General Wellness

In a word, NO it doesn’t.

Before I go on, let me say that I just received my 3rd Pfizer Covid vaccine dose, almost 9 months after my second dose. If anyone is wondering why, I am almost 55, I have diabetes and some heart issues and I am in people’s faces, noses and airways all day long. People cough and sneeze on me. Risks are high, I continue to see unvaccinated people and I know the vaccine will help protect me. The shot hurt a bit (I’m a skinny runt) but so far, the drones are not tracking me, spoons are not sticking to me and none of my vital parts have fallen off! 

As far as the spike protein goes, first of all, let’s understand what it is. It’s a protein molecule located on the surface of a SARS-Cov-2 virus whose sole function is to assist the virus in penetrating into a host cell. That is all it does. If it is floating around freely in your body, it does not do anything else. Remember that we have been studying coronaviruses for decades and the mRNA vaccines for over 15 years, so the spike protein’s function and what it does in the virus and the human body is well understood.

Just as a brief refresher on how the Coronavirus vaccines work, all the vaccines, mRNA or adenovirus-delivered, introduce a finite number of small pieces of the viral genetic material coding for the spike protein into our bodies. These segments of code are then taken up by our cells and our protein-making machinery uses it as a blueprint to make the viral spike protein which is then expressed on the surface of our cells. This foreign genetic material does not enter our cell’s nucleus and does NOTHING to our own DNA. Once on the surface, our immune system recognizes the spike protein as foreign, and we make antibodies as well as B and T memory immune cells to identify and neutralize the virus, as well as infected cells, faster and sooner when we actually become infected. 

And we will ALL become infected eventually.

When the genetic material from a vaccine is used to make protein, it does not “replicate” the material in the way viral particles replicate. In contrast, in an infected person, up to a trillion viral particles are reproduced leading to massive amounts of spike protein, as well as other proteins to which we make other antibodies. This does not happen with the spike protein generated by a vaccine.

Although the mRNA, as well as the DNA from the adenovirus vaccines, get degraded within 48 hours, the spike protein can persist for a few weeks. That’s fine as it gives our immune system more time to recognize it and mount an appropriate immune response. 

There was a study linking Covid vaccines to organ damage in rats. First of all, we are not rats. Secondly, the doses of vaccine given to these rats was 10x more than what is given to a human. Thirdly, the mechanism of damage in these rats was not identified. It could have been the preservatives, the rats immune response… we just don’t know. Apples and oranges. If I give the appropriate dose of allergy serum to a patient in my office, they do fine. If I mistakenly give them 10x the dose, they will have an anaphylactic reaction in my office and could possibly die if it is not recognized and treated promptly. Oxygen is essential to life, but too much oxygen actually causes toxicity and can be lethal. One or two aspirins is fine, but a whole bottle will kill you. Using large doses of medicines in animal studies are important, but they are not the endpoint, just the starting point in determining what is a safe dose, eventually tested and applied to humans.

The spike protein on the surface of our cells does NOT do anything at all. It has no physiologic activity other than generating an immune response. At least not that we know of now, and again, this has been studied for many years.

Are there some people who have had some side effects from the vaccines? Of course. ALL drugs, foods, beauty products… cause side effects, but serious ones are extremely uncommon. Again, we are well over 6 billion doses and peoples’ reports are followed very closely. An example of a side effect is myocarditis, inflammation of the heart. Although it can occur after vaccination, it does so at the same rate as it does with any other vaccine (no that is not an argument against all vaccines) and is the same as occurs with viral infections in general as it is. If you get a cold, you can develop myocarditis as well as Guillain Barre Syndrome, autoimmune hepatitis, blood clotting and tinnitus and… As far as Covid infections are concerned, the incidence of myocarditis is 6x greater than the rate which occurs after after vaccination.

So pick your “poison”. Everything in life is about balancing risk and benefits. And the balance of that equation right now, with everything we know, is way on the side of getting the vaccine.

Please continue to do all we KNOW is important in preventing infection and slowing the progression of this disease in our society.

VACCINATE

MASK

DISTANCE and VENTILATE

HYGIENE

GET HEALTHY

Also, it is important to remember that we are all in this together and that we all have our issues. We need to be kind and compassionate to each other, not angry, reactionary and vitriolic. Anger and bitterness gets you nowhere.

Stay safe and be well.

AC

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the pharmaceutical company Biogen’s monoclonal antibody aducanumab (Aduhelm) on June 7 for the treatment of early stage Alzheimer’s disease. It was the first new therapy approved for the neurodegenerative disorder in nearly 20 years. It is a very expensive drug, costing $56,000 a year and works by removing some of the plaque which has built up in the brain, a mechanism felt to contribute to this devastating disease, now the 3rd leading cause of death in the US.

Why has it been that long? Because unfortunately, drugs don’t work against Alzheimer’s Disease.

Despite over 400 drug trials and more than $1.4 billion spent, not a single medication to treat Alzheimer’s Disease has ever been shown to have any specific benefit. And many have actually been detrimental.

In fact, research and development in Alzheimer’s Disease management has been abandoned by many pharmaceutical companies because of how little benefit drugs have shown and the price for development is a losing business.

The approval of Aduhelm has now been called “the worst approval by the FDA in its history”. The studies showed no benefit, but because of the concept of “the right to try” prompted by desperate families, as well as the lack of any obvious harm in studies, it was fast-tracked.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia but even if you carry the genes which make getting it inevitable, you can delay it’s onset, slow its progression, and in the case of other forms of dementia, potentially prevent them from occurring in the first place. Lifestyle is the key. The changes in the brain leading to all forms of dementia start 20-30 years before symptoms start to develop, at which time it is too late. Now is the time to implement healthy lifestyle strategies to prevent this disease, which will likely bankrupt our healthcare system, if some other pandemic doesn’t or climate change doesn’t before. Treatment of Alzheimer’s, which is basically psychosocial support for patients and their families, is the most expensive disease to manage and often bankrupts many families.

A phenomenal book describing the steps you can take to minimize the risks of developing dementia is “The Alzheimer’s Solution” by Dr.s Dean and Ayesha Sherzai, co-directors of the Dementia program at Loma Linda University in California. In a nutshell, some of the strategies proven to prevent cognitive changes and dementia include:

• Eating a plant based diet, reducing fat, especially saturated fat. Yes, that means healthy, whole food plant-based diets are the healthiest. Minimize processed foods and sugars. Minimize animal products.
• Regular exercise, and it doesn’t take much.
• Proper sleep. This is such a crucial component.
• Psychosocial support.

PLEASE don’t use this misstep by the FDA as ammunition to argue against the Covid vaccine. Apples and oranges. The vaccines were developed quickly, but safety was established and has borne out after 6 billion doses and it’s efficacy has been proven as the incidence of severe disease, hospitalization and death is almost exclusively in unvaccinated people.

Stay safe and be well. 

AC