Blog post written by Dr Sarah Myhill and Craig Robinson, co-authors of Green Mother and The Infection Game.
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Idiomatic translation by Will Durrant in
The Story of Philosophy of the Ancient Greek
I first introduced what I call the Groundhog regimes in our book The Infection Game: Life is an Arms Race. I gave them this name because I constantly refer back to this basic approach which is fundamental to the treatment of all infections, and by inference to the avoidance of the major killers (cancer, heart disease, dementia) which are all driven by chronic infection.
In the film Groundhog Day the protagonist is caught in a time loop where the same day is repeated again and again until there is a shift in his understanding; my Groundhog regimes represent another sort of loop that bears constant repetition. The point here is that these regimes done well will do much to prevent acute illness developing and chronic disease getting a foothold. It is also the case that Groundhog will change through life as we are exposed to new infections and as our defenses decline with age. The key principles are:
- All should do Groundhog Basic all (well, most) of the time
- All should be prepared to upgrade to Groundhog Acute to deal with unexpected and sudden infectious challenges – get your First Aid battle box stocked up now!
- We will all need to move to Groundhog Chronic as we age and acquire an infectious load.
In summary, we use the Groundhogs like this:
Read our books for more detail and the ‘why’ but the key ‘to do’ list is:
Groundhog Basic
- The Paleo-Ketogenic diet (see Paleo-Ketogenic: The Why and the How)
* high fat, high fibre, very low carb
* probiotic foods like kefir and sauerkraut
* herbs, spices and fungi in cooking
* no dairy or grains
* two meals a day with no snacking within a 10-hour window (fast for 14 hours)
– A basic package of nutritional supplements – multi-vitamins, multi-minerals and vitamin D
– Vitamin C to bowel tolerance
– Sleep 8-9 hours between 10:00 pm and 7:00 am
– Exercise at least once a week when you push yourself to your limit
– Heat and light (sunshine is best)
– Use your brain!
Groundhog Acute
At the first sign of any infection, you must immediately put in place Groundhog Acute:
* You will feel much better very quickly.
* Your immune system will not be so activated that it cannot turn off subsequently
* The shorter and less severe the acute infection, the smaller the chance of switching on an inappropriate immune reaction, such as autoimmunity
* The shorter and less severe the acute infection, the smaller the chance the microbe concerned has of making itself a permanent home in your body. Many diseases, from Crohn’s and cancer to polymyalgia and Parkinson’s, have an infectious driver.
At the first sign of the tingling, sore throat, runny nose, malaise, headache, cystitis, skin inflammation, insect bite, or whatever…
- The Paleo-Ketogenic diet
- Consider a fast – this is essential for any acute gut infection
- Drink rehydrating fluids – that is, Sunshine salt 5 g (1 tsp) in 1 litre of water ad lib
- Vitamin C to bowel tolerance
- A good multi-vitamin
- 1 dsp hemp oil
- Take Lugol’s iodine 12%: 2 drops in a small glass of water every hour until symptoms resolve. Swill it round your mouth, gargle, sniff and inhale the vapour
- With respiratory symptoms, put 4 drops of Lugol’s iodine 12% into a salt pipe and inhale for 2 minutes; do this at least four times a day.
- Apply a smear of iodine ointment inside the nostrils
- Apply iodine ointment 10% to any bite, skin break or swelling
- Consume plenty of herbs, spices and fungi
- Rest: listen to your symptoms and abide by them; sleep is even more important with illness
- Heat: keep warm
- Light: sunshine is best
- Use your brain: do not suppress symptoms with drugs
Groundhog Chronic
As we age and/or we acquire stealth infections, we all need Groundhog Chronic. It is an extension of Groundhog Basic. Most people will end up doing something between the two according to their health and history, but as you get older you have to work harder to stay well.
- Groundhog Basic, especially the PK diet, PLUS
- Glutathione 250 mg daily
- Iodine 25 mg weekly
- Vitamin C to 90% of bowel tolerance, little and often throughout the day dissolved in mineral water. Remember this will change with age, diet and circumstance
- Lugol’s iodine 15% 2 drops daily in water
- Make sure your First Aid box is stocked (see The Infection Game)
- Sleep 8-9 hours between 10:00 pm and 7:00 am with a regular power nap in the day
- Exercise within limits. By this I mean you should feel fully recovered next day. If well enough, once a week push those limits, so you get your pulse up to 120 beats per minute and all your muscles ache. It is never too late to start!
- Take supplements for the raw materials for connective tissue such as glucosamine. Bone broth is the best!
- To address energy delivery take the mitochondrial package of supplements daily vis: CoQ10 100 g, niacinamide slow release 1500 mg, acetyl L carnitine 500 mg. D ribose 5-10 grams at night if you have really overdone things
- Check for sources of toxins including electromagnetic pollution
- Review any prescription medication: they are all potential toxins! The need for drugs is likely to be symptomatic of failure to apply Groundhog
- Consider tests of adrenal and thyroid function since these glands fatigue with age and chronic infection
You may consider that doing all the above amounts to over-kill, but when that next ‘flu or coronavirus epidemic arrives, as it surely will, you will be very happy to have been prepared. Stock up your Groundhog Acute First Aid box now. As Lord Baden Powell wrote in Scouting for Boys, ‘Be prepared’; and heed the wisdom of Benjamin Franklin (17 January 1706 – 17 April 1790): ‘By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.’
To find out more about Groundhog principles, check out Green Mother and The Infection Game.
