Boosting the Immune System—No ‘Quick Fixes’
If you’re looking for health advice, it make sense to listen to a healthy person.
During Better Way Today on 19 February 2024, World Council for Health’s resident health coach Linda Rae spent time with Dr Sarah Myhill, a Naturopathic Physician who simply oozes good health, vitality, and positivity. Dr Myhill has a special interest in metabolic conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome, and her website is a free source of practical advice on a range of health issues.
Since the start of the Covid-19 event, there has been a great deal of focus on – and confusion about – the need to ‘boost immunity’. According to Dr Myhill, it’s a myth to think that you can suddenly kick-start an under-active immune system when threatened with an infectious disease.
Like the brain, the immune system is hugely complex and the best way to keep it working optimally is to live healthily. Then, when faced with an infection, you can take additional steps to reduce the infectious load.
Watch the full interview with Dy Myhill here or read on for a summary.
Healthy living tips
Good nutrition is key. Dr Myhill recommends a palaeo-ketogenic diet, which is low in carbohydrates including sugars, high in fibre, and promotes moderate protein intake and cooking with animal fats. It is also important to avoid toxins by choosing organic food and to eat a varied diet that supports a diverse microbiome, which supports the immune system.
Keeping fit is obviously vital for staying healthy.
A happy brain makes for a happy immune system! Conversely, a depressed brain depresses the immune system, and an angry brain is reflected in an angry immune system – or inflammation. So, anything that contributes to feelings of love, belonging, purpose, safety, and fun strengthens immunity. And don’t forget the importance of sunshine!
Enough deep, restful sleep is essential to repair the body; without it, we are at risk for all diseases.
Reducing the infectious load
Dr Myhill speaks about life as “an arms race.” Pathogens want to move in and take over our physiology, so we need to strengthen the body’s first lines of defence: the skin, digestive system, and immune system. This is vital because Dr Myhill believes that even ‘chronic diseases’ like dementias and cancers start from underlying infections.
Since the early twentieth century, the factor that most drastically reduced the infectious load – and therefore deaths from infectious diseases – was good hygiene made possible by the provision of clean water and sanitation. Interestingly, this occurred long before the invention of vaccines.
The palaeo-ketogenic diet also helps to reduce the infectious load because it reduces available carbohydrates and sugars, which are food for most pathogens.
Certain vitamins and minerals play a role in reducing the infectious load, including B vitamins, high-dose vitamin C (5 grams per day) and vitamin D (10,000 IU), Zinc (30 mg), Magnesium (200 mg), Selenium (400 mcg), and Iodine (3 drops of 15% Lugol’s in water). (Make sure to take iodine separately from vitamin C, as they work antagonistically.)
Grandma knew best
If you do feel like you are ‘going down with something’, some of the best advice is timeless:
Listen to your body. Symptoms are important; they tell us when something is wrong, so don’t suppress them with drugs. You need energy to fight infection, so rest if you feel tired.
Keep warm and don’t suppress a fever as heat kills microbes.
Increase vitamin C intake to 10 grams per hour until you get diarrhoea. 90% of infections enter by mouth and vitamin C kills microbes on contact, so taking it frequently will kill pathogens before they enter the body where they can multiply exponentially. The diarrhoea will help to get rid of pathogenic microbes in the gut.
To fight a respiratory infection, use two drops of 15% Lugol’s iodine hourly in a salt pipe; this kills all microbes on contact.
PK Bread
Check out Dr Myhill’s PK Bread recipe that closed out the episode. If you’ve never made it, give a try this weekend and come back to let us know how it went!
Strange days indeed
We live in the strangest of times. Dr Myhill has found that the treatments described above reduce the need for antibiotics in her patients to zero. But this has not stopped the General Medical Council (GMC) in the UK from suspending her licence to practice Medicine! Having endured many years of bullying by the GMC, Dr Myhill has finally decided to take the matter to the High Court. You can read about her efforts to stand up for health freedom here.
The World Council for Health acknowledges Dr Myhill for her tireless efforts and considers her a true Better Way champion! Watch the full interview here.
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Hmm no baking soda. I once made paleo bread using linseeds using a recipe found online. It called for baking powder. I must have added too much because after about 15 minutes of baking I was alerted by a knocking sound coming from the oven. I took a closer look and there seemed to be the head of an alien inside the oven banging his head against the glass. Horrified, I opened the door and a big bulbous alien head ballooned out of the oven filling half the kitchen. Maybe I’ll give it another go.
I have followed Dr Myhill for many years due to her advice on CFS. She is amazing and passionate about helping people in need. She is very well respected and highly thought of in the CFS sphere. The fact that the GMC keep harassing her and trying g to take her licence is outrageous and speaks to the success of her protocols which they are afraid will impact their cash cow of big pharam. Thank you Dr Myhill for your unwavering dedication to patients and courage in the face of persecution from the medical-industrial complex.