Taos and Coronavirus (aka Covid 19) Stay Calm and Carry On.

I’ve been asked to say something about the coronavirus and to help quell fears in Taos about Corona Virus. As a small business owner I depend on the public to visit and make purchases, as many of us do here. As my friend Geoffrey would say, “I’m No Expert” but I do pay attention and I do try to learn. Right now I am reading, watching and listening. We are not Zombies, we do not live in fear that the boogie-man is coming for us. 

Max may hide out from the thunder and lightning but...

Whether you’re purchasing groceries, art, books or out shopping, we need you to 'remain calm and carry on'. Support local restaurants, museums, Churches, hardware stores, grocery stores or what have you. Without them that snowball tumbles into an endless avalanche quickly. Stores close, staff goes without a paycheck, bills don’t get paid and before long your electricity, heat, cable tv, phone service and internet gets shut off. Then what do you do? Hide as some are stating they are doing?

A local group of 70 homeowners are saying they are locking themselves down in order to stay away from a public that may contaminate them, to not go out and have others bare the burden of doing grocery shopping and chores for them. Once you can no longer pay the bills how are you going to communicate with the people who are offering to do chores for you? Perhaps wealthy people can afford to do this, but that's not most of us.

In Taos we are exposed to all sorts of health concerns, we get used to dealing with them. Whether it be the latest Taos-Crud, the high pollen count, smoke from surrounding forest fires or even Hanta-Virus, we’ve got it covered. AND we certainly don't PANIC, we may gripe and complain but we don't just stop doing things that we enjoy doing. Parents with school age children know for a fact that chances are their kids will get sick in school from whatever cold or flu is going around. Parents stay calm and carry on.

...After it rains, we get rainbows, we don't gripe about it or hide from the rain, we celebrate the rainfall.

Now is the time we need to hear from our Elected Leadership, Schools, Local Hospital, Clinics, and yes the Holistic Healers as well. During past crisis here we listened to the radio and heard of what to do, now we all pay attention to the latest facts and rumors on FB/Social Media and try to sort out what is real and what is not. 

Will the town of Taos cancel any plans for concerts in the park this year? Some people would like to see that happen forever, no concerts in KC Park whatsoever. Is town marketing working on a plan to attract people to our community, or will we be ‘on lockdown’ if someone comes down with a case of CoronaVirus? 

Y2K created an unnecessary panic, remember that one?

Is there a plan? Right now the smartest people in Taos are the Taos Whole Health group (see their statement below).

I keep reminding people that our local shoppers are our best allies, that Our new relocation to the Taos Historic District has been attracting more locals than we ever saw in our Ranchos location. The other customer base here is our ‘Drive Circle’ of visitors, people who can drive to Taos within 6-8 hours on the road. That return customer base is stronger than you think, and adds more to the economy here than you may realize. 

If you are truly afraid to go out and about, try shopping on your favorite stores website. Ours is https://twograces.com and http://twograces.blogspot.com

We need to be ‘normal’ and go about our daily lives the way we normally do. Alright so I refused to shake hands with people and they looked at me like I was nuts, but it is one way to protect yourself from our REGULAR Cold and Flu season. Each year people do die from variations of the Flu, but there has never been a call to lock down every community in the world. Call it what you may but wide spread panic is not the solution. Don't let Taos whither and die.

Don't make Taos wither and dry up, especially now, celebrate it's beauty everywhere.

"More people have recovered from the virus than have died from it." NBC News. Like most flu epidemics, people recover from them. 

This is from Taos Whole Health:

Dear TWH Community,

We would like you to know that at Taos Whole Health we are closely monitoring the novel Coronavirus Covid-19 outbreak. Here is some information we hope that you find useful:

At this time, there has not yet been a reported case in New Mexico, but the virus is spreading, and we do anticipate that our state will start to become affected soon. For most people, the virus will present with common cold or flu-like symptoms.

For up-to-date information on the Covid-19, please visit the CDC Website: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/index.html

PREVENTION:

Stay home if you are sick with cold or flu-like illnesses. Please do not come into the clinic if your symptoms are mild and you are able to treat yourself at home.

Wash your hands frequently or use alcohol-based hand sanitizers.

Avoid touching your face.

Your risk of getting the seasonal flu at this time is still greater than your chances of getting Covid-19 and the symptoms of the two are very similar. As a result, if you haven’t received the flu vaccine for this year, it would still be a good idea to get it.

Even as a kitten Mister Max knew that washing up and eating well would make him grow up to be a strong and healthy cat.

SEVERE CASES:

The cases of death seem to be related to severe respiratory distress. If you have shortness of breath or chest pain, you should go directly to the emergency room. At Taos Whole Health we are not equipped to handle severe respiratory distress.

TESTING

Currently, there is no rapid in-clinic testing of Covid-19, so we will not be able to test you in the clinic and determine if you have been infected with the virus.

TREATMENT

Like other viruses that cause cold-like illnesses, Covid-19 has no antiviral treatment. The mainstay of treatment is supportive care. This means getting sufficient sleep and rest and making sure you get plenty of fluids and taking over the counter medications such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Motrin). Additionally, you should try to avoid the spread by staying at home and minimizing contact with other people.

Soon we will be adding holistic viral treatment recommendations and info on our website at www.taoswholehealth.org. Stay tuned for that info.

This from ‘Integrative Initiative’:

How to strengthen your immune system. Give it sleep and physical exercise, reduce stress, eat lots of vegetables, avoid toxic substances such as alcohol, tobacco, pesticides, parabens, phthalates and plastics, but most of all, go OUTSIDE.  

Here’s why:

1 Vitamin D. Vitamin D is produced in the body when the sun’s ultraviolet rays contact the skin and initiate a chain reaction converting a form of cholesterol into Vitamin D.  Vitamin D has been found to have many effects in the body, one of which is maintaining a healthy immune system. In fact, Vitamin D deficiency in childhood is associated with increased risk of autoimmune disorders, such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS), in adulthood.  Individuals who live in climates where there is little sun exposure or who spend most of their time indoors are at significant risk of Vitamin D deficiency. A blood test can determine one’s Vitamin D level; > 50 ng/ml is considered optimal.  Recommendations are to supplement Vitamin D if one’s level is suboptimal and/or to strive for 15 minutes of mostly unclothed sun exposure per day, ideally mid-morning, in climates where this is possible.

2 Phytoncides. These volatile organic compounds have been identified in plants.  They serve to protect the plant against invasion by bacteria, fungi and viruses (sound familiar?).  Studies have found that when people spend time in nature that they inhale these phytoncides, which work to improve immune function in humans as they do in plants (Li et al., 2006, 2009).

3 Mycobacterium vaccae. This microorganism, located in soil, has been found to activate the immune system in animal studies.  It is believed that when people spend time outdoors, getting down to earth, as it were, these microscopic bacteria are inhaled and ingested, contributing to one of the many immune-boosting properties of nature (Lowry et al., 2007).

4 Central Nervous System effects. A significant amount of research has looked at the mental health benefits of time spent in nature. (See the excellent review articles by Dr. Margaret Hansen in 2017 and Dr. Ming Kuo in 2015 for specifics.)  Emerging evidence has revealed a correlation between low-stress, “parasympathetic” tone and immune system stimulation (Kenney and Ganta, 2014).  In other words, our immune systems are happy when we’re It does not take a huge stretch of the imagination to correlate the high-stress environment of overpopulation with diminished immune system function.

5 Natural Killer (NK) Cells. Qing Li, one of the physicians in Japan who coined the term shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, has studied the effect of time spent in nature upon NK cells.  These cells, whose job is to sweep through the body to locate and eliminate tumor cells, viruses and bacteria, have been found to increase in both number and level of activity after spending a minimum of two hours in nature (Li, 2007, 2008, 2010).

6 Herbal Medicine. Certain plants have been used throughout the ages in traditional cultures to bolster the immune system.  Elderberry, astragalus, and echinacea are among those that have evidence to support their use, under the guidance of a trained integrative physician, clinician or herbalist. As with all ingested supplements, quality, dose, and potential drug-herb interactions are important considerations.