This pandemic is giving us the opportunity to make changes that reach far beyond the current pandemic crisis.
Let’s talk Coronavirus. I mean, everyone is thinking about it every day anyway, why not expand the conversation a bit?
The current common narrative is:
- Flatten the curve with washing hands, wearing masks and social distancing
- Wait for the virus to go away or wait for a vaccine
Is that it?
My mom used to say, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”
Can we broaden this conversation even just a little bit?
Can we dedicate even a fraction of the vaccine budget to bolster public health and safety in relation to COVID risks?
What else can we do besides put all our eggs into the vaccine basket?
The links that I am providing; maybe not all the numbers or findings are complete. The point of sharing this is that I firmly believe that these other possibilities of supporting our health deserve a budget. The commitment to public health in relation to COVID should not be focused solely on a vaccine.
We know that there are co-factors that increase COVID susceptibility/severity, why not flatten the curve by helping people become less susceptible?
Any one of these issues could become a national education campaign to increase public health and save lives.
Healthy Biome Anyone??
Let’s back up a little and go to bat with this one major contributing factor.
As we continue to learn more, numerous studies show that gut biome plays a role in COVID susceptibility/severity.
Most people still do not know about or understand what contributes to gut biome disruption and why it is so important.
What about a massive GDB educational campaign?
GDB, I made that up. Gross Domestic Biome. It is a play on words, but what if we took it seriously.
A piece of our weakness and susceptibility to Coronavirus is generations in the making with a medical system focused on drug intervention instead of an integrative health model that doesn’t always reach for gut damaging drugs first. I get it; we need the drugs, but they are overused and don’t always need to be used first.
Our gut health problem is the result of 4 generations of throwing antibiotics and over the counter medications at everything and we now suffer from generational biome disruption that increases COVID susceptibility/severity. Antibiotics disrupt your gut biome, increase gut inflammation and reduce immune function.
Because of antibiotic overuse, we have an international antibiotic resistance health crisis that has been written about in every medical journal in the world. Overuse of antibiotics and medications is a contributing factor to our COVID susceptibility.
The health of the beneficial bacteria in your digestive tract matters. A LOT. What disrupts it? Pesticides, herbicides, endocrine disrupting chemicals, antibiotics, birth control pills and over the counter medications.
If people knew that pesticide food and over the counter meds increased their risk of COVID, what would a campaign look like to reduce that susceptibility?
Why can’t we implement a massive gut biome restoration project to help everyone not only fight off COVID, but all the other disease susceptibility rooted in gut dysbiosis?
With just a little bit of effort focused in this direction, we had/have the opportunity to transform the trajectory of not only our health in relation to COVID, but our susceptibility to the chronic disease crisis gripping our population.
Yale: Gut microbiota may underlie the predisposition of healthy individuals to COVID-19
Gut microbiota and Covid-19- possible link and implications
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7217790/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7365123/
We need more studies like this one in Italy:
Gastrointestinal disorders are frequent in COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 has been hypothesized to impact on host microbial flora and gut inflammation, infecting intestinal epithelial cells. Since there are currently no coded therapies or guidelines for treatment of COVID-19, this study aimed to evaluate the possible role of a specific oral bacteriotherapy as complementary therapeutic strategy to avoid the progression of COVID-19:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2020.00389/full?fbclid=IwAR0jits7jf9vUbApspFjXC3PWzpEb85PyitY7azO2PFfX3S9UsUc_LiI7Ng
Why isn’t this being explored more?
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.06.20147025v1
Vitamin C Anyone?
Does your local hospital have IV vitamin C incorporated into Coronavirus protocol?
https://www.faim.org/covid-19-is-really-two-diseases-to-treat-the-second-one-you-have-to-name-it-correctly?fbclid=IwAR0XIIBPBgTeCG_xQDlIYGD7A9XNYLFxJm-mIqHH4NeNcwgpcMt7dFe6-lU
Vitamin D Anyone?
How difficult would it have been to add this to the list of washing hands and wearing a mask?
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/933715?src=WNL_trdalrt_200713_MSCPEDIT&uac=141144EV&impID=2457837&faf=1
Using Herbal Medicines to Reduce Severity of Coronavirus
Why oh why can’t we have access to integrative health care? How many lives could be saved if we had a medical system that incorporated herbal medicines? Coronavirus just shines an even brighter light on this major gap in our health care.
https://classicalchinesemedicine.org/initial-thoughts-on-coronavirus-prevention-and-treatment-with-chinese-medicine/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7260602/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221138352030589X
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213422020300391
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/acm.2020.0189
Reduce Air Pollution
Let’s dedicate budget towards a massive reduction in air pollution. What if that were the first priority, would it be as affective as a vaccine?
National Institute of Health: Increase in air pollution means more COVID death:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7308784/#:~:text=Apparently%2C%20both%20the%20short%2D%20and,infected%20cases%20and%204645%20deaths.
Harvard: Increase in air pollution means an increase in COVID death
https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/covid-pm/home
https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/air-pollution/index.cfm
https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/covid-pm/home
Transform our Food System
Isn’t this what really needs to happen? Why are we not connecting the dots between chemical agriculture and COVID?
Pesticide, herbicide, GMO food fuels the gut microbe dysbiosis that causes increase risk of COVID.
This pandemic is an opportunity to transform our food systems and commit to clean food as a way of preventing COVID death and whatever virus will be next.
We currently have a food system hijacked by corporations that don’t give a about how their food impacts the health of the people that eat it.
Just look at the pantry items, is there a list of the chemicals and GMO’s on the label? No, but they are in there.
Fact: The ongoing exposure to pesticides, herbicides and GMO’s erodes the gut biome, reduces immune function and causes cancer: https://fortune.com/2020/04/27/roundup-weedkiller-cancer-coronavirus-settlement/
There is a reason why Mexico and Canada and European countries are banning Glyphosates:
https://detoxproject.org/canadas-largest-agribusiness-bans-pre-harvest-glyphosate-spraying-from-oat-supply-chains/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=canadas_largest_agribusiness_bans_pre_harvest_glyphosate_spraying_from_oat_supply_chains&utm_term=2020-07-09&fbclid=IwAR345f8B4sPY2G1nZaRW1FiuOv12ItpJZ1A-EpkYJ8r0HHRziXkg714WW7E
https://www.ishn.com/articles/112144-another-country-bans-glyphosate-use
Oh, and look at this creative public health response. The title is over-sensationalized; but this is so worth a read, to expand our minds about the possibilities that can flatten the curve: https://aurumproject.org.au/kerala-health-policy-covid/?fbclid=IwAR15Kwn8Fq0goRNKBNkahD0408R20-0gHTzlx6Xj4ifHWE0w8E9wbdDzlxU
I could keep writing for a few more pages, but I am going to end it here and not even talk about the fracking chemicals in our water and the endocrine disruptors we are swimming in that increase our susceptibility to COVID.
The whole point is that we are weak, we are vulnerable, we are susceptible and the chemical load we bear is too high.
https://www.ewg.org/research/body-burden-pollution-newborns
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chemicals-umbilical-cord-blood/
This pandemic is giving us the opportunity to make changes that reach far beyond the current pandemic crisis.
It is not that people don’t die from viruses; because in fact they do.
But if we really want to have a conversation about public health, then we have to look at a bigger picture.
That picture includes gut health, what disrupts our gut biome that we could begin changing today and the pollution and chemical burden load we now carry and how it contributes to COVID risk and not to mention the epidemic that we all know someone dealing with and that is cancer.
No doubt that the pharmaceutical lobbying campaigns give big pharma an edge in deciding how we approach dealing with the Coronavirus.
Pharmaceutical and health product makers spent more than any other industry on lobbying the federal government between 1999 and 2018.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7054854/
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jwi0fhzizx2vxdi/jamainternal_wouters_2020_oi_200006.pdf?dl=0
If we could step back and focus on public health without the pharmaceutical company stranglehold on our health care system, we would back up and clean up the underlying conditions that have so many people exposed to the poisons that disrupt our biome and immunity.
There is no poison we can spray on the beach and no vaccine that is going to rid the world of this virus or the next one coming down the pike. Our exposure to pollutants, plastics, and damaging symptom suppressive medicine is what we have the opportunity to transform.
As an herbalist and holistic health care practitioner with 30 years-experience helping people from all walks of life, what I help people do is get to root causes.
We don’t just throw drugs and herbs at symptoms; we always look at the big picture and try to understand the underlying susceptibility and weakness that contribute to the body expressing the symptoms.
What if we invested in do no harm first, what if we invested in the TERRAIN; reducing our susceptibility, doing what we ALREADY know that can help people become less vulnerable to not only COVID, but whatever virus comes next.
What if we spent $5 Billion on transforming our toxic food system, air pollution and drug focused medical system?
What do you think a truly comprehensive public health focused response to COVID could look like?
Kami for President! Thank you for putting all this together in one place. Let’s continue our lives by LIVING with AWARENESS! Share this everywhere!
Great article — this is the way.
Excellent, excellent article thank you!… it needs to go viral!
Excellent plan.
Info you have provided makes absolute and clear sense
Thank you for a wonderful article! I wish more people were on the same page. I specifically liked the paper on fermented foods. Very interesting!
Bravo. Thank you for this.
Brillantly presented with excellent arguments ! Thank you for the effort and love you put into this.
Bingo! And it’s such a shame when doctors (Dr. David Brownstein here in Michigan) who’ve been successfully treating Covid patients using alternative treatments, are forced to remove their blogs.
Kami, this is a brilliant assessment! Thank you for sharing. I agree—A holistic approach is the critical piece that is missing in the unfolding C-19 story. Our continued and growing separation and isolation from the wisdom of the natural world of our planet (and understanding our place within its systems) is not without tragic outcomes. In fact, the pandemic is here to give humanity this message loud and clear! May our collective consciousness finally begin to shift in a new and positive direction.
brave and true. preach, Kami!
Wonderfully written and I am in absolute and total agreement with you. Thank you!
OH MY Word !!! You are exactly right.
This is just what needed to be shared. I only wish EVERYONE would take the time to read and understand what you have said here. I will share it in my community. Thank you so much.
Fanstastic Kami! Thanks for all of your work on this response!
Wow, Kami. This is a dissertation. Well done and many thanks!
This is such a much more wise approach to health & healthcare!
YES!!! This needs to go mainstream!
Spot On! I have been saying this a along. Prevention! Get as healthy as you can to fight it off either way, if you get it, you will get over it and if it can’t get you, even better!
Fantastic article Kami. Very informative and needed in today’s frantic Covid World.
Thanks Melissa,
I know, we need to broaden the conversation a little that is for sure
Agreed! Absolutely. Covid 19 is a symptom of a capitalist culture that has over the course of decades, stripped folks of common sense and instead brainwashed people with fear and false information that packaged products are better than simple natural foods. We are so over sanitized with toxic chemicals that our immune systems are compromised. Making ferments isn’t costly. Taking a walk in the woods is free. But a culture where they’d rather sell you a product will never empower you to be well. Unfortunately, the powers that be, don’t see citizens they see consumers. When we all realize we… Read more »
This is certainly a better and more holistic approach to many problems we as humans are intent on ignoring.
Important article, needed to be said!
Agree 100%. Thank you!
How do we make this the mainstream conversation?
Keep talking!!
And let’s not neglect the results that Cuba and India have been achieving with homeopathy, an incredibly inexpensive and highly effective way to provide immunity without vaccination!
https://magicpillsmovie.com/cuba-the-country-that-dares-to-be-wise/
Yes, I put a very interesting link about homeopathy in the article: https://kamimcbride.com/lets-change-the-conversation-around-coronavirus/
Thank you, Kami! Well said. I appreciate your take on the situation. Keep up your good work. Thanks again!
Then there are the links re. impacts of stress/ trauma on the microbiome (and vice versa):
The Microbiome in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Trauma-Exposed Controls: An Exploratory Study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5763914/
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Does the Gut Microbiome Hold the Key? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4794957/
Mind and gut: Associations between mood and gastrointestinal distress in children exposed to adversity: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/development-and-psychopathology/article/mind-and-gut-associations-between-mood-and-gastrointestinal-distress-in-children-exposed-to-adversity/D29E390A71A1E74CAD6955177CDFAE44
The role of inflammation and the gut microbiome in depression and anxiety: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jnr.24476
The Microbiome in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Trauma-Exposed Controls: An Exploratory Study: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318383402_The_Microbiome_in_Posttraumatic_Stress_Disorder_and_Trauma-Exposed_Controls_An_Exploratory_Study
Wonderfully done! I’d love to add the impacts of stress and unresolved trauma on immune function and gut microbial health.
First, here’s an independent collection of effective natural health resources collated by the Ontario (Canada) wilderness skills community: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1izt7OfkHEARWfjesQM-wzV4JIG2GpK3r5pYR6HpbwJ4/edit?usp=sharing
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: An Immunological Disorder? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5681483/
Stress Weakens the Immune System: https://www.apa.org/research/action/immune
Referenced Blog Post on Stress Impacts on the Immune System: https://www.noldus.com/blog/ptsd-and-immune-system
US Veteran’s Affairs article on using the immune system to address stress and PTSD: https://www.research.va.gov/currents/1218-Tackling-trauma-and-depression-via-the-immune-system.cfm
Wow, you did it! Thank you so much for this wonderful download of information. I am in complete agreement. I look forward to delving into the links you have shared. I am determined to help people become good stewards of their bodies and the earth. We can live in joy and health instead of fear. Let’s make this shift happen!
Yes! Can this be shareable on Instagram?
YEs, i have this posted on Instagram
Kami, the information you provided is so truthful, however I’ve heard and read where Instagram is censuring anything said about ‘Covid-19″ if it doesn’t follow the ‘narrative’. So I hope they don’t censor you. God Bless
Yes yes yes!!!
I would love to be able to share this on Instagram somehow is there a link?!!!
YES YES YES to all this; so well synthesized!
Thank You!
This is absolutely how I’ve been feeling and so grateful you’ve put it all together!!
Well said! The change take place at the grass roots through education and example. Thank you for speaking out and leading the way!
Hey Kami, excellent post that goes right along with my own thoughts and everything I have been learning and reading about ways to prevent the coronavirus from being so deadly. Just wanted to point out one thing: Canada hasn’t banned the use of glyphosate unfortunately. Health Canada still considers it ‘safe if used as directed’. Farmers here regularly spray it on their grain/legume crops in late summer to desiccate them before harvest.
So much great information here. Thank you!
I love all of this and agree 100%. Thanks for your wonderful work!
100 percent agree with you. Illness is natural but we need to embrace better quality of life and natural medicine
Is this virus Mother Nature’s wake up call? Of course it is. Listening is still too optional though.
Thank you so much Kami! Such important information now and for our future.