You don’t know when you will encounter this virus or another, but chances are you will be exposed. Will your body be ready to have the best chance to resist infection and quickly overcome any infection? This is a perfect time to make major changes in your lifestyle for wellness and immunity.
Ten years ago, I was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor - testicular cancer- and moved to Ensenada. During my recovery period, I became obsessed with a healthy lifestyle, diet, to support my immune system and wellness. I felt my life was at stake, so I was motivated to research everything I could and make changes to my diet and life.
I have never fully shared these things before because my personal journey was so personal. Your health is personal. I hope it can be useful to inspire others to make positive changes now in this unique time of coronavirus rest. This is a golden moment of rest and motivation to really consider changes to your lifestyle.
Below I share 1) the most important lifestyle choices supported by evidence,
2) how I implemented them in my life.
There is a lot of misinformation out there, quick tips and second-hand information that is not true or supported by scientific evidence. In my life and business, I believe in evidence-based medicine and wellness - it’s one of our business values at Ensenada Massage. All information has hyperlinks to the references. Please adapt these to your life context.
Get Great Sleep
Sleep directly affects your body’s immune response. More sleep is better. Deeper sleep is better. That part is science.
Even if you have a virus squirted in your nose, you won’t get sick if you have a good enough immune system. Those getting enough sleep were 3-5 times more likely to beat the virus.
How? Try turning off electronics, blocking out light with blackout curtains, earplugs, and having a routine before bed and sleeping at the same time each night. Honestly, I am waking up at about 4 am these days working on ways to help my massage team and clients, so going to bed early is important to me. I set an alarm to shut off electronics and get into bed with my cuddle buddy dogs. And take naps.
I also sleep with an eye mask and earplugs because my neighborhood has street lights and dogs barking.
Eat more Vegetables. Choose plant-based
For wellness and immunity, a whole plant-based diet is superior to animal-based diet. The research is exhaustive and conclusive. More plants = better. Research clearly dispels the idea you need animal protein, animal protein is better for you.
How? Reduce animal-based foods. I become a vegetarian for most of the last 10 years, and periods as a vegan too. You might try meat only on the weekends. My rule of thumb is a salad a day. Start where ever you are at. Use this time for lifestyle changes and habits, not quick fixes.
If you are thinking meat and sugar taste great, you are right. However, your taste buds largely adapt after a few weeks when you change your diet.
If you are ready to try a vegetarian diet, do a bit of research first on the best ways to make the change for your body. A good vegetarian diet includes a wwwiiiidddee variety of veggies, fruits, beans, grains, seeds and at least b12 supplement.
Eat and Drink the right plants
Some foods are better. My thinking is that if you are going to eat food to fuel your body and not just for what tastes great and what fills your momentary emotional void, why not eat the best fuel? There are many, these are the ones that I am aware of with clear evidence.
Mushrooms:
Although the skin is your largest organ (massage therapists specialize in the skin!) your body interacts with the world more closely through moist surfaces of eyes, throat, lungs, nostrils where viruses can easily enter. The layer of mucous is only one cell thick in many places. Eating mushrooms vastly improves the ability to respond to a virus entering in these surfaces.
How? Buy fresh, or I buy bulk dried mushrooms on amazon or Asian markets have them. Things get moldy fast in my refrigerator. Dried or frozen are great for me. Mushrooms don’t freeze well;( Dried mushrooms an easy to throw in my pot of beans or lentils on the stove or slow cooker.
Dark leafy green vegetables:
They are the special category of vegetables, and we don’t eat enough.
These include spinach, kale, chard, mustard greens, beet greens, and many others.
How? My rule of thumb is a salad a day. When I eat outside the house, I often select a salad if it looks decent. Honestly most restaurants have terrible salads. Guess I will have to blog on local restaurants that have great salads. I have kale, cabagge and chard in my garden. Spinach dies too easily and lettuce is not dark green (read less nutritous than the others).
Berries.
Berries are the best fruit, especially for antioxidants. Some berries are better than others: Blackberries, Gogi berries, cranberries, blueberries, and strawberries in that order. Grapes aren’t really helpful for antioxidants.
How? Strawberries are around on the street. I buy fresh and freeze them. Berries are so delicate and the season so short, I just buy them frozen in bulk for my morning oatmeal or smoothie, or salad. Dried is a great way too. I order bulk online and store them for handy use.
Drink Hibiscus/ Jamaica, or Matcha
Antioxidants are well established as supporting your body. Hibiscus drink - hot or cold, has huge amounts - more than green tea and kale, and pretty inexpensive. In case you are pursuing financial independence, that’s a good thing. Green tea has other remarkable benefits and is best consumed as matcha tea, but hibiscus has much higher antioxidant content and is readily available in Mexico here.
How? Jamaica is easily available around me, so I buy it raw and make a pitch cold drink once a week . If you are motivated, you could harvest your own hibiscus since it grows like a weed. In US, red zinger teas are easy to get. Matcha tea is essentially drinking the tea leaf, and can be purchased online.
Cruciferous Veggies
Sometimes details matter - in this case, which vegetables? Kale Broccoli Brussel sprouts. This category of vegetables are special and create chemicals sulforaphane that is a superpower for cleansing your body via the liver. However, this chemical is not in the vegetable, it is created when you chew the raw vegetable and combine enzyme and other chemicals already in the vegetable.
How? Buy it and eat raw. If you cook it, you kill most of the enzymes. As an alternative, sprinkle mustard seed powder or daikon or wasabi on these or other cooked veggies. Those things have the enzyme required. I also grow cabbage and kale. It seems to do well in my garden, and it wilts fast from the store. Actually hard to find kale easily since I walk to my grocery store.
Legumes (beans, split peas, chickpeas, or lentils)
As a basic food group, beans are special. Fiber is the number one deficient nutrient in the western diet. Beans have a bunch and other nutrients. Eat them every day, especially lentils. Most of your plate should be covered with vegetables and grains like masa madre bread.
When choosing legumes lentils, black, dark red, are best in that order. If you like to be picky, red lentils are slightly better than green lentils.
How? I always ask for an extra side of beans when I eat out. One less taco, one more serving of beans. Also, make it a habit to have a pot of beans or lentils cooked each week. This is normal in local latino cuture, but I had to learn this one. I still prefer black beans over local brown beans. Luck for me, I got used to taste of black beans when I lived in Southern Mexico and Guatemala as an economist.
Moderate Excercise
Moderate exercise several times a week bolsters your immune system tremendously. Do it.
Intense athletic stress or mental stress actually reduces immunity temporarily, so consider nutritional yeast to attenuate the effect of this extra stress. But we all have high levels of mental stress at times, right?
How? Pick the exercise that works for your body and preference. There are dozens of ways to move your body. Many people make their excercise a social event so they stick with it.
For year I only did yoga, swimming, and biking for years. About two years ago I shifted half my workouts to kettlebells because research shows resistance training is better for me over 40. I have a set of kettlebells, but I am so lazy I use just one that is 16kg.
Reduce Stress
One of my favorite books-Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers details the effects of chronic stress on the body’s digestive, immune, reproductive and growth. Read the book if you want to geek out, or just know that constant moderate stress weakens the body and makes nearly every disease more likely. This book, chapter 6 Immunity, stress and disease, is a tome on the effects of stress on the immune system.
Deep breathing is the fastest way I know to reduce stress. The second fastest and most effective for me is probably massage*. Meditation, yoga, aerobic exercise are better in long term. However, the path of meditation, yoga, and mindfulness are not easy to sustain.
There is evidence that massage reduces stress*: at risk adolescents reported less anxious and they were less depressed, and showed enhanced immune function after getting regular massages. These findings have not been replicated enough yet to be indefensible, but it seems credible to me.
How? Many ways! We use a Bio psycho social model of wellness is to recognize there are biological, psychological, social, sources of wellness/ stress. For each person, it will be different. Your stress or pain is not just chemical or mechanical. Your experience of wellness and pain is not mechanical like a car. Your experience of like is primarily through your nervous system that is regulated by a malleable brain. Many factors affect your nervous system and how you experience life.
Some ways I have designed my life to reduce stress include dancing whenever possible, bi-monthly massage* and playing music almost weekly with friends. What will work for you?
Also what works for me is touch and walking/ biking around. Ten years ago I a dog named Tina to cuddle with, and it changed my life profoundly. I am currently living in a tiny studio place that allows me to walk to work. Sure, I would love to be on the beach, but I hate commuting, potholes, and stop signs. Living in downtown Ensenada lets me walk to the spa and bicycle around for errands, both of which reduce my stress.
And I planted and maintain a garden, even though it is terrorized daily by a neighbor’s dog.
What will work for you?
Alcohol Socializing
Less is better, zero best. Yes, I know it feels great to think that a glass of red wine is good for you. And this idea has been popularized in the media. My mobile massage clients and good friends in Valle de Guadalupe might not accept the evidence. However, the best systematic evidence I am aware of says no the amount of alcohol is better for you if you are already healthy. Of course, a glass a day won’t kill you tomorrow.
It’s not my opinion, here is the evidence:
In a different study 10 years earlier, whatever benefit that was shown was only for people who did not exercise regularly or eat vegetables- couch potatoes I guess.
How? Actually socializing without alcohol can be a challenge. You may need to change a few friendships or look for new activities. It is so culturally ingrained that you will have to find a way to find socializing without alcohol or enjoy it while others drink it. Fortunately, if you are in home seclusion, this is a great time to start.
Smoking
No debate. Less is better, zero best.
How? I still smoke a cigar once in a while and enjoy it.
Healthy weight, Food safety, Personal hygiene,
How you handle meat in your kitchen, washing your hands, having healthy weight are also hugely important and supported by evidence; I just don’t have anything unique to say about it and am not familiar with the evidence.
Being overweight and insufficient exercise seem like the two biggest lifestyle changes to make.
How? I don’t buy raw meat for my personal consumption. When I get some for the dogs, I keep it in a separate container and don’t cross use utensils. I don’t know much about weight control. For most, I think changing weight is probably the by-product of changing diet and moderate exercise.
Well that is what has worked for me these last 10 years. Many of these are not easy or quick fixes, but part of a lifestyle design of wellness.
Wherever you are, start there. Start today. You can build a healthier, happier life. I did;)
Let me know if you have better evidence-based recommendations on lifestyle choices for wellness. Although there are many small changes in life, I the above are major changes that clearly make a difference.
Please share because someone in your circle needs information and inspiration to make a change. And knowing is half the battle!
P.S. *To support your lifestyle changes and stress reduction, we are offering 35% discount on all massage and facial therapies purchased online this week. Many clients find a series of masssage sessions help them transition to new lifestyle, a higher level of wellness.
Any purchase will be a certificate are good for the next 6 months. Use booking code LOCALGIFT now. This also supports my amazing team of therapists, since I will pay them now while they are home resting.
Jesse is full time resident of Ensenada since 2011 and Baja since 2009. When not working with Ensenada Massage Team and Excursion Team, he hangs out with Tina and Lola, gardens, and helps travelers enjoy Ensenada, the Pearl of the Pacific. Bio here.