Health & Fitness

The so-called "digit ratio" could be a strong indicator of men's vulnerability to COVID-19, as it serves as an indicator of testosterone exposure in utero. Higher testosterone levels, in turn, are deemed protective due to their effects on the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). The finding comes from researchers at the U.K.'s Swansea University, who delved into why more men than women are dying from COVID-19.

It's been suggested that men may be twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as women,¹ and since the length of men's ring fingers may be related to testosterone levels, the researchers measured the ring fingers of 103,482 men and 83,366 women from 41 countries in relation to their index fingers.²

Shorter Ring Fingers May Indicate COVID-19 Vulnerability

To calculate digit ratio, the length of the index finger (2D) is divided by the length of the ring finger (4D). A ring finger that's longer than the index finger, which leads to a smaller digit ratio, suggests higher exposure to testosterone in the womb, and this was linked to a lower risk of dying from COVID-19.

In fact, in countries where men had a smaller digit ratio (0.976 millimeters (mm)), such as Malaysia, Russia and Mexico, COVID-19 fatality rates were lower than in countries with men who had a higher digit ratio (0.99 mm and greater, which indicates a shorter ring finger), such as the U.K., Spain and Bulgaria.³

Overall, countries with men with longer ring fingers had a COVID-19 death rate of 2.7 per 100,000, compared to 4.9 per 100,000 in countries where men had a shorter overall ring finger length.⁴ No such association was found in women. "Our findings support a link between high 2D:4D (low prenatal testosterone) and high severity of COVID-19 in men," the researchers explained, adding:⁵

"Thus, high prenatal testosterone (low 2D:4D) in men may be protective of the serious effects of COVID-19 … A strong positive association between male 2D:4D and mortality may provide a biomarker for male COVID-19 susceptibility and identify those for whom it would be advisable to exercise social distancing."

A study published in the journal Andrology similarly found a link between low testosterone levels in men and severe COVID-19. The study involved 31 men with COVID-19 who were admitted to the respiratory intensive care unit of the Carlo Poma Hospital in Mantua, Italy.

Lower baseline levels of total testosterone and calculated free testosterone levels were predictive of poor prognosis and mortality in the men.⁶ Speaking with Newsweek, Jeremy Rossman, honorary senior lecturer in virology at the U.K.'s University of Kent, stated:⁷

"It is not thought that testosterone has a direct impact on COVID-19 disease, rather that it may affect other factors, such as ACE2 expression levels … This is a very new area of study and further research will be necessary to confirm the association between testosterone levels and COVID-19 disease, as well as determine how testosterone levels affect the disease course."

Higher ACE2 in Men May Explain Lowered COVID-19 Risks

One theory for why men with shorter ring fingers have a higher risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19 has to do with ACE2, an enzyme that's beneficial in that it promotes tissue regeneration. The problem is that coronavirus binds to ACE2 and uses it to enter cells,⁸ where it then multiplies. Writing in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland explained:⁹

"Human pathogenic coronaviruses (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus [SARS-CoV] and SARS-CoV-2) bind to their target cells through angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), which is expressed by epithelial cells of the lung, intestine, kidney, and blood vessels."

Ironically, when levels rise high enough, ACE2 may actually be protective. Professor John Manning, lead researcher of the featured study, noted, "The theory is that someone with high prenatal testosterone — and a long ring finger — has greater levels of ACE2.

These concentrations are large enough to oppose the virus … Our findings may be men with long ring fingers will experience mild symptoms and could return to work."¹⁰ Writing in Early Human Development, the researchers further explained the paradox:¹¹

"SARS-CoV2 enters cells via the receptor molecule ACE2. Paradoxically, the up-regulation of ACE2 relates to protective effects from COVID-19 infection, possibly because it opposes the loss of ACE2 from cell surfaces. We speculate that in men the up-regulation of ACE2 relates to high testosterone and low 2D:4D."

While the research into how ACE2 affects COVID-19 is still emerging, it's been suggested that treatment of COVID-19 should involve an increase in the amount of ACE2 in the lungs because it's protective against lung injury.¹² Adding further support, research published in JAMA Cardiology suggested that reduced levels of ACE2, associated with both aging and cardiovascular disease, may increase the risk of severe COVID-19.^13,14

"[T]hese observations raise an apparent paradox: Given ACE2 itself is the gateway of SARS-CoV-2 entry into cells, how can the reduction in ACE2 levels in older persons and those with CVD [cardiovascular disease] predispose for greater COVID-19 severity?" researchers asked in the journal JAMA Cardiology.¹⁵

In short, the answer may lie in the role of ACE2 as a major anti-inflammatory in renin-angiotensin system (RAS), a control systems for blood pressure and fluid balance, signaling by converting the inflammatory angiotensin II into to anti-inflammatory angiotensin 1-7.¹⁶ Cardiac Rhythm News explained:¹⁷

"[S]evere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) binding to ACE2 acutely exaggerates the proinflammatory background created by lower levels of ACE 2 in this subpopulation, predisposing them to greater COVID-19 disease severity and mortality."

The Obesity Connection

There are many factors that influence your risk of COVID-19 disease severity other than the length of your ring finger, though low testosterone makes a recurring appearance in studies. This includes research funded by the German Federal Ministry of Health, which found that critically ill male COVID-19 patients often suffer from severe testosterone and dihydrotestosterone deficiencies.¹⁸

Though the study has not yet been peer-reviewed, 68.6% of the male COVID-19 patients in the study had low testosterone while 48.6% had low dihydrotestosterone levels — an important finding since both testosterone and dihydrotestosterone are necessary for the body to mount an effective antiviral immune response.¹⁹

More than 34% of the men were also obese, a condition often seen alongside low testosterone. Not only does obesity decrease total testosterone due to insulin resistance, which reduces sex hormone binding globulin, but severe obesity may reduce free testosterone levels by suppressing the hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular (HPT) axis.²⁰

Low testosterone, in turn, increases overweight and obesity, "creating a self-perpetuating cycle of metabolic complications," researchers noted in the Asian Journal of Andrology,²¹ an important connection since obesity has also been highlighted as a major risk factor for severe COVID-19.

Other Ways Obesity May Increase COVID-19 Risk

Aside from low testosterone, obesity has previously been linked to lowered immune function and increased risk of infection, and NYU Grossman School researchers suggested obese COVID-19 patients are even at greater risk than those with cardiovascular disease.²²

Johns Hopkins University researchers suggested obesity could also shift the burden of COVID-19 onto younger patients, finding in a dataset of 265 COVID-19 patients that younger individuals admitted to the hospital were more likely to be obese.²³

Study author Dr. David Kass, who heads up the Institute of CardioScience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, cited a number of reasons why COVID-19 risks are higher with obesity, including physically making it harder to breathe, leaking membranes separating the airway sacs in the lungs and blood vessels, allowing fluid to enter, and increased inflammation that's a hallmark of obesity. He also came back to ACE2:²⁴

"Another area that I believe deserves more study is the role of the ACE2 protein in fat cells. This protein is key for the COVID-19 virus, since the virus must bind to it in order to gain entry into a cell.

It turns out fat cells express ACE2 at fairly high levels, and there are some past data on this idea related to other respiratory viruses that they can attack fat, last in fat, and shed more slowly from fat. This could make an obese individual more infectious even as their symptoms get better."

Factors to Lower COVID-19 Risk

You can't change your prenatal exposure to testosterone or the length of your ring finger, but there are many steps you can take to actively lower your risk of becoming ill from COVID-19 or another infection. At this point, it's unclear if raising testosterone levels is helpful for men in terms of COVID-19, but there are many ways to do so naturally.

Further, many of them will also help with weight loss and help to ward off viral illness, which means you have nothing to lose (except pounds) and everything to gain from trying them. For instance, limiting sugar and boosting healthy fats, engaging in high-intensity exercises and strength training, optimizing vitamin D and reducing stress are all helpful strategies shown to boost your testosterone levels naturally.

Overall, it's crucial to lead a healthy lifestyle, as according to a study by The Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Italy's national health authority,²⁵ more than 99% of fatalities from COVID-19 occurred among people who had underlying medical conditions. Among the fatalities, 76.1% had high blood pressure, 35.5% had diabetes and 33% had heart disease.²⁶

Intermittent fasting is therefore highly recommended, as it promotes insulin sensitivity and improves blood sugar management by increasing insulin-mediated glucose uptake rates.²⁷ This is important not only for resolving Type 2 diabetes but also high blood pressure and obesity, as well as enhancing testosterone.

It helps boost testosterone by improving the expression of satiety hormones like insulin, leptin, adiponectin, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), cholecystokinin (CKK) and melanocortins, which are linked to healthy testosterone function, increased libido and the prevention of age-induced testosterone decline.

So, you can see how when you begin to make positive lifestyle changes, it leads to a cascade of beneficial changes in your body, all of which act together to ward off infection and disease. If you're concerned that a short ring finger indicative of low testosterone, obesity or another above-mentioned chronic condition may be raising your risk of severe COVID-19, take action to get healthier today.

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In “How Bill Gates Monopolized Global Health,” I featured Parts 1 and 2 of investigative journalist James Corbett’s report on this unelected global health czar.

Part 1 reviewed how Gates ended up in a position to monopolize global health, despite his lack of health or medical education. In Part 2, he laid out Gates’ plan to vaccinate the global population against COVID-19 (although there’s no reason to imagine the plan would remain limited to a single vaccine).

Here, in Parts 3 and 4, which you’ll find in the playlist above, Corbett dives into the motives, ideology and connections of Gates that appear to have shaped and are driving his post-COVID-19 plans for the world — plans that include an unprecedented campaign to control the global population in its totality, from cradle to grave.

Population Control Is a Chief Aim

As noted by Corbett, Gates has used his staggering wealth to buy control, and he’s done it under the cloak of “charity.” A significant piece of that control is the control over population growth.

Indeed, a meeting¹ in May 2009 between Sir Paul Nurse, then-president of Rockefeller University, Warren Buffet, David Rockefeller Jr., George Soros, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey, revolved around how these billionaires could use their wealth to curb population growth — without the input or interference of government agencies.

According to an article² in The Sunday Times, they met at the request of Gates to discuss “joining forces to overcome political and religious obstacles to change.” The article continues:

“Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, said the summit was unprecedented. ‘We only learnt about it afterwards, by accident. Normally these people are happy to talk good causes, but this is different — maybe because they don't want to be seen as a global cabal,’ he said … Taking their cue from Gates they agreed that overpopulation was a priority …

Another guest said there was ‘nothing as crude as a vote’ but a consensus emerged that they would back a strategy in which population growth would be tackled as a potentially disastrous environmental, social and industrial threat ... ‘They need to be independent of government agencies, which are unable to head off the disaster we all see looming.’"

According to Gates, the global population could be lowered by 10% to 15% if we “do a really great job on new vaccines, health care [and] reproductive health services.” His theory is that “as health improves, families choose to have less children … As you improve health, within a half generation the population growth rate goes down.”

Vaccines to Reduce Fertility 

Alas, as Corbett notes,³ “the idea of using vaccines as sterilization agents — even without the public’s knowledge or consent — is not conspiracy lore, but documentable fact.”

He points out an excerpt from the Rockefeller Foundation’s 1968 annual report⁴ and five-year review, which under the heading “Problems of Population,” states that “very little work is in progress on immunological methods, such as vaccines, to reduce fertility, and much more research is required if a solution is to be found here.”

To address the problem, the Rockefeller Foundation vowed to solicit and fund “established and beginning investigators to turn their attention to aspects of research in reproductive biology that have implications for human fertility and its control.”

In 1972, the Rockefeller-funded Population Council joined forces with the World Health Organization, creating the Task Force on Vaccines for Fertility Regulation, and in 1995, the task force reported they had developed a prototype of an anti-hCG vaccine that would prevent women from carrying a baby to term.

In the early 1990s, “a series of scandals over WHO-led vaccination programs in the Third World led to allegations that tetanus vaccines in places like the Philippines⁵ and Kenya⁶ were being laced with hCG in order to implement population control by stealth,” Corbett says. The subsequent controversy chilled campaigns promoting population control via vaccines.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation revived the concept during its 2012 Summit on Family Planning in London, when it was announced the foundation will fund research, development and deployment of “injectable contraceptives,” aimed at the developing world.

“But the Gates were not content to stop there,” Corbett says. “In 2014 it was announced that Microchips Biotech, Inc., a company in Lexington, Massachusetts, had developed a new form of birth control: ‘a wireless implant that can be turned on and off with a remote control and that is designed to last up to 16 years.’

According to MIT Technology Review, the idea originated when Bill Gates visited Robert Langer’s MIT lab in 2012 and asked him if it would be possible to create an implantable birth control device that could be turned on or off remotely.

Langer referred Gates to the controlled release microchip technology he had invented and licensed to MicroCHIPS Biotechnology, and the Gates Foundation granted $20 million to the firm to develop the implants.

Reducing population growth has, by Gates’ own admission, been a core mission of the Gates Foundation since its inception. But in order to really understand what Gates means by ‘population control,’ we have to look beyond the concept of controlling population size. At its most fundamental level, the ‘population control’ that Gates speaks of is not birth control, but control of the population itself.”

Controlling the Population Through Technology

Part 3 continues by reviewing the work of Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, which was founded by the Gates Foundation in partnership with the WHO, the World Bank and various vaccine manufacturers.

In 2017, Gavi decided to provide every child with a digital biometric identity, which would simultaneously store the child’s vaccination records. Without such a system, a 100% immunization rate simply cannot be reached, Gavi CEO Seth Berkley stated.

Shortly thereafter, Gavi became a founding member of the ID2020 Alliance, alongside Microsoft and the Rockefeller Foundation. In 2019, Gates again collaborated with Langer to develop a novel vaccine delivery method using fluorescent microdot tags — essentially creating an invisible “tattoo” — that can then be read with a modified smartphone.

“It should be no surprise, then, that Big Pharma vaccine manufacturers — in their scramble to produce the coronavirus vaccine that, Gates assures us, is necessary to ‘go back to normal’ — have turned to a novel vaccine delivery method: a dissolvable microneedle array patch,” Corbett says.

“As in so many other aspects of the unfolding crisis, Gates’ unscientific pronouncement that we will need digital certificates to prove our immunity in the ‘new normal’ of the post-coronavirus world is now being implemented by a number of governments.”

Corbett also reviews the rapid development and implementation of biometric identification programs tied in with digital currencies. Undoubtedly, the plan is to connect everything together — your identification, personal finances, medical and vaccination records. Most likely, it will also be embedded on your body, for your own “convenience,” so you cannot lose it. Never mind the fact that everything that can be hacked at some point has been or will be.

“The ID control grid is an essential part of the digitization of the economy,” Corbett says. “And although this is being sold as an opportunity for ‘financial inclusion’ of the world’s poorest in the banking system provided by the likes of Gates and his banking and business associates, it is in fact a system for financial exclusion.

Exclusion of any person or transaction that does not have the approval of the government or the payment providers …

The different parts of this population control grid fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The vaccination drive ties into the biometric identity drive which ties into the cashless society drive.

In Gates’ vision, everyone will receive the government-mandated vaccinations, and everyone will have their biometric details recorded in nationally administered, globally integrated digital IDs.

These digital identities will be tied to all of our actions and transactions, and, if and when they are deemed illegal, they will simply be shut off by the government — or even the payment providers themselves.”

Indeed, if you think online censorship is bad, consider a world in which your online activity is tied to your biometric chip with all your finances and personal data. What easier way to silence people than to block access to their own money? I’m sure there are many other ways in which such a system could be used to control any and all individuals.

“Only the most willfully obtuse could claim to be unable to see the nightmarish implications for this type of all-seeing, all-pervasive society, where every transaction and every movement of every citizen is monitored, analyzed, and databased in real-time by the government.

And Bill Gates is one of those willfully obtuse people,” Corbett says. “This Gates-driven agenda is not about money. It is about control. Control over every aspect of our daily lives, from where we go, to who we meet, to what we buy and what we do.”

Gates Family History

What drives a man who is rich beyond imagination to spend his life devising schemes to control the human population? Corbett asks. Surely, something other than money must be driving Gates’ insatiable lust for control. To answer that question, Corbett surveys Gates’ family history.

Both his great-grandfather, J.W. Maxwell, and his grandfather, Willard Maxwell, were bankers. Gates’ grandmother, Adele, was a prominent civic leader. His mother, Mary Maxwell Gates, served as director of several companies, including First Interstate Bancorp and KIRO-TV of Seattle. She was also a regent at the University of Washington, and served on the board of the United Way of America.

Gates’ father, William H. Gates, Sr., was a prominent lawyer who co-founded a powerful law and lobbying firm. He also served on several corporate and organizational boards, and headed up Planned Parenthood. As noted by Corbett:⁷

“From his mother’s banking family he inherited a ‘nose for the dollar,’ as one childhood friend’s father called it. From his hard-driving legal-minded father, he learned the value of legalizing business arrangements … A ‘nose for the dollar’ and a knowledge of how to use the legal system to get what you want were not the only things to emerge from Bill Gates’ childhood, however.

His parents also encouraged discussion about the family’s charity work and the causes they held close to their heart. As Gates revealed to Bill Moyers in 2003, those causes included ‘the population issue’ which sparked a lifelong interest in ‘reproductive health’ …

The topic is particularly controversial, because ‘population control’ and ‘reproductive health’ have been used for half a century as a euphemism for eugenics, the discredited pseudoscience that holds that certain families are fit to be leaders of society by virtue of their superior genes …

As transparent as it seems to us today that this ideology was a self-serving self-justification for the ruling class, it was quickly taken up as the great social crusade of the early 20th century …

A common eugenicist argument was that the scarce resources of society should not be used to support the lower classes, as that only encouraged more of their kind. Instead, life-saving medical care and intervention should be rationed so that those resources can be best put to use elsewhere.

So-called negative eugenicists even took things further, with some, like famed playwright George Bernard Shaw, calling for people to be called before a state-appointed board to justify their existence or be put to death.”

Gates Drives the Modern Eugenics Agenda

As noted by Corbett, eugenics was shunned following the second World War thanks to the atrocious acts of the Nazi’s, yet support for it didn’t die out. Instead, the concept of eugenics simply changed into discussions about population control and reproductive health.

“It is worth questioning why this man, who openly muses about death panels and the trade-offs of providing health care to the elderly, is to be taken completely at face value in his attempts to slow population growth in the third world or to handle a coronavirus health crisis that primarily affects the elderly.

That the Gates agenda is being driven by a eugenicist ideology is suggested by multiple lines of evidence, both historical and current,” Corbett says.⁸

Like the Maxwell/Gates family, the Rockefeller family has also been funding and promoting eugenics around the world. They even funded the Eugenics Record Office, a department of the Carnegie Institution of Washington Station for Experimental Evolution at Cold Spring Harbor New York.⁹

As explained on the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory website,¹⁰ the Eugenics Record Office “was devoted to the collection and analysis of American family genetics and traits history records.” The studies “collected information such as inborn physical, mental and temperamental properties to enable the family to trace the segregation and recombination of inborn or heritable qualities.”

William Welch, the founding director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, sat on the Eugenics Record Office board of directors, and the Rockefellers sponsored eugenics researchers at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes in Germany, including Ernst Rüdin, who drafted Nazi Germany’s forced sterilization law.

When the American Eugenics Society closed its doors, its long-time director, Frederick Osborne, became the president of the Population Council — another Rockefeller-funded organization. In his 2009 book, “Showing Up for Life,” Gates Sr. expresses his admiration for the Rockefellers’ decades’ long commitment to and involvement in public health, including their support of vaccination programs.

Epstein’s Controlled Breeding Program

“But the most salacious hints of a deeper agenda are not to be found in the Gates’ public associations, but in the associations that they have tried to hide from the public,” Corbett says. One curious and highly suspicious connection is Gates’ apparent involvement with the now-infamous sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

While Gates has denied knowing Epstein, media reports claim they met on multiple occasions, and were in discussions about co-creating a charitable fund with seed money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and JPMorgan Chase. Corbett notes:

“According to The Times, Gates emailed his colleagues about Epstein in 2011: ‘His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing although it would not work for me.’

Epstein’s will even named Boris Nikolic — a Harvard-trained immunologist who served as the chief scientific advisor to both Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and who appears in the sole publicly known photo of Epstein and Gates’ 2011 meeting at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion — as the backup executor of Epstein’s estate.

It is not difficult to see why Gates would try to distance himself from his relationship with a child sex trafficker … But, as it turns out, the attempt to suppress the Gates-Epstein story may have been an attempt to suppress the revelation of an altogether different shared interest …

The already scarcely believable Jeffrey Epstein story took another bizarre turn in August of 2019, when it was reported that Epstein ‘Hoped to Seed the Human Race With His DNA.’¹¹

As The New York Times explained, Epstein’s plan to impregnate 20 women at a time at his New Mexico ranch in order to ‘seed the human race with his DNA’ — plan he told to a number of the ‘scientific luminaries’ he kept in his orbit — put a modern gloss on a very old idea.”

One of those scientific “luminaries” was George Church, a Harvard geneticist who received funding for various projects from Epstein’s foundation, and who brought forth a proposal for a “genetics dating app.” Epstein and Gates both funded a startup company seeking to use gene editing to eliminate diseases.

It’s Time to See the Global Agenda for What It Is

“We cannot expect an answer about Bill Gates true motives to come from Gates himself. By this point the question of Bill Gates’ intentions has been buried under the combined weight of hundreds of millions of dollars of paid PR spin,” Corbett says.

“Now we must confront the question of why this man is motivated to build such a web of control — control over our public health agencies. Control over our identities. Control over our transactions. And even control over our bodies ...

We must confront the possibility that this quest for control comes not from a selfless spirit of generosity that never seemed to exist before he became a multi-billionaire, but from the same drive for money, the same desire for domination and the same sense of superiority that motivated him on his way up the corporate ladder.

But if the answer to the question “Who is Bill Gates” is “Bill Gates is a eugenicist,” that tells us some important things about the world that we are living in ... If Bill Gates is a eugenicist, driven by a belief in the superiority of himself and his fellow wealthy elitists, then what we are facing is not one man, or even one family, but an ideology.

This is not a trivial point. One man, whatever his wealth, can be stopped easily enough. But even if Bill Gates were to be thrown in jail tomorrow, the agenda that has already been set in motion would continue without missing a beat.

An entire infrastructure of researchers, labs, corporations, governmental agencies and public health bodies exists … driven by the belief of all those millions of people working for these various entities that they are truly working in the best interest of the people.

No, an ideology cannot be stopped by stopping one man. It can only be stopped when enough people learn the truth about this agenda and the world of total, pervasive control that is coming into view. If you have watched all four parts of this exploration on Bill Gates, then you are now one of the most informed people on the planet about the true nature of this agenda …

If you have made it this far, it is incumbent on you to help inoculate those around you against the corrupt ideology of Bill Gates and all those who seek to control the population of the world. You must help to spread this information so that others have a chance to see the bigger picture and decide for themselves whether they are willing to roll up their sleeves and accept what is coming, or not.”

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Five years before the novel coronavirus ran rampant around the world, saiga antelopes from the steppes of Eurasia experienced their own epidemic.

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For people whose genes put them at risk of becoming obese, exclusive breastfeeding as a baby can help ward off weight gain later in life.

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For people whose genes put them at risk of becoming obese, exclusive breastfeeding as a baby can help ward off weight gain later in life.

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Using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and deleting a key gene, researchers have created natural killer cells -- a type of immune cell -- with measurably stronger activity against a form of leukemia, both in vivo and in vitro.

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A new study shows that patient-derived adult stem cells can be used to model major depressive disorder and test how a patient may respond to medication and that fish oil, when tested in the model, created an antidepressant response.

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More than 3 million Americans have glaucoma, a serious eye condition causing vision loss. Using human stem cell models, researchers found they could analyze deficits within cells damaged by glaucoma, with the potential to use this information to develop new strategies to slow the disease process.

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Fluorophores with one oxygen atom replaced by a sulfur atom can be triggered with light to create reactive oxygen species within cancer cells, killing them.

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For a nematode worm, a big lawn of the bacteria that it eats is a great place for it to disperse its eggs so that each hatchling can emerge into a nutritive environment. That's why when a worm speedily roams about a food patch it methodically lays its eggs as it goes. A new study by neuroscientists investigates this example of action coordination - where egg-laying is coupled to the animal's roaming - to demonstrate how a nervous system coordinates distinct behavioral outputs. That's a challenge many organisms face, albeit in different ways, during daily life.

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Methylation and the circadian clock are both conserved mechanisms found in all organisms. Researchers found that inhibiting methylation with a specific compound disrupts the circadian clock in most organisms except bacteria. The team transformed specific methylation genes from bacteria into animal cells to rescue said inhibition, opening potentially new treatments for methylation deficiencies.

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Scientists recently published findings indicating the baboon could prove to be a relevant model to test therapeutics and interventions for neurodegenerative diseases, such as early stage Alzheimer's and related dementias.

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Researchers have discovered a new set of signals that cells send and receive to prompt one type of fat cell to convert fat into heat. The signaling pathway, discovered in mice, has potential implications for activating this same type of thermogenic fat in humans.

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Researchers and physicians have designed a method to help people with type 1 diabetes better manage their glucose levels. The method relies upon artificial intelligence and automated monitoring.

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In a study of ethnically diverse people from Cameroon, the presence of a parasite infection was closely linked to the make-up of the gastrointestinal microbiome, according to a research team.

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Researchers present comprehensive evidence that supports a novel trigger for a cell-mediated response and propose a mechanism for its action.

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Researchers have discovered a new set of signals that cells send and receive to prompt one type of fat cell to convert fat into heat. The signaling pathway, discovered in mice, has potential implications for activating this same type of thermogenic fat in humans.

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Diabetic retinopathy is a common complication of diabetes and a leading cause of blindness among the working-age population. A new study reports that visual function in diabetic mice was significantly improved after treatment with a single dose of visual chromophore 9-cis-retinal, a vitamin A analog that can form a visual pigment in the retina cells, thereby producing a light sensitive element of the retina.

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Striking images of some five billion brain cell connections have been created by scientists, mapping a lifetime's changes across the brain in minute detail.

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A new study takes a closer look at the benefits of volunteering to the health and well-being of volunteers, both validating and refuting findings from previous research. The results verify that adults over 50 who volunteer for at least 100 hours a year (about two hours per week) have a substantially reduced risk of mortality and developing physical limitations, higher levels of subsequent physical activity, and improved sense of well-being later on.

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Given the current pandemic and related economic stressors, many of us are trying to maintain healthy habits while watching our expenses. One of the areas where we can support our immune system is through our food choices. We all have to eat, and eat several times a day, and selecting foods that support our health and our planet — while also saving money — is now a priority for many.

People are going meatless for many reasons

About a quarter of the US is now vegetarian, especially people ages 25 to 34. A survey from 2017 studied US attitudes toward animal farming, and found that 54% of Americans were trying to purchase less meat, dairy, and eggs, and buying more plant-based foods. A plant-based diet has been linked with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and overall mortality. Studies have also shown an improved mood with a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

In additional to health reasons for eating less meat, many people are embracing a plant-based diet with fewer meats, or even starting with one meatless day per week, in order to save money. Meat is becoming expensive, and even scarce, as some supermarkets are setting limits on the number of packages of beef or poultry a person can purchase per shopping trip. Also, more people are at home, and with schools and summer camps being canceled there are more meals to make each day within a tighter food budget. Additionally, many people have reduced incomes and may be using food pantries, or may need to be very limited in their grocery shopping choices.

Focus on wholesome ingredients, even with a limited food budget

Our food choices truly do make a difference to our physical and mental health, and with a little planning, we can make good foods go further. While many processed carbs are cheap, you can get much more nutrient-dense food without spending much more. One example: a large family-sized bag of potato chips costs about the same price as a bag of dried beans, or several cans of beans. A box of sugary, processed breakfast cereal may last less than a week compared to a large box of fiber-filled oatmeal, which is not only a healthier choice, but one that will last longer and be more filling.

Shopping to stock a mostly plant-based pantry and fridge

Setting up or adjusting your panty and fridge to include more plant-based options can help your budget and your health. Your focus should be on whole foods such as fresh (or frozen) vegetables and fruit, protein sources that include legumes (lentils, peas, and beans), whole grains, nuts, and seeds.

Long-lasting pantry staples include a variety of beans, chickpeas, spinach, coconut milk, tomatoes, olives, and corn. Some nondairy nut milks are shelf-stable, and can be great options for many recipes. Other shelf-stable options include whole-grain pastas (look for the Whole Grains Council stamp on the box), buckwheat noodles (which are gluten free), rice, and pad Thai noodles. Canned tomatoes, tomato paste, and tomato sauce (look for low-sugar brands) are great options for pasta sauces, lasagna, hearty stews, or vegetarian chili. Dry spices last a long time, and can help you add new flavors to your meals and change up leftovers to extend your budget even further. As an example, adding Mexican seasonings and a side of salsa to last night’s roast chicken can be today’s tacos!

Spend time in the foods section and stock up on lower-cost frozen vegetables and fruit. Adding vegetables to meals will make them more filling due to the fiber content. Adding frozen berries to breakfast oatmeal or whole-grain pancakes is more cost effective than buying fresh berries. Many Asian-inspired dishes such as pad Thai, noodle soups, or salads can be bulked up by adding vegetables, and these dishes will add variety to your menu. Some low-cost fresh vegetable options for soups and grain bowls include shredded carrots, peas, scallions, spinach, and bean sprouts.

Try homemade instead of canned soups

Rather than purchase a canned soup, why not buy dried lentils or legumes and fresh veggies and make your own? Lentils are low in sodium and saturated fat but high in potassium, fiber, folate, and antioxidants. They are also a great prebiotic for your gut microbiome. You’ll also know exactly what’s in your soup, and you’re cutting down on the excessive sodium and preservatives in most commercial soups. When you make a large quantity of soup, it’s less money per serving than a single can of soup, and you can freeze leftovers.

Plant-based can be protein-rich

If you are concerned about not getting enough protein through a plant-based diet, you should know that 8 ounces (1 cup) of cooked lentils provides about 18 grams of protein, and it has little to no saturated fat or sodium. Compare this to 4 ounces of ground beef, which provides 14 grams of protein, no fiber, and 11 grams of saturated fat.

In addition, plant-based options are great sources of folate, soluble and insoluble fiber, iron, phosphorus, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids. Many plant-based options are neutral in flavor, lending themselves to creative cooking, from soups and stews to bean and lentil salads, stir-fry dishes, vegetable burgers, hummus, and bean dips.

Plant-based foods	Grams of protein
1 cup cooked/boiled lentils	18 g
1/2 cup dry red beans	21 g
1/2 cup chia seeds	18 g
1/2 cup flax seeds	18 g
1/2 cup dry black beans	24 g

General tips for healthy, budget-friendly shopping

A helpful guideline at the supermarket is that fresh produce is on the outer perimeter of the store. Start there, see what is on sale that week, and stock up. Remember, you can freeze fruits and vegetables for later use by properly chopping and storing them in the freezer. The shelf-stable items and more processed foods are in the supermarket aisles. Again, stock up on sale items such as canned low-sodium beans, chickpeas, corn, dry lentils, or beans. Planning a plant-based diet on a budget is possible, and has several positive effects: you’ll benefit physically and mentally from a diet with less meat, and you may see savings at the checkout.

The post How to stock a plant-based pantry (and fridge) on a budget appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.

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While the mortality rate for COVID-19¹ varies around the world (in large part due to variations in testing), one trend is clear: The infection disproportionately affects the elderly, with those over the age of 75 making up the bulk of the deaths.

COVID-19 Outcomes Tied to Age

Looking at provisional data² from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, you can see a clear and dramatic increase in deaths for each older age group.

For young people, especially children, the risk of death is negligible. (Even so, more elderly die from pneumonia that is unrelated to COVID-19. The statistics separate out COVID-19 cases, pneumonia only, and pneumonia with concurrent COVID-19 infection.³)

The exact same age-dependent trend is seen in other countries, four examples of which are included in the OurWorldInData.org’s graph below.⁴ As noted in a May 29, 2020, review⁵ in the journal Aging, “Adults over 65 years of age represent 80% of hospitalizations and have a 23-fold greater risk of death than those under 65.”

Below is a graph created by the Minnesota Department of Health, published by Twin Cities Pioneer Press⁶ June 1, 2020, showing the same kind of age-dependent mortality curve.

Underlying Conditions Are a Primary Risk Factor

In addition to age, underlying health conditions (so-called comorbidities) are a primary risk factor that raises your risk of death from COVID-19. Not surprisingly, the elderly tend to have more underlying conditions. Very few people who have no underlying health conditions at all end up dying from this infection.

Below is an Our World in Data graph showing the breakdown of comorbidities found in Chinese patients, as of February 11, 2020.⁷

Another graph from the Minnesota Department of Health, (again, published by Twin Cities Pioneer Press⁸) reveals a different picture of prevailing comorbidities, yet the trend itself is clear: A vast majority of those who die have underlying conditions that make them more susceptible to severe infection and death.

In the case of Minnesota, 97% of COVID-19-related deaths have occurred in those “already fighting serious illness before they were infected.“⁹ The average age of those who have died is 82. Meanwhile, the medial age of Minnesotans with known COVID-19 infection is 42.

Just like in other areas, more than 80% of deaths occurred in nursing homes, assisted living facilities and live-in rehab centers, and there are logical reasons for this. More than 90% of residents of these centers have at least one chronic disease and more than 70% have two conditions, which in turn can weaken their immune systems.¹⁰ They also live in close quarters and share staff, which facilitates the spread of pathogens.

Italy and certain states in the U.S. — most notably New York, which has the highest COVID-19 death rate in the world — made the grave error of sending COVID-19 infected patients into nursing homes.

In light of what we currently know about the transmission, this was one of the most catastrophic and negligent government decisions that likely caused far more deaths than the lockdown prevented.

Rather than calling for the total lockdown of healthy and low-risk populations, why did health and government officials not simply call for the protection and isolation of the elderly?

According to a May 15, 2020, report by the University of Michigan,¹¹ nursing home residents and workers account for about one-third of all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. Another report¹² in The Guardian has pointed out that up to 20% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients actually caught it in the hospital while being treated for another ailment.

If 20% of people catch the disease at the hospital and 33% of deaths happen in nursing homes, just how much of the entire disease burden is a result of the health care system alone?

Biological Differences Help Explain Age-Related Morbidity

According to the outstanding May 29, 2020, review by David Sinclair on the molecular biology of COVID-19¹³ mentioned earlier, “Comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity increase the chances of fatal disease, but they alone do not explain why age is an independent risk factor.”

If that’s so, then what else might account for the radical discrepancy in mortality? In his excellent review, Sinclair discusses the “molecular differences between young, middle-aged and older people that may explain why COVID-19 is a mild illness in some but life-threatening in others.” If you have any interest in this topic I would strongly recommend reading this paper.

Importantly, Sinclair points out that inhibiting the virus is not enough in and of itself. One must also restore the patient’s ability to fight the infection and upregulate their immune responses to avoid an overreaction. This is done by many strategies I have previously discussed such as exercise, time-restricted eating and NAD+ optimization.

The Aging Immune System

Topping the list of additional factors that make the elderly more susceptible to dying is an aging immune system — both the innate and adaptive arms. As noted by Sinclair:¹⁴

“For the immune system to effectively suppress then eliminate SARS-CoV-2, it must perform four main tasks: 1) recognize, 2) alert, 3) destroy and 4) clear. Each of these mechanisms are known to be dysfunctional and increasingly heterogeneous in older people.”

During aging, your immune system undergoes a gradual decline in function known as immunosenescence, which inhibits your body’s ability to recognize, alert and clear pathogens. Aging also increases systemic inflammation, known as inflammaging, thanks to an overactive yet ineffective alert system. According to Sinclair:

“An abundance of recent data describing the pathology and molecular changes in COVID-19 patients points to both immunosenescence and inflammaging as major drivers of the high mortality rates in older patients.

The inability of [alveolar macrophages] AMs in older individuals to recognize viral particles and convert to a pro-inflammatory state likely accelerates COVID-19 in its early stages, whereas in its advanced stages, AMs are likely to be responsible for the excessive lung damage.”

Sinclair also addresses the impact an aging innate immune system has on vaccination efficacy, noting that:

“In the aged, immune responses to vaccination are also often weak or defective whereas autoimmunity increases. Therefore, in designing vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, it will be important to consider that older people may not respond as well to vaccines as young people.”

Vascular Inflammation Is a Risk Factor

While we have all heard of the cytokine storm, what is even more predictive of death is an increase in the fibrin degradation product D-dimer that is released from blood clots in the microvasculature and is highly predictive of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). The elderly have naturally higher levels of D-dimer, which appears to be a “key indicator for the severity of late-stage COVID-19,” the Sinclair states.¹⁵

In the elderly, elevated levels are thought to be due to higher basal levels of vascular inflammation associated with cardiovascular disease, and this, the authors say, “could predispose patients to severe COVID-19.” Similarly, the elderly tend to have higher levels of NLRP3 inflammasomes, which appear to be a key culprit involved in cytokine storms. According to Sinclair:

“In older individuals, NLRP3 may be poised for hyperactivation by SARS-CoV-2 antigens. NLRP3 activity is under the direct control of sirtuin 2 (SIRT2), a member of the NAD+-dependent sirtuin family of deacetylases.

During aging, NAD+ levels decline, reducing the activity of the sirtuins. Old mice … have decreased glucose tolerance and increased insulin resistance. This decline, exacerbated by COVID-19, might promote hyperactivation of NLRP3 and the trigger [for] cytokine storms in COVID-19 patients.”

Higher NAD+ Level May Be Protective

Importantly, he points out that maintaining optimal NAD+ levels may therefore alleviate COVID-19 symptoms. This theory is further supported by recent data showing “SARS-CoV-2 proteins … deplete NAD+,” and the fact that NAD+ precursors are known to inhibit inflammation.

Helpful strategies to achieve that include taking NAD precursors such as nontimed-release niacin, lowering your sugar intake (as excess blood glucose lowers NAD+), cyclical nutritional ketosis, and/or taking glycine or collagen.

Other Factors at Play

Other factors that predispose the elderly to severe infection and death include epigenetic changes that occur with age, specifically:

• The dysregulation of the epigenome
• Excessive calorie intake
• Changes in glycosylation (the enzymatic process by which glycans, a type of carbohydrate, are covalently attached to proteins or fats on the cell surface or in the bloodstream)

Sinclair points out that metformin, a glucose-lowering drug that inhibits the mTOR pathway, “has been suggested as a possible drug to combat severe SARS-CoV-2 infection in older people.”

Metformin also has antiviral effects and helps improve mitochondrial metabolism, decrease inflammatory cytokines, decrease cellular senescence and protect against genomic instability, Sinclair notes.

The following illustrations from his review¹⁶ summarize the biological mechanisms that determine your COVID-19 susceptibility and subsequent risk of death.

Vitamin D Is a Simple Strategy That Can Save Lives

The elderly also tend to have low vitamin D levels, and vitamin D deficiency is another trend that several researchers have now identified as an underlying factor that significantly impacts COVID-19 severity and mortality. I discuss this in “Vitamin D Is Directly Correlated to COVID-19 Outcome.”

The following graph is from a May 18, 2020, letter¹⁷ to the Federal Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, from retired biochemist Bernd Glauner and Lorenz Borsche, in which they highlight studies¹⁸ showing a clear correlation between COVID-19 mortality and vitamin D levels.

It’s important to note that experts are already warning SARS-CoV-2 may reemerge in the fall when temperatures and humidity levels drop, thereby increasing the virus’ transmissibility.

To improve your immune function and lower your risk of viral infections, you’ll want to raise your vitamin D to a level between 60 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) and 80 ng/mL by fall. In Europe, the measurements you’re looking for are 150 nanomoles per liter (nmol/L) and 200 nmol/L. Optimizing your vitamin D is particularly important if you are older or have darker skin.

One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways of measuring your vitamin D level is to participate in the GrassrootsHealth’s personalized nutrition project, which includes a vitamin D testing kit, either alone or in combination with the omega-3 test. This is done in the convenience of your home.

To make sure your vitamin D level and immune system function are optimized, follow these three steps:

Not only will optimizing your vitamin D be an important strategy for you and your family, but it would be really helpful to start thinking about your community as well. I am in the process of writing an even more comprehensive and detailed report on vitamin D in the prevention of COVID-19 and I hope to enlist ALL of you to talk to your friends and family and get them on board to get their vitamin levels optimized.

If you can, speak to pastors in churches with large congregations of people of color and help them start a program getting people on vitamin D, and if you have a family member or know anyone who is in an assisted living facility, meet with the director of the program and encourage them to get everyone tested or at least start them on vitamin D.

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Since the announcement from China in December 2019 that a novel coronavirus had been detected, scientists and researchers have been scrambling to learn more about it, how to prevent it and how to treat it. In the ensuing months a number of different treatment protocols have been proposed, some of which have demonstrated positive results.

Questions about privacy concerns, issues with unreasonable force by law enforcement across the world and sheltering in place are just some of the changes triggered by fear. The global population is effectively being manipulated while those who advocate for a “new normal” to reduce the spread of the virus wait for a vaccine to be produced.

To effectively maintain a plan for disease surveillance, the vaccine needs to be produced quickly and before an effective treatment is found. Yet, in a recently released CDC mathematical model using data gathered before April 29, 2020, their "best estimate" is that 0.4% of people in the general population who show symptoms will die.¹

This is close to the number of people from the Diamond Princess who did die after being quarantined aboard the ship in Yokohama for 27 days. Of the 3,711 passengers and crew, researchers recorded 16.6% confirmed cases, 8.5% asymptomatic cases and 1.3% deaths.²

This number also matches estimates from the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine³ but not the fear-based changes being made across the world. In the U.S., physicians are reporting that they are being asked to add COVID-19 to death certificates,⁴ and Fox News reports the CDC guidelines say:⁵

"In cases where a definite diagnosis of COVID cannot be made but is suspected or likely (e.g. the circumstances are compelling with a reasonable degree of certainty) it is acceptable to report COVID-19 on a death certificate as 'probable' or 'presumed.'"

Antiparasitic Reduces SARS-CoV-2 Replication in Cell Culture

A recent study generated excitement when researchers revealed that a single dose of Ivermectin could stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus from replicating.⁶ Ivermectin is an antiparasitic medicine that is used globally, and which reduced the SARS-CoV-2 virus in cell culture by up to 93% in 24 hours and 99.8% in 48 hours.⁷

In their study, published in Antiviral Research,⁸ scientists wrote that a single dose resulted in an approximately 5,000-fold "reduction in virus at 48 h in cell culture." The collaborative study involved professionals from Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute and the University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital.⁹

While they were unable to identify the mechanism of action against the virus, it has a clear history of antiviral activity against HIV-1 and dengue viruses.¹⁰

The drug is also effective against Japanese encephalitis and tick-borne encephalitis, and is a "potent broad spectrum specific inhibitor of importin α/β-mediated nuclear transport [that] demonstrates antiviral activity against several RNA viruses by blocking the nuclear trafficking of viral proteins."¹¹

The discovery of the drug earned Satoshi Omura the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.¹² Ivermectin is a macrocyclic lactone that has been used in hundreds of millions of people¹³ and animals¹⁴ since it was introduced commercially in 1981.¹⁵

It has a well-documented safety profile, an established distribution chain around the world and is relatively inexpensive.

Ivermectin Shows Promise in Human COVID-19 Infections

Kylie Wagstaff from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute talked about moving forward with its use, saying, "Ivermectin is very widely used and seen as a safe drug. We need to figure out now whether the dosage you can use it at in humans will be effective — that's the next step.”¹⁶

Dr. Tarek Alam, head of medicine at Bangladesh Medical College Hospital, released results after prescribing the drug with one dose of Doxycycline in 60 patients with confirmed COVID-19.

According to Alam, the combination stopped the infection in all the patients. He claimed that those who received the combination recovered within four days with no apparent side effects from the drugs:¹⁷

"We have got astounding results. Out of 60 COVID-19 patients, all recovered as the combination of the two drugs were applied. The repeated or second tests, in line with the procedure, reconfirmed them COVID-19 negative in all the cases under the research which found the combination to have no side effects on patients either.” 

Alam is confident in the results and hopeful this will provide a successful treatment protocol.¹⁸ At this time he's finalizing a report to be published in an international journal. Human clinical trials are now under way in several global areas including Egypt, Iraq, Spain and Argentina, as well as at the University of Kentucky and Johns Hopkins University in the U.S.

Officials in Trinidad were so excited by the results they began a campaign to give out one free dose of Ivermectin by going door-to-door.¹⁹ Trinidad's Health minister, however, noted that there is no current scientific validation to treat coronavirus and asked physicians using Ivermectin to ensure informed consent.

Researcher Urges Caution

Leon Caly from the Royal Melbourne Hospital was a lead researcher on the collaborative cellular study. The publication of the data prompted two letters to the editor in the same journal.²⁰ The authors of the letters pointed out blood levels of Ivermectin used during standard treatment were lower than the concentration used in cell cultures to inhibit replication of the virus.

The author of the original study responded, saying both writers made valid points about the data and that he and his team were in agreement. However, the writers of the letters did not highlight the reason caution should be considered when using Ivermectin. He explained that it is a host-directed agent (HDA) and:

“The way a HDA can reduce viral load is by inhibiting a key cellular process that the virus hijacks to enhance infection by suppressing the host antiviral response. Reducing viral load by even a modest amount by using a HDA at low dose early in infection can be the key to enabling the body’s immune system to begin to mount the full antiviral response before the infection takes control.

However, it is important to urge great caution in approaching the use of ivermectin in this simplistic way, precisely because ivermectin is a HDA. Because it targets a host component, it cannot be assumed that even doses lower than those discussed by Yeo et al. (2020) and Noel (2020) are safe in the context of a burgeoning viral infection, where a measured immune response is key to recovery.

Finally, it is critically important to remember that ivermectin as an antiviral is in a very early phase — under no circumstances should self-medication be considered without the guidance of a qualified physician, and especially not using therapeutics designed for veterinary purposes!”

Don’t Take Animal Medications

After some physicians found using hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine produced results, one Arizona man died, and his wife was hospitalized when they used a form of chloroquine commonly found to clean aquarium fish tanks.²¹

Recognizing that information about potential treatments is being published quickly and digitally, the FDA made a statement warning people not to use veterinary medicine Ivermectin intended for animals:²²

“FDA is concerned about the health of consumers who may self-medicate by taking ivermectin products intended for animals, thinking they can be a substitute for ivermectin intended for humans. People should never take animal drugs, as the FDA has only evaluated their safety and effectiveness in the particular animal species for which they are labeled.”

Federal agencies, researchers, doctors and pharmaceutical companies are scrambling to gain a foothold in the COVID-19 prevention and treatment market. In response the FDA has created a task force to monitor fraudulent activity.²³

Vitamin D Directly Related to COVID-19 Outcome

A groundbreaking study was announced in April to investigate the effectiveness of vitamin D against COVID-19.²⁴ Just days later, Mark Alipio — who received no funding for his work — published a preprint letter releasing data from an analysis of 212 people with lab-confirmed COVID-19 and for whom there were serum 25(0H)D levels available.^25,26

Using statistical analyses, he compared the difference in clinical outcomes against the levels of vitamin D and found vitamin D levels were strongly correlated to the severity of disease. Alipio concluded:²⁷

"… this study provides substantial information to clinicians and health policy-makers. Vitamin D supplementation could possibly improve clinical outcomes of patients infected with Covid-2019 based on increasing odds ratio of having a mild outcome when serum (OH)D level increases. Further research may conduct randomized controlled trials and large population studies to evaluate this recommendation."

Using a different metric, writers of a recent editorial in Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics arrived at similar results.²⁸ They argued there was a marked variation in mortality that occurs above or below 35 degrees North latitude. This is also the line above which it's not possible for people to get enough sunlight to retain vitamin D during the winter months.

The writers stressed the importance of vitamin D on the outcome of infection and concluded that, while there is modest evidence, it does offer some protection against infection.

It is important to know your vitamin D levels as you consider how much supplementation you may need. Since individual dosages will vary widely, it's impossible to predict how much supplementation you might need until your blood level is measured. Typical supplement ranges are from 2,000 to 10,000 units per day, but there are many variables that contribute to this dose.

Ideally, you’d like the level to be 60 ng/ml. GrassrootsHealth makes testing easy by offering an inexpensive vitamin D testing kit as part of its consumer sponsored research. All revenue from these kits go directly to GrassrootsHealth. I make no profit from these kits and only provide them as a service of convenience to my readers.

What Can You Do at Home?

While some scientists and pharmaceutical companies endeavor to create the first vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, there are tactics you can use at home that may help prevent the illness or reduce the severity if you do contract it. Before thinking about taking the first vaccine — or even the next ones — find out more about the history of fast-tracked vaccines in “Fast-Tracked COVID-19 Vaccine — What Could Go Wrong?”

Supporting your overall health and immune system goes a long way to helping prevent infection and reducing the severity of illness if you do get infected. In addition to ensuring adequate levels of vitamin D, there are several more steps you can take, which I have explored in depth and to which you’ll find links on the Coronavirus Resource Page. Here are some things you can do:

Pay close attention to your hand-washing techniques	Address diabetes and hypertension (two health conditions that increase risk of illness severity)
Support your immunity with nutrients	Combine quercetin and zinc if you choose to supplement
Make sure you get enough vitamin C	Get adequate amounts of sunshine
Get plenty of quality sleep	Support your immune system with exercise
Stay hydrated	Consider pre-, pro- and sporebiotics

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