COVID-19 cases continue to rise, and now most people are worried they will get the virus. But with a boosted immune system, contracting that virus is less-likely.
Lonnie Schwirtlich, M.D., Chief Medical Officer and Co-Owner of Physicians Premier, says "the people that come into our facilities, 20-30 percent of them are positive. These people then leave and go out there, they’re accidentally and sometimes - just carelessly, spreading this virus around."
Dr. Schwirtlich believes having a strong immune system will help protect many against the virus.
He says, first you want to protect your immune system from having to work so hard.
"In boosting your immunity, is to try and do everything so that you don’t need to use that immunity," he said. "Obviously that’s the spacing, staying away from big groups, staying away from closed rooms."
Then, boosting your immunity, begins with daily exercise. Dr. Shwirtlich says getting the heart rate up and warming up the body helps fight off the virus. Not to mention, releases stress and helps with blood sugar.
He says, you must remember to wash and sanitize whenever you touch objects. Especially wash your hands before touching your face or eating food.
Dr. Schwirtlich believes not smoking and vaping will also help tremendously, because then you are not inhaling particles in the air.
He said to also be mindful of alcohol consumption. The more we drink, the less our immune system works.
And he said to take daily vitamins, especially vitamin C and Zinc.
"Zinc actually, if it can get inside the cell, it helps stop replication of the virus," said Schwirtlich. He also states that for some patients who have been exposed or had a positive test, health experts were recommending 1000mg of vitamin C a couple times a day and 50 mg of Zinc per day.
Dr. Schwirtlich also believes using melatonin, tumeric and elderberry can help boost your immunity. He does say that taking vitamins could cause nausea.
With the boost in immunity, he says this could help lower the amount of cases. He believes Corpus Christi has not hit its peak just yet.
"We do need more hospital beds right now, and that’s the difficult thing we’re dealing with. Is trying to be able to keep the number that are crashing and need to go into the hospital down to the point where we can tolerate it and be able to give them the best care possible."