Basic steps to boost immune system to fight COVID-19

(FOX 2) - Whether you're self-isolating or still out and about, you can take control against COVID-19. A Beaumont doctor wants us all to take it back to basics, beef up the immune system - so you're ready to fight.

“If your body is healthy to begin it is generally more healthy when it comes to fighting off certain things,” said Dr. Matteo Valenti, internal medicine with Beaumont Health System.

Things like COVID-19. Dr. Valenti is empowering people with basic steps to people who might feel helpless in this fight against the coronavirus.

“Sometimes we think, especially in this day in age with so much technology, that the simple things don’t really work,” Valenti said.

The doctor says it's a three-prong approach.

1.) “The focus just needs to be on making sure that you have a good, well-balanced meal just like you were taught in grade school.”

2.) “Try to have a regular sleep-wake schedule -- so go to bed roughly at the same time, get up roughly at the same time.”

3.) “A multivitamin just for a basic daily vitamin. I also think a vitamin D replacement is very reasonable as well.”

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Vitamin D for Metro Detroiters is key this time of year without much sun. The doctor says when it comes to supplements -- don't feel like the more or more expensive the better.

A conversation on staying healthy right now wouldn't be complete with the question - should I wear a mask or not?

“When you see a doctor wearing a face mask, it’s not necessarily there to protect me, it’s to protect the patient who we’re doing surgery on,” Valenti said.

That's a surgical mask he's talking about there. The other is an N95, which are masks shown to protect both parties.

“For people to buy the N95s and wear that home or to the grocery store is really depriving somebody who needs one within the healthcare system,” Valenti said.

And what about latex gloves, which are also in high demand right now?

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“As far as gloves go, I was just at the grocery store today and I saw people wearing gloves but as they were wearing gloves, they were touching everything around them, and touching their face, which doesn't really do anybody any good,” he said.

Valenti, of course, is fielding calls from patients who think they have COVID-19. He sends them for screenings based on if they are having COVID-19 like symptoms, the risk level of being exposed to the disease and if they have risk factors, like pre-existing conditions.

Beaumont is asking all people to call your primary care doctor before coming to the hospital to request a test.