Repeatedly, the public health establishment warns us that immune-compromised individuals—those with diabetes and auto-immune conditions, for example— are at greatest risk of contracting and dying from Covid-19.
Rarely do they encourage us about the opposite: to strengthen our immune systems via lifestyle actions like maintaining a healthy diet and regular exercise.
Rather, they barely pay lip service to such notions, and sometimes actually do the opposite by arguing there is no such thing as strengthening the immune system. For example, Dietitians of Canada recently issued a press release stating: “Simply put, you cannot ‘boost’ your immune system through diet and no specific food, supplement or natural health product will prevent you from catching Covid-19. Proper hygiene can help reduce the risk of infection or spreading infection to others.
Its advice for stocking up in preparation for the pandemic: “Good options are easy-to-prepare foods like dried pasta and sauce, prepared canned soups, canned vegetables and beans.” Nothing about fermented foods, vitamin-rich vegetables and fruits, full fats, etc.
The real evidence (apart from the preaching by advocates of holistic health, and there’s lots of that around) for strengthening the immune system to counter Covid-19 tends to get scattered about in the public health and scientific communities, and is available in bits and pieces. For example:
-There’s this from Healio, a publication for physicians: “A case study in China showed that from the beginning of the outbreak through Feb. 11, 2020, the death rate among patients with COVID-19 who had diabetes was 7.3% compared with 0.9% in those without comorbid conditions.”
-There are persistent reports of Vitamin C megadoses being used to help patients with Covid-19, in China and the U.S. Renewed interest in Vitamin C was apparently prompted by a 2019 analysis indicating Vitamin C megadoses could shorten stays in ICU. China also has used herbs and acupuncture widely to treat patients with Covid-19.
-A new paper in PubMed, a government journal, on the benefits of Vitamin D in building immunity to counter Covid-19: “Several observational studies and clinical trials reported that vitamin D supplementation reduced the risk of influenza, whereas others did not. Evidence supporting the role of vitamin D in reducing risk of COVID-19 includes that the outbreak occurred in winter, a time when 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations are lowest; that the number of cases in the Southern Hemisphere near the end of summer are low; that vitamin D deficiency has been found to contribute to acute respiratory distress syndrome; and that case-fatality rates increase with age and with chronic disease comorbidity, both of which are associated with lower 25(OH)D concentration. To reduce the risk of infection, it is recommended that people at risk of influenza and/or COVID-19 consider taking 10,000 IU/d of vitamin D3 for a few weeks to rapidly raise 25(OH)D concentrations, followed by 5000 IU/d.”
-A noted pathologist who has researched coronaviruses in the past recommended in February that his family and friends stock up on zinc lozenges to counter any onset of Covid-19 symptoms. To me, such physician and scientist recommendations carry considerable weight, because professionals wouldn’t recommend approaches to those they are closest to without serious confidence. The pathologist, James Robb, advised: “Stock up now with zinc lozenges. These lozenges have been proven to be effective in blocking coronavirus (and most other viruses) from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx. Use as directed several times each day when you begin to feel ANY ‘cold-like’ symptoms beginning.” The recommendation went viral, and led to hemming and hawing in the public health community, to the extent that Snopes investigated…..and confirmed that Robb did write the note; it’s just that he had little social media experience and thus didn’t appreciate how seriously large numbers of people would take his advice.
-And finally, this from a 2010 study of the microbiome, out of Loyola University: “Scientists have long known that certain types of bacteria boost the immune system. Now, Loyola University Health System researchers have discovered how bacteria perform this essential task.”
What I’d like to see is some kind of study measuring the experiences and outcomes of people who had built up their immune systems–based on measurements of things like white blood counts and b-lymphocytes. I’m sure, based on all the Facebook posts I see from individuals ready to defy state at-home orders, that there’d be lots of volunteers. Or maybe there’s another way to obtain data about immune system health in the context of how people handle exposure to and recovery from infection by Covid-19. It’s time to stop talking around this issue, pretending that immune health isn’t a factor in overall health. And once this crisis is over, it will be time to shift public health priorities to educating people about immune function, and all the things they can do to keep it functioning at full capacity.
Thanks to Michael Schmidt for the information about Dietitians of Canada.
here ye here ye! And yes, I would volunteer :). Also, did you know there was a big issue with transparency and the board of directors for dieticians.ca? Apparently one of the runners was a prior spokesperson for big food corps..and did not disclose. There have been lots of eye raising from their seal of approval on Kraft cheese singles, to coke sponsoring conventions (was told this once) and paying dietitians for endorsements…I can send the link to food politics if you want to read more…soooo much misinformation. That’s why I pursued my cert in nutrition from another entity that I felt was far more reputable. Anyway, excellent blog here, pun-alert, but good food for thought 😉 🙂
A healthy and vibrant gut microbiome is essential to a strong immune system… Dietitians of Canada are merely parroting the biased advice of Canada’s Federal and Provincial health official. Their recommendation to “not spread misinformation” is laughable for they are the foremost and without a doubt, the most autocratic purveyors of misinformation… especially when it comes to disease prevention and raw milk consumption.
It’s the gut stupid.
80% of the immune system is the gut micro biome.
I am beginning to believe that you just can’t cure stupid.
Who cares about science if no one in charge will take notice or read it. Let alone…. apply or make use of it. Why did we spend $3 billion to discover the human genome? Why don’t we apply the discovery that the biodiversity of bacteria in the gut ( and the Whole Foods that feed them ) genetically drive the immune system show.
Like I said: You can not fix stupid. Stupid just dies off. Like sheep over a cliff. It makes me so frustrated. Investment into science and then no one cares about making use of the discoveries.
The smart and awoken people will. That’s the hope… that’s the good part.
The truly unfortunate part is that all the smart and awoken citizens must pay dearly for the balance of the Sheepeople. Tragic. Simply tragic.
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58f9ed4ee4b086ce58980fc3
The science stares us all in the face. This is about personal responsibility.
Eating gut biome building foods is a powerful direct method to boost your immune system and it’s resilience and ability to adapt and address threats. Health professions that deny this are guilty of malpractice and are incompetent.
End of story.
Yes!!! If there’s something good about this whole quarantine/covid thing, it’s that people are a little bit woken up to health as a smarter choice. Hallelujah.
One of the biggest moments was when doctors don’t want you to come to the hospital. The advice is to stay at home. Going to the hospital might kill you.
Stay at home and eat Whole Foods!
Dairy Farmers Are Dumping Huge Amounts of Milk
https://modernfarmer.com/2020/04/dairy-farmers-are-dumping-huge-amounts-of-milk/
A wonderful Indian Lady Chiropracture once told me ‘Eat raw green leafy vegetables every day to form a dung heap in your stomach and intestines for your good bacteria to feed on and multiply ‘. Instead the average person eats trash food and wonders why they are unhealthy,
It only makes sense that strengthening the immune system would help people either prevent catching an illness or recover more quickly if they do. It’s bizarre that a public health organization would state that we can’t boost our immune systems through diet. Of course we need proper hygiene as well. At least the people who read this blog can follow their own wisdom in choosing what foods to eat.
Shana, don’t overlook the basic fact that “a public health organization” is just like most politicians, they all need to justify their existence any way possible or find a new life – which isn’t easy. Total immunity isn’t achievable, but beats living in a bubble physically and morally.
Shana,
The public health and medical professionals do not understand the basic immune system structure or its function. They believe in one thing.
Get a shot. That shot has been very ineffective in the past. Flu vaccines work at very low level effectiveness and often make you sick with the flu.
There is an ignorance of the role of the gut biome. The mucosal layers in the gut. Biodiversity and genomics.
Even though this information is Pubmed and NIH published. It is not a convenient truth. It does not work to put forward the current methods and practices. And profit systems.
It is up to we the people to lead by eating properly and we the people will need to tell doctors that they are no longer going to ruin our bodies.
We will instead show them the way forward
Mark
Mark, I think “the public health and medical professionals DO very well understand the basic immune system structure or its function.” However, because of weak ethics and strong financial interest influences, along with avoiding professional/career suicide, they choose to continue promoting what lines their pockets. But you’re right, it’s up to us to not only make good personal choices but to continue educating those hoodwinked by the system. Carry on.
and how are the AmishVolk doin’ midst this Scam-demic? Now would be the perfect time to take their collective temperature … gather the facts so as to assess un-vaccinated folks versus all others, for deaths actually consequent from this Corona thing. I say ‘actually’ because the Centres for Disease Control are directing that it be put on all death certificates, regardless of its actual presence
from the Lancaster PA newspaper.
Newspaper doesn’t understand the Plain
This is a rebuttal to the coronavirus panic and the LNP | LancasterOnline editorial regarding the New Holland Sales Stables (“Again, stay home,” April 1).
First, I’ll say I’ll forgive the writers for their ignorance. I’m sure they have never gotten to know the Plain folks at these auctions and how they function. I’m also sure the writers couldn’t be bothered to dig deeper as to why these folks stand inches apart, etc., and visit, instead of sticking with a smartphone.
Also, these writers have no business taking the auction to task, as I’m sure the auction knows these Plain folks will still operate as they see fit — not how the auction tells them. And definitely not how the fake media tells them to or sees fit.
For a newspaper that I’ve seen constantly decline over the years, I believe the writers and editors have their work cut out running their own business, rather than telling someone else how to — and not even knowing the circumstances.
Most these Plain people drink raw milk and raw cider that the uneducated say will supposedly kill them. They work and/or play around animal manure. This group refuses to live in fear and let panic and fear rule the day.
And then the real laugher — putting cones and tape out to show them how to stay six feet apart? Seriously? They’d get 50 people in the 6-foot spaces to shoot the breeze. That’s why it’s good to get to know these people before writing about them.
B.L. Nolt
East Earl Township
What accounts for the reduced demand for food? Could it be that when people eat at home they are less wasteful of food compared to when out at schools and restaurants?
It depends on the food… If one looks at beef for example the demand is high and going up in price at the grocery stores, but the farm gate price for live animals (cull cows) at the stockyard for example has gone down almost 20 cents a pound ever since these foolish Covid-19 restrictions have been put in place… Are they less wasteful??? Perhaps… more then likely however, they are too lazy to cook a decent meal, which would explain why TV diners are disappearing at breakneck speed off the shelf…
These people must take comfort in their belief that they are totally correct or morally superior.
I suppose this law they are proposing would include those who have the gall to publicly proclaim that vaccines are safe and effective or that pasteurized milk is safer then and equally nutritious as raw milk???
“Federal government open to new law to fight pandemic misinformation”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/covid-misinformation-disinformation-law-1.5532325?fbclid=IwAR2DjEQdVuQibqIeTumHU9HTyVRL5oupO3bItiebmHdARWsbIbE5IJH61u0
I suspect that consumers are Leary of economic austerity. They are not generating a normal paycheck and preserving cash.
This combined with massive over supply and reduction of normal distribution sectors ( food service, school’s, restaurants) has completely destroyed any normal market conditions.
The title should read, “Over the top foolishness resulting due to fear of COVID-19 could send half a billion people into poverty: Oxfam report”
https://www.cp24.com/world/covid-19-could-send-half-a-billion-people-into-poverty-oxfam-report-1.4889588?fbclid=IwAR3bP3b3VKOZ7pVxz4BgqE5pt9P9GvmURwuOyWoOAkisUqFO3n-UpEh0g-8
“The report, which is based on research at King’s College London and the Australian National University, warns that between 6% and 8% of the global population could be forced into poverty as governments shut down entire sectors of their economies to manage the spread of the virus. As an example of the repercussions of the lockdowns in many Western countries, the report notes that more than a million Bangladeshi garment workers – 80% of whom are women – have already been laid off or sent home without pay after orders were cancelled or suspended.”
One doctor astutely sums up the current insanity… “We’ve gone from quarantining those who are sick to quarantining nations of healthy people…
demonstrating of how > the Lie is halfway ’round the world before the Truth gets its boots on.
Robert Kennedy Jr puts the boots to Dr Sanjay Gupta in this letter itemizing how the Centres for Disease Control put out MIS-information about vaccines
…. exactly as is being done with the CoronaMadness Scam-demic
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/flu-misinformation-and-coronavirus-fears-my-letter-to-dr-sanjay-gupta/
The Dietitians of Canada (DC) document is an Orwellian document that is all about Control. I wish one could do “reverse speech analysis” of a written document ! There is no need to debate this document. There IS an absolute need to DEBUNK this document – line by line . 1. Starting with the word “advice”. What does this word mean ? What does DC mean by ‘advice’. It sounds more like an “order” i.e a legal matter or a threat (as in gangster-style) ? What should “advice” really mean among enlightened and sovereign individuals ? Advice should mean empowering others to help themselves , to look within for the solutions first , to find your own truth. Line 2 : Do not spread misinformation. What does this mean ? What do THEY mean ? Well my definition of misinformation is information that disempowers people. Information that makes people weak and dependent. Information that does not work or is only palliative. Information that only treats the symptoms and never the causes. Information that never in looks at the causes. Information that has no idea what the causes really are ? Information that is intended to be fraudulent and deceitful in the very first place ! What is the DC definition of ‘misinformation”. Well pretty much the opposite. Information that empowers others. Information that self-empowers. Information about products that are low cost , OTC, and readily available. Information about products with no side effects and numerous side benefits . 3. ” You can not boost your immune system through diet”. What do they mean ? Food is not medicine and medicine is not food ? They are 2 separate and distinct categories even though both go into the same stomach ? Again repeats: You can not help yourself. There are no low cost and freely available solutions. You can eat any crap and it won’t make a difference to your immunity i.e white sugar, white flour, white salt, refined gmo canola oil, factory farm milk etc. What do WE MEAN by boost your immune system with food ? Well we all know FOOD IS YOUR FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE AND OFFENSE TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE. Not all food is created equal. There is fake food and Frankenfood masquerading as real food. Food is something more refined and elegant than just anything that fills a hole in your stomach and does not kill you immediately ! 4. No specific food will prevent you from catching COVID-19. Well this is the same old Pasteur vs. Beauchamp debate. Which really is a war folks ! The environment is nothing or the environment is everything ? So again any junk food is OK, eat all the carbohydrates and transfats and gmo’s and processed foods and TV dinners you want cause you are going to get sick and die no matter what – unless you are vaccinated (oh but the vaccination still does not exist). What would we say about this ? Well absolutely that white sugar is to be avoided like the plague. That is depresses WBC for 5 hours etc. 5. “There are no natural health products approved to treat COVID19 “. Again this is an “all about power and control” document. Only we know and own the truth. There is only way and that is OUR way. And we have the legal power to ordain it to be so even if we are lying or wrong or both. To conclude this document is a not so subtle sales pitch for the forced vaccinations that are coming and further muzzling of free speech and rights for those who resist the long-planned control agenda.
You wrote all that and read this article without even reading what they actually wrote. What a waste
Once-Struggling New Jersey Farm Offers Bounty of Vegetables and More to Social-Distancing Customers
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/new-jersey-farm-offers-bounty-vegetables-more-social-distancing-customers
Why am I not surprised…?
“Israeli Professor Shows Virus Follows Fixed Pattern”
https://townhall.com/columnists/marinamedvin/2020/04/15/israeli-professor-shows-virus-follows-fixed-pattern-n2566915?fbclid=IwAR0sHu9myZAisOwS0PxTKRiuoF6bLkfSUEumAD1Q-78CgUqCogt3Kl5lOxA
“Professor Yitzhak Ben Israel of Tel Aviv University, who also serves on the research and development advisory board for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, plotted the rates of new coronavirus infections of the U.S., U.K., Sweden, Italy, Israel, Switzerland, France, Germany, and Spain. The numbers told a shocking story: irrespective of whether the country quarantined like Israel, or went about business as usual like Sweden, coronavirus peaked and subsided in the exact same way. In the exact, same, way. His graphs show that all countries experienced seemingly identical coronavirus infection patterns, with the number of infected peaking in the sixth week and rapidly subsiding by the eighth week.
‘The Wuhan Virus follows its own pattern, he told Mako, an Israeli news agency. It is a fixed pattern that is not dependent on freedom or quarantine. “There is a decline in the number of infections even [in countries] without closures, and it is similar to the countries with closures,” he wrote in his paper.
‘Is the coronavirus expansion exponential? The answer by the numbers is simple: no. Expansion begins exponentially but fades quickly after about eight weeks,” Professor Yitzhak Ben Israel concluded. The reason why coronavirus follows a fixed pattern is yet unknown. “I have no explanation,” he told Mako, “There are is kinds of speculation: maybe it’s climate-related, maybe the virus has its own life cycle.””
“The reason why coronavirus follows a fixed pattern is yet unknown.” Here is a clue… Because it is hardwired to survive and governed by an innate intelligence that is far superior to current human knowledge.
Food supply chain, consumer habits sorted out as store shelves empty
https://vegetablegrowersnews.com/news/food-supply-chain-consumer-habits-sorted-out-as-store-shelves-empty/
Western Growers launches leafy green food safety website
https://vegetablegrowersnews.com/news/western-growers-launches-leafy-green-food-safety-website/
You said, “Nothing about fermented foods, vitamin-rich vegetables and fruits, full fats, etc.”
This is directly from the website:
“A healthy diet rich in fruit and vegetables, protein foods and whole grains is important for a strong immune system as are other healthy lifestyle habits (e.g exercise, not smoking, adequate sleep, managing stress etc).
There are many nutrients that are involved with the normal functioning of the immune system and therefore we encourage eating a variety of nutrient rich healthy foods each day in order to support immune function.”
You are clearly a liar and have taken parts of the page out of context to spread fear.