Some good friends of mine from the SFM community shared some pretty useful info on the Coronavirus at the weekend
I thought it’d be well worth passing on. A lot of it seems like pure common sense but like my friends, I didn’t know some of it.
This advice comes from a retired Respiratory Therapist who says that if followed, the advice below will improve your chances of not ending up in hospital or on a ventilator.
Fever
High temperatures are the only way to kill a virus. Drugs like Tylenol, Ibuprofen and Advil will bring your temperature down which will allow the virus to live longer. It’s actually better to let your fever run high.
Don’t however let your temperature go over 103 0r 104. Take Tylenol or Paracetemol to keep it down NOT Ibuprophen or Advil.
Keeping the house warm and covering up with blankets helps as it your body doesn’t have to work so hard to generate heat. It usually takes 3 days to break the fever.
Hydrate
Common sense tells us that during a fever all that high temperature causes dehydration. Flavoured drinks that contain real sugar work well. The sugar replaces energy used to create the fever.
In fact if you do end up in hospital the first thing they’ll do is hook you up to sugar water (D5W)and saline drips.
Moist Lungs
Keeping your lungs moist is important and is best done by taking long steamy showers and breathing deeply through your mouth.
Brushing your teeth with a seriously minty toothpaste while in the steamy shower will help loosen things up if you are congested or wheezy.
You can also make yourself cough into a wet cloth pressed firmly over nose and mouth. This causes greater pressure in your lungs - they expand more and break loose more of the congestion.
Eat
Eat healthy food regularly to keep up overall strength
Move
Exercise - particularly after the fever breaks - gets your body back in shape and your blood circulating.
Breathe Deeply
Breath deeply on a regular basis even when it hurts. Its easy to develop pneumonia otherwise
Breath in deep and slow - really fill the lungs and blow out until you completely empty your lungs. This allows the next breath to be even deeper. You lungs will expand and your oxygen level will increase.
Remember that any medication you take is only giving you some relief from the symptoms - not curing you - if you are still suffering get yourself to hospital
I sincerely hope none of us have to use this advice but hope it’s useful if we do. Please pass it on as you see fit.
I should add that being part of a community that cares about it's fellow members physical as well as financial health is quite special.
As this crisis continues and its impact worsens, more and more of us are going to need the kind of new skills, support and digital systems that only a community like SFM are currently offering.
If you feel ready to start using this time to create a stress free, secure future for you and yours then maybe its time to join us
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