Understanding treatments for covid-19 part 2
Vitamin C is an antioxidant. Taken at high doses it can reduce the frequency of colds in children and in hard-driven, high-stress athletes or military men in training. It does not prevent colds in most people.
Vitamin C benefits one aspect of immunity and helps in respiratory disease. At high doses it helps prevent pneumonia and reduces the length of pneumonia and hospitalization. Vitamin C is highly effective against lung infections when given intravenously at high doses. It will not prevent Covid-19 but can help treat Covid.
Viruses know a secret. They know how to enter cells and seize control of the cellular protein factory. And they know how to switch cellular factories into overdrive to produce more viruses faster, increasing viral load, making a person sicker. What is their secret? They know how to release the human protein nuclear-factor kappa-binding – or NF-kB. NF-kB works like cellular rocket-fuel to stimulate inflammation and viral replication – in HIV, Covid-19, and most other viral infections. NF-kB is the common stimulant of viral replication. If one can inhibit NF-kB; inflammation, viral replication, and the disease process slows. All antioxidants may do this to a limited degree. However, NF-kB inhibitors are a quantum degree more effective.
Dexamethasone and other corticosteroid drugs are strong inhibitors of NF-kB. They reduce inflammation, viral replication, and the intensity of Covid-19. But steroid drugs can only be used safely for two weeks. They cannot be used to prevent infection or during early illness.
They must be reserved for severe, later stage disease. But other NF-kB inhibitors can and should be used from the start to reduce viral load Aspirin and ibuprofen both inhibit NF-kB, inflammation, viral replication, and viral disease. Once dubbed “the miracle drug”, aspirin has been used successfully since 1900 to treat colds and influenza. Aspirin is a proven antiviral drug. Both aspirin and ibuprofen are effective against many symptoms of Covid-19 including fever, pain, and blood coagulation.
Aspirin and ibuprofen both inhibit NF-kB, inflammation, viral replication, and viral disease. Once dubbed “the miracle drug”, aspirin has been used successfully since 1900 to treat colds and influenza. Aspirin is a proven antiviral drug. Both aspirin and ibuprofen are effective against many symptoms of Covid-19 including fever, pain, and blood coagulation. My research conducted in Zimbabwe in 2001 showed aspirin can strongly increase CD4 count for several months, proving it a potent but temporary immune booster. However, the best candidate to potentially both prevent and treat Covid-19 is the mineral supplement selenium. Selenium is a potent inhibitor of NF-kB. It strongly and persistently increases CD4 count.
In 2015 the journal AIDS reported that just 200mcg of selenium alone could slow progression of HIV to AIDS by 43.8%. In 2006 the Toronto AIDS Conference reported that 200mcg of selenium added to highly active HAART AIDS therapy more than doubled the increase in CD4 count compared to HAART alone. More relevant for Covid- 19, that same study showed that adding selenium to HAART tripled the increase in oxygen carrying hemoglobin. Working with the Liberian Ministry of Health during the 2014 Ebola Crisis, I helped show that a suboptimal dose of 1.2mg of selenium reduced the mortality rate of Ebola virus disease by 57.1%. In 1997 the medical journal Biological Trace Element Research reported that 2.0mg of selenium reduced the DIC-related mortality rate of deadly Hantan virus by 63.4%. Another medical journal reported selenium to be highly effective in reducing deaths from Marburg virus. Could it do the same against Covid-19 today? DIC is probably caused by rapid depletion of selenium by viruses. Proper blood flow requires adequate selenium. Besides unleashing NF-kB, most viruses that cause disease utilize another eons-old viral trick. They genetically encode selenium proteins.
Viruses steal selenium from cells and the immune system. Since selenium is the most important chemical element required for immune function and the only chemical element proven to strongly increase CD4 count, when viruses attack the selenium supply, they weaken immunity. People that die from Covid-19 are those with weakened immune systems. Perhaps the best way to retard or reduce progression of Covid-19 and to treat this disease is to add selenium therapy to whatever the current basic standard of care is. In 2000 the Lancet medical journal confirmed that selenium works as a broadspectrum antiviral. In addition to HIV; Ebola, Marburg and Hantan fever viruses; selenium helps against influenza, hepatitis B and C, coxsackie-B3, and measles viruses. Based on existing scientific evidence about selenium and how it helps against so many other viral diseases, it is almost impossible not to conclude selenium should assist treating Covid-19, help slow progression of Covid-19, and save many lives. Selenium supplements specifically help reduce many symptoms of Covid-19 and may even help prevent this disease from taking hold in the body in the first place – a preventative. However only a randomized, placebocontrolled, clinical trial can prove this beyond doubt. This research needs to be conducted urgently to determine what is the best dosage of selenium to use against Covid-19 and precisely to what degree it can reduce the severity of and shorten illness and save lives. Based on the scientific evidence, one must conclude that while vitamin C, zinc and selenium all may assist in treating Covid-19, selenium should be by far the strongest candidate to reduce the mortality rate. It is the only nutrient that may possibly help prevent initial infection from becoming virulent or active in the body.
Howard Armistead is the Director of the Selenium Education and Research Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa