Two months ago, if you heard the word Corona, the first thought might be having a beer with a wedge of lime. Today, Corona has a whole new meaning because it is attached to the word virus. The virus started in the Wuhan district of China and is now being spread worldwide in a rather quick fashion. It is possible, that at some point, it will reach western ND.

There currently is not a vaccine in place to fight this virus, however drug companies are working feverishly (no pun intended) to come up with one. Historically, similar scenarios have happened with the swine flu, bird flu, SAR’s, MER’s and Ebola none of which exploded to the extent of the original predictions.

The volume of media coverage and internet talk is almost too much to digest and it ultimately can lead to stress and fear surrounding the illness. It is important to know that most of the deaths associated with the virus have been predominantly in patients who are immunocompromised and the elderly, who most often have a weakened health status. We can’t affect our age but we can work on our immune system.

Currently, with no solution in place at this point, what can you do to protect yourself? The basic things we can do are recommendations that we need to do every year to prevent the spread of influenza and include the following; wash your hands, cough and sneeze into the crook of your elbow, and stay home if you are sick or running a fever. These recommendations are based on trying to avoid contact with the virus or a known carrier and are no different with the Coronavirus.

Here is some advice that isn’t addressed by the mainstream media. The first group that is most susceptible is the immunocompromised patient who has a weakened immune system. If we all take a self-check and ask ourselves, is our immune system in good shape or do I need to address it? This is where the tenants of the Magnificent 7 come into play. Eat right, drink right, move right, think right, talk right, sleep right and poop right.

Are you doing those things? Are you eating good foods, drinking enough water, getting quality sleep and trying to keep your stress level low? These are all helpful to keep your body from being run down. When you are run down and living on the edge so to speak, our bodies are the perfect breeding ground for opportunistic infections to take place.

Here are the nutritional recommendations I tell my patients, once again, they are no different than what I tell them to do at the beginning of the cough and cold season. Taking the following regime:

· Vitamin D 5000IU + K2 – 1 capsule once a day

· Vitamin C 1000 Complex – 1 tablet twice a day

· UltraBiotic Daily Multi-Strain – 1 capsule once a day

· Immune Support – 1 tablet twice a day

These, along with the lifestyle modifications I spoke about above are the cornerstone of a healthy immune system.

The last thing is something we don’t want to do and that is to live in fear. We must do our due diligence and find out the facts about things like the Coronavirus. Often the easy answer to find might not be the best or correct answer. It may require us to dig deeper.

To me, it is a little disturbing that little to nothing is talked about in the mainstream about some of the things that I mention in this article. The second issue is that the speak about the Coronavirus as if it will wipe out all of mankind, however, currently in about 3% of patients who get the virus it is fatal which is similar to a typical influenza season.

A bigger fear, in my opinion, is the obesity epidemic in our country. This epidemic could potentially cripple and bankrupt our health care system. With over 35% of our population considered obese, and on the road of poor health and chronic disease, this should be a much bigger concern.

This is a sticky topic for our media because so much of their revenue comes from industries like processed and fast food, alcohol and the pharmaceutical industries. When our media’s source of income is dependent on these industries, do you think they want to cut off the hand that feeds them? That is a topic for a separate article.

In summary, yes, we need to be concerned. Yes, we need to take precautions. Yes, we need to boost our body's immune systems. Yes, we need to control the things we can control. No, we do not need to live in fear. No, we do not need to stress about things we cannot control.