How I Monitored and Treated My Omicron COVID Infection
Three weeks ago, my system finally got weakened to the point that my immune system could not prevent COVID. I laid in bed for days and am still dealing with the effects. As many of you know, this infection is not a joke and the short and long term effects are cumbersome, if not significant. I went from running 10 miles with moderate effort to having high level exertion with just a two mile walk.
Three days before my immune system was temporarily overwhelmed, I ran a half marathon obstacle course. I am fit, take the same vitamins I recommend to my patients, and eat a mostly healthy diet. I’ve come to uncover the cause, long term emotional stress that overwhelmed my system. I will cover this in a future article to help alleviate some stigma around mental health. For now, I want to cover how to monitor the body systems and treatments to help strengthen your structure, brain, energy, emotion, and nutrition.
I am a huge advocate of monitoring biometics and penned a chapter in Codes of Longevity. I have measured my health statistics for years. Over the past month, the value has been of far greater importance that I could imagine. This data has given me insight into how a body responds to COVID and on how some of the wellness tools can help.
If you will bear with me through this article, I promise not to make it too technical and provide you with insight on how to help speed along your wellness post-COVID.
For the last few years, I have routinely run between 10-20 miles and lifted weights as well as mixed in cardio. I use heart rate variability as a key marker for when to train, sleep, play hard, or rest. I wear a Garmin Fenix biometric watch; their version of HRV is known as stress and is cleverly mixed with sleep information and exercise recovery status to give you a “body battery rating”. It is easy to understand, since it is displayed just like your cell phone battery, 100% and you’re ready to take on the world. At 40%, best not to tackle the day’s workout, and less than 20% just rest!
So let’s take a look at my data over the past month. (Note that the dates aligns with the A in Aug) As you can see below, my body battery routinely hangs out in the 80-100 range upon waking. Post-race recovery on Aug 28 allowed me to charge my body battery to a very low 30. I recovered then quickly tanked on Aug 30. I was fortunate to have great medical care and was given prednisone and anti-viral due to the severity of symptoms and got a bump in body battery. I did not move from the bedroom and slept 16 hours a day, so maintaining a higher charge was doable. Over the past two weeks, the data indicates my system is in no way back to pre-COVID state. Normal day functions like seeing patients, house upkeep, and gentle exercise like yoga and walking is still not as easy as before. It is easy to see that my system does not recover like it did before.
The stress chart clearly captures the onset of COVID and shows the consistently higher level of stress over the past few weeks. The Garmin stress biometric is basically an inverse of heart rate variability. Less HRV is related to higher mortality. It is critical to get this stress down - which is what we’ll discuss next.
Trends like this are not uncommon. Long term viral, bacterial, and fungal infections can have a negative effect on the body’s health and associated metrics. While I am confident that these levels will improve, it is important to support the body in as many ways as possible. A chronically stressed system doesn’t function well for long periods of time. I am going to present my protocol. I am not acting as your doctor in this case but will be more than happy to help build you a system strengthening program during our doctor-patient appointments. Proceed with caution and get your doctor’s advice.
My practice philosophy has always been to balance structure, energy, emotion, nutrition, and neurology. So let’s approach the protocol in that manner.
Structure - Chiropractic adjustments help to connect the brain and body as well as balance the frame and strengthen the immune system. I have two amazing associates and get adjusted weekly. I have supported my structure with frequent long hold stretching sessions of 30-45 min. Since running has been a challenge, I switched to shorter 20-30 min walking and cardio machine sessions at a lower aerobic zone. For data junkies, I’ve targeted low zone 3 instead of typical zone 4 and intermittent zone 5 training.
Energy - The body needs energy to repair and maintain tissues, especially ones that are infected or damaged. I have run these therapies multiple times during each of the last few weeks.
15 min of red LED and infrared therapy while performing deep breathing exercises with oxygen therapy. I also have a home unit that I use for longer duration.
30 min of Low Frequency Pulse Electromagnetic Therapy, often call PEMF has can help with ventilarty threshold. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34300141/ The therapy is still considered investigational, but I have used it clinically and personally for years to help support body energy.
Frequency specific micro current. I could run a clinic solely with this device. It is a two-channel electrical stimulation device that has a variety of effects on the body based on the programmed frequency pairs.
IonClean detox foot baths assist in the body’s detoxification abilities. The equipment has some interesting studies on effectiveness http://www.ahrfoundation.net/dlfiles/study_results.pdf.
Emotion - there are several ways to strengthen emotional state. I’ve recently taken to yoga/stretching to clear the mind while listening to the Solfeggio frequencies. These are interesting binaural beats (different frequencies in each ear) that ease the transition into meditative states.
I would be remiss to fail to mention, my favorite therapy, ear acupuncture at the Shen Men point. This is one of the most powerful points to reduce emotional stress and in this case, promote healing.
There is often anxiety around speeding along the healing process. I recommend giving yourself the mental freedom to take time to heal.
Brain Health - COVID-induced brain fog is very common. Like many of my patients, I have been hit with this as well. Due to the complexity of assessing and treating brain health, I will limit the advice to keep strengthening your brain. Just like a bicep that no longer curls 50 lb. dumbbells, your brain will weaken given reduced physical and mental stimulation.
Nutrition - Let me be clear that my nutritional needs are not the same as yours. Your genetics and biochemical state have a huge role in what your system needs. If you want to learn about your genetics and blood markers, schedule a consultation with me. That being said, I only recommend professional products that I would personally take. If you look on my supplement shelf in the clinic, these will be familiar.
Energy Sport Vitamin by Douglas Labs. This is fantastic multi-vitamin for active people. I upped my dose from 1 to the recommended 3 tablets per day.
Quell Fish Oil with EPA, DHA, and Vit D. Rich in omega 3s and fats the brain craves, this is my brain health support.
Inno Vita Kardi-Ar. I recently added this product to help with cardiovascular health and performance. I have carried this product for years and seen really good results with it.
Results RNA Glutathione spray to help with oxidative stress
Metagenics Vit D 10000 IU + K2.
This says it all “There are now, to our knowledge, 14 studies that indicate the specific benefit in the COVID-19 pandemic of having a blood level of vitamin D greater than 30 ng/mL (75 nmol/L), and a very significant danger of death from infection if the blood level lies below 10 ng/mL (25 nmol/L)” https://www.rcpjournals.org/content/clinmedicine/20/6/e282.2
Get your Vit D tested and take the appropriate dose. I can assist you with that if your primary care doctor doesn’t address it on a regular basis.
Eat whole and real foods! Nutrition is not found in a box or bottle, but in foods. Eat clean most of the time and don’t dump toxic foods into your system that only stresses it more.
I added in Pine Needle and Chaga tea to help with inflammation.
I will continue to support my system and track the biometric well-being process. I am fortunate to have many of the tools to help strengthen my system after COVID and hope to share them with you if needed. If you aren’t dealing with any health issues, please focus on prevention. I don’t wish an infection like COVID on anyone.
If you need healthcare and wellness support, please reach out to schedule a consultation.
James Leonette, DC, MS, FIAMA, FIBFN CND
P.S. I am a Garmin dealer and am happy to share 20% off coupons with any of my patients, their friends, and family. Please reach out to me for a code.