I've been as careful about COVID as can be for three years now: washing hands, masking, not hugging my friends. But then the old wall that holds the creek behind my house fell early one morning. This happened, blessedly, between storms, so our soil profile did not wash away. The city had built the wall and they stepped up to fix it, since it fell behind two other houses as well, and its absence threatened to undermine the nearby boulevard. This resulted in crews of workmen coming and going with engineers and firemen and building inspectors all gathering in and parading through my backyard. Some of them I needed to catch up with and let them know some particular or another before they disappeared.
I think that is when it happened, because two or three times I found myself out there, speaking with a small group, having dashed out without my mask. Just four weeks before this, a friend had come round for a birthday visit on the patio. He had come down with COVID the next day and we had been exposed. Fortunately, I had recently remembered how effective overheating baths can be at stopping nasty viruses, (I had read that this had happened with the AIDS epidemic.) So, I took an overheating bath and dodged a bullet that time. (You can read more about that experience in my March 2023 blog titled "Exposed and the Overheating Bath.")
My husband, Frank, has a good friend who comes round most mornings with his little French Bulldog who loves to play with our dog, on the front lawn. The two men stand at a good distance from each other and talk about the repairs and various projects they are working on while the dogs dance around together, racing back and forth. Two weeks ago, our friend showed up with a cold. Not COVID, just a cold. And Frank caught it. Our friend later said he "thought that they weren't that close." Very funny. But air borne microbes can be like that, and as we all now know, quite contagious.
For some reason, I knew that I wouldn't catch Frank's cold. It's amazing how you just know. Though we took a few slight precautions I really wasn't worried about it. Then, four days later I woke in the night, quite surprised and a little pissed, to find that I had a sore throat. I reached for my ever handy arsenal of cold remedies: Dr. Schulze's Super-C Plus, Healthy Trinity by Natren and Equinacea Supreme by Gaia Herbs. That backed the sore throat down quite successfully, but by morning, my sinuses, normally always free, were slightly congested and I groused at Frank about it. By afternoon, I was feeling slightly headachy, and somewhat fatigued, with the start of a drippy nose. I took my temperature and found it was at 99.5 degrees.
I accused Frank of having had the dry scratchy throat proceeding his cold and said that he had just not remembered having one. He was denying that anything was off at the onset of his cold, as he always does. Having a full work week ahead I really didn't want to come down with what felt like a mild viral infection. And I wasn't supposed to anyway, so I jumped into an overheating bath, which is always very effective at fighting viruses.
Frank said he had read up on the difference between a cold and a flu earlier that day, in Linda Page's book, Healthy Healing, (the same edition I referred to in my last blog with the instructions on how to properly do an overheating bath.) I asked him to read the difference between the two again, to me, while I was in the tub. While he was reading, he kept noting the onset of a "cold" for himself, and I kept noting the onset of a "flu" for myself. That was when it dawned on me that maybe we had two different bugs. And that maybe I hadn't caught this from Frank after all.
Anyway, that night, after my therapeutic hot bath, I slept in a pool of sweat and had to change the sheets and start washing everything in the morning. I took a shower to clean the gunk off of my skin and then it occurred to me, "wait a minute, wait a minute,": sore throat, slight fever, headache, sinus congestion, fatigue. It finally ran a bell. And so there, on the morning of day two, I took a COVID test, and to my surprise found the faint pink line, indicating that I had the presence of the proteins in my mucus that reveal the presence of the COVID virus. Blessedly, Frank did not. And that hot bath, from the day before, had done me a world of good. Apart from a slightly drippy nose, and a tendency toward chills and sweats, I felt pretty good.
That afternoon, I decided to do another overheating bath. I took my temperature before hand and to my surprise found I was already at a hefty 102 degrees. The day before, with my previous overheating bath, rising up from 99.5 degrees to 103 degrees had been a bit of a struggle and I definitely needed my assistant, Frank, to hand me the thermometers and hold my cup of hot tea, with a drinking straw, for me.
Killing and then moving all of those viruses out is a lot of work for the body. It can leave one feeling very weak. And holding a manufactured fever of 103 degrees for fifteen minutes can be quite daunting. So, a therapy like this is not for everyone. Our ninety year old friend, Einar, mentioned that he had to do overheating treatments as a child for serious illnesses. But, as he said, the only problem was that sometimes they'd "loose one" due to the rigors of the therapy. So, this method is not something to be taken lightly. And a capable assistant is essential.
For me, with my second bath, going from 102 degrees up to 103 degrees was easy, I barely noticed it. I even spiked briefly up to 104 degrees a couple of times. It is generally not advisable for adults to go over 102 degrees for more than two full days at a time, but briefly spiking fevers of a slightly higher range are generally considered acceptable by many natural method healers who are familiar with overheating therapies.
Fevers in the body are important. They happen for a reason. They burn out pathogens and then throw them off through sweating. They also deactivate virus replication. Lots of liquids need to be taken to stay hydrated, and the skin needs to be kept clean to avoid having toxins being partially reabsorbed by the body. Sometimes a persistent high fever can be a sign of a more serious problem, but typically a fever, with a cold or flu, will help someone get better faster.
I do my overheating bath differently from the more measured and safer method that Linda Page, N.D., Ph.D. describes in her ninth edition of Healthy Healing. She suggests not eating for several hours beforehand, emptying the bladder and colon before beginning, having a nice big tub and using two thermometers constantly, one for the bath water and one for the body temperature, both in use, for the entire duration of the treatment.
For her version of the bath, the patient should be completely submerged, with only the eyes, nose and mouth above water. She suggests starting the bath water at skin temperature, then raising the temperature of the water to 100 degrees fifteen minutes later, and then up to 103 degrees fifteen minutes after that, holding it at 103 degrees for a final fifteen minutes. Since the person is completely covered, no body heat can escape and the body temperature will rise to match the water temperature. The bath takes about an hour and constant supervision is required.
She also suggests an alternative way to use overheating therapy which is a sauna. The heat of a sauna will also inhibit the replication of pathogens, speed up metabolism and stimulate all of the glands and vital organs into increased activity. This supports the immune system and accelerates healing functions. Detoxification then occurs through the sweating process. The sauna can then be finished with a cool shower and a rubdown to eliminate the toxins that have been removed from the body via the skin.
She notes that though induced fevers can be natural and effective healing modalities, advice and supervision from expert practitioners is advised. She also notes that general vitality and heart health check-ups are also advisable and that it is necessary to determine in advance that the patient has the ability to perspire, which sometimes is absent in folks who are seriously ill.
The overheating bath that Linda Page gives is a great and quite safe technique. But I go about mine a little more simply. I know my body pretty well and feel comfortable doing my overheating bath this way. And I am certainly not suggesting this method for anyone else. But basically what I do, for me, is this, I get the tub really hot and I jump in and I stay there.
More specifically, before I begin, I plug the overflow valve of the tub with duct tape so I can fill it right up to the top, nice and deep. I set at least four clean towels on the floor, a quart of liquid to drink while in the tub, my two thermometers, a box of tissues and an empty quart sized plastic cup, all in close reach. Then I put at least one cup of various mineral salts (see my previous blog for details,) in the tub and fill it right up.
I generally empty the hot water heater into the tub with the water at or slightly higher than 115 degrees. I plop myself in there and start to cook with one thermometer in my mouth, shaking it down periodically and retaking readings to keep track of my body temperature. I also use a quick reacting candy thermometer to keep track of the water temperature. If the bath gets too cold, below 112 degrees, Frank carefully pours in more hot. Periodically using an oximeter, (the little finger gizmo that most doctors have for reading blood oxygen levels,) I keep track of my pulse. Mine usually stays around 90 but may rise up to 105 when I'm really cooking with my body temperature at or above 103 degrees.
Once the fifteen minutes at or a little above 103 degrees has been accomplished, I start adding in a little cold water to cool the bath gradually. I usually soak for a good long time at these lower bath water temperatures anywhere from 105 degrees, (the average hot tub temp,) to 110 degrees. After drinking all of my liquids and having a good long soak and sweat, to finish off the bath, I cool it a little more and linger a little longer. Then I drain the tub and using the quart sized plastic cup, I rinse the mineral salts off my skin. Then I carefully climb out of the tub, using all four, arms and legs.
Once I do get out, I'll often lay on and cover up with the towels on the floor to recover for a while before getting up and walking into the bedroom, where I have the heater on and piles of blankets on the bed. I also tuck a few beach towels in between the sheets to absorb some of the sweat and I have more, at the ready, in case I want to change them in the night. Then, using my skin as the amazing eliminative organ that it is, I sweat all of those dead viruses and other toxins out of me all night long.
I did this overheating therapy three days in a row. The first bath, the one before I realized it was COVID, starting with a low grade fever was the challenging one. The second one, when my natural healing body fever had kicked in and let me start the process already at 102 degrees, was a snap. Easy. For the third, my fever had dropped down to 99 degrees again, and it was easy too. This morning, the third day, when most COVID cases start to really ramp up, and just two days after I tested positive for COVID, I have now tested negative and guess what? I feel fine. Absolutely fine. No fever. No brain fog. No loss of taste or smell. No decline in memory or cognitive faculties. No cough. No shortness of breath. Isn't that amazing!
I'm still going to self isolate, with Frank, and take care of my self. My house is full of the virus and I wouldn't want to relapse. So, I'll stay inside, keep warm, take the recommended COVID supplements: Vitamin C, Vitamin D3, Zinc, Usena barbato extract, Bee Propolis, Goldenseal root, and Echinacea root extract. And I'll test again in a few more days and over the next two weeks. But I'm so happy to say, I went from a positive COVID test, with all of the initial symptomatology, to a negative test result in just two days. And I credit that to an age old natural healing remedy, the overheating bath.
Wishing all, good health and a very happy spring.
Update: It has been nearly two weeks now and I still feel absolutely fine. I did a third COVID test and remained negative. For the first week, I was very gentle with myself and didn't push myself physically. Now, nearing the end of the second week, I'm back to my full vigor and enjoying life immensely. Though there can occasionally be a false positive COVID test result, it is very rare. And, I feel that my positive test was accurate and that I did contract the virus. I experienced the typical initial symptomatology: the headache, the sore throat, the fatigue, the minor fever and chills. And now, all of those symptoms are long gone. And, I feel so very blessed.
As a Clairvoyant Healer, Spiritual Counselor and Intuition Instructor, I share many tips for leading a healthy and fulfilling life. Please be advised that I am not a doctor. Nor am I licensed in any healing modality. However, I have had years of experience in alternative and complementary health and healing. All healing programs, including standard western medical protocols in addition to natural therapies, can cause harm rather than the benefit that you may be searching for. After all some people can have a strong reaction to something as seemingly innocent as peanuts or strawberries. Therefore, anything that I may recommend in these blogs and videos could be dangerous for you to try. So, it is important that you Ask Your Doctor First before trying any natural healing protocol. However, most medical doctors have little experience regarding natural healing programs and herbal medicine. So please understand if your doctor is unfamiliar with these ideas.
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