CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Practicing social distancing, washing your hands, and wearing a face-covering all can help reduce the spread of COVID-19. But another helpful tip from doctors is to maintain a healthy immune system.
Doctors at the Revive Medical Clinic recommend their immune boost therapy to help lessen COVID chances. Their new preventative measure is designed to keep a healthy immune system before viruses like COVID-19 can infect.
“Anything that we can do in this community to keep people healthier keeps them safer and to keep them out of the hospital, I think that is a win for everybody, to be honest with you,” Dr. Brian Brown said.
Brown and nurse practitioner Andrew Garcia say before someone can take part of the therapy, they must first undergo a pre-screening. Doctors will ask about medical history and medications taken, enabling patients to avoid allergies and side effects from the different elements that are infused within the therapy.
“We have actually taken that immune boost that we have and actually added something to it that based on what they are doing at the hospital," Brown said. "And we’ve added that to the infusions to basically be directed at the pandemic."
These items infused include zinc, Vitamin C, minerals, Melatonin and more.
However, certain people like dialysis patients or those who’ve had congested heart failure are restricted from the immune boost therapy because that can produce fluid overload which can lead to potential lung damage.
Doctors say they hope this therapy can help patients stay healthy and avoid going to the hospital during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic for those patients who participate.
“And at this point of time, you know the hospitals are really overwhelmed," Brown said. "They’re doing a really good job based on the resources that they have.
"But if there’s anything that we can do to take that burden off them which is basically keeping people out of the hospital ... if we can do something like that it's a service we’re really happy to provide to the community."
Brown says since the immune boost therapy is new and has been offered for only a few weeks, only a handful of patients have participated in the session which takes between 45 minutes and an hour to complete.
Cost of the therapy is about $200 and is not covered through insurance, but patients can use their health savings account.
Those who participate in this preventative measure must be at least 18 years old.
