Journey

Pre-Exposure

• Pre-Exposure Phase: “Support Front-Line Defence”.

This is the time to support our front-line defence by increasing nutrition, reducing our toxic load, and engaging in prevention & protection protocols.

• First Line of Defence (“Main Barrier/Shield”)
  Epithelial Barrier, Surface Cells, Mucous Membranes.
  
  
• Natural Killer Cells (“First Responders”)
  NK Cells need to be activated straight away. This is the proposed reason why kids fair much better against COVID-19. The NK Cells aren’t functioning well in adults against SARS-COV-2.
  
  
• Gamma Delta (γδ) T cells (“Early Responders”)
  Ability to rapidly detect viral infection, this is another thing that is not functioning well in SARS-CoV-2 and this ‘delayed emergency response’, contributes to uncontrolled replication of the virus.
  
  
• Antioxidants
  Improves multiple immune functions and plays an important protective role.
  
  
• Boosting Immune function
  There is more we can do in general to help the immune system function better, reduce injury, maintain healthy blood vessels, and help our body create antibodies.

Strengthening the barriers to Viral Entry & Boosting the Immune System so that the “first responders” are functioning well is the most important phase to prevent the severity of COVID-19 that some people experience.

The most concerning thing about the virus is it’s ability to replicate really fast before you get symptoms: the level of viral RNA copies rises from undetectable to millions in the 1-3 days before development of symptoms and then decreases after the time of symptom onset.

Which is why the most important time to do something to help your immune system, is before you even suspect you have it! The most important phase is the “Pre-Exposure” phase – even if you are vaccinated.

Boost Innate Immune System

Phase One

• Phase 1: “Viral Replication”. 2-14 days with an average of 5 days.

(FOR 80% OF PEOPLE, THIS IS THE ONLY PHASE)

This is when you get infected and the virus starts replicating. Here is the critical time to initiate early-stage protocols to inhibit viral replication and prevent severity.

Symptoms include sore throat, nasal stuffiness, fatigue, headaches, body aches, loss of taste and/or smell, loss of appetite, nausea, diarrhoea, and fever.

• Olfactory nerve
  Carries the sense of smell to the brain. (Many report loss of smell/taste).
  
  
• Heparan Sulfate ProteoGlycan (HSPG)
  Coats the outside of all human cells & holds the virus in place so that the next substance, furin, can do its job.
  
  
• Furin
  Coats all human cells. Its role in Covid-19 is to split the viral spike protein in two, so that one part fits tightly into its cellular receptor, ACE-2.
  
  
• Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2 Receptor)
  Normal human protein found on the surface of many cells and is used as an entry point for SARS-CoV-2 infection.
  
  
• Transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2)
  Cuts a wedge out of both the Spike of the virus & the ACE-2 receptor on the cell, freeing the virus to fuse with the cell membrane.
  
  
• IMPα/β
  Responsible for transmitting viral proteins into the host cell nucleus and is a key component as to how the virus has been able to disable our cellular defence system.
  
  
• 3CLpro & PLpro
  Proteases used by SARS-CoV-2 to make viral proteins.
  
  
• RdRp
  Makes copies of the viral RNA in order to make new copies of the virus in infected cells.
  
  
• Spike protein 
  Part of the virus that docks with ACE2 in order to infect cells.
  
  
• Cytokines
  Small secreted proteins that mediate inflammation.

Most people will only experience this phase.

This is the time to ramp-up things that will reduce the viral load, and disrupt the viral replication process.

If this is done efficiently and quickly, you will not progress to the later, more severe stages that a small percentage of people experience.

Disrupt the Viral Replication

Phase Two

• Phase 2: “Early Inflammatory”. 7-14 days after symptoms.

(THE OTHER 20% MAY PROGRESS TO THIS PHASE)

Initially described as the “cytokine storm phase” or the “pulmonary phase” (but has additional complexity). While most individuals who contract the SARS-CoV-2 infection exhibit a well coordinated immune response and recover, others display a dysfunctional immune response leading to serious complications.

For approximately 20% that contract COVID-19, there is a Phase Two Illness with main symptoms of increasing cough, shortness of breath, fever, worsening fatigue, brain fog, dizziness and mood instability.

Other symptoms may include low-oxygen in the blood, increasing respiratory rate, rise in inflammatory markers, D-dimers, and several cytokines.

Abnormal swings in heart rate and blood pressure when going from lying or sitting to standing may also occur; these can explain the dizziness and fatigue. They may indicate dehydration and a need for more salt and water, or might indicate damage to the autonomic nervous system. The elderly and those with comorbidities may experience an earlier onset of these symptoms.

If you are experiencing worsening symptoms, this is the time to get in touch with your trusted health professional. I will publish a post on what is understood about this phase and what we need to look out for, as well as what we need to ‘stop’ doing that may ‘increase’ the possibility of a cytokine storm (such as Elderberry and the like which are useful in the early phase but dangerous once the disease progresses), and taking care of your blood vessels to prevent the vascular damage, but I won’t give full-depth protocols for the more severe phases as there are doctors for that and I am trying to be the missing-gap for the protocols they don’t cover (when you are first infected & sent home to quarantine to ‘wait and see’), and as such, am more focused and researched on preventing these later phases altogether.

That being said, I can point you in the direction of those who are covering the more severe stages:

• FLCCC – Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance
• Coronavirus Guide – A Work In Progress. – Leo Galland, M.D.
• Calming the Storm – Natural Immunosuppressants as Adjuvants to Target the Cytokine Storm in COVID-19

Phase Three

• Phase 3: Possible 2nd infection &/or “Multisystem Inflammatory Phase”. 3rd-4th week.

(NOT ALL PATIENTS EXPERIENCE THIS PHASE)

Characterized by peak levels of IgG, secondary infections, and many manifestations that are suspected to be secondary to autoimmune phenomena. This stage is where you’ll see vasculitis (such as blood clots), Guillain-Barré syndrome, facial palsies, or immune mediated thrombocytopenia. This is the phase that makes the headlines and requires hospitalization.

The major indicators for hospitalization, in addition to low blood oxygen levels, are complications of blood clots like strokes and pulmonary embolism, neurological or cardiac problems, kidney failure and bone marrow suppression. A low lymphocyte count is predictive of poor outcome. Lymphocytes are one of the two major classes of white blood cells, routinely measured whenever a CBC (complete blood count) is ordered. ⁽⁰¹⁾Coronavirus Guide – A Work In Progress – Leo Galland, M.D.

If you have reached a severity of this nature, a blog post is not going to be useful – you need critical care by a medical team.

For further information visit FLCCC – Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance

Phase Four

• Phase 4: “Long-COVID or Long-Haulers”. Tail Phase.

(32% OF RECOVERED PATIENTS EXPERIENCE THIS PHASE)

This is when a patient passes through the peak period but continues to have residual symptoms, often experiencing a bimodal pattern of diseases (improvement followed by worsening or recurrence of symptoms).

Symptoms are characterized by prolonged malaise, headaches, generalized fatigue, sleep difficulties, hair loss, smell disorder, decreased appetite, painful joints, dyspnoea, chest pain and cognitive dysfunction.

Long-COVID is different for everyone – each case has different precursors. Therefore there is no ‘standard protocol’ or ‘common therapeutic targets’ as it really depends on whether it’s because you still have the disease, if your cells or organs were damaged, your existing underlying conditions, and other factors.

Persistent inflammation is one possible cause of Phase Four illness. Other factors that may contribute include changes to intestinal microbes caused by the infection, damage to cellular powerhouses called mitochondria, damage to the heart or nervous system, scarring (fibrosis) of the lungs, and persisting depletion of the enzyme ACE2. ⁽⁰²⁾Coronavirus Guide – A Work In Progress – Leo Galland, M.D.

This phase is the least-understood out of all of the phases and they are still learning what to do to help people recover. I haven’t researched this in depth yet because I’m focusing on prevention, but I am collecting videos of doctors who are treating Long-COVID (which also includes any protocols I discover) in the meantime.

See also: FLCCC Alliance guide to the management of COVID-19 by Dr. Paul Marik (PDF)