Dr. Aristo Vojdani discusses Long COVID and Immune Dysfunction at the Functional Medicine Discussion Group meeting on January 26, 2023 with moderator Dr. Ben Weitz.

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Podcast Highlights

7:14  Between 1990 and 2000 those practicing medicine were facing a new disease that was called chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia.  These patients were fatigued and had trouble getting out of bed for a period of more than six months.  A number of organs were affected, including the gastrointestinal, pulmonary, muscular, skeletal, brain, and the immune systems.  Many articles were published in scientific journals and some felt that Epstein Barr virus was responsible for chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia, while others felt that cytomegalovirus or HSV1 and 2, or HHV-6, HHV-7, HTLV-1, Spumavirus, chlamydia, or mycoplasma infection were responsible.  These were also very similar to the symptoms displayed by patients with a history of exposure to toxic chemicals, molds, mycotoxins, or silicon breast implant.  It became clear that the cause of chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia was multifactorial. In 1999 in the Journal of Internal Medicine, Dr. Vojdani published a letter that a Single aetological agent may not be feasible in chronic fatigue syndrome.  Not much has changed since 1999 with chronic fatigue/fibromylagia, except that the name was changed to myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and now the SARS-CoV-2 virus may be playing a role as this condition appears to be part of long COVID. 

13:40  10-20% of individuals who had COVID may develop long COVID.  The majority of cases are those that had severe COVID, though not necessarily.  COVID may lead to the reactivation of EBV, HHV-6 and other viruses and this may contribute to the development of long COVID.  These reactivated viruses may produce super antigens in order to hide from the immune system and this may cause a disturbance in the gut microbiota.  By running the Lymphocyte Map test, clinicians can design treatment modalities.

16:12  Dr. Vojdani has published nine articles on COVID in the last few years, including two articles published in Frontiers in Immunology in 2021 and in Clinical Immunology in 2020 reporting their research that 20-25 human tissue antigens strongly reacted with monoclonal antibodies made against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is the best evidence of cross reactivity between SARS-CoV-2 and human tissue. This shows the extreme level of potential autoimmunity of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. [Reaction of Human Monoclonal Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 Proteins With Tissue Antigens: Implications for Autoimmune Diseases, A. Vojdani, E. Vojdani, D. Kharrazian.]  Therefore, autoimmunity is definitely a component of long COVID.  

20:02  What is Long COVID?  According to the CDC, Long COVID is defined as a range of new or ongoing health problems that people can experience four or more weeks following the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection:  1. Shortness of breath, 2. Memory loss, 3. Fatigue, 4. Anosmia (loss of sense of smell), 5. Gastrointestinal distress, 6. Autoimmune symptoms, 7. other symptoms.  There are five major hypotheses: 1. Viral persistence, including in the GI tract and the brain that is not detected by blood tests, 2. Reactivation of latent viruses such as EBV and HHV-6, 3. The expression of viral superantigens in order to hide from the immune system, 4. Disturbance of the gut microbiome, and 5. Multiple tissue damage, immune disorder and autoimmunity. 

23:30   Viral Persistence.

Dr. Barrie Tan discusses Geranylgeraniol, the Latest Anti-Aging Molecule, with Dr. Ben Weitz.

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Podcast Highlights

6:25  Geranylgeraniol (GG).  GG is part of the mevalonate pathway, which is the pathway by which the body produces cholesterol and which is inhibited by statin medications.  But statins also inhibit the production of GG, which is required in the synthesis of CoQ10 and also in the synthesis of skeletal muscle protein, which is why statins can lead to myopathy.  Therefore, if you are taking a statin you should consider taking at least 100-200 mg CoQ10 and also 150-300 mg of GG.

14:45  Statin drugs like Lipitor have been shown to reduce the severity of COVID-19 by inhibiting the entry of the COVID virus into the cell.

16:15  GG is found in small amounts in food, but the foods that it is found in the largest quantity are castor oil, flax seeds, carrots, tomatoes, and olive oil.

18:30  GG can help us to build muscle.  GG is required for the synthesis of skeletal muscle and as we grow older, don’t make enough GG and if we take statin drugs, we will inhibit GG further.  Dr. Tan is planning a study to test the use of GG to build muscle and muscular power and performance.

25:55  GG can also increase testosterone levels, which was discovered by Japanese scientists.  Dr. Tan noted that they have a clinical trial in Florida to see if GG improves sexual health in men and women.

 

                             

Dr. Barrie Tan is a PhD in chemistry and he is world’s foremost expert on vitamin E.  He is credited with discovering tocotrienols, a form of vitamin E, in palm, rice, and annatto, with annatto being the most efficient source, since palm and rice also contain substantial amounts of tocopherols and alpha tocopherol inhibits tocotrienols. He produces an Annatto Tocotrienols and a Geranylgeraniol product through his American River Nutrition company.  He is also the Chief Science Officer for Designs For Health.  Designs For Health supplements are professional supplements sold through licensed doctors and practitioners like myself.

Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also specializing in Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure and also weight loss and also athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.

 

 

Podcast Transcript

Dr. Weitz:            Hey, this is Dr. Ben Weitz, host of the Rational Wellness Podcast. I talk to the leading health and nutrition experts and researchers in the field to bring you the latest in cutting-edge health information. Subscribe to the Rational Wellness Podcast for weekly updates and to learn more, check out my website, drweitz.com. Thanks for joining me and let’s jump into the podcast. Hello, Rational Wellness podcasters. Today, I’m very excited to be having another discussion with one of our favorite guests, Dr. Barrie Tan, and today we will be talking about geranylgeraniol, I hope I pronounced that right. We had Dr. Tan on a recent podcast, in episode 284, and we planned to discuss both tocotrienols and geranylgeraniol, or GG, but we only had time for tocotrienols because the research and data on tocotrienols are so fascinating and complex. But I really want to learn more about this interesting new compound geranylgeraniol and what implic...

Tyler Dawley discusses How to Raise Healthy Chickens with Dr. Ben Weitz.

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Podcast Highlights

3:54  Sustainable or regenerative agriculture does not have an exact definition, but Tyler understands it to be paying attention to the entire chain of our ecosystem.  If you are a conventional row cropper you might just grow corn, pour fertilizer on it, and expect a good harvest.  But as a sustainable rancher, you have to think about the mycorrhizal fungi, which are all the little fun things that grow in the soil.  You should worry about how much leaf cover there is and how much solar energy is being captured.  If you are a sustainable animal raiser, then you have to think about how to use these animals to graze the grass and brush without destroying it. If animal graze too long in the same area, they will degrade the land. In nature, the wildebeest get chased around by lions or coyotes, so they never graze too long in one area.  It is up to us to make sure they move around to different areas so the grass and brush can regrow. We want to pump more life into our soil, which is the foundation of all life on earth.

8:57  It is a benefit to have multiple animals on the farm and it would be more regenerative to have multiple animals and it is not in keeping with our climate for the meat case in California to look like the meat case in New York state or Florida.  All these meat cases have a lot of beef, a lot of chicken, a medium amount of pork, and no lamb or goat. In California, we have a Mediterranean climate, which means cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers. One of the reasons for some of the fires in California are that we don’t have goats and sheep that graze down the chaparral zone, so it becomes a bigger fire hazard.  Some are now bringing in goats to graze down brush and the blackberry bushes in the creeks.  People have not had good goat and lamb to eat and that’s the only reason why they don’t eat it because it’s delicious.

12:55  The way they raise chickens on Big Bluff Ranch is different from commercially raised chickens, where the chickens live in barns in controlled environments and never see the light of day. These regenerative chickens are out on the pasture from day one and they have no walls. They have complete access to the outside and they can go in and out as they please.  They are fed certified organic, locally grown, no corn, no soy ration.  The chicken manure helps to fertilize the grass. Such animals don’t need antibiotics because they are not crowded together and they are not stressed out.

18:56  Other chicken farmers also use antibiotics because they make the chickens grow faster.  The birds at Big Bluff grown slower but they are healthier.  Conventional chicken farmers often have birds that are called flippers because they grow so fast that their muscles grow faster than their organs and their heart can’t pump enough blood around and they die of a heart attack and flip onto their backs.  In Big Bluff they have no flipper deaths.

21:35  Some chickens are referred to as free range and this means that they live in a conventional, huge, crowded barn but they have pop out doors leading to a small patio area.  But chickens are very much creatures of habit, so once their habits are set and then you open those doors, they just don’t really go outside. However, pasture raised chickens are living on grass moving outside and inside as they wish from the beginning of their lives.

 

 

Tyler Dawley is an organic chicken farmer who also cares deeply about regenerative agriculture, animal welfare and sustainability.