-cooker is probably the cheapest and most efficient cooking instrument you can find.

The soft steam cooking method, which is also quick, retains both vegetable and animal foods’ original vitamins, flavors and aromas, which only can gratify your palate, while preserving the fibers. Such conditions guarantee micronutrients bioavailability for our body. They also maintain the health of our microbiome, which is key to our immune defense.

 3/Drink Abundantly to Remain Well Hydrated, Especially in Warm and Hot Countries, Hot Weather, Especially Prone to High Heat and Humidity.

As we get older, we tend to drink less (so as not to wake up at night), which induces a progressive and unconscious dehydration. This can trigger discomfort, low blood pressure, kidney failure, and slow deterioration into depression.

Among the best drinks Mother Earth can provide, running water is most widely available from tap, or if possible filtered. Avoid drinking from plastic bottles, especially in the summer, and all sweetened drinks – whether or not calorie-free – such as soda, coke, and industrial fruit juices.

Excess sugar is your health’s enemy #1, whatever your stage of life!

Fruit or vegetable juice that you prepare yourself are excellent for your health.

If you want to drink alcohol-containing drinks, don’t go over 125ml or 4.2 fl. oz. per meal, ¼ L or Qt per day. Avoid hard alcohol such as whiskey, vodka, brandy, etc. Their consumption is highly and immediately dehydrating and detrimental to thermoregulation and could trigger cirrhosis.

 4/ Adopt a Regular Physical Activity to Burn Excess Food Intakes

Physical activity is the best way to manage our energy and physical strength.

It maintains our bone structure, which renews every 10 years provided our activity is regular. It is the best way to prevent not only bone calcium loss and osteoporosis, but also amyotrophy (muscular atrophy), which causes muscle weakness and depression in the elderly.
It maintains joint flexibility, the best way to prevent osteoarthritis and old-age handicaps.
It lowers risks to gain excess weight and risks of obesity, which induce diabetes and many complications.
It assists cancer prevention and recurrence: breast, prostate cancer, as well as cancers located elsewhere, or auto-immune diseases.
Everyone must find the activity that suits him or her, whether it depends on the organization of our time, or enjoyment. Physical activity also has very positive effects on stress resistance. Beware, a bad diet can largely hinder or block the positive impact of physical activity.  

 5/Breathing a Cleaner Air (i.e. Less Polluted)

The air we breathe is vital since it brings oxygen to our whole body. We do not live in a sterile atmosphere: our immune defenses are perfectly organized, so long as we know how to maintain our immune system, to catch and reject intrusions through secretions and regular expectoration.

Breathing exercises in the morning should be practiced the following way: deep inhaling followed by deep exhaling. This is an excellent way to maintain our bronchus, bronchiole, and air sacs (alveoli). You can also practice slow breathing such as cardiac coherence, which can mitigate the negative effects of stress.

Take advantage of the summer to reduce as much as possible your addictions to tobacco and other fumes, which are responsible of obstructive pulmonary issues, including Covid-19, heart attack and strokes. You can prevent such issues by adopting healthy behaviors.

 6/ Healing Sleep: 7 to 8h our of 24h Every Night  

Sleep was  expertly designed by God for some, for the others let’s call Him the Architect of Life.

The rhythm of the day can be divided into three equal periods of eight hours: two periods of awake time, which include meals, family and friends time. The inescapable repair or maintenance time during the remaining 8 hours is the very basis of our decisions, actions, our happiness and sadness.
Sleep is meant to relieve our billions of neurons that we put to hard work, requiring from them hard decisions, actions, and all range of emotions.
Also during sleep, all the tissues of our body repair and heal; our liver neutralizes and eliminates toxic agents, and immune cells multiply.

Lack of sleep is very harmful. Stimulants (coffee, sugar, large amounts of overcooked carbohydrates, alcohol, energy drinks, drugs, etc.) only hide the sensation of fatigue, accelerate nervous system exhaustion up until the brain surrenders.

7/ Artemisia Tea to Stimulate Your Immunity and Prevent Malaria Attacks in Endemic Areas

Whether you make tea with Artemisia Annua or Afra, what is important is the totum of the plant. Regular consumption, such as once a day is an excellent and inexpensive way to prevent malaria.

Scientific evidence is accumulating supporting this conclusion. This discovery was made by Chinese professor Tu Youyou, 2015 nobel prize, giving it worldwide scientific validity.

The fact that a simple infusion consumed over a week is capable of treating or even preventing malaria suggests that it has a larger immune enhancing effect than originally suspected.

It could even be useful to consume it in the framework of immunity stimulation against Covid-19. If randomized studies are scientifically useful and recommended, consumption of Artemisia tea remains indicated without delay for people at risk.

Remain vigilant and enjoy your vacation so you are healthy when school resumes.

Professor Henri Joyeux

These health recommendations are provided free of charge by this organization and cannot be considered a personal medical advice. No treatment should be initiated solely on the basis of this content. It is strongly advised to consult a properly licensed health professional to seek responses with regard to one’s health and well-being. No information or product mentioned on this website is meant to diagnose, treat, atone or cure a disease.

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