As both a doctor of dermatology and a functional medicine doctor, I thought it was an excellent time to write more about what we can all to keep ourselves as healthy as possible at this time during the COVID-19 crisis.
Drinking 8-10 glasses of water per day to stay well-hydrated is important to proper immune function. Drinking tea is healthy to the gut and helps flourish the microbiome so drink a variety of teas—green, black, and herbal.
If you are an asthmatic, make sure you are strictly adhering to your maintenance regimen to keep your airway maintained properly. Make a telemedicine visit with your allergist immediately if you find that with the spring, and the COVID-19 crisis you find that your asthma seems to be acting up more so as you are considered to be a high-risk group.
For health and wellness, everyone regardless of season, should be consuming a daily multivitamin, a good quality omega-3 supplement, and a probiotic. However, during this time, I would add the following in order to better boost immune support and function:
- Vitamin D 10,000 units every day (likely you are extremely low anyway)
- Vitamin A 5,000 units every day
- B complex every day
- Zinc 25 mg every day
- Vitamin C 500mg to start and then increase to 1000mg as you are able to tolerate in order to avoid diarrhea
- Alpha lipoic acid 300mg every day or coq10 300 mg every day (these are both powerful antioxidants)
- Melatonin 10mg at night time (I normally do NOT recommend simply taking melatonin arbitrarily without measuring it using a salivary test, but Dr. Lindsey Berkson is a huge pro-melatonin believer for its powerful anti-inflammatory effects especially in mice models with acute lung injury so she is advocating it as a preventive during the COVID-19 crisis.
We typically direct our patients to a wonderful website called Fullscripts.com which has reputable manufacturers of nutrition supplements. As you may know, the FDA does not regulate the manufacture of these nutritional supplements, and so it difficult to know if you are getting the correct amount of the actual vitamin, or whether you are getting non-nutritious filler at your local health food store. On Fullscripts.com, each of the manufacturers has gone through a vetting process, and they often perform clinical trials on their products to ensure the highest standards. You can be assured that you are getting quality products regardless of the manufacturer or the supplement that you select on that particular site.
Dr. Ellen Turner is a double board-certified dermatologist with practices in Dallas and Irving, Texas. She specializes in medical and cosmetic dermatology, as well as anti-aging and regenerative medicine.
To schedule an appointment, please call 214-373-7546.