Dr. Jenny Goodman on Boosting Immunity

I pre-ordered Jenny Goodman’s “Staying Alive in Toxic Times - A seasonal Guide to Lifelong Health” and eagerly awaited its arrival. I read it hungrily in two days, and couldn't put it down. I even used a highlighter throughout because there were so many brilliantly precise and clever facts and ideas, so eloquently written.

I would go so far as to say that if you want to read a book that will help you to understand how nutrients can really affect the way we feel, THIS is the book you need. In the opening paragraph she sums it all up quite simply by saying “many people are feeling needlessly under the weather, or so tired and foggy-brained that they can’t even remember what good health feels like. But feeling rubbish is not natural or normal or inevitable. There are reasons for it and there are plenty of simple, effective things we can do to change it.”

Jenny is a qualified medical doctor who has specialised in Ecological Medicine for the past 20 years. Ecological medicine is an approach to medicine that sees the whole body as a joined-up ecosystem, and also sees it within the ecosystem of the planet we live on. It looks at how your nutrition and environment are affecting your body and mind, and it focuses on the cause and prevention of illness.

The book sets out exactly what to eat in order to live our healthiest lives, and how to adapt our lifestyle according to the seasons we are in. It includes how to safely and effectively supplement your diet with vitamins and minerals, explains what really works in terms of detoxing your body and sorts through the confusing myriad of diets and healthy eating fads.

Jenny is perfectly placed to be telling us all, right now, what we should be doing to protect our immune systems. Here, Jenny explains how we can improve our self-defence methods through food and supplements.

BOOSTING IMMUNITY DURING THE PANDEMIC

We have two types of defence against The Virus: Collective action to reduce transmission between us, and individual action to defend our own body against the virus. The collective action is taken care of by the government’s social distancing measures; the individual self-defence methods are the subject of this article.

The immune system is our body’s armed police force. It has kept our species alive for millions of years, and it is very, very smart. Its police officers are our white blood cells, and they have numerous ways to fight an invading virus or bacterium. Certain types of white cells engulf invading micro-organisms; actually eat them up. Others manufacture specific antibodies against them, proteins that “lock horns” with the antigen, the protein coating the virus. But this latter process takes longer if we’ve never encountered the particular virus before, which is the case now: our immune police officers are on patrol, but they don’t recognise the Covid 19 virus - they’re looking at its ID papers (protein coating) and scratching their heads. So we have to give our immune fighting force all help possible. While nurses and doctors need PPE, our white blood cells need good food, nutritional supplements and certain herbs, to do their job as effectively as possible in this emergency.

FOOD:

1) Fresh raw veg (and some fruit) is the most important. As much salad as you can get. This gives you the anti-oxidants you need to reduce the “cytokine storm” (excess immune activity/inflammation) that can make lung infection with the Covid 19 virus so serious.

2) Go easy on the sugar - really minimise it - because all infections thrive in a high-sugar environment. (That’s why people with Diabetes are more vulnerable to getting very ill with this virus).

3) Eat more herbs. Many herbs either kill viruses directly or support the immune system to do so. They include: Echinacea as a tincture to take in water; ginger, thyme, turmeric, rosemary and raw garlic in food; and cordyceps mushroom, astragalus and rhodiola as herbal supplements or teas. Finally, eucalyptus and tea tree as essential oils to inhale in steam, along with iodine drops, if you are coughing.

NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS:

1) Vitamin C. This is such a powerful anti-viral that Dr Richard Z Cheng in China, and other doctors in Spain and in New York City hospitals are using it intravenously in patients with lung inflammation from Covid 19. Taking it orally may well kill the virus if you can get up to sufficient dosage. Start with 500 mg twice daily, and build up your dose by 500 mg per day, spacing out the doses as much as possible, up to your personal bowel tolerance. (More detail on how to do this on p 305 of my book).

2) Iodine kills viruses as well; it’s such a powerful anti-microbial that it’s still used in operating theatres. Take one drop of Lugol’s Iodine daily, in water, or an iodine tablet, and if you can’t get that, eat lots of seaweed or kelp.

3) Zinc. All white blood cells need zinc to do their job properly. Double the dose on the pot till the pandemic’s over; then stop till winter comes.

4) Selenium also supports the immune cells, but you only need a little: I00 micrograms a day for 2 months will do.

5) Vitamin D3. From sunshine and/or supplements. It is crucial to support the immune system, and equally crucial to stop it from going into dangerous overdrive (see “cytokine storm” above). Take 2000 iu (international units) with dinner every evening. The darker your skin, the more vital this is, because the less Vit D you can make from sunshine in the UK climate.

Stay safe, stay well.

Dr Jenny Goodman, April 2020.