How to Increase Immunity to fight Corona Virus

Increasing immunity doesn't necessarily mean that you can't have corona virus. It is just a measure which will increase your capability to fight the corona virus more effectively.

During Corona Virus epidemic, most countries have declared nation wide lock-down to avoid spread of the disease because of which maximum people are in homes only, either working from home or isolating themselves from the disease. So the daily routine of most of us have changed. 

So here are some basic practices that can help to improve the immunity and help us to fight the corona virus infection in a better way:

Change in Lifestyle:

Being at home, most of us are in habit of becoming lazy; hence at a greater risk of decreasing the immunity. So we need to ensure that our lifestyle doesn't risk our life. So some tips to have a better and improved lifestyle:

1) Have Enough Sleep:

An Adult should get minimum 6 to 8 hours of good sleep.

If you are having trouble in sleep, try below things: 

• Limit your screen time and ensure not to look at any screen atleast 2 hour before the bed. The blue light emitted from TV, mobile and other screens may disrupt your normal sleep cycle.
• Sleeping in a comfort with complete dark room may increase chances of better sleep.
• Try Meditation
• Consult a doctor in case still not able to sleep properly.

2) Exercise/Meditation:

Fit Mind stays in a Fit Body. Moderate exercises like joking, walking, swimming, biking etc will help you to stay fit. Do these for at-least 30 minutes a day.

Do meditation for at-least 15-20 minutes daily. If you are not able to do yoga etc, then just sit in a quite place and focus on something. This will also help boost the inner peace and hence help to increase immunity.

3) Manage Stress:

Increase in stress may suppress your capability to fight infections. Identifying that you are in stress is a bigger problem. Most of the persons are not able to identify that they are in stress and they need to do something about it.

Stress can be developed by even small things like day to day office tension, sitting idle at home. Major symptoms of stress are overthinking, feeling sad most of the times, continuous negative thoughts etc.
Here are some practices that can be followed to manage stress:

• Take at-least 30-60 minutes in a day in activities that makes you happy like playing with children, playing with friends, doing yoga, meditation etc. Whatever makes you feel good, take out time to do that.
• Avoid excess use of smoking and alcohol consumption.
• If still the stress is not manageable, please consult a psychiatric asap rather than delaying the problem. Increase in stress may lead to serious issues like depression and consulting a psychiatric doesn't mean that you are mad, it is just another disease for which medical attention is required.  

Change in Food Habits:

While staying at home, everyone is having lot of time and favorite time pass is to keep eating something every time. Now eating is not a problem, wrong eating is a problem.

Here are some food habits that will help to increase the immune system.

1) AntiOxidants & Vitamic-C Rich Foods

Whole plant food like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds etc are good in nutrition, anti-oxidants and Vitamin C which helps to fight infection in a better way.

Some examples of such foods:

• All Citrus Fruits like Lemon, Orange etc..
• Papaya
• Kiwi
• Red Bell Pepper
• Spinach
• Almonds
• Green Tea
• Blueberries
• Dark Chocolates

2) Eat More Fermented foods or take a probiotic supplement

These foods help to keep your digestion good which in turns helps to increase immunity.

Yogurt is good example and can be used in daily routine.

3) Ginger, Garlic & Turmeric

Daily limited use of ginger, garlic and turmeric helps to increase the immunity of body. these are very commonly used in routine food preparation in India almost in every home.

4) Stay Hydrated

Dehydration can cause headache and become a bottleneck in daily activities like focus, mood and digestion which in turn will reduce your immunity.

Drink atleast 7-8 glasses of water daily and avoid taking intake of juices, drinks etc as these will give an added sugar which in turn will have an adverse effect on immunity.

5) Limit Use of Added Sugar:

Increase intake of added sugar contributes to overweight, obesity, Diabetes and heart diseases which in turn decrease your immunity.

Avoid taking packed juices and drinks. In case you need to drink juices, prefer fresh juices.

Change in MindSet

This is most important factor to stay safe and increasing the immunity. Everything is being driven from mind. If you stay positive in mind, your body will have better ability to fight. If you are surrounded by negativity, it will have adverse effects like stress etc which will decrease your immunity.

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Ayush Ministry on Immunity

Here are some guidelines issued from Ayush Ministry, India on how to increase your immunity natural way:

Please remember that all the methods explained in this complete section are related to immunity boosting only.

Please maintain all hygiene related practices as it is to be safe from corona virus.

When & How to Use Mask and Sanitizer

When and how to use Masks

When to Use a Mask:

So the bigger question here is when to use the mask. Normally people have tendency to use it everywhere even when sitting on the home in the room alone. So here are some tips when to use it.

Below are few conditions in which one must wear a mask: 

• If you are not medical fit in terms of respiratory diseases like cough, cold, difficulty in breathing; then it is must to wear a mask so that others don't infection from you when you sneeze or cough and the droplets from your sneeze doesn't go in air.
• If you are medically fit but living or taking care of a person who is having above problems, then you also need to wear a mask to safeguard yourself.
• If you are a part of medical staff who is taking care of patients suffering from above mentioned diseases, then also it is must to wear a mask.

Below are the few condition where mask can be used as precautionary measure but only wearing a mask doesn't guarantee you the safety from virus:

• While going out in public gathering.
• While going to buy your groceries/medicines and other essential goods
• While travelling by a public transport
• While you are in condition that you might need to touch the unknown objects/surface.

How to Wear a Mask:

There are majorly two types of masks. Disposable and re-usable. Disposable masks should not be repeated more than once as reusing it may cause more chances to get infection. Reusable masks should be reused after properly washing them with hot water.

Here are some tips how to properly use a mask:

• Clean your hands properly by alcohol based hand sanitizer or with soap and water.
• Inspect the mask for top and bottom side; and for outer ans inner side of mask. Most commonly, the side with the bendable wire is the top of the mask and white side of the mask in inner side.
• Now depending on the type f the mask you are using, you should tie it accordingly as below:
• Mask with elastic earpiece: Hold the both sides of the earpiece and place the earpiece on each ear.
• Mask with ties: Put the mask at your nose level and tie the mask at the back of your head
• Mask with loop & tie:Put the upper side of the loop on the head and place the mask at your nose level. tighten the mask so that it fits properly by pulling the ties of the mask and then put a knot with the ties at the back of the head.

• Once mask is placed, pinch the bendable wire to fit your nose properly.
• Adjust the bottom of your mask to cover your face and chin.
• Again clean your hands with sanitizer or soap and water.
• Don't touch the mask while using it.

How to take off the Mask:

The way wearing a mask is very important, same way taking of and disposing off a mask is equally important. Here are some tips how to do this:

• Don't touch the front of the mask while removing it.
• Clean your hands with hand.
• Start removing the mask from the sides where you have tied it or the elastic earpiece side
• If it is disposable mask, immediately throw the mask in dustbin.
• If it is re-usable mask, put the mask at a safe place or the put it in bag for washing purposes as per the instruction on the mask.

WHO recommendation on When and How to use mask

When and how to use Hand Sanitizers

Using the sanitizers is very important to fight against the corona Virus. Now the bigger statement is when and how to use it.

Here are some tips to use the same:

• Wherever possible, you should wash your hands with soap and water. It is as good as using a sanitizer
• When there is no possibility to wash the hands with soap & water, use the alcohol based hand sanitizer with minimum 60% alcohol.
• Use only small amount of the sanitizer, approx to the size of the coin. 
• Don't touch your eyes, nose, face immediately after using sanitizer as it may cause irritation, itching
• Don't use sanitizers near a fire, as alcohol tends to catch fire.
• You can use spray based sanitizers also to dis-infect the commonly touched surfaces in homes.
• Keep sanitizers away from the reach of the children as it may be harmful if they don't know how to properly use it.

How to Stay Safe from Corona Virus

Prevention and Proactive Measures to control Corona Virus

So now when we know about basic symptoms of Corona virus and how it spread, let’s try to see how we can avoid this. How can we keep ourselves and others safe from this virus? We need to start practicing hand and respiratory hygiene all times. Below are the few general safety tips that we should make a routine practice in day to day life now:

• Wash Hands at regular interval with soap and water or use alcohol based hand sanitizer at regular intervals.
• Maintain at least 1-mtr distance from others; especially in cases when you have someone in your vicinity who is sneezing/coughing without covering his/her face. If you are too close that person, you may have chances to get the droplets released by sneezing on your body.
• Avoid public gathering as most public gatherings are crowded and keeping social distance of 1-mtr becomes tough there.
• Avoid touching mouth, nose and eyes with your hands. Normally hands touch many surfaces in a day and in case you have touched any contaminated surface, then virus can enter your body while touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
• Cough/Sneeze in elbow rather than in hands.
• Dispose of used tissues immediately
• Avoid Contact with others
• Work from home.
• Avoid non-essential travels
• Ensure that people around you follow good hygiene practices i.e. covering face while sneezing, wearing mask in public places etc..

Here are some recommendations from WHO:

How to do Grocery Shopping

While doing grocery shopping, take care of the following to safe yourself from virus:

• Make sure to avoid crowded areas.
• Use mask as a precaution.
• If you are trying to use the trolley while shopping, ensure to  sanitize the handles and grip before holding them.
• Try to take bags from home as these are washable and reusable. It will avoid catching the infection with bags supplied with grocery.
• Maintain social distance while getting the billing done.

Here are some WHO recommendations on grocery shopping and washing fruits/Veg.

How to be safe during Pregnancy

There are lot of questions precautions to be taken during pregnancy like

• Am i more prone to infected via corona virus
• If i got infected, will my child also get this infection from me
• How to take care of the baby after birth
• and so on..

Still there are no confirmed answers to any of the above questions. Having said that, pregnant women should all the necessary precautions as a normal adult should have like washing hands, covering the face and other hygiene related precautions as mentioned in first part of this blog.

While breast-feeding the new born babies, wash your hands properly, cover your face and then start doing the breast feeding.

What is CoronaVirus, Symptoms and How it Spreads

What is Corona Virus and Covid-19

There are two terms which are being used very commonly these days with regards to this disease, Corona Virus and Covid-19. So let’s first understand the basic difference between two and why the same disease is called by two names.

Corona virus is bigger term or a large family of virus which is related to respiratory related problems in humans and animals. This has a very wide range from basic cold/cough to severe respiratory issues like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Covid-19 is kind of sub-category of corona virus. COVID-19 has been identified as SARS-COV-2 (SARS Corona Virus type-2); affecting humans only till now. This virus has been detected in Dec-2019, hence the name COVID-19 (COronoVIrusDisease-2019). It all started from China and then outbreak like anything to the other countries of the world. In March-2020, just in 4 months’ time, WHO declared this as Pandemic. 

Symptoms

Symptoms of Coronavirus are not seeing immediately, it normally takes 2 to 14 days to have symptoms. Most commons are:

• ·       Fever
• ·       Dry Cough
• ·       Tiredness
  
  
  
  
  
   Other less common symptoms includes:

• ·       Sore Throat
• ·       Headache
• ·       Difficulty in breathing
• ·       Chest pain
• ·       Nasal Congestion
• ·       Diarrhea
• ·       Loss of Taste/Smell
• ·       Rashes on Skin

All these symptoms normally start with mild and then become strong with time.  Symptoms may vary from person to person.

People who are older and have medical history like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, kidney, liver diseases, Cancer are more prone to this virus. Basically people with low immunity are more probable to be infected with this virus easily as in compared to other healthy fit persons. Having said this, anyone can catch COVID-19 and become seriously ill. It is highly advised that anyone who is having mix of any of the above symptoms should get a medical treatment urgently.

How Corona Virus Spread

Covid-19 mainly spreads from person to person via small droplets from mouth or nose produced as a result of coughing/sneezing of the person infected from Covid-19.

Covid-19 can spread in two ways:

• One is via the direct contact i.e. person can get infected if he gets in close contact with the infected person and infected person cough/sneeze without covering his face. Hence it is highly advised to stay atleast 1 meter away from each other.This virus can’t spread from animals to humans as per studies but it is still recommended to use all hygiene practices while handling pets like washing hands after playing with them, avoiding licking, kissing etc
• Second is the indirect contact. When infected people cough/sneeze without covering his mouth, he expels droplets. These droplets are heavy and can’t travel far and quickly sink to the surface like table, handrails, doorknobs etc. Now people can touch the surface on which droplets have stuck and then touching the hands to eyes, nose or mouth and can get infected.  Hence it is highly advised to wash hands at regular interval so that virus can be killed before entering the body. Now the major question is how long this virus can survive on different surfaces. As per the studies, this can stay upto 4 hour on copper, upto 24 hour on cardboard and upto 72 hours on plastic and steel. This virus can be easily killed by cleaning these surfaces using normal household disinfectants. In case you have touched any surface, clean your hands at regular intervals with normal soap at home or use sanitizers.