Dr. Nammy talks about the COVID Vaccine, it’s effectiveness in fighting Coronavirus, and how boosting your immune system can be beneficial before taking the vaccine.
John Maher: Hi, I’m John Maher, and I’m here today with Dr. Nammy Patel, founder of Green Dentistry in San Francisco, California, helping patients recognize the vital connection between dental health and whole body health, and author of the best-selling book, Age with Style: Guide to a Youthful Smile and Healthy Living. Today our topic is Dr. Nammy’s thoughts on the COVID vaccine. Welcome, Dr. Nammy.
Dr. Nammy Patel: Hi, John. Thank you for having me.
What is the COVID Vaccine?
John: Sure. Why don’t we just start with the basics, Dr. Nammy, and can you just explain to us what the COVID vaccine is?
Dr. Nammy: The COVID vaccine is a vaccine, is an mRNA vaccine, which has been studied for the last 30 years or so. It is a vaccine that introduces the mRNA, which is like the DNA, into our bodies, which is similar to the protein that is on the coronavirus. And it helps us build our immune response towards a coronavirus. And it ensures that, or actually helps have our immune system be acclimated to the virus so it’s not detrimental and it will not put us in the hospital, and will make sure that we’re not on a ventilator.
What Are Your Thoughts About The COVID Vaccine?
John: Right. What are some of your thoughts on … There’s a couple of different COVID vaccines that are out right now, and they have maybe a little bit of different effectiveness and that sort of thing. And that they can prevent COVID, but if you do get COVID, they can make it so that it’s less detrimental to you, like you said. Maybe you won’t end up in the hospital on a ventilator. What are your general thoughts about the COVID vaccine overall?
Dr. Nammy: I am all for the COVID vaccine. I actually had the Moderna vaccine myself. And I have some caution. And the main caution is that the coronavirus, it is like the influenza virus, in the same family, except the coronavirus is novel because it was actually … It’s an animal virus that came into the humans. The flu virus, we’ve been very comfortable with because we’ve known it’s a human virus, and we’ve known how to treat it. The coronavirus is a little interesting. COVID-19 is interesting because it’s a first virus that has done the jump from one species to another. And because of that, and because it’s been a global pandemic, it has not given us enough time to research every single aspect of the virus itself, how it behaves in human bodies and how it mutates and how it responds in the human body versus in an animal body.
The COVID Vaccine and Your Immune System
Now, with the vaccine itself, one thing I am certain of is my immune system. With any virus, I think of it as an antigen or a something that attacks our body. And when we look at something that attacks our body, we have to look at how will our body respond. We have seen and heard about different variations. There are people who get the coronavirus and don’t even know they have it, and there are people who have coronavirus and end up in the hospital. There are some people who get the coronavirus and pass away, and they’re super young. There’s a variation of how the coronavirus is really triggering in different people, and the major reason for that is their immune response.
There are people who have a great immune system and are able to fight the virus off, and they don’t even know that they have it. And then there are people who end up in the hospital. The main basis of all of this is how can you boost your immune system? And the efforts and energy we really need to put on is how do we become healthier as a society? How do we boost our immune system in order to take on something like a coronavirus and still beat it? Because we are designed to survive. Our immune system is very strong. God has built an amazing computer system, and that is our body. We have been surviving for millions of years and adapting millions of years, and it’s mainly because of our immune function.
And so when it came to me and the coronavirus, what I did is I did a 21-day cleanse. I started going, I went raw vegan, and I did 21 days. I focused on making sure I do the golden hour of sleep, so before I go to sleep, an hour before, I would start winding down. I would take a bath, I would do meditation, and then I would go to sleep, and I would get the full eight hours of sleep in to make sure that my body was in optimum function when I woke up. And it gave my body to repair. I was able to have my REM, which is my dream sleep, which gave my body time to repair and make sure that it is fighting out any bugs that may be there, any stress I may have. It’s counteracting that so that when I actually took the vaccine 21 days later, I didn’t even feel anything at all, like even the actual vaccine itself.
There was a little bit of soreness in my arm from the injection site, but I didn’t have a cough. I didn’t have a flu. I didn’t have any sort of symptoms. And my body integrated the vaccine very well. We checked that by checking for the antibodies, and my body accepted the vaccine and made the antibodies towards the coronavirus, which tells me that I’ve done everything right.
And that’s what I encourage my listeners to do is focus on your immune system, build a healthy immune system so that you can have the same exact results. You are boosting your immune system regardless. If it’s not corona, it’s influenza. Any virus, period. You’re building your immune system, and taking the vaccine, you’re making sure your odds are great. Because my coach…actually, it’s really interesting. My coach always says that people don’t rise to the occasion. They actually fall to the level of preparation. When it comes to the vaccine, prepare yourself. Give yourself 21 days to get healthy, take control of your health, and take the vaccine, and make sure you do have immunity towards corona because we do not want people to die. We do not want to pass this on. We don’t want to be silent carriers. We want to move on from this pandemic so that we can go from surviving to thriving,
John: Right. We don’t know exactly or some people don’t know when they’re going to be getting the inoculation for coronavirus, the vaccine. Do you recommend that people wait until they find out that their time might be coming up and then do a, like you said, a 21-day cleanse or something like that to boost their immune system right before they get the injection? Or is now the time that we should be trying to boost our immune system right now, regardless, so that maybe if we get COVID before we get the immunization, we’re more protected right now? Or both?
Dr. Nammy: I would say both. I would say start now because you’ve got nothing to lose.
John: Right.
Dr. Nammy: Focusing on health … If you do not have health, you have nothing. You can have all the money in the world. If you don’t have your health, you can’t enjoy it. You could have all the time in the world, but if you’re not healthy, you can’t get out of bed. It’s not worth it. Really, health is the number one focus for the best quality of life. And I always say, take the smallest step. And so if you’re going to cram everything in 21 days, maybe this might be a good time to just say, you know what? I’m going to start with one thing, which might be I’m going to give up gluten, or I’m going to give up dairy.
And just start with that, and build from there. And then every week, add something else that you want to do that’s going to help you have a healthier body, whether it’s making sure you’re getting better sleep or maybe starting with five minutes of meditation before you go to bed and then adding to 10 and then to 15 and then to 20. But just start somewhere so that way … The only place you have to go is up, and that’s really what I promote.
The Next Steps for the COVID Vaccine
John: Right. Any final thoughts on where you see this going in 2021, what the next steps are with the COVID vaccine?
Dr. Nammy: It’s going to be a while to get everyone to take the vaccine. I feel like my personal opinion, it’s going to be a 50-50 split, where there are people who are just like, “Give me the vaccine. I just want to move on and call it a day.” And there are people who are like me. We’re fact-finders. I like to do my homework, and that’s exactly what I did is I did my homework. I looked at the information, the mRNA vaccine. It has been studied for 30 years. Because when we look at media tells us it’s a new vaccine, we don’t know enough about it. But there are certain things that we actually do know, and we put the two and two together, and then that gives us the confidence and gave me the confidence to take the vaccine.
And I knew one thing that was going to be very important, which was building my immune system up, making sure that I took care of myself in the breathing, the sleeping, and the diet, which really made sure my experience was easy and a good one. And I would want that for you.
John: All right. Well, that’s really great information, Dr. Nammy. Thanks again for speaking with me today.
Dr. Nammy: My pleasure, John.
John: And for more information about Green Dentistry, visit the website at SFGreenDentist.com, or call (415) 433-0119.
