I am now one of the millions of people in the world who has experienced the infamous Covid-19 virus. I thought that I would share with you my experience and what measures I took along the way.

My first reflection – I did not acknowledge I had it

When I am writing this post it is in the middle of the summer. The virus has historically been less active during these periods. But now it seems to be active all year around. It all started with a sore throat for me. My initial thought to this was that I believed it was connected to allergies. Firstly because it is the season of a lot of allergens flying around in the air from trees and grass. And secondly I have lately been subjected to all kinds of mast cell activations (e.g. gut issues, fatigue, itchy skin and hives, sneezing, swollen throat). So I thought this was simply an allergic response that I was experiencing. Then it advanced to also give me unreasonable fatigue – I still thought it was my histamine issues. But when its symptoms suddenly changed to an incredibly runny nose, then I started thinking that this was probably a cold of some kind.

Insight – I had contracted Covid-19!

My next step was then to test myself and lo and behold, it came out positive!

Now what?

Ok so I had gotten the virus, what do I do now? I always want an action plan for me when things get rough in life, and this was of course no exception. I will share with you my actions and also my experiences around this virus and what I have learned about it along the way. It seems to affect people with metabolic dysfunction (e.g. obesity, diabetes type 2, high blood pressure and other illness’ that is connected to insulin resistance) worse than others. If you have visited my blog before you might know that one of the most important factors that I focus on regarding health is to work on my metabolic flexibility. This means to take care of the mitochondria in my cells, the powerhouse that gives me energy each day. So before I discuss the activities that I included to help myself work myself through this infection. I want to emphasize the importance of a healthy lifestyle as preventive measure to Covid-19 but also in general to all kinds of different disease that we have in our society.

My action plan!

Have you heard about the saying “feed a cold, starve a fever?”. I interpret this as if you have a bacterial infection, you should be mindful about not going too long without food. But if you have a virus, you are better off to implement fasting as a means to help you fight the virus. Feeding your body will also essentially feed the virus and give it energy – especially if you consume sugar and refined carbohydrates. So as a part of my daily routine I gave myself anything between 15 – 20 hours of fasting. Once I opened up my eating window, I made sure to eat nutrient dense meals and keep it low carb. If I included some carbs, it was mainly natures carbs such as berries or root vegetables.

Here is my actions in bullet list style

• 15 – 20 hours of fasting each day
  
  
• Ate a low-carb and nutrient dense diet
  
  
• Supplemented with D-vitamin and got daily sunlight on my skin
  The functionality of D-vitamin in the body is to ensure that the immune system gives an appropriate response to whatever it is attacked by. You do not want a cytokine storm for example, that would be an overreaction. Nor do you want a too vague response. You want just the perfect response that is required to defeat the virus as quickly as possible.
  
  
• Supplemented with magnesium
  Magnesium is involved in hundreds of different processes in the body. Most of us are magnesium deficient hence it is a good idea to take some on a daily basis. One thing I want to bring up when it comes to magnesium and the immune system is that it assist with the conversion of inactive vitamin-D into active vitamin-D. The body need the active version in order to utilize it hence you can understand the importance of this relationship working optimally.
  
  
• Supplemented with zinc
  It helps the immune system fight off invading bacteria and viruses. Also the post-covid symptom of loss of smell and taste can apparently be mitigated by supplementing with zinc. I lost my smell and taste for three days roughly but then it came back.
  
  
• I took hot baths
  Intentionally increasing the body temperature mimics a fever and helps to sweat out the infection
  
  
• Gave me the best prerequisites for good sleep
  Poor sleep lowers the immune system.
  
  

My symptoms in chronological order

1. Sore throat
2. Sore throat and unreasonable fatigue
3. Runny nose, stuffy head, and headache
4. Mix of runny and stuffy nose along with fatigue
5. Loss of taste and smell
6. Periods of fatigue and stuffy nose

Summary

From the very first symptom until I felt ready to start to train again it took 11 days. I had no idea what to expect when I got this virus. But I had good faith in that I had a lifestyle that gave me the best prerequisites to fight it in case I would get it. So with that knowledge I stayed positive and followed my action plan. Luckily, I was not particularly disturbed at night, so I got good recovery and sleep. This along with reducing as much stress as possible I think was a key part in me not being too affected.