Health & Fitness

Vitamin B1 (thiamine) is used by nearly all your cells, and helps to metabolize the carbohydrates and lipids in the foods you eat. It also facilitates converting your food into energy and boosting the flow of electrolytes in and out of your nerves and muscles. It's considered "essential" because your body can't produce it on its own; it must come from an outside source.

Thiamine is sometimes referred to as an "antistress" vitamin for its positive influence on your central nervous system, and it's also important for healthy immune function. In addition to nutrients such as zinc and vitamins C and D, vitamin B1 (thiamine) may actually be crucial to protect against infectious respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19.

Thiamine deficiency syndrome (beriberi) has also been implicated in other types of severe infections and bears many similarities to sepsis. This is one of the reasons why thiamine is such an important part of Dr. Paul Marik's sepsis treatment.¹ Sepsis, in turn, is a major contributor in influenza deaths in general, and a primary cause for COVID-19 deaths specifically.

While thiamine deficiency is often the result of alcohol misuse, chronic infections, poor nutrition and/or malabsorption, recent research suggests vitamin B1 availability has dramatically declined throughout the food chain in recent years.²

Lack of Thiamine Is Disrupting Ecosystem

In a January 28, 2021, article in Hakai Magazine,³ Alastair Bland reviews findings showing certain marine ecosystems are being decimated by an apparent lack of thiamine. Problems were noticed in January 2020 at salmon hatcheries in California. Fish were acting disoriented and mortality was surprisingly high.

Initially, they feared a virus might be at play, but after digging through the medical literature, they found research discussing thiamine deficiency in marine life. As noted in the article, vitamin B1 is "a basic building block of life critical to the functioning of cells and in converting food into energy."

Biologists tested the theory by dissolving thiamine powder into the water, and within hours, nearly all of the fish were acting normally again. Meanwhile, the behavior of fish in an untreated batch continued to decline. As a result of this research, many hatcheries took to applying thiamine, but the underlying problem still remains.

"Since the fish acquire thiamine by ingesting it through their food, and females pass nutrients to their eggs, the troubling condition indicated that something was amiss in the Pacific Ocean, the last place the fish eat before entering fresh water to spawn," Bland writes, adding:

"California researchers now investigating the source of the salmon's nutritional problems find themselves contributing to an international effort to understand thiamine deficiency, a disorder that seems to be on the rise in marine ecosystems across much of the planet.

It's causing illness and death in birds, fish, invertebrates, and possibly mammals, leading scientists from Seattle to Scandinavia to suspect some unexplained process is compromising the foundation of the Earth's food web by depleting ecosystems of this critical nutrient."

What's Causing Ecosystem-Wide Thiamine Deficiency?

As explained by Bland, "Thiamine originates in the lowest levels of the food web." Certain species of bacteria, phytoplankton, fungi and even some plants are responsible for synthesizing thiamine from other precursor compounds.

From there, thiamine makes its way through both the animal and plant kingdoms. All organisms need it. In animals, enzymes interact with thiamine to generate cellular energy. Without sufficient amounts of thiamine, fundamental metabolic processes start to fail, causing neurological disturbances, reproductive problems and increased mortality.

While beriberi has been recognized as a serious health risk in humans for nearly 100 years, and thiamine supplementation has been standard practice for domesticated livestock such as sheep, cattle, mink and goats for several decades,⁴ the presence in and effect of thiamine deficiency on wildlife wasn't discovered until the 1990s, when Canadian scientist John Fitzsimons started investigating the decline in Great Lakes trout. Bland writes:⁵

"Studying lake trout born in captivity, Fitzsimons observed symptoms like hyperexcitability, loss of equilibrium, and other abnormal behavior.

He wondered if a nutritional deficiency was at play, and to test for this he dissolved various vitamin tablets in water and — using trout in different life stages, including fertilized eggs — administered the solutions to the fish, both through injection and baths.

The idea was to see which vitamin, if any, cured the condition. 'It came down to a range of B vitamins, and it was only the thiamine that was able to reverse the signs I was seeing,' he says."

Since the publication of Fitzsimons' findings in 1995, thiamine deficiency has been identified in dozens of animal species, including birds and moose. While severe deficiency has lethal consequences, sublethal deficiency can have insidiously devastating effects, including:⁶

• Lowering strength and coordination
• Reducing fertility
• Impairing memory and causing other neurobehavioral deficits.⁷ In humans, thiamine deficiency has been shown to play a role in cases of delirium. In one study,⁸ 45% of cancer patients suffering from delirium had thiamine deficiency, and 60% recovered when treated with intravenous thiamine
• Paralysis
• Loss of vocalization

B1 Deficiency May Be Responsible for Wildlife Declines

Thiamine deficiency is now suspected of driving declines in wildlife populations all across the northern hemisphere.⁹ Bland cites research showing marine and terrestrial wildlife populations declined by half between 1970 and 2012. Between 1950 and 2010, the global seabird population declined by 70%.¹⁰

While habitat loss and other environmental factors are known to impact biodiversity, these declines are allegedly occurring far faster than can be explained by such factors. Researchers strongly suspect human involvement, but how?

"Scientists are floating various explanations for what's depriving organisms of this nutrient, and some believe that changing environmental conditions, especially in the ocean, may be stifling thiamine production or its transfer between producers and the animals that eat them," Bland writes.¹¹

"Sergio Sañudo-Wilhelmy, a University of Southern California biogeochemist, says warming ocean water could be affecting the populations of microorganisms that produce thiamine and other vitamins, potentially upsetting basic chemical balances that marine ecosystems depend on.

'In different temperatures, different phytoplankton and bacteria grow faster,' he says. This, he explains, could hypothetically allow microorganisms that do not produce thiamine — but, instead, acquire it through their diet — to outcompete the thiamine producers, effectively reducing thiamine concentrations in the food web."

The transfer of thiamine up the food chain may be blocked by a number of factors, including overfishing. But there's yet another possibility, and that is the overabundance of thiaminase, an enzyme that destroys thiamine. Thiaminase is naturally present in certain microorganisms, plants and fish that have adapted to use it to their advantage.

"When larger animals eat prey containing thiaminase, the enzyme rapidly destroys thiamine and can lead to a nutritional deficiency in the predator," Bland explains. One thiaminase-rich species is an invasive species of herring called alewife, which during the 20th century have spread through the Great Lakes, displacing native species.

This, some researchers believe, has led to chronic and severe thiamine deficiency in larger fish species. "The Great Lakes' saga illustrates the outsized impact that one single nutrient can have on an entire ecosystem," Bland writes.

An overabundance of thiaminase-containing species also appears to be responsible for the decline in Sacramento River salmon. In this case, northern anchovy, which is rich in thiaminase, is the suspected culprit.

Unfortunately, few answers have emerged as of yet. Giving thiamine to fish in hatcheries is not a long-lasting solution, because once they re-enter the wild, the deficiency reemerges. One scientist likened the practice to "sending a kid with a fever off to school after giving them a Tylenol."¹²

Signs and Symptoms of Thiamine Deficiency

Considering both plants and wildlife are becoming increasingly thiamine-deficient, it's logical to suspect that this deficiency is becoming more common in the human population as well. Early symptoms of thiamine deficiency include:^13,14

• Fatigue and muscle weakness
• Confusion and/or memory problems
• Loss of appetite and weight loss
• Numbness or tingling in arms or legs

As your deficiency grows more severe, the deficiency can progress into one of four types of beriberi:¹⁵

• Paralytic or nervous beriberi (aka "dry beriberi") — Damage or dysfunction of one or more nerves in your nervous system, resulting in numbness, tingling and/or exaggerated reflexes
• Cardiac ("wet") beriberi — Neurological and cardiovascular issues, including racing heart rate, enlarged heart, edema, breathing problems and heart failure
• Gastrointestinal beriberi — Nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and lactic acidosis
• Cerebral beriberi — Wernicke's encephalopathy, cerebellar dysfunction causing abnormal eye movements, ataxia (lack of muscle coordination) and cognitive impairments. If left untreated, it can progress to Korsakoff's psychosis, a chronic brain disorder that presents as amnesia, confusion, short-term memory loss, confabulation (fabricated or misinterpreted memories) and in severe cases, seizures

Thiamine is frequently recommended and given to people struggling with alcohol addiction, as alcohol consumption reduces absorption of the vitamin in your gastrointestinal tract. An estimated 80% of alcoholics are deficient in thiamine and therefore more prone to the side effects and conditions above.¹⁶

Thiamine is also very important for those with autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Hashimoto's (a thyroid autoimmune disorder).¹⁷ In case studies,^18,19 thiamine supplementation has been shown to improve fatigue in autoimmune patients in just a few days.

Interestingly, in one of these studies,²⁰ which looked at patients with IBD, patients responded favorably to supplementation even though they all had "normal" baseline levels.

The authors speculate that thiamine deficiency symptoms in such cases may be related to enzymatic defects or dysfunction of the thiamine transport mechanism (opposed to being an absorption problem), which can be overcome by giving large quantities of thiamine.

Thiamine in Infectious Disease

As mentioned earlier, thiamine deficiency has also been implicated in severe infections, including COVID-19. In fact, researchers have noted that, based on what we know about B vitamins' effects on the immune system, supplementation may be a useful adjunct to other COVID-19 prevention and treatment strategies. You can learn more about this in "B Vitamins Might Help Prevent Worst COVID-19 Outcomes."

More generally, a 2016 study²¹ in the journal Psychosomatics sought to investigate the connection between thiamine and infectious disease by looking at 68 patients with Korsakoff syndrome.

Thirty-five of them suffered severe infections during the acute phase of the illness, including meningitis, pneumonia and sepsis, making the authors conclude that "Infections may be the presenting manifestation of thiamine deficiency."

Another study²² published in 2018 found thiamine helps limit Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) by regulating your innate immunity. According to this paper:

"… vitamin B1 promotes the protective immune response to limit the survival of MTB within macrophages and in vivo … Vitamin B1 promotes macrophage polarization into classically activated phenotypes with strong microbicidal activity and enhanced tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 expression at least in part by promoting nuclear factor-κB signaling.

In addition, vitamin B1increases mitochondrial respiration and lipid metabolism … Our data demonstrate important functions of thiamineVB1 in regulating innate immune responses against MTB and reveal novel mechanisms by which vitamin B1 exerts its function in macrophages."

Thiamine deficiency is also associated with the development of high fever, and according to a letter to the editor,²³ "Is Parenteral Thiamin a Super Antibiotic?" published in the Annals of Nutrition & Metabolism in 2018, thiamine injections are "likely to eradicate microbial infections" causing the fever.

By dramatically increasing susceptibility to infections, thiamine deficiency could potentially have the ability to impact the spread of just about any pandemic infectious disease — including COVID-19.

Are You Getting Enough B Vitamins?

While biologists struggle to find an ecosystem-wide solution for thiamine deficiency in the food chain, the solution for us, in the meantime, may be to make sure we get enough thiamine through supplementation. Evidence suggests thiamine insufficiency or deficiency can develop in as little as two weeks, as its half-life in your body is only nine to 18 days.²⁴

Ideally, you can select a high-quality food-based supplement containing a broad spectrum of B vitamins to avoid creating an imbalance. The following guidelines will also help protect or improve your thiamine status:

Daily Intake Recommendations

While individual requirements can vary widely, the typical daily intake recommendations for B vitamins are as follows:

Nutrient	Supplement Recommendations
Thiamine (B1)	Adult men and women need 1.2 and 1.1 mg respectively each day.27 If you have symptoms of thiamine deficiency, you may need higher doses. Thiamine is water-soluble and nontoxic, even at very high doses, so you're unlikely to do harm. Doses between 3 grams and 8 grams per day have been used in the treatment of Alzheimer's without ill effect.
Riboflavin (B2)	Suggested daily intake is about 1.1 mg for women and 1.3 mg for men.28
Niacin (B3)	The dietary reference intake established by the Food and Nutrition Board ranges from 14 to 18 mg per day for adults. Higher amounts are recommended depending on your condition. For a list of recommended dosages, see the Mayo Clinic's website.29
Vitamin B6	Nutritional yeast (not to be confused with Brewer's yeast or other active yeasts) is an excellent source of B vitamins, especially B6.30 One serving (2 tablespoons) contains nearly 10 mg of vitamin B6, and the daily recommended intake is only 1.3 mg.31
B8 (inositol/biotin)	B8 is not recognized as an essential nutrient and no recommended daily intake has been set. That said, it's believed you need about 30 mcg per day.32 Vitamin B8 is sometimes listed as biotin on supplements. Brewer's yeast is a natural supplemental source.33
Folate (B9)	Folic acid is a synthetic type of B vitamin used in supplements; folate is the natural form found in foods. (Think: Folate comes from foliage, edible leafy plants.) For folic acid to be of use, it must first be activated into its biologically active form (L-5-MTHF). This is the form able to cross the blood-brain barrier to give you the brain benefits noted. Nearly half the population has difficulty converting folic acid into the bioactive form due to a genetic reduction in enzyme activity. For this reason, if you take a B-vitamin supplement, make sure it contains natural folate rather than synthetic folic acid. Nutritional yeast is an excellent source.34 Adults need about 400 mcg of folate per day.35
Vitamin B12	Nutritional yeast seasoning is also high in B12, and is highly recommended for vegetarians and vegans. One serving (2 tablespoons) provides about 67 mcg of natural vitamin B12.36 Sublingual (under-the-tongue) fine mist spray or vitamin B12 injections are also effective, as they allow the large B12 molecule to be absorbed directly into your bloodstream.

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Beta-glucans are naturally occurring long-chain carbohydrates known as polysaccharides, found in yeasts, fungi, bacteria and certain plants, including seaweed.¹

Widely available as a dietary supplement, beta-glucans have received little fanfare compared to other more popular supplements, but there is reason to believe they may be useful for stimulating the immune system and warding off everything from infectious diseases to cancer.²

At the foundation of their benefits may be the ability to ramp up the innate immune system, a mechanism first suggested by Dr. Rolf Seljelid, professor emeritus at the University of Tromsø in Norway. In the 1980s, he noticed that sea urchins have a unique ability to survive, and thrive, in very polluted waters, including those contaminated with bacteria- and virus-ridden hospital runoff.

“It struck me that they must have some quality that keeps them from getting sick. Something we know nothing about,” Seljelid told Science Norway. Part of his life’s work became uncovering what that “something” was, and it turned out to be beta-glucans.³

Beta-Glucans Protect Against Infection, Cancer

Seljelid’s early research revealed that a certain type of beta-glucan known as beta-1,3 / 1,6-glucan may be beneficial for the innate immune system, which is your first line defense made up of natural killer (NK) cells, macrophages and white blood cells like neutrophils.

He and colleagues conducted a study on mice, which found that those injected with beta-glucan were not affected by a dangerous bacterial infection, while animals that didn’t receive beta-glucan died. Beta-glucan doesn’t have antibacterial properties, so it was suspected that it may work by making the body’s immune system stronger and more able to fight off the infection.

This led Seljelid to suspect it might be useful in cancer, too, and his early research again yielded impressive results. When mice with cancerous tumors received beta-glucan intravenously, their tumors disappeared.⁴ "After only six hours, the tumors had begun to collapse in many of the mice given beta-glucan. Fourteen days later, the tumors were gone," Seljelid told Science Norway.⁵

In fact, beta-glucans have been used as a cancer treatment in Japan since 1980, and according to a 2007 report in Medicina, beta-glucans can prevent oncogenesis — the process in which healthy cells become cancer cells — by protecting against carcinogens that damage cellular DNA.⁶

Beta-glucans also help reduce inflammation associated with cancer and fight against metastasis, cancer recurrence and tumor drug resistance.⁷ Decades later, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York is conducting research into the combination of beta-glucans and cancer vaccines to treat children with severe neuroblastoma.

While only 40% to 50% of neuroblastoma patients typically live for five years after conventional treatments, those who received the beta-glucan along with the cancer vaccine had much higher survival rates.

“They have been working for years with a vaccine, which has a limited effect. But with the combination of the vaccine plus beta-glucan, around 90% of children were alive after five years. It is absolutely sensational,” Seljelid said.⁸

The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has even applied for a patent for beta-1,3 / 1,6-glucan for use with cancer and along with vaccines for influenza. In January 2020, a team of Italian researchers further noted that beta-glucans appear to have a promising potential in the control of cancer:⁹

“A main feature of β-glucans is their capacity to function as biological response modifiers, exerting regulatory effects on inflammation and shaping the effector functions of different innate and adaptive immunity cell populations. The potential to interfere with processes involved in the development or control of cancer makes β-glucans interesting candidates as adjuvants in antitumor therapies as well as in cancer prevention strategies.”

Beta-Glucans Ward Off Bacterial, Viral Disease

Professor Jan Raa, Professor Emeritus at the University of Tromsø, also discovered beta-glucans’ infection-fighting abilities via early research — and quite by accident. While conducting a study on the use of bacteria and fungi as farmed salmon feed, 18 tanks of fish ended up contaminated by Hitra disease, a bacterial infection that’s often fatal to salmon.

Three of the tanks weren’t being used in the study, however, and Raa had mixed beta-glucan into their feed to see if it would have an effect on their health. It turned out that up to 90% of the salmon in non-beta-glucan tanks succumbed to Hitra disease, compared to only 20% of those fed beta-glucan. According to Science Norway:¹⁰

“Due to a coincidence and a catastrophic event, Raa had thus carried out a gigantic infection experiment which under normal circumstances, he would have never gotten permission to conduct. ‘I realized I had made a great discovery,’ he says. The incident resulted in several controlled infection trials that confirmed the observation, says Raa.”

Today, beta-glucans are widely used in animal feeds, including fish food pellets. Later work by Raa suggests that beta-glucan is also useful against viral infections like influenza. “[S]tudies we conducted at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, which showed that beta-1,3 / 1,6-glucan led to a sharp increase in T cells that protect very effectively against influenza virus,” Raa said.¹¹

This prompted both Raa and Seljelid to recently contact the Norwegian Institute of Public Health to suggest researching whether beta-glucan could prevent COVID-19. Raa is also involved in a study in partnership with the EU looking at whether beta-glucan can ward off flu and COVID-19 in a nursing home setting.

Could Beta-Glucans Fight COVID-19?

In an August 2020 study published in Science of the Total Environment, researchers suggested beta-glucans may protect you from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.¹² One of the major complications of COVID-19 is pneumonia, which is sometimes accompanied by rapid replication of the virus.

During this rapid replication, your immune system releases proinflammatory cytokines that lead to an overreaction of the immune response called a cytokine storm. Cytokine storm can lead to lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and death.

In this study, researchers took beta-glucans extract from a form of shiitake mushroom called Lentinus edodes and combined it with a lung injury model in vitro. They found that beta-glucans reduced interleukin-1 beta and interleukin-6, two cytokines that can trigger the cytokine storm that causes ARDS in severe COVID-19 cases.

The beta-glucans also reduced oxidative stress and activated immune substances called macrophages that destroy potential invaders like viruses. The researchers concluded, “Further clinical studies are merited to refine β-glucan as a countermeasure for tackling cytokine storm that causes ARDS, as evident with COVID-19.”¹³

In separate research published in Frontiers in Immunology on July 14, 2020, researchers also suggested that beta-glucans could help to bolster immune response to defend against COVID-19, and wrote, “Ultimately, we hypothesize that the use of oral β-glucan in a prophylactic setting could be an effective way to boost immune responses and abrogate symptoms in COVID-19 …”¹⁴ Other research also supports beta-glucans’ role in fighting viral infections. For instance:

• Marathon runners who took 250 milligrams (mg) of beta-glucans from brewer's yeast for 28 days following a marathon were 37% less likely to contract a cold or flu symptoms compared to those taking a placebo.¹⁵
• People who took 250 mg of beta-glucans per day for 90 days reported 43 fewer days with symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection compared to those taking a placebo.¹⁶
• A 2013 study found that taking 900 mg of beta-glucans from brewer's yeast for 16 weeks reduced the rate of cold infections by 25% and eased symptoms in those who got ill by 15%.¹⁷
• A 2015 animal study found feeding mice beta-glucans for two weeks "significantly reduced the effects of influenza infection in total mortality,” likely by stimulating cellular and humoral immune reaction that led to a lower viral load.¹⁸

More Beta-Glucan Benefits

Aside from their anticancer and immune-stimulating effects, beta-glucans are thought to play a role in fat metabolism and may help support weight loss and optimal cholesterol levels.¹⁹ Beta-glucans may also help promote the growth of beneficial bacteria in your gut by acting like a prebiotic.

In one study, beta-glucans improved the growth rate of Lactobacillus plantarum in the gut in both unstressed and stressed conditions. Perhaps most importantly, beta-glucans were able to protect the probiotics from gastrointestinal stress caused by low pH, bile salts and digestive enzymes, increasing their survival rate as they traveled through the digestive system.²⁰

Beta-glucans may even improve insulin resistance, as they’ve been shown to reduce post-meal glucose and insulin responses, improve insulin sensitivity in diabetic and nondiabetic individuals and help with glycemic control.²¹

Smaller amounts of beta-glucans may be required to achieve the same results compared to other types of soluble fiber known to affect insulin response. According to one group of researchers from the University of Toronto, “The fermentability of β-glucans and their ability to form highly viscous solutions in the human gut may constitute the basis of their health benefits.”²²

How Do Beta-Glucans Work?

There’s still debate over why, and how, beta-glucans actually work, considering they’re not absorbed by the body. “The problem with beta-glucans,” Science Norway reported, “… is that the body does not absorb them. They just whiz through the digestive tract and come out on the other side. Measurements have shown that almost nothing of the substance enters the blood.”²³ So how do they work?

It’s not entirely known, but, according to the report, “Some researchers believe that the substance can affect our immune system by stimulating immune cells in the intestinal wall, without actually being absorbed by the body. Recent research has shown that the lining of the intestine is a very important part of the immune system.”²⁴

Raa also suggests that the type of beta-glucans matter, with not all of them having a therapeutic effect. “For years, I have tried to explain to skeptics that there is only a certain chemical structure that works, namely one called beta-1,3 / 1,6-glucan. This is the one that is ‘recognized’ by animals and plants as danger signals that trigger immunological defense reactions,” he said.²⁵

If you’re interested in exploring more, beta-glucan is widely available as a dietary supplement. You can also find beta-glucans in foods such as mushrooms (reishi, shiitake, maitake), baker’s yeast and seaweed.

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On-screen superhuman and just all round genetically blessed guy, Chris Hemsworth has reportedly suffered an acute back injury in the lead up to filming the fourth Thor film.

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As Australia prepares for the coronavirus vaccine rollout to begin, the government announced how you'll be able to demonstrate you've had the jab. 

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It's well understood that a difficult childhood can increase the likelihood of mental illness, but according to new research, a happy and secure childhood does not always protect a child from developing a mental illness later in life.

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In this interview, Rodney Dietert, Professor Emeritus of immunotoxicology at Cornell University, reviews the interrelationship between your immune system and your gut microbiome.

He's spent several decades researching and teaching students about the immune system. As noted by Dietert, your gut microbiome is crucial not just for immune function, but also for your health status in general, as it affects nearly all other physiological systems.

He first became aware of the importance of the gut when given the opportunity to write a research paper about which biomarker would be the best to predict the future health of a baby.

"I thought that was a really intriguing question to develop a paper around," he says. "And, I was pretty sure decades of work on the immune system in the young, prenatal and neonatal, meant that I had an answer.

I became very frustrated because I wrote a couple of paragraphs and it was unpersuasive, and went to bed extremely frustrated. I woke up in the middle of the night from a dream with what to me was an answer.

The answer was that it was the extent to which the newborn became complete or completed itself, and that that self-completion is really the installation of the microbiome, largely from the mother, but both parents contributing; vaginal delivery when possible, skin-skin contact, and then of course, followed up with prolonged breastfeeding when possible."

Ancestral Microbiomes

He points out that "more than 99% of your genes are from microbes, not from your chromosomes." You have approximately 3.3 million microbial genes, mainly bacterial. Across the entire population of humans, there are just under 10 million different microbial genes, so you won't necessarily have all of them.

You also have 22,000 to 25,000 chromosomal genes (these genes are what were analyzed through the Human Genome Project), which means you only have about 2,000 more chromosomal genes than an earthworm. As noted by Dietert, since we have about 3.3 million microbial genes, that means we're more than 99% microbial, genetically.

This is why he concluded that the gut microbiome at birth would be the best predictor of future health. Granted, your microbiome can be altered through diet and environmental exposures, and that will impact and influence your health throughout your life. But initially, the infant microbiome is the best overall predictor of future health.

"That led to a whole host of other lectures, books, scientific journal articles and an appearance in the documentary movie, 'MicroBirth,' which is a wonderful film. It won the life science award in 2014 for documentary films. That launched a second career, really, as a result of a dream, and paying attention to that versus the linear progression of 30-plus years of research."

According to Dietert, there's really no single measure of any particular bacterial species that will give you a definitive answer to what your health will be like. Rather, the most important predictive aspect is the seeding process. If the baby goes through an ideal seeding process at birth, he or she stands a greater chance of experiencing good health.

For example, elective cesarean and antibiotic regimens — both in the mother and the baby — are known to degrade the baby's microbiome. Since 2012, when he had that dream, he's been able to map out more specifics, but there's no single ideal microbiome per se. There are many different healthy microbiomes.

"These [microbiomes] arose in our ancestors depending on their geography, diet and a whole host of factors that were honed over thousands of years," he explains.

"For example, I have in my 60s tried to modify my health constructively by modifying my microbiome, and in my case, it would've been a long reach to get an ideal Asian microbiome because that's not really my ancestry. It's not where I grew up, or the soil I lived on and the food I ate.

So, healthy microbiomes are more connected to what your ancestors had that has been lost through short-sighted practices and technology installations. Trying to head toward that is much more constructive than trying to completely overhaul something to a group of microbes your ancestors never saw."

Compensatory Practices

Past dogma stated that the infant's immune system was complete at birth with little to no maturation or adjustment required in the infant. Now we realize that this is not true. The baby's immune development in utero is not uniform. It is skewed to protect maintenance of the pregnancy. This skewing then needs to be adjusted in the newborn/infant and the immune system must be expanded, redistributed, and rebalanced.

The best way to do this is by ensuring that rebalancing the baby's microbiome is complete and that a healthy infant microbiome can drive necessary post-natal immune maturation. If microbially-driven, infant immune maturation does not happen, then immune dysfunction-driven disease is an increased likelihood for that child.

Remember that 60% to 70% of your immune cells are located in your gut and these immune cells are in close proximity to your gut microbiome. So, gut microbiome status and immune status are intimately intertwined.

As mentioned, having a C-section puts your newborn at serious risk for developing a less than optimal microbial population. However, in some cases, a C-section is necessary, and the good news is you can compensate for the loss of microbial seeding that would have occurred during vaginal birth.

Gloria Dominguez Bello, Ph.D., at Rutgers University, who has pioneered much of this work, uses a vaginal swab technique where the microbes from the mother's vagina are manually transferred to the baby immediately after birth. You can learn more about this technique in "The Importance of Reducing Your Toxic Burden When Planning to Start a Family." "While it's not 100% equivalent, it is very good," Dietert says.

"Those types of strategies are the direction we need to head in to really aid parents in being able to deliver the majority of the baby's genetics. Those microbial genes are making proteins and enzymes, they're modifying what we see from the external environment, they're modifying our diet [via microbial metabolism] before our mammalian human cells ever see anything.

In effect, if you look at interference with seeding the [baby's complete] microbiome, to me, that is like a birth defect. If you were missing an organ or a limb, that would be a birth defect. Here, you're missing the majority of your genetics [the microbiome as a virtual organ containing most of the baby's genes].

Yet, that is a correctable birth defect and we need to keep that in mind. That would really be the push and the goal — to ensure the baby is able to have, as soon after birth as possible, the robust microbiome that would normally be there …

We know from experience that status of the microbiome dramatically impacts things like risk of asthma at age 7, and then subsequent health risks as well. Even picking up atherosclerosis markers, which you now can measure in children even though the disease onset will probably be decades off …

If you're growing up on a farm and having raw milk, and are exposed to animals and the microbes that go with that environment, it turns out that's rather protective against asthma and allergy later in childhood, as long as you're not directly encountering pesticides. That [encountering pesticides] will eliminate the benefit [of the early life microbial exposures].

Those microbial exposures early in life are really what our ancestors had to develop an appropriately balanced immune system, a well-regulated immune system. If we don't do that, then you're shifted toward a proinflammatory state and your regulation of immunity is off [producing an increased risk of later-life diseases].

Nature tells us that the microbiome has to have some compatibility with the immune system as they co-mature. When you get microbiomes that are really foreign to an immune system, the immune system [rather than developing self-tolerance] responds with a massive inflammatory response, so there's a self-attack …"

Aside from the vaginal tract, the baby also receives valuable microbes via skin-to-skin contact, including oral contact with breast tissue, as well as from the breast milk itself, which is why breastfeeding is so important and can impact your child's health well into the future. As mentioned above, environmental exposures from soil, food and animals also play a role.

Epigenetic Interactions

Your microbiome (in addition to directly metabolizing your food, drugs and chemicals) also influences the epigenetic expression of your (chromosomal) genes. For example, Dietert cites the work of Curtis Klaassen, former president of the Society of Toxicology and an expert on liver metabolism, who years ago shifted focus to microbiome metabolism because, epigenetically, microbes influence liver metabolism.

"The microbes [encounter and respond to] our food first. They see our environmental chemicals first. They see drugs through most routes of administration first, and what they do with those determine what your body sees. So, they're our gatekeeper, they're our filter for our whole environmental existence.

As a result, it's important to know what happens there. An example is cancer therapeutics. Most of those have to be metabolized by the microbiome. If we manage the microbiome more effectively in patients, we very likely could increase the efficacy of those drugs across a population of patients.

I think the U.K. said they're about 50% effective. That could be increased because we've ignored the microbiome and its role, even though these drugs don't work unless they're metabolized by the microbiome. [We now have more capability to manage microbial metabolism and should be doing that as part of sustainable health care.]"

How Your Gut Microbiome Impacts Immunosenescence

Historically, the thymus gland has been known to be really important for the development of the immune system, and in older individuals, the deterioration of the immune system is frequently related to thymic deterioration. The good news is this can to some extent be compensated for by improving your gut microbiome. Dietert explains:

"Aging of the immune system is really dependent upon your lifetime diet in large part. So, you don't have to buy into the fact that there is only one end for an 80-year-old's immune system — senescence, lower responses to certain infectious disease agents and greater risk of auto-reactivity. You really don't have to buy that, because it is largely influenced by diet and microbial metabolism."

One factor that plays a significant role in the destruction of your gut microbiome is the use of medications. According to Dietert, 25% to 50% of all drugs, including over-the-counter medications, damage your microbiome in predictable ways. Other drugs interact with the microbiome modifying drug treatment outcomes. We ignore these drug-microbiome interactions at our own peril.

"For example, here's just one case that's historic: Digoxin, a long-standing heart medication, can be metabolized by one specific bacterial species [Eggerthella lenta]. Now, depending on the level of that [specific bacterial] species that you have in your gut, the drug will either be ineffective because of the metabolic level, it will be effective, or it will be toxic and kill the patient.

It's a bit of a problem in terms of prescribing [a safe and effective personalized dose of Digoxin], even though it can be an effective drug.

Knowing that [the drug-microbiome relationship], and knowing it's one specific [gut] bacterium [controlling internal drug dose], which could be measured, [the bacterium] could be supplemented and the level [of bacterial metabolism of Digoxin] could be changed or the[administered] drug level could be changed [to ensure that drug metabolization by the gut microbome results in a safe and effective internal dose for each individual].

Why wouldn't you do that if you were going to administer this type of drug? [The microbiome and therapeutic drug dose can and should be aligned in each patient]."

So, the more microbe-damaging drugs you use, the greater the degradation of your microbiome will be over time. When combined with a poor diet, you end up with immunosenescence — the gradual deterioration of your immune system — but it's not a given just because you get old if you protect and support your microbiome and immune system across the life span.

"As always when you're dealing with the immune system and inflammation, it's a matter of tissue integrity and the question of whether you've so damaged an organ that it's going to be tough to come back from," Dietert says.

"You want to make these [inflammation-controlling] corrections [in your microbiome and immune system] before [a point of no return when] you've completely lost good [tissue] function due to massive inflammatory damage over decades."

Avoid Unnecessary Antibiotic Exposure

One simple strategy that will protect your microbiome is to avoid antibiotics. While they may be necessary to combat an active infection, the vast majority of antibiotics you're exposed to come from food. Animals raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are routinely fed antibiotics that you then ingest when you eat that animal.

That's one of the reasons why I strongly support and recommend eating organic, as organically raised animals are not allowed to be given antibiotics unless the animal is actually ill. CAFO animals are also more prone to carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also increased the use of antibacterial products. People think they're killing harmful germs but, in reality, they're just killing their immune system. As explained by Dietert:

"You have to support your entire body and you have to support your immune system as well. I'd point out that, for example, glyphosate is an antimicrobial. First, it destroys soil microbes, then plant microbes, and then it gets into animals and into us. We're exposed directly and we're exposed through food.

Again, it's widespread and it's just one example. You can take the plasticizers, bisphenol-A and others, where these things were never screened properly and the attention to the microbiome was never given. That's a huge mistake and we need to reverse that immediately.

I'm a big proponent of regenerative agriculture … I look at ecological management of microbes and robust diversity of plants, animals and our food production as critical. I'd like to point out that COVID-19 is in fact a cytokine storm.

It is an improper host immune response that leads to lung pathology and increased risk of death. Yet there's been almost no attention paid to the multiple factors that influence the immune system, inflammation and what's called 'colonization resistance.'"

Colonization Resistance

As explained by Dietert, you carry coronaviruses in your airways. Most have some coronavirus in the airway, but it won't cause illness as long as you have a healthy airway microbiome. A healthy airway microbiome is supported and promoted by things like physical exercise and spending time outdoors where sun exposure will optimize your vitamin D level.

"To grow our own food, get outside, visit animal farms and have microbial exposures in a healthy way, increase our vitamin D and tend to our immune system and our overall health is absolutely critical," he says.

"The more robust the microbiome [along with production of anti-pathogen metabolites], the better the colonization resistance we have against these pathogens. [This includes protection against] the secondary bacterial infections that will [frequently] arise during the mix of changing a [healthy] lung environment [to one engulfed in a] pro-inflammatory state.

We should've been doing that from the word go but, unfortunately, we have some scientists and bureaucrats that focused in one place and didn't really focus, in my opinion, on human health."

As just one example of how healthy bacteria can prevent infection, Lactobacillus acidophilus has been shown to block salmonella infection and spread in chickens. In the early 1990s, this type of intervention actually ended up saving the poultry industry that was having a massive salmonella problem, yet you never hear about that.

"I think this shows we need to manage how we produce our food. We need to recognize the benefits of a variety of supplements. I think that is what's going to help get us out of the polypharmacy rut that we've been in, quite frankly."

It's really a classic example of competitive inhibition, and it works the same way in the human body. According to Dietert, as few as 15 beneficial bacteria are able to create a metabolic environment in the gut that keeps the salmonella bacterium in check, thereby preventing it from multiplying out of control and causing disease.

So, with a robust diversity of beneficial bacteria in your gut, you're effectively able to block infection from occurring even though you may be exposed to dangerous pathogens. Keep in mind that the composition of your microbiome will also play a significant role in how well you can handle dietary "cheating" or the occasional junk food indulgence. As noted by Dietert:

"If you have a particularly robust microbiome, you're probably more resilient to a junk food weekend. If you are already dysbiotic or you're weakened in your microbiome because of chronic conditions, polypharmacy or glyphosate exposures, then you probably are pretty vulnerable to further shifts.

Again, it's how well are you seeded with a robust diversity? It's like forest management in ecology or coral reef management. If you've got a coral reef that's already damaged and sick, then it isn't going to take much to really put it over the top in terms of serious changes. This would be the same for us in terms of immune inflammation, pathology and/or an infectious agent getting a foothold, whereas it wouldn't otherwise."

From Gut to Brain

One way by which beneficial bacteria protect your health is through the production of butyrate and mucin, the mucous layer that protects the intestine. Gut microbes also make neuroactive peptides and neurotransmitters. There's a whole field that's been developed called psychobiotics that focus on using bacteria for neurological and mental health.

Certain bacterial species and strains will produce serotonin, for example. Others produce dopamine. Some produce GABA or acetylcholine. While most of the neurotransmitters produced in the gut cannot penetrate the blood-brain barrier, and therefore will not increase levels in the brain directly, they still have an indirect and measurable effect, Dietert says. The vagus nerve is one path through which the gut microbes influence brain chemistry and physiology.

How to Address Leaky Gut

Leaky gut is now recognized by most conventional physicians as a condition that contributes to other pathologies and chronic diseases. One important strategy to address leaky gut is to optimize your vitamin D, as it helps regulate your innate immune system and increases your body's ability to repair epithelial cell damage and gaps in the intestinal barrier.

Dietert also recommends supplementing with keystone species bacteria such as the genus Akkermansia, which is involved with mucin regulation. There are only a couple of bacteria that do that. He stresses that while vitamin D is important for gut repair, you also need bacteria to help maintain the mucin layer, as this is what keeps inflammatory bacteria and particles from seeping through the intestinal barrier.

Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) or potassium bicarbonate can also be very helpful. I prefer potassium bicarb because most of us have excess sodium and not enough potassium. I personally take about a half a teaspoon of potassium bicarb three times a day. I use a urinary pH to monitor and adjust my dosage. Your urine pH should be about 7, which is neutral. This will also help prevent the leaching of minerals from your bone.

Your Health Begins in Your Gut

In closing, Dietert reminds and encourages us to "do things that support your whole body, do things that support your immune system, even as you're focused on a specific disease or a specific pathogen." The reason for doing this is because everything is connected.

"We're now realizing that the boundary between infectious or communicable diseases and noncommunicable diseases may not be as rigid as we used to think," Dietert says.

"People have been able to show that if you install the wrong microbe into your gut microbiome — one that's dysfunctional and not very robust — you can wind up with a predictably-increased risk of very specific noncommunicable or chronic diseases.

We never thought that was the case, but there's evidence emerging, really within the last couple of years, that [chronic diseases] are all about microbial management. So, understanding your body, understanding your genetics and taking advantage of that, [can allow you] to be naturally healthy."

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Many doctors around the world started using the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) early on in the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them is Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, a practicing physician in a Jewish community in Monroe County, New York.

He garnered national attention in March 2020 when he told radio host Sean Hannity that he’d had a near-100% success rate treating COVID-19 patients with HCQ, azithromycin and zinc sulfate for five days.¹ “I’ve seen remarkable results; it really prevents progression of disease, and patients get better,” he said at the time.

In response, county health officials said Zelenko’s claims were “unsubstantiated” and urged residents to listen to public health officials.² In this interview, he explains how HCQ works against COVID-19, and discusses the lies spun about the drug to suppress its widespread use. Zelenko had a very active Twitter account and would get millions of views on his tweets, and like many other truth tellers in this crazy pandemic, he was censored and recently removed from Twitter.

“When we have a large population of people that need to be treated, it has to be oral, cheap, safe and effective,” he says. “By the way, this is not new. This information was known in 2005 — even before.

There are papers with [Dr. Anthony] Fauci's name on it, calling [HCQ] a miracle drug. Fauci called HCQ a vaccine. There's a paper in which he called it an absolute dream treatment and vaccine. So, it's conveniently forgotten but that's what it is. It's a matter of scientific record.”

What is most impressive to me is that he, through deep research and trial and error in the trenches, determined an incredibly effective protocol, and he did this under enormous personal health challenges. During the spring of last year, he was diagnosed with a type of pulmonary sarcoma that is typically considered terminal, and although improved, he continues to be under treatment for this condition.

Finding Solutions to Avoid a Death Trap

As the SARS-CoV-2 swept through his tight-knit Jewish community, Zelenko was seeing anywhere from 50 to 250 patients per day. At this point, he’s treated more than 3,000 patients with COVID-19-related symptoms. Only one-third of them actually received the triple-drug regimen. The remaining two-thirds were in low-risk categories and did not need drug treatment.

In all, Zelenko has only had 15 patients who ended up requiring hospitalization, four of whom were intubated. All were eventually successfully extubated and recovered. The remaining 11 were admitted for intravenous antibiotics for pneumonia. In all, only three of his high-risk patients died from COVID-19, which puts the mortality rate for this treatment at just 0.3%.

“You cannot ignore that. That's not even counting the risk stratification patients, which I chose not to treat. In other words, I was able to tell these patients, ‘I know you're going to be fine. Go home, and you'll be fine.’ And that has value.

If you include those, the mortality rate is even less. And this has been reproduced. You don't have to listen to me. You can call it anecdotal all you want, but there are now Harvard professors of virology with 4,000 patient experiences.

Dr. George Fareed, for example, or Dr. Harvey Risch from Yale School of Epidemiology, who has shown that it's absolutely statistically proven that HCQ used in the prehospital setting is absolutely effective. It's impossible for it to be a mistake,” he says.

Why HCQ?

Zelenko tells the story of how he got started treating COVID-19 patients with HCQ:

“Hospitals were near capacity and all the outpatient services were closed. Half my staff was sick and all of a sudden I had a war zone. I basically started learning triage medicine, trying to save as many people as possible.

At that time, the whole world had been focusing on building respirators and hospital capacity [instead of putting] emphasis on prehospital care. I found that bizarre because that's never what we do in medicine. We [use] common sense and intervene in the earliest stages.

It's much easier to fix a small problem than a large problem. For example, someone has cancer, we don't wait for it to become metastatic disease. We treat as soon as possible. Someone has a small infection. We put the infection out.

If you look at the CDC, they recommend starting the treatment of influenza with antiviral drugs within the first 48 hours, not the week, except when it came to COVID-19. We were told to send patients home, and when they get sicker, send them to the hospital, where there was a good chance they were going to get intubated, especially in March and April.

At that point, in the city, they had mortality rates above 80%. So, it was a death sentence. None of that made sense to me at all. So, I quickly started to brush up on my virology.

I wanted to understand how this virus works and more importantly, what I can do about it. A series on YouTube called MedCram, Episode 34, saved the world. It explains the biology behind how zinc inhibits RNA polymerase, and the fact that zinc can't get into the cell. So, it needs help.”

Zelenko goes on to describe how he settled on HCQ, a so-called zinc ionophore, meaning it shuttles zinc into the cell. He decided to treat high-risk patients as early as possible, and this turned out to be key. Early treatment really saves lives when it comes to COVID-19. This is not a situation where the wait-and-see strategy is well-advised.

According to Zelenko, during the first five days of SARS-CoV-2 infection, the viral load remains fairly steady. Around Day 5, it exponentially increases, potentially overwhelming the immune system. This also meant he could not afford to wait for test results, which took about five days. By then, most patients would already have progressed too far.

So, if a patient exhibited symptoms, especially if they reported loss of taste or smell as well, he’d start treatment immediately. In hindsight, about 90% of the tests of people experiencing symptoms had a positive test.

The Synergy of HCQ and Zinc

Zelenko likens HCQ and zinc like a gun and a bullet. HCQ is the gun that shoots the zinc into the cell. Zinc is the silver bullet that kills the virus by inhibiting an enzyme associated with viral replication inside the cell. The antibiotic azithromycin is given to prevent bacterial pneumonia and other secondary bacterial infections that are common in COVID-19.

Today, we have even more information, of course, which means there are more tools available beside HCQ, zinc and antibiotics. Ivermectin, for example, appears very useful, especially for prevention, as do steroids and blood thinners. So, Zelenko will now tweak the treatment of individual patients based on their symptoms.

“It's not a cookie cutter approach, but what is absolutely the same is that high-risk patients must be treated as soon as possible, within the first five days from onset of symptoms, and they all survive,” he says.

The Psychological Operation Against HCQ

Unfortunately, as discussed by Zelenko, there was essentially a “psychological operation” put into place to scare people away from HCQ. A big part of that was turning it into a political issue. From the start, doctors who used the drug were threatened with the loss of their medical license, which is unheard of for a drug with such a long history of safe use.

The U.S. government made matters worse by only issuing emergency use authorization for in-hospital use and not for outpatient settings. Meanwhile, HCQ has been used for about 60 years in people with chronic conditions such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

“So, the hypocrisy, the loss of common sense, the outright indoctrination killed a lot of people,” Zelenko says. “The root cause of it is the way we educate people. It used to be that higher education was about teaching critical thought and deductive reasoning, analytical analysis.

Now we indoctrinate people into responding to stimuli like dogs, like automatons, like robots. Common sense no longer matters. That's my critique of higher education and why I think many physicians fell into the trap. Also, this country was traumatized. Even if a doctor was willing to give it, patients were afraid to take it.”

The biggest reason for the fear was unfortunately due to falsified studies and trials using toxic doses. It’s difficult to not suspect an ulterior motive in light of those facts. As noted by Zelenko, a main component of pandemic response, namely prehospital or outpatient treatment, was suppressed.

The question is why? One obvious reason was that it was a presidential election year, and then-president Trump came out in support of HCQ in March 2020. His announcement sparked immediate backlash from a chronically hostile media. “There were plenty of people willing to use every possible way to vilify the president and to discredit anything that might give him a win,” Zelenko says.

Then, of course, there were financial interests at play. Millions of dollars were being invested into new drugs like remdesivir, for example — a drug that costs more than $3,000 per treatment and is only for in-hospital use.

Hospitals were also paid tens of thousands of dollars more for COVID-19 patients, so there was no lack of incentive to get people into the hospital and keep them there either. Meanwhile, Zelenko’s early outpatient treatment costs about $20.

Fraudulent Studies Fueled Distrust

As for the fraudulent and misleading studies, the first to raise alarm was a VA study in Virginia, which found HCQ didn’t prevent death. However, they only used it on late-stage patients who were already on ventilators. From there, they incorrectly extrapolated that it would not be helpful in earlier stages, which simply isn’t true. Other trials simply used the wrong dosage.

While doctors reporting success with the drug are using standard doses around 200 mg to 400 mg per day for either a few days or maybe a couple of weeks, studies such as the Bill & Melinda Gates-funded³ Recovery Trial used 2,400 mg of hydroxychloroquine during the first 24 hours — three to six times higher than the daily dosage recommended⁴ — followed by 400 mg every 12 hours for nine more days for a cumulative dose of 9,200 mg over 10 days.

Similarly, the Solidarity Trial,⁵ led by the World Health Organization, used 2,000 mg on the first day, and a cumulative dose of 8,800 mg over 10 days. These doses are simply too high. More is not necessarily better. Too much, and guess what? You might kill the patient. As noted by Zelenko, these doses are “enough to kill an elephant.”

It’s really unclear as to why these studies used such enormous doses, seeing how the dosages this drug is normally prescribed in, for a range of conditions, never go that high. “All those studies did was prove that if you poison someone with lethal doses of a drug, they're going to die,” Zelenko says.

Then there was the famous Lancet study that the World Health Organization used to justify essentially banning HCQ. This study was withdrawn when it was discovered that the data had been completely and utterly fabricated with falsely generated data from a fly-by-night company. It was supposed to be a meta-analysis of about 90,000 patients, which showed HCQ had lethal effects.

Unfortunately, before it was withdrawn, this fake study resulted in the WHO (or to quote Zelenko, the “world homicide organization”) putting a moratorium on the use of HCQ, which didn’t improve public trust in the drug. Even more egregious, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration used that fake paper as one of its justifications for removing the emergency use authorization for HCQ, even though the study had already been retracted.

Suppression of HCQ Needlessly Killed Tens of Thousands

According to Zelenko, “HCQ is the safest medication in the history of medicine, azithromycin is one of the most common antibiotics used in medicine, and zinc is a mineral that's well-known and well-tolerated. These drugs were affordable and available to take at home, which was very important. And they worked.”

June 30, 2020, Zelenko and two co-authors published a study,⁶ showing that treating COVID-19 patients who had confirmed positive test results “as early as possible after symptom onset” with zinc, low dose HCQ and azithromycin reduced odds of hospitalization by 84% and all-cause death by 500% compared to no treatment at all.

Crazy enough, even though Zelenko went to great lengths to share his clinical findings with the White House and the National Institutes of Health, he received no support and was told they had no use for it.

“What's happened over the last 20 years is that the academic elite and pharmaceutical industry have bred a monopoly on medical truth,” he says.

“They feel only data generated through randomized control trials, pharmaceutical sponsored trials, or those that are coming out of major academic institutions are to be viewed as truth. Anything coming from a frontline country doctor must be anecdotal.

That's the crime here. And they created artificial barriers that prevented the flow of common sense and lifesaving information. You know which countries did take it seriously? See, this is a disease of affluence because the rich countries could afford the waste of money. The poor countries like Honduras … they had no options.

They couldn't afford respirators. They didn't have enough hospital capacity. So, they gravitated towards the cheap generic approaches. And those are the ones that have the best outcomes.”

Zelenko highlights Uganda, which has a population of about 50 million people, yet has recorded just 325 deaths.⁷ “I think this was a genocide against the elderly and a crime against humanity,” he says. “There are plenty of people who have blood on their hands, including the media.”

Coordinated Effort to Cause Harm

He also stresses that the pandemic response, including the suppression of HCQ, has clearly been a global coordinated effort.

“You have to ask yourself, who benefits from a destabilized world? Who benefits from chaos on the streets, from anarchy, from financial despair, from psychological trauma? ... In some parts of this country, suicide rates are up 600%.

I speak to my colleagues in emergency rooms — the amount of child abuse and spousal abuse they’ve seen is absolutely ridiculous. The amount of collateral damage from preventable illnesses, like heart disease and cancer that are skyrocketing because people are not getting access to routine care.

A lot of people weren't getting elective surgeries on time. So, there's been a lot of collateral damage. The shutdown is killing more people than the virus. The virus is not dangerous if you approach it correctly. If you treat it in the right timeframe, it's no different than a bad flu. You can deal with it. You don't have to shut down the world.”

The True Agenda Coming Into Plain Sight

Indeed, the world is becoming increasingly black and white and it’s becoming easier and easier to see that global and national systems are not benefiting but, rather, enslaving the population, and how they’re doing it. As noted by Zelenko:

“I see the world now with such clarity ... It’s no longer confusing. It's a binary choice. It's very clear who's on what side. And here are the teams: There are those who want to live a life of God, conscious … Our lives have sanctity. They're priceless and they should be preserved at all costs. And no one has the right to enslave another human being. That's one approach.

The other is [internment] … an attempt to enslave, psychologically, and even more so physically, the world population. Do you want to know what's coming? Look at Justin Trudeau statements. Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, just announced that anyone who tests positive will be quarantined in a government-run facility, until the government deems you safe to return back to society.

That's [also] what Cuomo wants to do in New York. And I'll tell you what I think. For what I'm about to say, I'm going to be labeled as a conspiracy theorist. But you know what? I don't care because, eventually, the truth will come out and history will prove it right.

If you look at the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, they have a plan. They have a 30-year plan, they have 100-year plan. That's all spelled out in their charter. Just look at it.

So there's a plan called the 2030 plan. You can go to the World Economic Forum and look at their own words. It's being run by Klaus Schwab and his group. He wrote a book called ‘The Great Reset.’ That's where the term comes from.

Now, all the governments are quoting him, like Justin Trudeau, Prince Charles, the Australian prime minister. There's a myriad of other politicians calling for the great reset. So, what is the great reset? What are they asking for?

No. 1, I mean it's absolutely ridiculous, but they're saying, ‘You will own nothing and you will be happy.’ That is their mission. No. 2, America will no longer be a superpower. No. 3, there will be a small group of nations that determine the direction of where the world goes. No. 4, you won't eat meat except as an occasional treat.

No. 5, there'll be a global tax on fossil fuels to eradicate the reliance on oil. No. 6, a billion refugees will be displaced [and] we're going to have to incorporate them and absorb them into our society. These are their stated goals.

Now, how do you take the world's biggest country, most powerful country, richest country and make it no longer a world superpower? Well, that's exactly what they're doing. The economy is in shambles.

You've put in a government now that is passing foreign relief aid to China, Russia, Syria, Iran, the Palestinian Authority. They're sending billions of dollars now to financially support these countries. So, you have to ask yourself, what is going on here?

This all started many years ago, but when Trump went to Davos, in the first few years of his presidency, he said, ‘I'm not part of your globalist agenda. I'm going to put my national interest first.’ That was a poke in the eye of the globalists. That's the point when George Soros came out and said that Trump is one of the most dangerous people on the planet and he needs to be brought down.

He was dangerous to their agenda. So, what we're really fighting for is the soul of man. God is testing us, in my opinion. Every person is being asked one simple question, either bow down to God and have the divine presence protect you or you're going to bow down to Bill Gates … I'm calling for Nuremberg 2.0. These people need to be brought to justice.”

There’s No Rational Justification for COVID-19 Vaccines

Zelenko also shares his views on the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. He points out that while Gates is pushing COVID-19 vaccines, ostensibly to save lives, he’s on record saying he feels the world population needs to be reduced.

“If someone was a eugenicist and feels that the world population needs to be reduced, why would I take his vaccine for my health?” he asks. “The logical inconsistencies here are absolutely perverse.

I'm so pro-vaccine you can't imagine. I've given tens of thousands of patients vaccinations. I give it to myself and to my children. However, I'm not COVID-19 vaccine positive. And I'll tell you why: Because the majority of patients under the age of 45 have a near-100% recovery rate with a mild, runny nose from COVID-19. Why would I vaccinate someone with an experimental vaccine? The answer is not for medical reasons.

Another question, why would I give someone a vaccine, even if they are at high risk, if I can give them prophylaxis and/or early prehospital treatment and have a 100% recovery rate? Not for medical reasons.

Another question: Why would I give a vaccine to someone who's already had COVID-19 and has antibodies? Not for medical reasons. And why would I give a very specific vaccine to someone who is going to be exposed to a ton of different variants and strains and mutations?

I wouldn't. What I would use is an approach that inhibits RNA replication of RNA viruses, which works for all the strains, including, potentially, influenza. That's the big dirty secret here.”

It’s Safe to Stop Living in Fear

Zelenko, who was born in a communist country and whose family suffered under communist and fascist rule, is quite sensitive to the signs of these authoritarian regimes. He recounts a story told in the book “The Gulag Archipelago” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Stalin wanted to dig a canal from Moscow to St. Petersburg. The work, done in the middle of winter, led to the death of 400,000 prison workers, as they weren’t given the appropriate clothes or tools. The bodies were thrown into the cement and became a permanent part of the canal.

“No ship ever used the canal because it was too shallow. So, the question was, why was this canal built? And the answer is: So that 400,000 people would die,” Zelenko says.

“I'm not attacking the vaccine. I'm attacking the need for the vaccine. I have not enough information to say it's good or bad. And I don't like to guess. But what I can tell you is that I know for a fact that 99.98% of young and healthy people under the age of 45 recover, with no treatment.

I also know for a fact, from my own real-world battle-tested evidence, which has been reproduced now on hundreds of thousands of patients, that if you intervene early, you essentially eliminate hospitalization and death. And, I've now treated two waves. I have not seen one patient who's had COVID-19 in the first wave, get it again ...

So, the need for the vaccine doesn't exist. It's … been artificially conflated … offering people an artificial false hope solution in order to enslave them to be codependent on government. You know why my approach is so dangerous? Because not only does it treat COVID-19, [but] it treats anxiety. It tells people you don't need to worry.

My statement to the American people or whoever's listening is: Return to normal living. You do not need to worry. And by the way, there are nonprescription options … that can replace HCQ if your government or doctor are too stupid or vicious to give it to you. So, you don't have to rely on them. You can buy over-the-counter things that will save your own life. So, my point is, return back to normal life ...

It’s unbelievable the crime that's been done on the human psyche. I'm screaming to humanity: Don't be scared! Be cautious. Be smart. Use common sense. But don't be scared. Return back to life. Reengage in life.”

HCQ Mechanisms of Action and Alternatives

Over-the-counter alternatives to HCQ include EGCG (green tea extract) and quercetin, both of which are zinc ionophores and therefore work much like HCQ does. Quercetin works best when taken in conjunction with vitamin C, however, as the vitamin C helps activate it. Zelenko recommends taking 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C with it.

Now, HCQ does have other mechanisms of action beside being a zinc ionophore, so it’s a better choice, but if you simply cannot get it, EGCG or quercetin are viable stand-ins. Additional benefits of HCQ include:

• Inhibiting viral entry into the cytoplasm, in part by changing the pH
• Inhibiting cytokine storms through anti-inflammatory properties
• Stabilizing red blood cells, which improves oxygenation

“Since it has four different mechanisms of action, it's a very effective drug, and it has a half-life of 50 days in plasma,” Zelenko says. “But if you can't get it, you can't get it. So, I'll take quercetin or EGCG.”

The caveat here is you must implement this treatment within the right timeframe. It can be helpful to recognize we are in essence dealing with two diseases, or stages of disease, here.

First, there’s the viral infection, and second, there’s the immune over-response that leads to the release of inflammatory cytokines and agents that can cause blood clots. The key is to prevent the progression from the first stage to the second.

Prescription Help Is Available

Like many others who have dared run the gauntlet that is HCQ promotion, Zelenko has been attacked from several angles. His character has been assassinated in the press, his medical credentials questioned and threatened, and his online presence silenced. 

“I had had zero media experience before March 2020. I am of a quiet doctor who was taking care of his patients, living a serene life. All of a sudden, this all exploded on me ...

I was on Twitter, getting 10 million impressions per tweet. They shut me down last month for platform manipulation. I'm not even sure what that means. So, I had to develop my own website. It’s free and has my protocols in 20 different languages.”

To learn more about Zelenko’s protocol, be sure to visit his website, vladimirzelenkomd.com. There, you’ll find protocols not only for early treatment but also prophylaxis, along with studies that document the rationale for each of the treatment components and patient testimonials.

His website also includes access to telemedicine via “Speak With an MD,” which can overnight your medication. “So, if you live in a state that's tyrannical, you can have a consultation with Dr. Fields,” Zelenko says. “I had to develop this because there were patients around the country who didn't have access [to HCQ].”

HCQ should be available to most people in the U.S. at this point, but you do need a prescription, and some doctors are still unwilling or resistant to prescribe it. Other times, pharmacies can create roadblocks. “It may take some diligence but none of my patients goes without the medication written for them,” he says.

Early Treatment Prevents ‘Long Haul’ Side Effects

In closing, it’s worth noting that when you treat early, your risk of developing long-term side effects, commonly referred to as “long-haulers,” is virtually nil. Not a single one of Zelenko’s patients who received treatment within the first five days of symptom onset went on to develop long-haul symptoms afterward.

“I had patients that were long-haulers, but they came to me after that window, and they were already advanced in the inflammatory process. At that point, the cytokine storm had already taken hold. They had developed blood clots, some of them had pulmonary infarct, or strokes actually.

Others developed ARDS or catastrophic lung damage and pneumonias, and others just are not themselves. I don't know how to describe it, but it ate away part of their souls. They're not the same people. There's depression, there's lack of energy. There's a psychological impact as well.

So, it's not that I don't deal with long-haulers, I do. But the way to prevent the long-hauler syndrome is to intervene within the first five days, with appropriate antiviral medication in high-risk patients. That is 100% successful,” he says.

The Light of Truth Will Prevail

Zelenko refers to the COVID-19 pandemic and everything surrounding it as an information war, a propaganda war, and his primary objective and agenda in this war is to educate and speak truth.

“There's a lot of false narrative being pumped into the heads of people, to create fear,” he says. “In the Psalms of David, it says, ‘With crooked people, you have to deal crookedly.’ It also says you should learn from a thief.

So, I learned from the enemy, and I use their tactics to counter them. The main tactic is to spread truth. By the way, it's no longer dependent on me. I have second and third and fourth generation leaders that have taken on the mission and are really spreading the knowledge worldwide.

It's unstoppable. They could try to slow it down, and they are. But the truth will come out. The truth is coming out. And when the truth will be revealed, the people that try to obstruct it and use lies to slaughter, will be destroyed by it, God willing.

I am now more optimistic than I've ever been, simply because there's no more confusion. Life was very confusing. You didn't know what was good, what was bad. Now, it's very clear. There's much more bad, that's true. But I know where it is. I know where the enemy is. And I know where the good is. And a little light pushes away a lot of darkness.”

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