Today I want to approach a topic that should not exactly be new to you – Immunity, more specifically the Immune System.
I’ve talked at length in the past about Immunosenescense of aging and how it is directly related to telomere loss.
But recent events on the viral front have suggested you don’t have to be old to have a weak immune system.
The most obvious effects are seen in overtrained endurance athletes like the riders of the Tour De France. Every year several drop out because of colds or viral illnesses even though it’s the middle of summer. They are almost always respiratory illnesses.
If nothing else this should alert you to the fact that “summer colds” are lurking and always have been. We simply have not tried to quantitate them since they were never pan or epidemic proportions. It should also alert you to the fact that under the right or wrong circumstances depending on your viewpoint (virus or viree!) a weaken immune system is a risk factor.
IF one looks at middle aged people who have diabetes, high blood pressure or obesity, even those on medicine with well controlled numbers had a higher morbidity and mortality in the Covid pandemic than otherwise healthy people.
You could infer 2 statements from this: either the illnesses predispose to the severity of the infection in spite of treatment, or someone should be looking at the effects of these very oft prescribed drugs on the immune system! I guarantee you the later is not going to happen any time soon in this context!
There are many postulated mechanisms concerning viral immunity, telomere length, inflammation and of course indirectly glucose control.
Some of it is still in the formative stages but the gist of it is not completely new: High blood sugars (whatever that means since Ketotic calorie restriction and ketogenic diets lower blood sugar to half of its’ current recommendations!) cause inflammation and damage cellular machinery including telomeres and mitochondria,
By way of review the mitochondrial powerhouses have several step wise ways they release energy through something called the “electron transport chain”. As we age or suffer insults to the mitochondria including viral and higher blood sugars etc. this chain “uncouples” and starts making more heat and less energy. This ALSO happens “naturally” in aging.
The result is more free radical damage inside the cell, more damage to the telomeres and more inflammatory activation around other cells (the so-called SAP- Senescent activated phenotype).
The mitochondrial uncoupling occurs at a location known as “complex 1”. This complex depends on ubiquinone to function properly – another compound that can be overwhelmed by stress and age.
This by the way is why I make and take Toco Q, the unique combination of telomere preserving tocotrienols and ubiquinone. If you happen to be one of those who notices less energy as you are getting older you should try THIS for 2 or 3 months especially as we go into the next viral season.
I also need to remind you that two ingredients in the Immortality Edge Packs are under scrutiny for classification as drugs – NAC and Silymarin. These are liver detox agents, critical antioxidants and telomere preservation agents – again the reason I make them.
I would probably not be wrong if I said that Covid and other viruses (CMV EBV and influenza) can challenge and overcome the immune system in a kind of accelerated version of aging.
There is method to the madness of my supplements but any or all of the above/below can help you.
Sugar Balance Support to support health blood sugar. Goat’s Rue the raw material of metformin just might have some of the same benefits on mTor, immunity and inflammation but since its not patentable it has not been studied.
IEP contains both NAC and silymarin for reasons mentioned above. Who knows what regulations will befall these components!
And finally, the Grandaddy of them all my self discovered self created telomerase activator and stem cell preservation agent (in the lab- the figures are on the site as well) Telokynase
I will let YOU decide which if any address some weakness in your body since as my patients always remind me, they know their bodies better than anyone. But I surely would not sit back and do nothing in this coming age. The immune system will prove to be the key to not only aging well but survival- I promise you!!!
Dr Dave