I used to dream I was stranded in Australia, unable to get back to England to see my love. At the boarding gates in Delhi, she eyes my passport. We wonder what would happen if I was denied entry into the UK, and I had to get on a plane to Melbourne. Would we separate, him to his family, me to mine? For a moment I wish for this - I never imagined I'd be far from home as an apocalypse brewed. My mother nerves tug, the umbilical cord that is always joined to my son quivering. I miss my parents. Yet the doors slide shut on that possibility, and we land at Heathrow, and I am home. For this land is mine too - my ancestry is Slovenian, German, Yorkshire. Ten miles from my sister in laws a great uncle whose name weathers on a church memorial.
Me, self quarantining in the West Country. Stop telling me it's good to stay indoors!
Within days, India has shut down utterly. We would have had to rely on the kindness of strangers. Here, at least, we have the cheeriness of Jamie's sister, and a house in the countryside that makes social distancing easy. We trudge through muddled fields and frighten deer. I wonder if I could kill one, if it came to that. But I am heartened by the wild foods. We picked a salad of dandelions and wild garlic leaves for lunch, and flowers. I sit for a long time under an oak. It would have been sheltering people in wartime, as they too worried - and then, of course, the Spanish flu. How much worse it would have been in that time of grief and rationing.
There is a kind of wartime solidarity at the farmers market, where it is easy enough to keep two metres distant. An old couple behind us in the queue were old enough to remember. He is 85 and fit, but glad he lives 'up on hill'. He talks about not being able to get sweets in the post war years, and when they did, it was rationed. He remembers that because he was only 12 or so at the time. I miss my 5 acres. I have so much food there - here, I rely on tenuous supply chains. But we are told there is plenty. I'm not sure what to believe, but there's nothing I can do about it. I'm fed up with people posting images of lack, feeding into paranoias that cause people to buy up seeds and flour, booze and bread.
Phonecalls home are worried. My parents try not to show it - they're wonderful like that. But Dad's been sick with cancer and his immune system has taken a battering in the past few years. I worry about getting back to them if it comes to that. I want to hold my father's hand when he goes. I'm not sure I'd recover if I wasn't there. I try to push these thoughts from my mind and focus on the cheerful daffodils in the sunshine. Today is warm - there was a chill in the air this morning but the spring sunshine is enough to cheer anyone up. Plus, it's loaded with Vitamin D, which they say is good for immunity. You can read a research paper on that here, if you don't believe that sunshine is good for you. I thank all the Gods I'm in England for the summer, not Australia for the Winter.
I do worry for my own health. I'm asthmatic - and this is a virus that fills the lungs so that you cannot breath. I worry at the first sign of tightness in my chest - if I'm low in iron, or perhaps haven't been taking my symbicort for days. What can I do but boost my immune system?
Three Ways I'm Boosting My Immunity
1. Yoga & Meditation - and Lots of Walking in the Sunshine
If you've ever lived in the UK, you'd know a lot of houses are pretty small. I had kind of forgotten that fact when I arrived at my sister in laws in Somerset. However, I did order a yoga mat and rearranged the spare room so I have a little space to move and flow. I force myself to meditate for ten minutes before and ten minutes afterwards. It helps me get to the bottom of what's bothering me, so I can process it.
Walking through the muddy fields around here is also a wonderful way to meditate - my mind becomes focussed on daffodils and darting deer, not disease vectors and shut borders. The less I think about it, the calmer I get. Nature does that. It grounds and nourishes me when I'm most depleted. And there's so many nourishing herbs and plants out in the spring woods!
2. Astralagus, Olive Leaf and Echinacea
There's a thousand different plants that are excellent for the immune system. I have chosen these three mainly as my Mum bought me two containers of this blend to take with me on my travels. Astralagus is a Chinese medicine that has immunoregulatory features and works on the deep immune system. It's better to take across time, so I've been taking it solidly for weeks. I am cautious about recommending herbs and there is a lot of conflicting information out there, particularly about elderberry. It's also important to do your own research as some herbs might not be good for you - astralagus, for example, if you have an autoimmune disease. I am shocked at the amount of false information spreading on Facebook by people who simply swallow what they are told without doing their own deep research.
3. Vitamin C and Healthy Food
We all know Vitamin C is the boss of immunity, and easily accessible if you eat a healthy diet. So far, fruits and veggies have not been in short supply - I even got a huge pineapple yesterday and a bag of oranges, a few lemons, tomatoes and capsicum or peppers. I also have a few containers of amla, or Indian gooseberry, which I bought in Delhi. It's an fruit used in Ayurveda which is super high in Vitamin C. We'd actually bought it as it was about a tenth of the price of Vitamin C tablets, and as far as I could tell, even more potent and more effective. I'm reminded of using herbs and plants that are local to you and easy to access. If you can't get one, research another that might have the same effect.
I also came away from India with bagloads of spices - so many of which are excellent for nutrition and immune function. I bought a lot of ginger at the farmer's market too - another good one for immunity - and made the biggest, yummiest pot of dahl today. I ccould eat it every day and still not have enough - it's quite incredible! The trick is to add a really fresh garam masala, and chunks of cinnamon and ginger.
Is any of this going to guarantee I won't get ill?
No, of course not. But it might give me a fighting chance if I do get ill. It'll strengthen my system so I hopefully recover faster. And if I do get it, I have a bunch of other herbs on standby too - and if they don't work, the rest is in the hands of Kali, the dark goddess of time and death, and I'll happily obey these cosmic laws that are far bigger than me.
What are you doing to boost YOUR immune system? Do you have any issues with immune function? What herbs have you researched that might support your immunity?
If you'd like to write about it on HIVE, @naturalmedicine is hosting a challenge where you can win HIVE tokens and LOTUS. You can read about that here. The theme is 'immunity' - and you don't even have to mention the C Word!
- Vitamin D and the Immune System
- Yoga and the Immune System
- Mindfulness meditation and the immune system: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials
- Astralagus and the Immune System
- Astralagus - an Overview
- Vitamin C and immune function
