Tag: Orthomolecular

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Chemistry COVID pandemic Science

Viral Mutations and the Risk of ‘Second-hand Malnutrition’

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, September 13, 2021

by Michael Passwater

OMNS (Sept. 13, 2021) The New York Times recently quoted Michael Osterholm, an expert epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, acknowledging, “We still are really in the cave ages in terms of understanding how viruses emerge, how they spread, how they start and stop, why they do what they do.” [1] While it is true of many topics that new studies often lead to more questions than answers, this topic has special importance to the human experience. We must accelerate our understanding of the complex interactions between humans and viruses to survive and to improve our experience on Earth.

Fortunately, over the past three decades, brilliant pioneers including Ethan Will Taylor, Melinda Beck, and Caroline Broome have been diligently pointing the way out of the cave. The biochemistry is complicated, the genetics is even more complex, and the terminology is unfamiliar. But the message is too important to hide in a library. It demands attempts to understand and communicate their findings. It may require a shift in thinking, and a shift in actions.

Readers of the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service appreciate the importance of good nutrition to keep our bodies healthy. Let’s shift our attention for a moment to explore the impact of nutrition on an invading virus. [2,3] RNA viruses are responsible for many of the most devastating infectious diseases of our time – Ebola, Dengue, Influenza, Hepatitis C, Polio, Zika, SARS, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2, among others. However, in addition to being so incomplete that they are fully dependent on invading host cells to replicate themselves, RNA viruses are also primitive in ways that make them unstable. Their replication process is rapid, error-prone, and devoid of the nucleic acid and protein folding proof-reading enzymes used by advanced organisms to minimize mutations and mis-translations during nucleic acid replication and protein production. As a result of this instability, truly pure strains of a virus are rarely found in nature. Viruses tend to exist as mixtures of closely related variants, sometimes referred to as a “quasi-species”.

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COVID pandemic Science vaccines

Resolving “Long-Haul COVID” and Vaccine Toxicity: Neutralizing the Spike Protein

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, June 21, 2021

Commentary by Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD

(OMNS June 21, 2021) Although the mainstream media outlets might have you believe otherwise, the vaccines that continue to be administered for the COVID pandemic are emerging as very substantial sources of morbidity and mortality themselves. While the degree to which these negative outcomes of the COVID vaccines can be debated, there is no question that enough disease and death have already occurred to warrant cessation of the administration of these vaccines until additional, completely scientifically-based research can examine the balance between its now clear-cut side effects versus its potential (and still not yet clearly proven) ability to prevent new COVID infections.

Nevertheless, enough vaccinations have already been administered to warrant concern that a new “pandemic” of illness and death may well be emerging from the side effects that continue to be documented in steadily increasing numbers. The vaccine-induced “culprit” that is now receiving most of the attention and is the focus of much new research is the COVID virus fragment known as the spike protein. Its physiological impact appears to be doing far more harm than good (COVID antibody induction), and its manner of introduction appears to be fueling its ongoing replication with a continuing presence inside the body for an indefinite length of time.

The physical appearance of the COVID virus can been depicted as a central sphere of viral protein surrounded completely by spear-like appendages. Known as spike proteins, they are very analogous to the quills surrounding a porcupine. And just as the porcupine stabs its victim, these spike proteins penetrate into cell membranes throughout the body. After this penetration, protein-dissolving enzymes are activated, the cell membrane breaks down, the viral sphere enters the cytoplasm through this membrane breach, and the metabolism of the cell is subsequently “hijacked” to manufacture more viral particles. These spike proteins are the focus of a great deal of ongoing research examining vaccine side effects (Belouzard et al., 2012; Shang et al., 2020).

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