As COVID-19 becomes endemic, vaccines, face masks, social distancing, and isolation may still go a long way toward managing the virus and its many mutations. However, even if we’ve applied all these measures, we are still at risk of breakthrough infections. Since vaccines et al measures don’t offer complete protection, it seems wise to step up our prevention and treatment strategies. For example, we can learn about and implement the best foods, herbs, and supplements for prevention and the infection’s early, middle, and recovery phases.
In my experience of treating thousands of people over several decades, many medicinal herbs can help prevent and mitigate symptoms of viral respiratory infections. In addition, incorporating foods high in flavonoids and other phytonutrients can lend a synergistic effect. To be clear, diet and herbal medicine are not substitutes for vaccines and appropriate medical intervention. Instead, in my new book, Kitchen Meds, you will discover many medicinal herbs and foods that can be used along with vaccines to help support the immune system. This combined dietary and herbal approach, used for centuries in China, may add an extra layer of protection required to navigate this new frontier of viral respiratory infections.
Many medicinal herbs and foods contain phytonutrients, which are the chemicals produced by plants to protect themselves against the environment. Fortunately, when humans eat fruits and vegetables, these protective benefits are graciously bestowed to the host – that would be you. Importantly, phytonutrients are considered the crown jewels of the plant world since they have well-studied benefits for multiple health conditions, including viral respiratory infections. For example, flavonoids are phytonutrients known for their antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and immune-modulating effects that have been extensively investigated for viral respiratory infections (Patel et al., 2018; Eng et al., 2019; Huang et al., 2020; Zakaryan et al., 2017; Ding et al., 2018). For more information about the most potent foods and herbs (and recipes) that can help you through viral respiratory infections, check out Kitchen Meds.
