Day: September 26, 2022

• Scientists warn repeated COVID boosters may result in lowered immunity through a process known as “original antigenic sin” or “immune imprinting”

• Original antigenic sin describes how your first exposure to a virus shapes the outcome of subsequent exposures to antigenically related strains. The end result is that you become increasingly prone to symptomatic infections

• Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirm that people who got two or three COVID jabs are MORE likely to get ill with COVID six to eight months after the last dose than had they gotten none

• Health authorities are potentially worsening matters further by pushing people to simultaneously get the updated bivalent COVID booster and a quadrivalent flu vaccine this fall

• The COVID jab and the flu vaccine are the No. 1 and No. 2 most dangerous injections respectively, based on adverse event reports and payouts from the U.S. Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Both are also capable of shedding, and both can make you more prone to infection as their protection wears off

COVID-19 has been going on for nearly three years, and with a whole new set of untested COVID boosters being rolled out, some scientists are taking a step back, cautioning that there still are unanswered questions about how the shots work.

They say more research needs to be done on what is known as “original antigenic sin,” aka “immune imprinting,” which refers to how your immune system responds to repeated introductions of the COVID variants.

The following description of original antigenic sin was published in a January 2019 Journal of Immunology paper titled “Original Antigenic Sin: How First Exposure Shapes Lifelong Anti–Influenza Virus Immune Responses”:1

“The term ‘original antigenic sin’ (OAS) was first used in the 1960s to describe how one’s first exposure to influenza virus shapes the outcome of subsequent exposures to antigenically related strains. In the decades that have passed, OAS-like responses have been shown to play an integral role in both protection from and susceptibility to infections.

OAS may also have an important deterministic role in the differential efficacy of influenza vaccine responses observed for various age cohorts across seasons …

OAS describes the phenomenon whereby the development of immunity against pathogens/Ags is shaped by the first exposure to a related pathogen/Ag … subsequent infections with similar influenza virus strains preferentially boost the Ab response against the original strain …

The critical role of primary exposure in shaping the composition of the Ab repertoire was not only observed in humans after influenza virus infections; this phenomenon was also observed in animal models and in the context of other infectious agents.

For example, additional serum absorption experiments in ferrets infected in succession with three different influenza virus strains demonstrated that nearly all of the host Abs after the infection series were reactive against the first strain, only a fraction of serum Abs could be absorbed by the secondary virus, and fewer yet by the tertiary virus.”

Here’s a layman’s summary to illustrate this phenomenon as simply as possible, within the context of COVID:

• Exposed to the original Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 strain, your humoral immune system is programmed to produce antibodies against that specific virus. Similarly, if you got the jab, your body will produce antibodies against the viral spike protein formulated into that shot.

• Exposed to the Delta strain, your immune system responds first by boosting production of the original antibodies, while antibodies specific against Delta are produced in a far lower amount as it takes time for your body to respond to the new strain.

• Exposed to an Omicron variant, your immune system again responds by boosting the original antibodies, while antibodies against Omicron are produced in even lower amounts than those against Delta.

As a result of this process, with each exposure to a new variant, the original antibodies get “back-boosted.” So, over time, those antibodies come to predominate.

The process is (at least theoretically) the same for all vaccinations. Each booster dose back-boosts or strengthens the original antibodies, making them more and more predominant. The problem is that they may not be effective at neutralizing newer strains (depending on the amount of mutation), thus rendering you more and more prone to symptomatic infection.

As reported by ABC News:2

“Some experts say they are concerned that frequent boosting with the original version of the vaccine may have inadvertently exacerbated immune imprinting. At this point in the pandemic, some adults have received four or more doses of the same vaccine …

[Some] scientists worry about a potential backfire, with frequent boosting handcuffing the body’s natural immune system and leaving it exposed to radically different variants that might emerge in the future.

‘Where this matters is if you keep giving booster doses with [original] strain, and continue to lock people into that original response. It makes it harder for them to respond then to essentially a completely different virus,’ says Dr. Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Philadelphia …

The timing of vaccines may also need to be taken into account, as the nation moves from original doses to updated boosters.

‘It is true that the best boosts typically are the ones that are given infrequently, that immunologically, if you boost too much and too frequently, then you often have a lower immune response at the end,’ said [director of the center for virology and vaccine research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Dr. Dan] Barouch.”

In the video above, Dr. Meryl Nass reviews official data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which confirm that people who got two or three COVID jabs are MORE likely to get ill with COVID six to eight months after the last dose than had they gotten none.

Our reckless health authorities are potentially worsening matters further by pushing people to simultaneously get the updated bivalent COVID booster and a seasonal flu vaccine this fall.

Early in September 2022, White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci urged Americans to “Get your updated COVID-19 shot as soon as you are eligible,” and White House COVID coordinator Ashish Jha, September 6, stated, “I really believe this is why God gave us two arms, one for the flu shot and the other one for the COVID shot” — a statement that will live on in infamy as one of the most ridiculous comments from a public health official ever uttered.3

One problem, although hardly the most important one, is that it’s still far too early for a flu shot. As noted by STAT News:4

“The protection generated by influenza vaccines erodes pretty quickly over the course of a flu season. A vaccine dose given in early September may offer limited protection if the flu season doesn’t peak until February or even March, as it did during the unusually late 2021-2022 season.

‘If you start now, I am not a big fan of it,’ Florian Krammer, an influenza expert at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, told STAT. ‘I understand why this is promoted, but from an immunological point of view it doesn’t make much sense.’”

STAT cites research showing the effectiveness of the flu shot wanes by about 18% for every 28 days’ post-vaccination. What it doesn’t mention is the fact that the flu shot historically has had an effectiveness well below 50% to start with. The 2018/2019 flu vaccines, for example, which outperformed the 2017/2018 vaccines, had an adjusted effectiveness rating of:5

• 29% for all ages

• 49% for children aged 6 months through 8 years

• 6% for children ages 9 through 17

• 25% for adults between the ages of 18 and 49

• 12% for those over 50

Ever since the rollout of the COVID shots, there have been suspicions that some kind of shedding is happening between the jabbed and the unjabbed.6 With mass flu vaccination, the possibility of transmission is further exacerbated, and there’s no telling what kind of viral mutations the combination of a bivalent COVID jab and a quadrivalent flu shot might produce.

A study7 published January 18, 2018, in the journal PNAS showed that people who receive the seasonal flu shot and then contract influenza excrete infectious influenza viruses through their breath.

What’s more, those vaccinated two seasons in a row had a greater viral load of shedding influenza A viruses. According to the authors, “We observed 6.3 times more aerosol shedding among cases with vaccination in the current and previous season compared with having no vaccination in those two seasons.”

This study also highlighted the possibility that annual flu vaccination might lead to reduced protection against influenza over time, and that each vaccination can make you progressively more prone to getting sick. That, again, is the original antigenic sin phenomenon discussed above.

Now, combine the possibility of antigenic sin for COVID with the antigenic sin for influenza, and what might we end up with? Who knows? Research8 has also shown that priming your immune system with influenza vaccine can make you more susceptible to bacterial infections as well, and what are face masks loaded with? Bacteria.

Taken together, we could well be facing the “dark winter” president Biden warned would befall the unvaccinated last year. But it’ll be those with COVID booster and quadrivalent flu shots who will suffer the most. The rest of us will hopefully avoid problems provided we keep our immune systems strong.

On top of the antigenic sin possibility for both the COVID jab and the flu vaccine, there’s the possibility of suffering serious side effects from either or both of these shots. Before the advent of the COVID jab, injury following influenza vaccination was the most compensated claim in the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP).

Between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2019, a total of 5,407 injury claims for flu vaccine were filed, 4,614 of which were compensated.9 Based on VICP injury filings and awards, the flu vaccine was the riskiest vaccine out there. The COVID jab, however, blew the flu shot out of the water within the first few weeks of use.

“This fall, they’re telling people to line up for the two riskiest and deadliest injections out there. Media are stating that getting the flu shot and the COVID jab at the same time is ‘safe.’ Yet there are absolutely NO data to support such a claim.”

As of September 2, 2022, just 21 months into the COVID jabs existence, 1,400,350 post-jab injuries have been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).10 That’s more than half of all VAERS reports collected for all vaccines since its inception 32 years ago.

So, this fall, they’re telling people to line up for the two riskiest and deadliest injections out there. In my view, this is reckless beyond belief, and I would caution against this strategy. Disturbingly, media are stating that getting the flu shot and the COVID jab at the same time is “safe.”11 Yet there are absolutely NO data to support such a claim. It’s pure assumption.

The fact that the COVID jabs can cause serious side effects is evident by VAERS data alone, but studies reanalyzing original trial data submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are also starting to emerge that confirm the riskiness of these shots.

Most recently, a study12 13 in the journal Vaccine concluded the Pfizer and Moderna COVID jabs are associated with a 16% “excess risk of serious adverse events of special interest” over placebo baseline, on average. As detailed in that paper:14

“In 2020, prior to COVID-19 vaccine rollout, the Brighton Collaboration created a priority list, endorsed by the World Health Organization, of potential adverse events relevant to COVID-19 vaccines. We adapted the Brighton Collaboration list to evaluate serious adverse events of special interest observed in mRNA COVID-19 vaccine trials.

Methods: Secondary analysis of serious adverse events reported in the placebo-controlled, phase III randomized clinical trials of Pfizer and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in adults … focusing analysis on Brighton Collaboration adverse events of special interest.

Results: Pfizer and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were associated with an excess risk of serious adverse events of special interest of 10.1 and 15.1 per 10,000 vaccinated … respectively. Combined, the mRNA vaccines were associated with an excess risk of serious adverse events of special interest of 12.5 per 10,000 vaccinated …

The Pfizer trial exhibited a 36 % higher risk of serious adverse events in the vaccine group; risk difference 18.0 per 10,000 vaccinated … The Moderna trial exhibited a 6 % higher risk of serious adverse events in the vaccine group: risk difference 7.1 per 10,000 …

The excess risk of serious adverse events found in our study points to the need for formal harm-benefit analyses, particularly those that are stratified according to risk of serious COVID-19 outcomes. These analyses will require public release of participant level datasets.”

In an open letter addressed to the CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna published in The BMJ,15 the authors of this Vaccine paper call for the release of all clinical data, including individual participant data, so that a more thorough reanalysis can be made:

“The effort to prepare these datasets is minimal, and no potentially identifying data is needed … Today (Aug 31), our study of serious adverse events in the Pfizer and Moderna phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trials was published in the peer-reviewed journal Vaccine.

The results showed the Pfizer and Moderna both exhibited an absolute risk increase of serious adverse events of special interest (combined, 1 per 800 vaccinated), raising concerns that mRNA vaccines are associated with more harm than initially estimated at the time of emergency authorization.

We acknowledge that our estimates are only approximations because the original data remain sequestered. For example, we could not stratify by age, which would help clarify the populations in which benefits outweigh harms.

A more definitive determination of the actual harms and benefits requires individual participant data (IPD) that remain unavailable to research investigators … COVID-19 vaccines are now among the most widely disseminated medicines in the history of the world.

Yet, results from the pivotal clinical trials cannot be verified by independent analysts. The public has a legitimate right to an impartial analysis of these data …

Transparency, reproducibility, and replication are cornerstones of high-quality science. The time is overdue for Pfizer and Moderna to allow independent scientists and physicians to see the original data and to replicate the analyses.”

The COVID shots also appear to be responsible for the rapid increase in excess deaths around the world. As reported September 8, 2022, by The Defender,16 the COVID jabs are causing injuries on a scale we’ve never seen before in medical history.

Yet governments around the world are turning a blind eye. Most medical researchers also avoid these data like the plague, for fear of getting defunded. Two university professors in Germany, however, have bucked that trend.

Psychologist Christof Kuhbandner and Matthias Reitzner, a statistician, analyzed excess mortality data from the German Federal Statistical Office (Bundesamt für Statistik) for 2020 through August 2022.17 18

By applying actuarial analysis to the all-cause mortality data — i.e., by estimating the number of all-cause deaths during these years had there been no pandemic, and then comparing that to the observed all-cause deaths — they found the death toll in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, was actually close to the expected number.

In 2021, however, the observed number of deaths were “two empirical standard deviations above the expected number.” What’s more, the increase in mortality only started to accumulate after April that year. A similar pattern was also observed for stillbirths, which rose by 11% in the second quarter of 2021.

The figure below illustrates the differences in excess mortality between 2020, the year of the virus, and 2021, the year of the COVID jabs.19 20 Looking at the age groups, we see something very odd. In 2021, excess mortality was highest among 15- to 79-year-olds, yet COVID infection primarily killed the elderly, 70 to 79 years of age, in 2020.

Mortality in age groups 15 to 29, and 50 to 59, during the pandemic, pre-jab, was actually below average, and excess mortality among children was well below average. Yet in 2021, excess mortality went up for all age groups, not just the elderly. This strongly suggests the COVID virus was not a primary contributor, but rather the experimental injections.

Kuhbandner and Reitzner further notes there were spikes in excess mortality in April and May and again in September, November and December 2021. The April/May spike coincides with the COVID shot rollout in Germany, and the increases in the fall correlate with booster campaigns.

The following graph21 22 illustrates how tightly connected the excess mortality numbers are with the rise and fall in COVID shots administered.

In my view, there’s simply no doubt the COVID jabs are causing more harm than good, and combining a reformulated and never tested bivalent COVID booster with a quadrivalent flu shot could potentially be disastrous.

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Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Mercola and his community. Dr. Mercola encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The subscription fee being requested is for access to the articles and information posted on this site, and is not being paid for any individual medical advice.

If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your health care professional before using products based on this content.

• The average adult is battling at least four different health issues, such as back pain, headaches and seasonal allergies

• Not only did 82% of the adults surveyed have a minor health condition, but 59% said they were in “significant” pain or discomfort

• A significant number of those with multiple health conditions have trouble sleeping, have developed related mental health conditions and can’t work as a result

• More than half of U.S. adults regularly take prescription medications, and the average adult takes four, increasing the risk of adverse drug reactions

• Many chronic health conditions and mental health problems can be remedied with healthy lifestyle changes

If you’re currently healthy, count yourself lucky — and above average when it comes to the average adult battling at least four different health issues. The disturbing data was revealed by OnePoll, which conducted a survey — commissioned by infant formula manufacturer Perrigo — of 2,000 British adults.1

Not only did 82% of the adults surveyed have a minor health condition, but 59% said they were in “significant” pain or discomfort. Common conditions among those surveyed included back pain, headaches and seasonal allergies.

The study casts light on the day-to-day realities for thousands of people, whose quality of life is suffering due to long-term poor health. For more than one-quarter of those surveyed, their health complaints have been ongoing for several years, while 8% said their health conditions have been present for more than a decade. The implications to daily life are immense. Among those surveyed who have health issues:2

• 46% have trouble sleeping

• 28% developed mental health conditions

• 18% can’t work

The survey also revealed that many people (57%) are suffering in silence, trying to cope with their health conditions on their own because their doctor “doesn’t seem interested” (28%). More than half of respondents also said they hadn’t considered stopping in to a drugstore for help. Perhaps hinting at the root of the problem, 56% of the adults surveyed said that they weren’t the best at self-care, and 43% said taking care of themselves wasn’t a priority.3

Unfortunately, without attention paid to the foundational cause of these health complaints, those affected are likely to receive disjointed, sporadic care and fall into the trap of polypharmacy, or the use of multiple medications.

What goes along with a laundry list of health complaints? Typically, a laundry list of medications. A 2017 survey of nearly 2,000 U.S. adults by Consumer Reports found that more than half of U.S. adults regularly take prescription medications, and the average adult takes four.4

The rate of prescribing has been skyrocketing as well, even outpacing the rate of population increase in the U.S. The Consumer Reports survey found that the total number of prescriptions filled by Americans (including children) increased by 85% from 1997 to 2016 — but the total U.S. population increased by only 21% during that time.

If you visit a doctor in the conventional medicine system, the fact is that you’re likely to be prescribed a medication. “About three-quarters of all visits to a physician end with a drug prescription,” according to a report in the journal Health Affairs.5 The U.S. FDA put the number at 64%.6

Either one is shocking, as is the fact that the average American adult takes four prescription drugs, and 75% of Americans take at least one over-the-counter drug regularly as well.7 As the FDA notes, “ADRs [adverse drug reactions] increase exponentially with four or more mediations.”8

The most common drugs prescribed give clues about the most common health complaints. In 2018, researchers with Larkin University’s College of Pharmacy compiled the top 200 prescribed drugs, along with their reported adverse reactions and black box warnings.9 I’ll focus on the top 20 here, which include:10

1. Lisinopril, an ACE inhibitor used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure.

2. Levothyroxine (Synthroid), a thyroid medication used to treat hypothyroidism.

3. Atorvastatin (Lipitor), a statin to treat high cholesterol.

4. Metformin (Glucophage), an antidiabetic drug used to treat Type 2 diabetes.

5. Simvastatin (Zocor), a statin to treat high cholesterol.

6. Omeprazole (Zegerid), a proton-pump inhibitor used to treat heartburn, stomach ulcers and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

7. Amlodipine besylate (Norvasc), a calcium channel blocker to treat high blood pressure and chest pain (angina).

8. Metoprolol (Toprol XL), a beta blocker used to treat high blood pressure, chest pain and heart failure.

9. Acetaminophen/hydrocodone (Tylenol/Vicodin), a combination opioid analgesic used to relieve pain.

10. Albuterol (ProAir HFA), a bronchodilator used to treat asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and other lung diseases.

11. Hydrochlorothiazide (Microzide), a diuretic used to treat high blood pressure and fluid retention (edema).

12. Losartan (Cozaar), an antihypertensive drug used to treat high blood pressure.

13. Gabapentin (Neurontin), an anticonvulsant used to treat seizures, as well as pain and anxiety (an off-label use).

14. Sertraline (Zoloft), a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) used to treat depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), panic disorder and other mental health conditions.

15. Furosemide (Lasix), a diuretic used to treat fluid retention.

16. Acetaminophen (Tylenol), an analgesic used for pain relief.

17. Atenolol (Tenormin), a beta blocker used to treat high blood pressure and chest pain.

18. Pravastatin (Pravachol), a statin used to treat high cholesterol.

19. Amoxicillin, a penicillin antibiotic used to treat infections.

20. Fluoxetine (Prozac), an SSRI used to treat depression, OCD and other mental health conditions.

A range of adverse drug reactions were reported from the top 200 drugs, with the most common affecting the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, respiratory, endocrine and immunological systems, among others. Common adverse reactions include the following — you’ll notice some of the reactions are the same as some of the symptoms the drugs are intended to treat:11

• Chest pain

• Edema

• Thrombosis

• Headache

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Abdominal pain

• Alopecia

• Upper respiratory infections

• Allergic rhinitis

• Viral infections

• Fungal infections

• Tremor

• Joint swelling

• Anemia

• Renal insufficiency

• Urinary tract infection

• Impaired vision

• Tinnitus

• Hemorrhage

• Allergic conjunctivitis

If you suffer from multiple health conditions, your health is at risk not only from the illnesses but also from the multiple drugs prescribed to treat them. Adverse effects from polypharmacy are common and may drive patients to seek ever-more drugs to treat the side effects caused by their unsafe drug regimen. It’s a vicious cycle, one that’s perpetuated by a broken health care system that revolves around pharmaceutical-driven, fragmented care.

When medications are prescribed in excess, including to treat the side effects of other drugs, the patient’s health suffers. “The use of numerous medications may result in medication-related problems such as inappropriate indications, therapeutic duplication, adverse effects, drug interactions, unnecessary medications, poor adherence, and a strain on health care resources,” according to a featured article in The Journal for Nurse Practitioners.12

It also noted that polypharmacy is a preventable risk factor for hospital admission in older adults, due to adverse drug events. In BMC Geriatrics, adverse outcomes including mortality, falls, adverse drug reactions, increased length of hospital stay and hospital readmission are listed, and the risk of harm increases with the number of medications.13 According to the systematic review:14

“Harm can result due to a multitude of factors including drug-drug interactions and drug-disease interactions. Older patients are at even greater risk of adverse effects due to decreased renal and hepatic function, lower lean body mass, reduced hearing, vision, cognition and mobility.”

People over the age of 65 may be most at risk of polypharmacy’s adverse effects. While 89% of people aged 65 and older take at least one prescription medication, 54% take four or more.15

Data from Merck similarly found that nearly 80% of older adults regularly take at least two prescription drugs while 36% regularly use five or more different drugs — and this doesn’t include over-the-counter medications.16 Adding to the risks, Merck stated, “Most drugs used by older people for chronic disorders are taken for years.”17

While those over 65 tend to be the most medicated since they’re more likely to have one or more chronic conditions,18 even children are prescribed multiple, powerful drugs. In 2014, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a mental health watchdog group, highlighted data showing that in 2013:19

• 274,000 babies aged 1 and younger were given psychiatric drugs. Of these, 249,699 were on antianxiety meds like Xanax, 26,406 were on antidepressants such as Prozac or Paxil, 1,422 were on ADHD drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall, and 654 were on antipsychotics such as Risperdal and Zyprexa

• In the toddler category (2- to 3-year-olds), 318,997 were on antianxiety drugs, 46,102 were on antidepressants, 10,000 were prescribed ADHD drugs and 3,760 were on antipsychotics

• Among children aged 5 and younger, 1,080,168 were on psychiatric drugs

The situation isn’t much better for teens. According to mail-order pharmacy Express Scripts, prescriptions for antidepressants for teenagers increased 38% from 2015 to 2019, while such prescriptions for adults rose 12% during that time.20 Note that this was prior to the pandemic, during which social isolation and other fears may have pushed some children with mental health issues “over the edge.”21

In 2021, more than one year into the pandemic, 1 in every 12 children under age 18 was on medication for ADD/ADHD, autism/ASD or difficulties with emotions, concentration or behavior, according to Psychology Today.22

“This includes 1.2% of preschoolers and 12.9% of 12- to 17-year-olds (1 in 8),” the magazine said, adding that even children as young as 2 “were being forced to take powerful antipsychotic drugs,” mostly in conjunction with one or more other psychiatric drugs for “the particularly vague diagnosis of ‘pervasive developmental disorder.’”

Being prescribed multiple psychotropic drugs to treat anxiety, depression or ADHD is incredibly common among youth. As noted in a study published in the journal Pediatrics in 2020, not only is the use of ADHD medication increasing but so is psychotherapeutic polypharmacy.23

From 2006 to 2015, prescriptions for ADHD medications among patients aged 2 to 24 years increased from 4.8% to 8.4%, while the percentage of those who were prescribed a drug for ADHD as well as at least one other medication rose from 26% to 40.7%.24

Most often, stimulants and α-2 agonists were prescribed together to treat ADHD, while the most common psychotropic agents prescribed in addition were selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs).

“Surprisingly,” the researchers noted, “SGAs were coprescribed with ADHD medications most frequently at visits in the youngest patients (2-5 years of age)” — possibly in an attempt to treat sleep difficulties.25

Many chronic health conditions and mental health problems can be remedied with healthy lifestyle changes. One powerful step to protect your health is to eliminate or drastically reduce linoleic acid in your diet. Linoleic acid is the primary fat found in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), including vegetable/seed oils. When oxidized, it degenerates into compounds that are carcinogenic, thrombogenic, mutagenic and genotoxic.26

Linoleic acid is found in virtually every processed food, including restaurant foods, sauces and salad dressings, so to eliminate it you’ll need to eliminate most processed foods and restaurant foods from your diet.

Time restricted eating (TRE) is another powerful intervention. It mimics the eating habits of our ancestors and restores your body to a more natural state that allows a whole host of metabolic benefits to occur.27

TRE involves limiting your eating window to six to eight hours per day instead of the more than 12-hour window most people use. Research shows, for instance, that TRE promotes insulin sensitivity and improves blood sugar management by increasing insulin-mediated glucose uptake rates,28 which is important for resolving Type 2 diabetes along with other metabolic health conditions.

Ideally, you’ll want to stop eating for several hours before bedtime, then start your eating window in mid- to late morning after you wake up. Remember, while it’s important to get back to the basics of eating whole foods, getting high-quality sleep, exercising and being active throughout your day and relieving stress, with each toxic exposure you remove from your life, the better health you’ll enjoy.

So along with adding in healthy elements, make a point to remove those that may be harming you, including toxic personal care and cleaning products, electromagnetic fields and unnecessary medications. When you address your health this way, on a holistic level, you can stay well and avoid polypharmacy at every life stage.

Subscribe to Mercola Newsletter

Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Mercola and his community. Dr. Mercola encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The subscription fee being requested is for access to the articles and information posted on this site, and is not being paid for any individual medical advice.

If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your health care professional before using products based on this content.

• Studies show curcumin’s ability to repair and regenerate damage caused by strokes, enhancing verbal, visual and memory abilities and improving patients’ attention spans and other brain functions

• Studies show that people who eat lots of curcumin-containing foods show fewer incidences of Alzheimer’s disease and sharper cognitive function and suggest meaningful cognitive benefits over time

• Researchers have found several powerful health effects from curcumin, the active compound in the spice turmeric, particularly in relation to treating and preventing several common disorders

• Eating foods and spices such as turmeric, which have high amounts of antioxidant compounds, may increase cognitive and mitochondrial function and mood, while decreasing depression caused by brain inflammation

• Because the curcumin in turmeric is poorly absorbed through your gastrointestinal tract, it’s more effective to use a high-quality bioavailable curcumin extract

For those who appreciate the unique spiciness of turmeric, it’s serendipitous to learn there are several layers of extraordinary health benefits included with the active ingredient known as curcumin. One of the latest was revealed in a study in which scientists tested the powerful compound for its effects on heart failure patients.

Heart failure, experienced by over 6 million people in the U.S., weakens your heart and affects its ability to pump sufficient oxygen. Patients no longer have the ability to participate in activities and exercise like they once did, which could be described as life altering.

Heart failure is also described as chronic, progressive and incurable, although a change in lifestyle, such as eating a balanced, healthy diet and performing regular exercise can decrease feelings of fatigue and enhance their mood enough to help people resume their lives to a large degree.

Research published in the Journal of Applied Physiology reports that curcumin may help patients with chronic heart failure by increasing skeletal muscle strength, endurance and exercise capacity. Although mice were the subjects used in the trial, the scientists are hopeful their research can eventually be translated to human patients in a clinical setting.

Turmeric is in the same botanical family as ginger, another powerful spice with proven, health-beneficial compounds. With that in mind, corresponding study author Dr. Lie Gao, assistant professor of cellular and integrative physiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), notes:

“This study showed an important proof of principle. Some foods and spices, such as broccoli and turmeric, contain a rich supply of antioxidant compounds. Consumption of these foods or spices may improve skeletal muscle health. For patients with stable heart failure that have limited ability to exercise, compounds like these may be beneficial.”

Interestingly, previous studies proposed that targeting skeletal muscle with antioxidants may be advantageous for heart failure patients, but Gao states that it’s not possible to use curcumin on humans because of the high amounts it would take.

Gao then suggests that “other antioxidants” such as dimethyl fumarate, a drug currently popular for treating multiple sclerosis, could be used for its health-improving benefits. That said, curcumin is one of hundreds of plant-based nutriments, from carrots to tobacco, to be unapologetically sourced and manufactured into pharmaceuticals.

Curcumin, taken from the underground rhizome of the plant, is the pigment that gives curry its bright yellow hue, explaining why turmeric is an ingredient used to complement and color stir-fries and sautéed root vegetables, rice, scrambled eggs and braised greens such as kale and collards.

In just the past few years, queries about the spice touted to have a “cult following” have increased exponentially, according to The Guardian. It’s showing up in foods like smoothies and the trendy turmeric latte known as golden milk, a potent blend of organic turmeric powder and coconut milk and/or virgin coconut oil.

Optional flavor additions include vanilla, raw honey or stevia, a stick of ginger and/or cinnamon, and sometimes a healthy dash of black or white pepper. The addition of ghee is used to soothe a sore throat.

In fact, the use of black pepper in golden milk is supported by a study in which the “curcuminoid-piperine combination” addressed the symptoms of metabolic syndrome in 117 study subjects who exhibited both oxidative stress and inflammation. According to the randomized, controlled trial and updated meta-analysis,7 oxidative and inflammatory status showed significant improvement, even with short-term curcumin supplementation.

Tellingly, turmeric is called the “spice of life” in India. Golden milk is becoming increasingly popular not just as a pleasant, warming drink for cool autumn evenings, but as a sleep aid for people who struggle with insomnia. Further, curcumin has been identified as a substance that’s safe, effective and natural.

A plethora of studies point to the anti-inflammatory properties of curcumin (Curcuma longa) and reveal more than 160 separate physiological and cell-signaling pathways, positively influencing arthritic conditions, cancer, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, and, more recently, metabolic syndrome and dementia.

In another study from mid-2018, scientists at Texas A&M endeavored to relieve patients suffering from Gulf War illness (GWI), characterized by “substantially declined neurogenesis, chronic low-grade inflammation, increased oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in the hippocampus.” In the animal study, GWI rats treated with curcumin (CUR) maintained better memory and mood function. In addition:

“Enhanced neurogenesis, restrained inflammation and oxidative stress with normalized mitochondrial respiration may underlie better memory and mood function mediated by CUR treatment.”

The scientists wrote that their use of curcumin was due to its long-recognized ability to positively influence several aspects of brain health. The rats in the study were exposed to low doses of DEET, or N-diethyl-m-toluamide, a common insect repellant, and other chemicals related to GWI, such as pyridostigmine bromide and permethrin. They were also subjected to restraint for five minutes daily for a period of 28 days.

Even more recently, another study shows that chronic neuropathic pain and the cognitive impairment that accompanies it can be addressed with the antinociceptive (reduced sensitivity to painful stimuli) and neuroprotective application of curcumin, demonstrated using rats in a lab setting subjected to cobra venom.

Interestingly, the rats exhibited improvements in spatial learning and memory deficits, as well as increased exploratory activities due to the ability of curcumin to reverse the damage done to hippocampal neurons and synapses. Scientists concluded that curcumin can “alleviate pain, improve spatial learning and memory deficits, and treat chronic neuropathic pain-induced cognitive deficits.”

The inflammatory and antioxidant properties of curcumin to improve memory and mood were again confirmed when UCLA published results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled 18-month trial in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychology, in which 90 milligrams (mg) of a bioavailable form of curcumin, taken twice a day, “led to significant memory and attention benefits” in people with mild memory loss.

Curcumin has been suggested as the explanation for why senior citizens in India, whose regular diets include generous amounts of curcumin-containing foods, show both a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and sharper cognitive function. Further, the study “results suggest that taking this relatively safe form of curcumin could provide meaningful cognitive benefits over the years.”

Gary Small, director of the University’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and the study’s first author, notes that while the mechanisms behind curcumin’s brain benefits aren’t yet known definitively, they might be due to its inhibitory effect on brain inflammation, which has been associated with both major depression and Alzheimer’s disease.

Forty people, including healthy people without dementia as well as those with the characteristic “microscopic plaques and tangles” of Alzheimer’s, ranging in age from 51 to 84 years, participated in the study. Scientists took standardized cognitive assessments at the beginning of the study as well as at six-month intervals, and participants’ curcumin levels were checked in their blood after 18 months. Further:

“Thirty of the volunteers underwent positron emission tomography, or PET scans, to determine the levels of amyloid and tau in their brains at the start of the study and after 18 months. The people who took curcumin experienced significant improvements in their memory and attention abilities, while the subjects who received placebo did not …

In memory tests, the people taking curcumin improved by 28 percent over the 18 months. Those taking curcumin also had mild improvements in mood, and their brain PET scans showed significantly less amyloid and tau signals in the amygdala and hypothalamus than those who took placebos.”

The participants’ amygdala and hypothalamus — regions of the brain known to control several memory and emotional functions, which were positively influenced by the curcumin — were defined as critical areas of the brain.

Still another study, this one presented at an American Heart Association International Stroke Conference, uncovered curcumin’s ability to repair damage caused by strokes, which have been called “brain attacks” caused when a blood clot blocks an artery or blood vessel, effectively cutting off blood flow and triggering brain cell death and sometimes brain damage and even death.

Stroke symptoms include an inability for individuals to walk due to a loss of balance, a sudden, severe headache, difficulty seeing, weakness, often on one side only, and sudden confusion. It’s crucial to know that the longer your brain goes without oxygen, the greater your risk of lasting damage.

A drug used on stroke victims, referred to as “clot-busting,” the current and most common intervention, is a synthetic contrast to the curcumin-hybrid known as CNB-001, which repairs damage sustained at the molecular level by the lack of oxygen.

Besides crossing the blood-brain barrier, CNB-001 works by influencing the mechanism responsible for the regeneration of brain cells and offers future stroke victims new hope for more complete recovery.

This is a specific example of a time when a drug can both save your life and prevent the very frequent and devastating outcomes of a stroke. Incidentally, medical intervention is crucial to help prevent such damage from stroke, but must be obtained within 60 minutes.

Curcumin has been identified as one of the most powerful chemopreventive and anticancer agents, and recognized for its wide spectrum of pharmacological properties and inhibitory effects on metabolic enzymes, according to PubChem, which notes its wound healing and antimicrobial effects, and states:

“Curcumin blocks the formation of reactive-oxygen species, possesses anti-inflammatory properties as a result of inhibition of cyclooxygenases (COX) and other enzymes involved in inflammation; and disrupts cell signal transduction by various mechanisms including inhibition of protein kinase C.

These effects may play a role in the agent’s observed antineoplastic properties, which include inhibition of tumor cell proliferation and suppression of chemically induced carcinogenesis and tumor growth in animal models of cancer.”

The same study shows curcumin as able to suppress cancer proliferation and apoptosis (programmed cell death), thereby acting as a chemopreventive agent in skin, colon and stomach cancers. Other studies using animal models list breast, bladder, brain, esophageal, kidney, liver, lung, pancreas and prostate cancers, and more.

Significantly, the active elements in curcumin attack cancer while leaving healthy cells untouched. For the purpose of disease intervention, while turmeric is available in powdered form, it contains very little of the active compounds in curcumin, or only about a 3 percent curcumin concentration.

Because it’s not easily absorbed through your gastrointestinal tract, it’s more effective to use a high-quality bioavailable curcumin extract, according to a 2013 study. A typical anticancer dose is just under 1 teaspoon of curcumin extract three or four times daily.

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