I've had Coronavirus (COVID-19) with mild symptoms, here's how I recovered

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Well, I tried my best to protect myself - wear masks, wash my hands thoroughly, keep social distancing from others.. but despite all my efforts - I got coronavirus (COVID-19).

In the first few days I didn't even know I was infected, but after a week the symptoms started. Luckily for me, I had only mild symptoms - fatigue, periods of shortness of breath, and some mild fever. In this article, I'll share all the things I did that helped me recover.

Important: if you have serious symptoms, please go and seek medical help immediately, as COVID-19 and its symptoms can become very serious and even life threatening if not treated well.

What is Coronavirus?

Coronavirus is a novel virus that spread throughout the world after originating in Wuhan, China in the end of 2019.

The virus is said to have come from bats and pangolins that then spreaded it to humans, and at the time of writing this article it is still considered a global pandemic and many nations still struggle to take control of it.

The name "Coronavirus" is named after its shape that forms a Crown ("corona") of spikes around it.

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What is the disease?

The disease caused by the coronavirus is COVID-19 (COVID = short for "COrona" + "VIrus" + "Disease"), and it's symptoms remind those of flu and pneumonia, plus a few additional unknown symptoms.

The main symptoms reported by most people who had it:

Fever
Shortness of breath / difficulty breathing
Dry cough
Fatigue
Loss of smell and/or taste
Sore throat

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Most people who get it develop mild symptoms, but some people can get it very seriously and be in a life threatening situation where they'll need urgent medical attention.

The symptoms I had

Luckily for me, I only had mild symptoms, but still though it was tough for me.

The first symptom I got was dry cough - I just started coughing and I felt that there's something in my throat that feels like the beginning of a sore throat. Later, it moved into my lungs and I felt the beginning of a small pneumonia - I had difficulty breathing, I felt like there's some "lump" in my lungs that prevents air from fully reaching it.

This caused fatigue in levels I can't remember I ever had - since I am someone who works out regularly - run twice a week, eat healthy, practice yoga and rexalation, I never thought I'd feel so tired and fatigued - in fact, the fatigue got so severe to a level that I almost fell off my legs when I was taking a shower. That's just how bad it got for me.

So, here are the things I did that helped me get back to myself within a week..

1. Rest. Alot. You'll need it.

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The first and most important thing - you have to plan at least a week or two of complete rest. I mean it, it's very very important.

When you have COVID-19, it enters your lungs and causes pneumonia, and even at its weak form it makes it difficult to breathe, so you get less oxygen and all your body is fatigued, so you must rest from everything.

I had to completely stop all my workouts, and I even had no strength to cook food for myself so I had to order takeaways for a week.

That's ok, you have to listen to your body when it tells you it has no powers. So get rest, and plenty of it.

2. Steam inhalations

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There has been some debate or whether or not it "kills" the virus or not, but for all I can share - it REALY eased the symptoms of difficulty breathing for me and gave me the powers I needed during this week.

So what I did was, I followed the simple instructions listed here.

What I did was I boiled 1 litter of water, and then poured it into a small bowl, and I took a towel and put it around my head while leaning down into the bowl to a distance of about 30 centimeres from it, and then I inhaled the hot steam (be careful not to burn your skin though, its realy hot! you don't need to burn your skin) for 5 minutes. Then I poured the water away into the sink, waited for 5 minutes of rest, and repeated the process again.

I did it 4 times. So it takes around 40 minutes, 20 minutes inhaling the steam (in 4 cycles of 5 minutes) and 20 minutes rest.

3. Eat 2-3 raw cloves of garlic a day

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Another thing that realy helped me, and I admit it was very difficult for me - was to eat raw garlic cloves.

Garlic is known to help with respiratory diseases, mostly with the common flu, and it's even backed up by studies.

It's quite tough, as your whole mouth burns when you do so, but when I ate the garlic I even allowed it to enter under the tongue for a few seconds, thinking it may enter the blood stream faster that way, and then I swallowed it.

The garlic gave me an instant relief from the symptoms for several hours, so it's realy helpful.

4. Gargle Listerine mouthwash (with alcohol) down your throat if it starts to become sore

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One of the symptoms that I didn't get, was sore throat. But this is simply because once I started to feel my throat getting even slightly sore - I immediately gargled Listerine (with alcohol) into it, for 20-30 seconds.

This is actually something I learned from my past - I once had a severe throat infection where my throat was so swollen that it hurt when I swallowed (!!) and the only thing that realy helped me was gargling Listerine into it.

They usually say to gargle salt water into the throat, not Listerine. But salt water didn't help me, while Listerine - did.

I even found this article that reveals that in a lab experiment they found out that mouth washes with alcohol actually kill the coronavirus. Interesting. But it did help here.

5. Drink pure lemon juice squeezed from lemons

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One of the things that realy gave me a boost - both energetically and both in healing my condition, was drinking pure lemon juice - squeezed from 2 lemons.

I just took 2 lemons and squeezed them into a bowl - the resulting amount of juice fills about half a glass - and I drank it. It creates strong tingling sensations around your entire body, but it gives a great boost of Vitamin C into your immune system, and it realy helped me heal from the symptoms even faster.

6. Eat a variety of foods, listen to your body

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Another thing that helped me during this week was that I completely indulged myself with food - more than what I usually do.

I just decided to listen to what my body tells me - and if I wanted to eat a pizza - I ordered one. If I felt like ordering a burger - I did it.

I usually realy keep a balanced diet, but during this week and especially since I was fatigued, I felt like I need to give my body the strengths to fight off the disease, and food gives the body strength, so I decided to allow myself to indulge with it. It gave me the strength I needed.

7. Relaxation exercises to allow natural relaxed deep breathing

Ok, so here's the last and final remedy I did that helped me during this week.

As I mentioned, I had difficulty breathing, which means I had to rest and avoid any types of activities that could impact my breathing and make me feel tired and fatigued.

Your body needs oxygen, and you may not be aware of it but even when you're sitting - your body doesn't get all the oxygen it needs.

One of the things that realy helped me - was lying down on the floor, on my back, with knees bent, for 20 minutes to allow my entire body to relax, like in the following picture:

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When you lie on your back this way, it signals to your brain that your back has supported (from the floor) - so it is ok to start letting go of the muscles that hold your back and body.

When these muscles relax, your breathing improves dramatically and you start taking deep, natural, diaphragmatic breaths without any effort, and especially with the fatigue and shortness of breath I had this week, this exercise helped tremendously - and it's breathing is good for your overall health.

8. Don't rush back into physical activities. Gradually increase activity as you start feeling better

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The last and final tip - do not rush back into your normal activities. Your oxygen supplies may still not be at their optimal condition, so you don't want to put too much stress on your body.

Start with light activities like walking, yoga, and see how your body responds to them, and gradually increase your activity if you feel better.