Wear Masks
New guidelines from CDC last week recommend wearing a mask (or cloth face coverings) when leaving your house. This is because many people who are infected can be without any symptoms (asymptomatic) and also shed the virus before symptoms arise (pre-symptomatic). This means the virus can spread when people are talking, coughing or sneezing. The mask also deters you from touching your face.
VIDEO: Learn How to Make Your Own Face Covering
Please Note you still need to keep social distancing and stay 6 feet apart even if you wear a mask. The mask should not be used as a substitute for distancing.
The Surgeon General Warns of a Rough Week Ahead
The projections suggest we will be peaking in cases this week. Please stay home, stay connected to friends and family through phone and video. Make minimum trips outside of your home and please practice social distancing.
Natural Ways to Improve Your Immunity
- Hot and cold temperatures were used in the past pandemics to help with reducing pneumonia risk. We can try to mimic this technique called, hydrotherapy. Here is a video to show how we can do this at home: Hydrotherapy 15 | Contrast Shower.
- Since the respiratory distress is a main concern for those affected, proper breathing techniques can be taught to help minimize distress and possibly aid with your symptoms.
Stay strong and practice the techniques to strengthen your immune system and keep your mind calm.
I found the following video to be helpful to control breathing and using our innate immunity within the nose and sinus to help us fight infections.
Coronoavirus Free Breathing Exercises by Patrick McKeown
It’s a fairly long video, but here are the highlights:
- Get a baseline for your respiratory function: Find your baseline breath-hold time. How long can you hold your breath comfortably? SARS CoV-2 can cause changes in this ability which is important to gauge distress and allow you to seek more help. (at 2:10)
- If you have respiratory symptoms, don’t breathe fast and shallow-breathe slow and deep through your nose (at 4:52)
- Use breath holds when you feel mild distress with breathing (at 13:24)
- Nasal breathing helps increase nitric oxide which has antiviral activity (at 17:30)
- Role of humming in increasing our nitric oxide (at 18:10)
- Try to breathe through your nose at all times and walking away from someone who is sneezing or coughing (at 19:48)
- Consider nose breathing only and tape method for those who are mouth breathers at night (at 25:44)
Remember, these are tips, do not substitute for advice when you are in distress. Get medical help if you feel your breathing is suffering.
Treatments: Trials are still ongoing for treatments and prevention. Will keep you updated.
Testing: Howard County now offering a drive-through test center starting 4/7/20 at Columbia VEIP
New test kits looking at antibodies have been approved. Still waiting to find out details.
WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS TOGETHER!
Stay strong and practice these techniques and those listed in previous updates to strengthen your immune system and keep your minds calm.
Please read our blog for more Coronavirus updates.
Be Well,
Dr. Jyothi Rao, and the Shakthi Staff