Positive Health Online

Positive Health PH Online Issue 268, published live 28 Jan 2021 embodies a holistic integration of treatment and clinical approaches to build individual optimum immunity and health. This unified approach will hopefully mirror the changing political rhetorical shift observed during the recent US presidential inaugural ceremony. Rather than division between people and parties, there is talk of coming together to act with unity. The increasingly fractious and divisive yet enormously varied research about Covid-19 swirls around the many of its many clinical and research aspects. Here is a small sample of views:

• Face Masks: Complex Evidence - ANH, Not linked to Bacterial Pneumonia - AFP, USA Today
• Vaccines: Adverse effects – VaxxTrAcker, Types, Ingredients - ANH; Willingness / Hesitancy - Gallup; Clinical Trials – Iain Davis, Safety of Trials – Zoë Harcombe
• SARS-CoV-2 - Covid-19: Household Transmission - JAMA,  Covid Data – Joel Smalley  Handling of Pandemics – Dr Michael Yeadon,  Herd Immunity Debate – BMJ,  Lockdowns – Do they Work?,  Asymptomatic Transmission – Jeremy R Hammond
• PCR Tests: Accurate or Not – Dr Sam Bailey via YouTube, Flaws - Corman-Drosten Report, The Sentinel

We can view in PH Online Issue 268 multi-disciplinary approaches within the multitudinous diverse therapies within Complementary / Natural / Integrative Medicine as presenting diverse clinical options to treat illnesses – from mental health issues, allergies, blood complaints, digestive, heart complaints to the myriad physical bodywork complaints.

Within the realm of the emotional / mental / spiritual realm are the articles De-Stress The Covid Stress, Mindfulness and Meditation – Steps to Wellbeing during COVID-19, The Three Most Powerful Things You Can Say.

Editorial features discussing immunity, allergies, blood viscosity and vaccine technology include Good Nutrition, Proper hydration and a Positive Outlook Help to Build a Robust Immune System, Can Allergies Make You Tired, Is Blood Viscosity the Test that can Save the World? , The Importance of Lymphatics and Vaccine Technology: Types of Vaccines, How Vaccines are Produced, mRNA Technology.

Features exploring nutrition, digestion - the gut and inflammation and heart disease include What's Lockdown Gut to do With It – The Gut Stuff and Does Inflammation Cause Coronary Atherosclerosis?

Articles about or with a bodywork connection include How COVID-19 has Impacted Complementary Therapists, Night Terrors and Atrial Fibrillation - A Hypothesis on Cause and Possible Remedy, Are You Diversified? and Spring Walker from Born to Walk  Myofascial Efficiency and the Body in Movement.

From Issue 268 Letters to the Editor - Extracts regarding Nutritional Approaches to Covid-19:

Vitamin C

“Results from more than a 100 studies, included a gold-standard RCT (Randomised Controlled Trial) which showed that Vitamin C could cut the death rate of patients in intensive care units by 68%. The patients got vitamin C or sterile water from a drip.

“A similar trial comparing a steroid drug (dexamethasone) with a placebo in June was hailed as a success. It reduced deaths by just 3%.

Vitamin D

“More than one hundred prominent experts have united in calling for vitamin D levels to be raised significantly to fight the pandemic. In an OPEN LETTER to all world governments, health officials, and healthcare workers,[1]scientific and medical experts from the UK, US, and Europe say there is clear scientific evidence indicating that vitamin D reduces Covid-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths.[2]…

• “Multiple biological mechanisms have been identified showing how vitamin D directly influences COVID-19 outcomes.[2,3,4-8]
• “More than seventy studies show higher vitamin D levels are associated with lower rates of infection and lower risk of hospitalisation, ICU, or death.[2,9–16]
• “Early causal inference studies have been confirmed by recently published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental studies.[3,12–15,17-20]…”

“Martin Hewison, Professor of Molecular Endocrinology at Birmingham University, is one of the world’s leading authorities on Vitamin D:

“NICE, SACN and PHE continue to promote the idea of vitamin D 'toxicity', despite no evidence of this in trials where up to 4,000 IU/day vitamin D were used. This obsession has become a major hurdle to better vitamin D health in the UK. Many vitamin D researchers have worked tirelessly over the summer to provide a framework in which vitamin D supplementation could be incorporated into the general strategies being used to defeat COVID-19. NICE, SACN and PHE have rejected this, and their new recommendations provide little or no help at all for the UK public.”

“Another signatory Dr David S Grimes, a retired gastroenterologist, has campaigned to get vitamin D taken more seriously for years. Dr Grimes says, ‘Medical research began to reveal the importance of vitamin D in defensive immunity forty years ago. It’s been a well-established scientific fact for years, so why have we had to watch intensive care units being overwhelmed and more than 60,000 people die? We could have protected people and services if we had just rectified well-known deficiencies. NICE and SACN have shown they are clearly unfit for purpose.’”

According to Doctor Y, Andrew W Saul, and Robert G. Smith from the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service OMNS:

"Information about effective prevention methods has been censored. The problem is that a huge body of knowledge exists about the immune system's nutritional needs that is relevant to the cause of severe pneumonia and death from COVID-19. But this body of knowledge is evidently not widely appreciated by the medical profession, the public, and government officials.

"It has been clearly shown over decades that several essential nutrients, including vitamin C, vitamin D, magnesium, zinc, and selenium, have anti-viral properties. [1-5] It is also known that a majority of hospitalized COVID-19 individuals have deficiencies in one or more of these nutrients. [6] Further, it is known that severe pneumonia as in COVID-19 depletes many of the body's essential nutrients. This often generates acute nutritional deficiencies that make COVID-19 more lethal. [7,8] And it has been shown in recent medical trials that simply administering vitamin C and vitamin D in huge but appropriate doses can effectively treat COVID-19 and prevent severe pneumonia and death. [8-18]

“…Nevertheless, the nutritional protocol is inexpensive, very safe, and widely available around the world.

Vitamin C, 1000 mg (or more) 3 times daily
Vitamin D, 5,000 IU/day
Magnesium 400 mg/d (in malate, citrate, chelate, or chloride form)
Zinc, 20 mg/d
Selenium, 100 mcg/d