Dr. Mark and Dr. Chip's Healthy Blogs

  STORY AT-A-GLANCE The long-censored lab-leak hypothesis, which suggests that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, accidently leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, is now going mainstream as rapidly accumulating evidence makes it impossible to ignore It’s known with great certainty that researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology had access to and were doing gain-of-function research on coronaviruses in collaboration with U.S. scientists, and received funding from the National Institutes of Health for such research If it turns out that SARS-CoV-2 did come from a lab, it’s the type of thing “that could obliterate the faith of millions” To go from actively censoring and ridiculing those who urged officials to investigate the lab-leak theory further to suggesting they may have been right all along, is to call into question every other detail we’ve been told to believe about the COVID-19 narrative The COVID-19 science cult — made “out of science, expertise, the universit...

  STORY AT-A-GLANCE Zinc prevents viral replication inside your cells, but is poorly absorbed. Zinc ionophores (zinc transport molecules) such as quercetin, epigallocatechin-gallate (EGCG) and the drug hydroxychloroquine facilitate zinc uptake A combination of zinc with a zinc ionophore was in 2010 shown to inhibit SARS coronavirus in vitro. In cell culture, it also blocked viral replication within minutes Zinc deficiency impairs immune function Preliminary research found COVID-19 patients with plasma zinc levels below 50 mcg/dl at admission had a 2.3 times greater risk of in-hospital death than those with a zinc level of 50 mcg/dl or higher Other recent research found COVID-19 patients were more likely to be deficient in zinc than healthy controls. Zinc deficient patients also had worse outcomes and higher rates of death. While 70.4% of zinc deficient patients developed complications, only 30% of those with sufficient levels developed complications Your immune system is your first...

  Analysis by  Dr. Joseph Mercol a  STORY AT-A-GLANCE While SARS-CoV-2 is a rampant virus that can cause severe problems in vulnerable individuals, the real pandemic — the underlying cause that makes people susceptible to complications from the infection in the first place — is poor metabolic health Aside from old age, obesity has been identified as one of the primary risk factors for being hospitalized with COVID-19 — doubling the risk of hospitalization in patients under the age of 60 in one study One hypothesis for why obesity is worsening COVID-19 has to do with the fact that obesity causes chronic inflammation. Having more proinflammatory cytokines in circulation increases your risk of experiencing a cytokine storm Insulin resistance is another top risk factor for COVID-19 that worsens outcomes and increases your risk of death There are five primary parameters of metabolic health: waist circumference, insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, and triglyceride and HDL leve...