Now is the time of year to support your immune system. Traditional Chinese meedicine has dozens of formulas to support a healthy immune response. There are some standard formulas containing herbs like astragalus and ginseng, but these aren’t for everyone. See a practitioner skilled in herbal medicine, and they will prescribe a formula that matches your constitution. I have chosen to use herbs to strengthen my immunity, as well as getting the Pfizer vaccinations out of concern for those around me.
Regarding immunity, there are tests that can determine if you have IgG antibodies to COVID-19. There are rapid tests that will tell you whether or not you have detectable antibodies in 15 minutes. These antibodies can be due to vaccination, or a previous infection, or both. I have these in my office, if you are in Santa Cruz.
If you want to do a semi-quantitative test, Quest Diagnostics can do a blood draw, and you will get results in about one week. You don’t need a doctor’s referral to get these, and there are Quest labs all over the country. After the first vaccination, I had no detectable antibodies. After the second vaccination, I had them. I then did the Quest semi-quantitative test. If you have a number greater than 1, it is considered positive for antibodies. I had greater than 20. Six months later, I did another test, and it was greater than 2. Shortly after that, I received a booster and did another Quest test, and it was greater than 53. So, at 6 months after the second vaccination, the antibodies had declined around 90%, and after the booster, they increased by more than 20 times. If you just want to know if you have the antibodies, the rapid test is sufficient. If you want to track them and see their levels over time, the Quest test is the way to go. Either way, taking herbs to support immunity is always helpful.
Here is information on how to schedule the test with Quest:
