The Four Phases of the Menstrual Cycle

Women operate on a 28 day hormone cycle composed of four phases, the menstrual phase, the follicular phase, the ovulatory phase, and the luteal phase. 

Most women are probably familiar with the menstrual phase, and the ovulatory phase but many are not taught about all four phases in school, or how they affect the body, and each phase can affect the body in very drastic ways. Women can go through life feeling completely different week to week without even knowing why. If you’ve ever experienced the feeling of being on top of the world for a week, and then down in the slumps the next with no real logic or reasoning behind it, odds are you’re just transitioning from your ovulation phase to the luteal phase. These phases can go so far as to alter our face shape, in addition to our weight, and mood, so no, it’s not all in your head. 

I was one of those women who grew up not knowing about each of these four phases or really having any understanding of how my body worked and what it was designed to do. It took years of my adult life to learn this information and get in tune enough with my body to embrace these changes that we go through every month. 

I’ve broken down the four phases of the menstrual cycle below. While researching for this article it became clear to me that we are still learning about a lot of this information. Women’s health has not been researched or studied the same way men have. It just recently became known that women do in fact need more sleep than men, and the amount of sleep they need may vary at different times of the month. It seemed clear to me through my reading that the human body is complex, and this is a fluid cycle with some phases overlapping each other, some phases shorter, some longer but all equally important. 

The menstrual phase: 

The menstrual phase begins on the first day of your cycle and lasts anywhere between 3-7 days. Typically 3-5 days is considered healthy, 7 days is normal. Any longer than that is an indicator that your hormones are unbalanced, or a symptom of a greater problem. The menstrual phase is the shedding of the uterine lining to rid the body of the unfertilized egg. 

We’re all familiar with this. We often feel cranky and exhausted because our body is working over time. That being said, the menstrual cycle doesn’t have to be a time of extreme pain or discomfort. With a healthy diet and lifestyle, cramps can be eliminated. This is a great time to rest a little more than you usually would. Maybe do some yoga rather than a HITT class (although if you have the energy for an intensive workout, by all means go with the flow) This is a great time to get an extra hour of sleep at night or even take a nap if your lifestyle allows for it. Warm easy to digest foods can be a comfort during this phase of your cycle. 

Unfortunately, we live in a world where most people are forced to work all day outside the home regardless of the phase of their cycle, and they are constantly going against their body’s intuition, and are often expected to perform at the same level as they would in their follicular or ovulatory phase when their energy levels are higher. 

It is my personal opinion that this has created a generation of women who are both entirely out of tune with their natural cycles, and also deeply hateful towards their natural cycles, thinking of them as something to be suppressed and avoided at all costs instead of what really is- the ability to create and grow life, which is undoubtedly the greatest gift.  

During the menstrual phase the body is shedding its uterine lining to release your body’s unfertilized egg. It is common during this phase to gain weight, although it is mostly water weight and will come back off in your follicular phase. 

Follicular phase:

Your follicular phase is the longest phase in the menstrual cycle, it begins on the first day of menstruation and ends when you begin ovulation. On the tail end of your follicular phase, after menstruation ends you will likely notice your energy levels start to rise again. Your follicular phase is responsible for your egg being released from the ovaries for fertilization. One egg will reach maturity faster than the others and will be released from the ovarian follicles, through the fallopian tube. During this time, your body transitions into ovulation, and the egg is either fertilized and you become pregnant, or the egg dies and is released during your period. 

Ovulation phase:

This is typically your highest energy time of your cycle, and obviously, when you are ovulating. Your ovulation cycle is actually the only time you can get pregnant during your cycle, and your ovulation phase is typically around six days. During your ovulation phase your body is releasing an egg from your ovaries to allow it the opportunity to be fertilized. This time period is only 24-48 hours generally, and if the egg is not fertilized in this time, it will die, and be released during your period. The entire ovulation phase lasts about 6 days. Sperm can last in the uterus for up to 6 days before it dies, and if you have active sperm in your uterus within your ovulation window, then there is a good chance your egg will be fertilized. 

This is important for cycle tracking and syncing. If you’re using the family planning method of birth control, it is imperative to know when your ovulation window is so you know when you are most at risk of getting pregnant. 

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your current situation, this is when women naturally have the highest libido. Your body is quite literally preparing itself for sex, because this is the time when you should have sex in order to get pregnant. Try as you might, biology can be hard to fight. You may notice your libido increase during this time, your discharge may become thinner, and there may be more of it, and if you track your body’s basal body temperature, you’ll notice a slight increase in temperature around this time. 

Ovulation typically takes place 14 days before menstruation, in a healthy 28 day cycle. As previously mentioned, this is typically the highest energy phase of your cycle. This is a great time for intensive cardio or HITT workouts. Women often talk about feeling “unstoppable” or “on top of the world” during the ovulation phase, many women experience an increase in dopamine, and overall happy feelings. 

Many women, even those who are not particularly in tune may notice a difference in their appearance, or feel more attractive during ovulation. We’ve all felt the menstruation slump, feeling kind of blah right before or on your period but not everyone is in tune enough to experience the opposite while ovulating. But if you have ever experienced this- it’s not just you, and it’s not all in your head. There’s a kind of aura one radiates during ovulation- an aura of fertility. On a biological level, fertility is very attractive to people. It’s a sign of health, youth, and vitality. You’re less bloated, we experience an increase in estrogen, which can quite literally make your skin “glow” some women even notice a very subtle change in their face shape, and if you have a partner who is very in tune, and you live a natural lifestyle, they may even be able to smell when you’re ovulating as our pheromones can change slightly, making us smell better to certain people. 

Luteal phase: 

The luteal phase is the last phase of your cycle occurring after ovulation. The uterine lining and cervical mucus thicken to either prepare for pregnancy or to be shed and the egg is released into the uterus either for fertilization or to be released from the body. This is the phase of your cycle where you’re likely to experience PMS symptoms. Estrogen and progesterone levels rise. At this point either the egg is fertilized and ready for pregnancy, or you shed your uterine lining and begin the process over again. 

As this is the phase where you experience “PMS” fatigue, irritability and bloating are all common symptoms of this phase of your cycle. Taking B vitamins regularly leading up to your luteal phase and through your period can help alleviate some of the worse symptoms of your luteal phase, including mood swings and premenstrual depression. Eating a balanced and diverse diet full of whole foods and vegetables, and generally living a healthy lifestyle can also help eliminate these symptoms. If you do all these things, and still find that you are fatigued or drained during this time of the month, that is common and even normal. An extra hour of sleep or an afternoon nap if possible can help with this. Sometimes the best thing you can do is listen to your body, especially if your body is generally functioning at healthy optimum levels. 

BIrth Control:

Just in case you were wondering- hormonal birth control negates ALL of this. Hormonal birth control doesn’t even allow for ovulation. 

In fact, hormonal birth control only works because it prevents the natural process of ovulation, making sure the egg cannot be fertilized. There has been all sorts of research to indicate that hormonal birth control can radically change our bodies’ natural cycles, and affect us in radical ways, down to who we’re attracted to. 

Research indicates that women on hormonal birth control are typically attracted to less “manly” men, or men who are lower in testerone. There have been instances of women getting off hormonal birth control and later breaking up with their partners because they are no longer attracted to them, having had their preferences so skewed that they were with someone who did not align with their actual natural preferences in a partner. The book “Your Brain on Birth Control” talks more about this phenomenon. 

Each of our hormonal phases serves a different purpose and has value. Modern conditions and health standards have painted a picture of a tortured 10 days of mood swings, followed by bleeding, and cramps. Just because this is the prevailing narrative doesn’t mean that this is healthy or normal. Women can experience pain free periods, and menstruation can be a time to honor your body’s natural gift of bearing children. Even I have a hard time with this, it feels each month when my period comes around I’m once again reminded that I am no step closer to having a baby, and the bleeding isn’t what’d I’d call fun or comfortable, but still it doesn’t have to be a miserable week and you can do everything your normally would, without the need for pain medication or hormonal birth control. Learning about these phases is an important step to getting in tune with your body. 




The difference between Men and Women

I’m about to say something that to some, may seem controversial even though it is a fact of life. 

Men and women are different. Fundamentally, biologically, and naturally men and women are different. There are some things that men are better at than women, and some things that women are better at than men. Neither gender is better, or superior over the other but they are simply different. 

One of the biggest differences between men and women that is hardly ever discussed, is the hormonal difference between men and women. 

Yes of course, hormonally men and women are different. Many would argue that women are more emotional and “more” hormonal than men. But the reality is, men actually have a very similar hormonal cycle to women, as far as the swings that they go through and altering energy levels. However, the key difference is, as many know, women operate on a 28 hormonal cycle. Men, on the other hand, operate on a 24 hour hormonal cycle. 

Men experience a peak in testosterone (and energy) early in the morning typically around 8:00 pm, with a steady decrease over the next 8 hours. They experience their lowest levels of testerone between 7:00-9:00 pm, and then repeat the process of a gradual increase in testosterone over the next 8 hours while they sleep. 

Many women learn at some point in life about their hormonal cycle. Somewhere around age 14 or 15 we start our periods, the world ends, and we’re cursed to spend roughly the next 40-50 years in agony once a month, or so we’re taught to think. 

In reality, the “period” or menstrual phase, is just one of the four phases that women go through each month, with the other three being the luteal phase, follicular phase, and the ovulation phase. Your body is never not in one of these phases, and they all serve different purposes, and have pros and cons. 

If you’re interested in learning more in depth about the four different cycles women go through you can read this article here, but I’ve explained the basics below. 

The menstrual phase: 

The menstrual phase begins on the first day of your cycle and lasts anywhere between 3-7 days. Typically 3-5 days is considered healthy, 7 days is normal. Any longer than that is an indicator that your hormones are unbalanced. The menstrual phase is the shedding of the uterine lining to rid the body of the unfertilized egg. 

Follicular phase:

Your follicular phase is the longest phase in the menstrual cycle, it begins on the first day of menstruation and ends when you begin ovulation. Your follicular phase is responsible for your egg being released from the ovaries for fertilization. One egg will reach maturity faster than the others and will be released from the ovarian follicles, through the fallopian tube. During this time, your body transitions into ovulation, and the egg is either fertilized and you become pregnant, or the egg dies and is released during your period. 

Ovulation phase:

This is typically your highest energy time of your cycle. Your ovulation cycle is actually the only time you can get pregnant during your cycle, and your ovulation phase is typically around two weeks. During your ovulation phase your body is releasing an egg from your ovaries to allow it the opportunity to be fertilized. This time period is only 24-48 hours generally, and if the egg is not fertilized in this time, it will die, and be released during your period. Sperm can last in the uterus for up to 6 days before it dies, and if you have active sperm in your uterus within your ovulation window, then there is a good chance your egg will be fertilized. 

Luteal phase: 

The luteal phase is responsible for the thickening of the uterine lining and occurs just after ovulation. It is the last phase of your menstrual cycle and ends when your period starts, thus repeating the cycle. 

So we see these women go through changes week to week, experiencing higher energy levels at certain times of the month, vs others. Women may experience their luteal phase as being a particularly creative time for them, while their menstrual phase is a time that they need rest. 

All this to be said, it seems in this particular way men are set up to unfair advantage. Men go through all these hormonal cycles in a days time, and find their most productive, highest energy time is during the working hours, with decrease in energy levels during evening hours. Women, on the other hand, can struggle with performing at the same level every single week, with varying hormonal levels, or may be better suited to certain tasks during certain times of the month than others. 

Additionally, women need more sleep than men. It’s always been advised that we get an even eight hours, however, as we do more research and begin to really explore the differences between men and women, we’ve learned than many do better with 9-10 hours a night of sleep. If you’ve ever felt lazy or unproductive for needing these extra hours, you’re not alone, and it turns out it may be what you needed all along. Additionally, women often need more sleep during certain phases of their cycle. Eight and half hours may be suitable during the ovulation phase when you have more energy, but you may need closer to 10 during your menstrual cycle. 

All of these factors, and more, contribute to men and women oftentimes thriving in different environments. Once upon a time, menstruating women used to leave the village and spend several days alone by the river, or with other menstruating women. While to some this may be seen as ostracizing, some think of this as an opportunity to embrace community and allow women to have the rest that they truly need during a time that can be quite taxing on the body. 

Today, however, we live in a world where were told that women can do everything men can do, and that women should be girl bosses who work high demanding corporate jobs. I’m certainly not saying that women can’t hold these positions. I’m simply saying that if you have no desire for such a thing, or if you would rather live a lifestyle that allows you to embrace your body’s most natural cycles that anyone, man or woman, should be able to do that. 

Men and women are not the same, and we may find that our bodies work and feel better if we’re allowed to live in a state closer to optimization. 




What is Deep Tissue Repair Oil

Deep tissue repair oil is one of the most helpful formulas in my arsenal of supplements and tinctures. I use it almost daily for a mired of different things. Primarily, as the name suggests, deep tissue repair oil is used for deep tissue injuries. You can apply deep tissue to any sore muscle, ache, pain, bruise or internal injury that you may be dealing with. I haven’t discovered anything that works as well as this. You can also use it on external inflammation, I like to use it on red spots and zits whenever they may occur, and this oil can drastically reduce the appearance of redness very quickly. You can also apply small amounts to your temples to help with headaches. 

When I was training jiujitsu during covid I broke or bruised a rib (never went to the doctor to confirm which, what good is a doctor for a broken rib anyway). I could barely move and could hardly sleep at night. Recovery was not easy but with persistent application of deep tissue oil, as well as alternating a hot and cold compress, I was back on the mats within 3 weeks. I applied deep tissue oil before each training session and could hardly feel my injury as I finished up healing. Deep tissue oil continued to be a saving grace for me during training throughout the years.

I’ve shared this product with many friends and family and they all continue to use it to this day. Deep tissue is full of anti inflammatory and naturally healing properties. Below I break down the ingredients and what they’re used for. 

Jojoba oil is an oil that is beneficial for skin, hair, and nails. It has properties to help with sunburns and is good for moisturizing skin. It has general nourishing properties for the skin, hair, and nails but in this particular blend it works largely as a neutral carrier oil for other ingredients and to help aid in moisturizing the skin. 

Arnica is a flower, in this formula we infuse arnica into the oil we use. Arnica has many anti-inflammatory properties. It can aid in healing bruises, sprains, muscle aches, wounds such as cuts and scratches, and can soothe bug bites, swelling from broken bones, and burns. 

Calendula has anti inflammatory properties and is great for rashes, it is also anti fungal and antimicrobial making it great for aiding in the relief of wounds. 

Comfry leaf is similar to Arnica flower in its anti inflammatory properties however it can be toxic if taken orally in large doses. Comfry can help repair skin cells making it a powerful aid in treating burns, wounds, and joint inflammation like sprains.  

Wintergreen oil has cooling properties that can aid in healing muscle inflammation, aches and pains and swelling caused by injury. It can also help with headaches, alleviate muscle pain, joint pain arthritis, lumbago, and bursitis

Similar to wintergreen oil, menthol crystals having cooling properties that provide relief to different kinds of inflammation based aches and pains. It can be used for cold and flu relief as well as sprains, bruises etc. 

Both wintergreen and menthol crystals are also said to have anti microbial properties. 

Cayenne pepper has pain relief properties when applied topically. The heat generated from cayenne can help numb the area it’s applied to, and it also helps improve blood circulation.

Ginger root can promote blood flow and increased circulation making it great for aiding in the healing properties of this tincture. It also said to help reduce scarring, and has anti-inflammatory properties.

Olive oil moisturizing and acts as a good carrier oil for the other ingredients in this tincture, as well as helping to regrow skin sells.

While this tincture has some aggressive ingredients such as cayenne and menthol, it can be helpful for aiding in wounds and burns, but not the most pain free for topical wounds. If you’re looking for something more gentle, or something to treat topical issues, the herbal first aid salve might be a better fit. Both the deep tissue repair oil, and the herbal first aid salve can be purchased on our website. You can order deep tissue repair oil here.




The Mediterranean Diet May Help Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease

Research has shown that the Mediterranean diet may lower your risk for dementia by interfering with the build-up of amyloid, and tau. These are proteins that turn into plaques and tangles often resulting in Alzheimer’s disease.

The true diet is simple, plant-based cooking, with the majority of each meal focused on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and seeds, with a few nuts and a heavy emphasis on extra-virgin olive oil. Fats other than olive oil, such as butter, are consumed rarely, if at all. And say goodbye to refined sugar or flour.

Mediterranean diet may prevent memory loss and dementia, study finds

Researchers found that for every point of higher compliance with the diet participants had one less year of brain aging. The study was published in Neurology, and examined 343 people who were at high risk for Alzheimer’s and then compared them to 169 “cognitively normal” participants.

Researchers tested cognitive skills, (language, memory, and executive function), used brain scans to measure brain volume, and tested spinal fluid from 226 people for amyloid an tau protein biomarkers.

Participants were then asked how well they were following the diet and found that those who did not follow the diet closely had more signs of amyloid and tau buildup than those who did.

This study is not the first of its kind. A previous study of nearly 6,000 older Americans showed that those who followed the Mediterranean diet or similar lowered their risk of dementia by a third.

The Mediterranean diet is one that closely follows OLM’s own recommended diet. With staples of whole grains and legumes, fresh fruits and vegetables, and no flour or refined sugar those who follow the Mediterranean diet are going to be much better off than those who follow a traditional western diet.

Related:



Natural Pain Relief for Athletes

Being an athlete can take quite a toll on the body, even with a great diet. Over weeks of training I’ve found that even on the best diet, I’m bound to run into injuries and soreness. That being said there are several things that make a big difference in how I feel the next day and rather or not I’m able to train the next day.

Currently, I’m training for a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu competition in May. I’m new, and my workload isn’t nearly that of a seasoned professional athlete, but for the average person, it’s intense.

Every day I do a full body weight lifting workout, yoga, stretching and breath control, 100 bodyweight squats, three sets of push-ups and pull-ups, drilling and training with my dad for about 20 minutes, a mile run, and training at the gym for 3-4 hours a day.

Most injuries I get heal quickly. Since starting Brazilian jiujitsu I’ve suffered jammed toes, a bruised trachea, a pulled quad muscle, and most recently a pulled muscle in my rib area near my spine. Every other injury has been quick to heal, gone in three days at the most. My rib injury took longer to heal. Even after it got better, I spent weeks being sore in that area and having to pay special attention not to reinjure it.

I’ve got a competition soon so extended time off isn’t an option, nor is any sort of pain management that would slow my healing long term. I don’t take pain medication of any sort, nor do I use recreational pain relief like cannabis. Cannabis and over-the-counter pain relief, as well as prescription pain medication all slow down the healing process exponentially for temporary relief.

I view my pain (and many other things in life) like a credit card. Using medication to relieve pain temporarily means dealing with a longer lasting injury, and more pain in the long run. For instance, if I have an injury that hurts at a 6 out of 10, I can smoke some weed or take some other pain medication. But once it wears off that 6 becomes a 7, maybe an 8. And of course, the next dose of pain relief won’t be as effective unless you up the dosage. That’s not my idea of a desirable feedback loop.

To promote healing, we do hot-cold compresses switching back and forth to attract blood flow and inflammation for healing. In the end, we use lots of deep tissue oil on the area. Deep tissue repair oil is my number one recommendation for pain relief and healing if you’re only going to use one thing to aid in the healing process. I use it multiple times a day when I feel sore and before or after a workout. Deep tissue oil has menthol crystals, cayenne, wintergreen oil, and other things to promote healing and attract blood flow to the target area.

I also do hot epsom salt baths as often as needed. It’s nothing revolutionary, but epsom salt does help release tension, relax the muscles and prevent soreness.

Many people recommend Boswellia, an herbal extract, to help with inflammation and pain. Although I’ve never used it, you can read more about it and its benefits in this article.

I stretch and do yoga every day to work on flexibility and aid in healing as well. Even if I’m injured to the point of being unable to workout, I still stretch for movement and healing.

Many other athletes have done down similar paths of using natural remedies to help heal, but very few go deep enough to get the full benefits. Acupuncture and chiropractic care are two examples of holistic routes that some people go down, but as great as they are, they’re really only temporary pain relief. Acupuncture and chiropractic work can be great aids for the body in addition to a healthy diet and routine, but they don’t fix any problems on their own.

Diet

Without a healthy diet, I wouldn’t be able to do this every day, but I’ve learned that there’s a difference between fueling my body for everyday life, and my diet when I’m training. When I’m training, I eat a high caloric diet with lots of protein. My main sources of protein are eggs, meat, and cheese. I generally eat less than a pound of meat a week. I have a little bacon in every salad, and between one and three nights a week, we’ll have sausage or bacon in dinner. I also eat homemade beef jerky for protein in between classes.

Eating an anti-inflammatory diet is probably the most important part of my healing process because it goes beyond just healing. My diet is even more strict than it was prior to fighting, although prior to fighting I ate better than almost anyone I knew. I have to eat a diet that not only aids in healing but prevents me from getting injured frequently. With the right diet, you can make your body impervious to injury. I don’t sit around and wait for an injury to start eating a diet that promotes healing.

Every day I eat a large salad with lots of different vegetables. Diversity is an extremely important part of a healthy diet that many people are missing. There are lots of professional athletes who have figured out that a healthy diet allows them to perform radically better, along with recovering faster and overall feeling better. That being said, not many people have figured out that there’s a big difference between eating some kale salad and eating a 10-cup salad with kale, collards, rainbow chard, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, and more. My salads have at least 10 different vegetables and herbs in them. This article goes into how I make my salads and cranberry lemonade.

Three to four times a week I drink my “anti-inflammatory smoothie“. I make it with an abundance of anti-inflammatory foods like ginger, pineapple, cranberries, tart cherries, and turmeric (to name a few). I drink lots of cranberry lemonade to flush out toxins and inflammation, as well as stay hydrated. Lastly, I obviously avoid inflammatory foods. I limit my grains and avoid corn (although occasionally we make homemade tortillas). I don’t even eat oatmeal anymore, because it’s too similar to gluten in the way it digests and causes inflammation.

Many fighters and bodybuilders eat lots of oatmeal as a good source of protein and fuel. For many people, it’s great. But, like most other grains, it’s inflammatory. I feel it when I eat them. I’ll bet if you’re paying attention, you can too. When I’m in need of protein and fuel I stick to things like eggs, homemade beef jerky, walnuts, chia seeds, and raw sheep’s cheese.

It seems like the list of foods I can’t eat is extremely long, but the list of foods I can and do eat is even longer. The guidelines are pretty simple, make everything from scratch, eat tons of raw veggies, eat tons of cooked veggies, and avoid any and all things processed.

Supplements

With a healthy diet the average person shouldn’t need to take supplements everyday when they’re healthy, but someone who’s pushing their body on an athletes level may find that they function better with supplements.

Currently, I take Sf722 every day, generally because I eat a lot of fruit. Sf722 also helps pump my body full of good stuff similar to salads. Without Sf722 my skin can be prone to breaking out from rolls on the mats, and my healing and recovery slows. I also take Abzorb, or other enzymes to help with digestion, especially if I eat pasteurized nuts. I take vitamin D, Vitamin B, and thyroid and/or pituitary glandular supplements to prevent endocrine system crashes.

When you’ve taken antibiotics or medication or done anything to eradicate your gut microbiome, your gut isn’t producing enough vitamin B. This can be one of the last things to correct itself after you’re healthy. Taking vitamin B helps heal your gut and helps the endocrine system by providing your body with vitamins that your gut should be producing.

When you’re overweight, even just a small amount your body has a hard time assimilating vitamin D from the sun. not to mention most of us don’t get enough sunlight anyways. Being overweight also leads to extra stress on the kidneys (and lower back) and the endocrine system.

Sleep

Diet and sleep are equally as important for overall health, and when it comes to how sore I am and my recovery time for an injury. Unfortunately, it can be hard to get a good night’s sleep when my injury is severe enough, but it’s always a top priority.

I always get a minimum of 8 hours of sleep. Regardless of the quality of sleep, I’m in bed trying to sleep for at least 8 hours. Sometimes depending on the workout the day before, or how an injury is healing, I can get more than 10 hours of sleep.

Related: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

Training

While training anything contact or combat related it’s extremely important than you learn how to protect yourself from injury while drilling and rolling. It took me way too long to learn how to fall properly in jiujitsu, and it’s still a work in progress. Falling down wrong was the number one cause of injury for me while training.

Related: Running Without Knee Pain

That being said, once I learned how to protect myself from injury I found that training was actually extremely important for healing my most recently injury. So, if you can move, move. Staying active and using your body is extremely important for working your muscles and building them back stronger after an injury.

Generally, I use the rule use it or lose it. Broken bones often don’t need casts (and strong healthy bones are harder to break). Staying active is usually your best bet for healing quickly.

Conclusion

Some days I wake up barely able to move! Training this hard has been really intense, but I know that with the way I do things, my recovery time is radically faster than anyone else I know doing the same thing as me.

In my experience the most important thing to do is to be in tune with your body to an extreme. The moment something isn’t right I can tell, and I can feel a difference in the way certain foods fuel my body. I track my sleep and my diet, and when things aren’t working the way they should I back track and examine where I might have gone wrong.

This takes time, and it takes mistakes. I’ve experimented with lots of different foods and routines and I’ve seen how certain things make me feel, and how they effect my performance. Working out and being active is a wonderful thing, but it doesn’t mean much if you’re not healthy enough to sustain it.




Natural Coronavirus Prevention

It’s important to note that when looking at studies for supplementation to prevent or help treat coronavirus we’re usually looking at research on supplement efficacy for other viruses. We’re dealing with a novel virus with this pandemic. But, the body is a holistic, complex system. Having a body in homeostasis during a pandemic only makes sense. And while coronavirus is new and different, it’s still a virus. And we have a lot of good science on how to help prevent virus infections.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C has long been touted to cure everything from cancer to liver failure. Studies show that ingesting vitamin C supplements does not seem to be the cure-all we’d hoped for but the studies that administer intravenous vitamin C look very promising. If our pharmaceutical industry had our best interests at heart patients who are being treated for severe cases of coronavirus would be administered IV Vitamin C, and many lives would likely be saved.

Regular injections aren’t practical for normal people, and we suspect there might be a few side effects if people use injections regularly as a preventative measure. But Vitamin C injections do show a lot of promise for treating many diseases.

This is not to say that vitamin C supplementation is useless. If you don’t have enough vitamin C in your body when you get sick the vitamin C may reduce severity and duration, but not much. A better way to get enough vitamin C in order to prevent disease is to eat the right foods before there is a health issue.

If you think you may be low on vitamin C, liposomal is the more absorbable form of vitamin C.

It’s not a magical cure-all, but Vitamin C supplementation does make sense for most people with conventional diets.

Related: Homemade Vitamin C

Zinc

Zinc helps your immune system fight off infection, helps the body heal wounds, and is needed for making protein and DNA.

There have been several studies testing whether zinc supplements can help treat or prevent the common cold. A comprehensive review of 18 of such studies showed zinc is may reduce the duration of patients’ common cold.

Studies also show that colds, school absences, and antibiotic prescription rates are lower in for those who take zinc supplementation regularly, suggesting that zinc could also prevent colds.

The National Institutes of Health says oysters as the best food source of zinc avaialble. Another benefits of oysters is they have copper in just the right amount to make the zinc more easily absorbed and assimilated (if you don’t have enough copper you can’t get enough zinc). You can also get zinc from red meat, legumes, nuts, whole grains, and dairy.

Zinc has been proven to reduce symptoms of illnesses from rhinoviruses by messing with the viruses’ RNA replication, but there are no studies yet that look at zinc with COVID-19. We don’t know how similar COVID-19 is to rhinoviruses, but it is possible that zinc could mess with the RNA replication of coronavirus in a similar way. Regardless, getting enough zinc to keep your immune system strong makes sense for the other aforementioned reasons.

Related: Celiac, Zinc, and Tobacco Use

Glutathione

COVID-19 deaths are usually attributed to a “cytokine storm”, which is a physiological feedback loop where our body creates an excessive release of cytokines, a pro-inflammatory signaling molecule. A new study has evaluated the treatment of two patients with COVID-19 pneumonia who were given IV and orally administered glutathione.

Oral and IV glutathione, glutathione precursors (N-acetyl-cysteine) and alpha lipoic acid may represent a novel treatment approach for blocking NF-κB and addressing “cytokine storm syndrome” and respiratory distress in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.

Science Direct – Respiratory Medicine Case Reports

Obviously, this is only two cases that were studied. We need a lot more information. But there are some other papers that support supplementing with glutathione, but there is nothing yet conclusive.

Dr. Richard Horowitz is a board-certified internist with a private integrative medicine practice. He is considered to be one of the best Lyme disease doctors and he’s built a practice around combining conventional treatments with alternative, naturopathic methods to treat Lyme disease. Dr. Horowitz has treated patents successfully with glutathione therapy.

“It is a miracle and it’s not,” says Horowitz of glutathione, which he has used on thousands of patients in his medical practice over the past 30 years. “It’s already in the literature—there are published articles on glutathione showing that it has anti-viral activity against herpes viruses, HIV, and hepatitis. The problem is, all of the COVID research is happening through pharmaceutical companies. No one is looking at natural approaches. You hear a little about how low vitamin D might put you at risk, so it’s coming out in dribs and drabs.” And just like with vitamin D, you can be deficient in glutathione—especially if you’ve been exposed to a lot of environmental toxins (which is everyone). Older people are also more likely to be depleted of the compound.

Two Potential Treatments for COVID-19 Unfold in the Hudson Valley 

Vitamin D

Dr. Rhonda Patrick at Found My Fitness thinks vitamin D may be what those who are getting hit with COVID-19 are missing. Other interesting points include:

  • People with genetic predisposition to lower vitamin D levels are more likely to die of respiratory disease
  • People with normal vitamin D levels are less likely to die from respiratory disease
  • Too much vitamin D can be toxic, though concerns of hypercalcemia tend to be overblown
  • Vitamin D and Vitamin K increase may increase bone density and prevent hypercalcemia
  • Don’t be concerned with eating “too many leafy greens” and issues with oxalates, kidney stones, etc.

Gut Health

This is the key. Not just for coronavirus defense, but for our health in every physical aspect of our lives. You cannot have a healthy gut and be low in vitamin D, or zinc, or other nutrients. Gut health is everything. When the best farmers see a sick plant they treat their soil’s microbiome first and foremost. When we’re sick, our microbiome is off. When we’re well and everything is working optimally we have a balanced, healthy gut to thank.

In the first case of novel coronavirus reported in the U.S., the patient reported two days of nausea and vomiting along with diarrhea in addition to respiratory symptoms. In some small studies, researchers have linked patients with gastrointestinal issues to poorer coronavirus outcomes. Poor gut health seems to equate to severe disease symptoms including higher fevers and a greater risk of liver injury.

The suggestion is that the gastrointestinal symptoms are caused by the virus invading the ACE2-containing cells that are found throughout the bowel. This, together with the presence of the virus in the stool, suggests the gastrointestinal tract as another possible route of infection and transmission.

The Conversation – Worried about coronavirus? Pay attention to your gut

But it’s not just that the virus attacks the gut. Science is on the verge of discovering that our gut microbiome supplies our entire body with its microbiome. And what they don’t yet know, but is nevertheless true, is that a body with a healthy, diverse, and plentiful microbiome is a much less hospitable host for foreign invaders.

The health of our gut bacteria plays a crucial role in how our immune system reacts to every disease, including coronavirus. Diet is crucial to developing and maintaining healthy gut flora. The wider variety of raw vegetables and herbs one consumes, the more diverse one’s gut bacteria will be. And diversity is key to a healthy microbiome.

This article, How To Heal Your Gut, goes into detail about how to develop a healthy gut microbiome and is the basis for ridding the body of and being less susceptible to nearly every disease.

From our sister company, Green Lifestyle Market, here are our top supplement picks for anyone concerned with COVID-19 or just wanting to keep their immune system strong:

But don’t skip the aforementioned gut health article! Diet is far more important than supplements, and if finances are tight, put your money towards healthy food before you purchase supplements.




Data Shows How to Protect Against Coronavirus and We Address Conspiracy Theories

I’m not, nor have I been, concerned with contracting COVID-19. Pathogens infect people who are vulnerable. The concept of random/chance infections doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. If a pathogen does kill everyone and anyone regardless of how healthy the host is the pathogen would burn out its host supply. Evolutionarily speaking this isn’t something that makes sense.

The medical science community is just now discovering how gut health is synonymous with overall health. Of course, they’re trying to figure out what drugs can be made from the revelations and not how one can take their health into their own hands because the truth is not profitable. The truth is the only way to sustain proper gut health is to continually eat a wide variety of raw vegetables and herbs while avoiding toxic foods and chemicals that imbalance the microbiome.

Studies are showing a number of factors that play a role in the severity of COVID-19 symptoms. Some of these we have control of and some of these we don’t. Let’s start with those we have no control over.

Age

Viruses like influenza are more likely to injure and kill both the young and the older population, given their more vulnerable immune systems. But COVID-19 is a little different.

Children under the age of 18 are far less likely to have symptoms of infection, and they are also less likely to need hospitalization, and kids are less likely to die of COVID-19.

People over the age of 75, on the other hand, are far more susceptible to the worst COVID-19 has to offer. Below is a chart with data provided by New York City Health as of May 13, 2020.

AGE Number of Deaths Share of deaths
0 – 17 years old 9 0.06%
18 – 44 years old 601 3.90%
45 – 64 years old 3,413 22.40%
65 – 74 years old 3,788 24.90%
75+ years old 7,419 48.70%
TOTAL 15,230 100%
Age of coronavirus deaths via World Meters

The data we have is very limited so far but China and other countries, and other states within the U.S. show numbers for 75+ between 20% and 35%.

As you probably heard in the news, coronavirus has been hitting nursing homes hard.

Sex

Men are much more likely to suffer symptoms from coronavirus than women. Data provided by New York City Health as of April 1st states that 61.8% of fatalities are men. Other studies of other regions show similar percentages. Researchers are trying to figure out why. Men face higher risk of complications with other respiratory illnesses as well, as the flu also affects men disproportionately.

The evidence in current studies points towards men having weaker immune systems than women, especially when it comes to common viral respiratory infections. Men are more susceptible to them, symptoms are worse, they last longer, and men are more likely to be hospitalized and die from the flu.

Sue is a clinical assistant professor in family medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland

study published in Frontiers in Public Health reported that men and women were equally likely to contract the novel coronavirus.

So why are men more likely to die? Theories range from how testosterone affects the body to the fact that men are often less likely to take care of themselves. As usual, it’s likely a confluence of issues.

Blood Type

A study found that people with blood type A were 50% more likely to experience severe COVID-19 symptoms than people with other blood types. On the flip side, those with blood type O were 50% less likely to face severe symptoms of COVID-19. 

Race

CDC statistics show that 33% of people who’ve been hospitalized with COVID-19 are African American. Some local communities that report data have found similar patterns.

Black people make up only 13% of the U.S. population but they make up more than 30% of COVID deaths, according to research from Johns Hopkins University.

The disproportionate death rate may be significantly explained by the fact that there’s a higher prevalence of obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes among African Americans compared with Caucasians. But there’s more to it than that.

Black workers are also more likely to have employment that does not allow them to work from home, and they are less likely to have the safety nets that allow them to take time off. There’s a likely possibility that the African American community is more likely to be exposed to the virus. Detroit was hit particularly hard by the pandemic, but the daily cases and the death rate in Michigan have been on the decline for some time, indicating that the virus may have run its course. Perhaps Detroit inadvertently followed Sweden’s model.

Related: Sweden’s Approach To Coronavirus, and Did It Work? What Should We Have Done?

While doctors warn against taking high doses of vitamin D The NHS says wants people to consider taking 10 micrograms of vitamin D3 a day throughout the pandemic – particularly if they spend most of their time inside.

Besides blood type, most of the data above indicates that health plays a big role in determining the outcome of someone who is infected by CVOID-19. The data below proves it.

Underline Medical Conditions and Immunocompromised

Of people who were sick enough to be hospitalized with coronavirus, 89% had at least one chronic condition. About half of those patients had high blood pressure and obesity, about a third of the patients had diabetes, and another third had cardiovascular disease.

People with obesity tend to be more likely to develop heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other health issues.

Besides staying fit, what else can one do to protect themselves from COVID-19? Vitamin D, Glutathione, and most importantly, gut health play an enormously important role in determining one’s ability to fight off COVID-19.

Vitamin D

Some studies have indicated that vitamin D deficiency is linked to poorer outcomes with coronavirus. There are not any studies showing the vitamin D supplementation can help one overcome the virus, and other underlying risk factors, such as heart disease and diabetes make it hard to draw conclusions because people with these conditions are often low in vitamin D.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njrQxR0neV4&list=WL&index=2&t=102s

Glutathione

COVID-19 deaths are attributed to something called a “cytokine storm”, a physiological reaction in which our immune system causes an excessive release of cytokines, a pro-inflammatory signaling molecule. The only treatments modern medicine knows to do for this symptom are oxygen therapy and assisted ventilation.

A new study has evaluated the effects of dose oral and IV glutathione in the treatment of two patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.

Oral and IV glutathione, glutathione precursors (N-acetyl-cysteine) and alpha lipoic acid may represent a novel treatment approach for blocking NF-κB and addressing “cytokine storm syndrome” and respiratory distress in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.

Science Direct – Respiratory Medicine Case Reports

To be clear, that’s only two cases that were studied in that paper. There are other papers that support the hypothesis, but there is nothing yet conclusive.

Dr. Richard Horowitz, a board-certified internist with a private integrative medicine practice is considered to be one of thes top Lyme disease doctors. He has built a practice around combining classical and complementary treatments for Lyme diseases. 

“It is a miracle and it’s not,” says Horowitz of glutathione, which he has used on thousands of patients in his medical practice over the past 30 years. “It’s already in the literature—there are published articles on glutathione showing that it has anti-viral activity against herpes viruses, HIV, and hepatitis. The problem is, all of the COVID research is happening through pharmaceutical companies. No one is looking at natural approaches. You hear a little about how low vitamin D might put you at risk, so it’s coming out in dribs and drabs.” And just like with vitamin D, you can be deficient in glutathione—especially if you’ve been exposed to a lot of environmental toxins (which is everyone). Older people are also more likely to be depleted of the compound.

Two Potential Treatments for COVID-19 Unfold in the Hudson Valley 

Gut Health

In the first case of novel coronavirus reported in the U.S., the patient reported two days of nausea and vomiting along with diarrhea in addition to respiratory symptoms. In some small studies, researchers have linked patients with gastrointestinal issues to poorer coronavirus outcomes. Poor gut health seems to equate to severe disease symptoms including higher fevers and a greater risk of liver injury.

The suggestion is that the gastrointestinal symptoms are caused by the virus invading the ACE2-containing cells that are found throughout the bowel. This, together with the presence of the virus in the stool, suggests the gastrointestinal tract as another possible route of infection and transmission.

The Conversation – Worried about coronavirus? Pay attention to your gut

But it’s not just that the virus attacks the gut. Science is on the verge of discovering that our gut microbiome supplies our entire body with its microbiome. And what they don’t yet know, but is nevertheless true, is that a body with a healthy, diverse, and plentiful microbiome is a much less hospitable host for foreign invaders.

The health of our gut bacteria plays a crucial role in how our immune system reacts to every disease, including coronavirus. Diet is crucial to developing and maintaining healthy gut flora. The wider variety of raw vegetables and herbs one consumes, the more diverse one’s gut bacteria will be. And diversity is key to a healthy microbiome.

This article, How To Heal Your Gut, goes into detail about how to develop a healthy gut microbiome and is the basis for ridding the body of and being less susceptible to nearly every disease.

From our sister company, Green Lifestyle Market, here are our top four supplement picks for anyone concerned with COVID-19:

But don’t skip the aforementioned gut health article! Diet is far more important than supplements, and if finances are tight, put your money towards healthy food before you purchase supplements.

And now that you have some facts to arm yourself against COVID-19, let’s talk analysis some of the so-called “fake news” that’s going around regarding coronavirus.

Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories

Germs are real, and they can kill you. But cellular health is what separates the vulnerable from the robust immune systems. Your gut is the engine that powers your body. While this should seem obvious to anyone who has even a rudimentary understanding of biology, it’s still considered conspiracy theory to suggest that getting ill with a virus is anything more than bad luck, even though the science continually supports our position. Speaking of conspiracy theories, let’s debunk a few.

Coronavirus Doesn’t Exist

Enough people have been sick and enough people have died that this conspiracy should be put to rest. On social media, there are lots of posts asking, “Do you know anyone who has actually gotten coronavirus?” Yes, I do. And when I comment as such I am often accused of being in on the conspiracy, or they say the people I know died of something else falsely attributed to COVID-19 (which does have some truth to it, considering that healthy people do not die from this disease). The problem with the biggest conspiracies, like flat-earth, is that people just don’t keep secrets well enough. If coronavirus were a hoax, there would be massive amounts of people sounding the alarm.

It’s 5G

There are many people claiming that people who think they are suffering from COVID-19 are actually being killed by 5G wireless. The timing is close but not close enough to make this conspiracy work. It is possible that 5G infrastructure could exacerbate symptoms, but that’s also true for glyphosate, refined sugar, fluoride, and other toxins we ingest daily. There aren’t yet any studies on the effects of 5G because the cellular companies don’t want them, but some studies that indicate 4G is associated with problems for our health. And if the studies’ conclusions are true, 5G is likely to be worse. But there are also a lot of studies that indicate cellular frequencies don’t directly harm our health. What we do know for sure is that radiation from towers and our cellphones, and Wi-Fi, is harming birds and bees along with other animals and insects. This is reason enough to be concerned with our own health regarding EMFs. Whether it’s direct effects or indirect (environmental degradation), EMFs aren’t good for us.

The Coronavirus is a Bioweapon

You may have heard that Bill Gates had coronavirus created In a lab to implement the New World Order and install human trackers on all of us.

Bill Gates is a dangerous man with many foolish ideas. But he’s not powerful enough to pull this off and I don’t think he’s “evil”. He seems to be a perfect example of how true this quote is:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!

Upton Sinclair or curmudgeon H. L. Mencken

But the engineering of viruses is happening, and we’d be foolish to completely rule out the idea that a government or company would accidentally or purposefully release such a virus. The vast majority of scientists don’t believe COVID-19 was engineered accidentally or on purpose, but viruses are being genetically modified. There are some scientists who do believe COVID-19 was manufactured, and governments, as well as corporations, have been known to lie to us every chance they get.

This is a Made Up Virus to Get Trump Out of Office

The virus isn’t made up, but it’s pretty clear the left is leveraging the pandemic to help get Trump out of office. For evidence, there is plenty of blatant hypocrisy to chose from. If things were reversed, the Democrats would be all about restarting the economy while republicans would be sheltering in place and screaming about how Dems are trying to kill us all.

Conclusion

I stated that healthy people aren’t dying from coronavirus. With some online searching, it is easy to find plenty of media claiming this is not true. Stories such as one about a very physically fit man who almost died of coronavirus and one about a child in California who died are used as “A devastating reminder that COVID-19 infects people of all ages.” But it’s important to note that these cases are extremely rare, and one should also understand that strength and physical fitness are not synonymous with good health. Many men who can run marathons in their 20s and 30s develop autoimmune diseases in their 40s. Children who died, as rare as this is, were not in good health either.

If the CDC had our best interests in mind, they would have at least said something about the importance of eating right during a pandemic instead of trying to frighten us into sheltering in place.