Day: November 27, 2022

• Many have suspected that the U.S. government’s “security assistance” to Ukraine — which as of November 15, 2022, had surpassed $98 billion — is a money laundering scheme, perhaps relating to questionable activities involving American biolabs in Ukraine

• With the sudden implosion of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, suspicions of money laundering in Ukraine are gaining fresh support

• FTX’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried — suspected of having absconded with $1 billion to $2 billion of client funds as the exchange went belly-up in mid-November — was a top donor to the Democratic Party, second only to George Soros, and had ties to the World Economic Forum

• FTX partnered with Ukraine to help them raise funds for the war effort. Some believe the foreign aid the Ukrainian government received from the U.S. was put into FTX, which then turned around and donated money back to Democratic candidates

• An estimated $200 million were raised for Ukraine and distributed through FTX to a bank in Ukraine, but records show the Ukrainian government only used $22 million of that money. The remaining $178 million appears to have vanished, leading people to suspect it was laundered back to the United States

Many have suspected that the U.S. government’s “security assistance” to Ukraine — which as of November 15, 2022, had surpassed $98 billion1 2 — is a money laundering scheme to somehow ensure its own security, perhaps relating to questionable activities involving American biolabs in Ukraine.

With the sudden implosion of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX,3 4 suspicions of money laundering in Ukraine are gaining new support.

As scrutiny into FTX increases, people are finding more and more links between the ill-fated crypto exchange, the Democratic Party, Ukraine, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and even the suppression of COVID-19 treatments through the funding of fake science.

FTX, along with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation actually funded the TOGETHER trial,5 which sought to identify “effective repurposed therapies to prevent the disease progression of COVID-19.” Using fraudulent trial protocols, this trial concluded that ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were useless.6 Of course, to discourage criticism, the trial was given a “Trial of the Year” award for excellence.

Judy Morris for Peace, Liberty & Prosperity summarized many a sentiment in a November 13, 2022, Substack article:7

“Did you ever wonder where all those billions of dollars were going in Ukraine? Did you ever wonder why anyone was trusting the elites in US politics like the Bidens with billions in funds going to Ukraine? Today it turns out that these were excellent questions.

We have information that the tens of billions of dollars going to Ukraine were actually laundered back to the US to corrupt Democrats and elites using FTX cryptocurrency. Now the money is gone and FTX is bankrupt.”

FTX’s founder, 30-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried — now suspected of having absconded with $1 billion to $2 billion8 9 of client funds as the exchange went belly-up in mid-November — was a top donor to the Democratic Party, second only to George Soros.10

During the 2022 midterms, Democrats received nearly $38 million from the crypto billionaire,11 and in May 2022, he said he was planning on contributing anywhere from $100 million to $1 billion in support to the Democrat nominee in the 2024 presidential election.12

Bankman-Fried reportedly visited the White House on several occasions, and is said to have consulted with the Biden administration on crypto regulation. FTX is also a partner of the WEF. The WEF has now scrubbed FTX from its partner list,13 but an archived link14 confirms the relationship.

As noted by ReallyGraceful in the video at the top of the article, and in the embedded summary further below, in addition to Bankman-Fried himself, other family members also have direct ties to the WEF.

Bankman-Fried’s Ukraine connection involves the creation of an “Aid for Ukraine” initiative in collaboration with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance, the Ukrainian-web company Everstake and the National Bank of Ukraine.15 16 17 18

Some believe the foreign aid the Ukrainian government received from the U.S. was put into FTX, which then turned around and donated money back to Democratic candidates — in other words, a money laundering scheme. There’s no concrete evidence for this, however, and deputy minister of Digital Transformation Alex Bornyakov has denied it.19

“Estimates say that $200 million in donations were raised but from this $200 million only $22 million were officially used … The remaining $178 million mysteriously disappeared, leading many to believe it had been laundered back to the United States.” ~ Crypto Hub

Still, many believe what FTX was doing was part of a money laundering operation involving Ukraine.20 21 22 While it cannot be proven yet, circumstantial evidences do raise suspicions. As reported by Crypto Hub:23

“In March 2022, FTX was approached by Ukrainian officials who requested help to set up crypto donations to fund the war. Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX, agreed and set up a donation portal on the FTX website.

Businesses and citizens around the world could donate any amount of cryptocurrency to different wallet addresses. Ukraine promised to convert all cryptocurrencies into their local currency hryvnia and subsequently buy war equipment.

Estimates say that $200 million in donations were raised but from this $200 million only $22 million were officially used. This leaves the question where the other donations went … The remaining $178 million mysteriously disappeared, leading many to believe it had been laundered back to the United States …

Some believe that Bankman-Fried used his connections in Ukraine to funnel crypto donations back to himself and then used those funds to support the Democratic Party … However, there is no concrete evidence to support this claim.”

A Substack writer that goes by the name “2nd Smartest Guy in the World” posted the following summary of circumstantial evidence:24

What is clear is that FTX worked with Ukraine to funnel overseas donations into its war efforts. FTX converted crypto donations into cash currency. These kinds of transactions are how it made its money.

We also know that Bankman-Fried was in tight with the Democrat party and the Biden administration, itself a rat’s nest of conflicts of interest with regard to Ukraine, as detailed in this previous article. To highlight just one such conflict of interest, Hunter Biden’s investment company Rosemont Seneca is invested in Metabiota, which operates some of the biolabs in Ukraine.

FTX’s head of ventures, Amy Wu, used to work for the Clinton Foundation, Mark Wetjen, head of policy and regulatory strategy for FTX, served as commissioner for the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) under President Obama, and Bankman-Fried’s trading firm, Alameda, was managed by his girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, whose father is a former supervisor of Biden’s current SEC director.

Some commentators have homed in on the partnership between FTX and the WEF, noting the collapse of FTX is a foreshadowing of what will happen if stakeholder capitalism is allowed to really take root and become norm. ZeroHedge writes:25

“What many in the mainstream are missing … is [Bankman-]Fried’s attachments to the [WEF], various global elitists and his avid sermonizing of the tenets of ‘effective altruism,’ which are nearly identical to the tenets of Klaus Schwab’s Stakeholder Capitalism agenda.

The WEF lists FTX as a corporate ‘partner’ and participant, which means the company must meet the globalist organization’s standards for Stakeholder Capitalism, a socialist economic model which deconstructs the … free market foundation …

The WEF insists … corporate leaders should become cultural and political leaders fulfilling greater ideological goals, all of them decidedly socialist/Marxist in origin.

Stakeholder Capitalism becomes a way to trick the public into investing their faith in corporate leadership because these companies are no longer simply ‘in it for the money,’ they are in it for the survival of the world and the species, right? …

That kind of blind faith allows people to be taken advantage of in a big way … In the WEF’s vision of the future, the average person will ‘own nothing, have no privacy and be happy about it’ while corporate elites in partnership with governments micromanage all production, all distribution and all finance.”

Charles Hugh Smith shared some helpful insights as to precisely how FTX was able to pull off the largest Ponzi scheme in history.26

“What you will find is insight into the real innovation of FTX: FTX compressed the entire playbook and history of financial fraud into one brief cycle of the credulous bamboozled, Charles Ponzi bested and creative accounting being revealed for what it really is, fraud.

All financial frauds share the same set of tools. The toolbox of financial fraud, whether it is traditional or crypto-based, contains variations of these basic mechanisms:

1. Using clients’ capital (without full disclosure) to increase the private gain of the Owners of the Con (OOTC).

2. Using the clients’ capital to arbitrage yield differentials in duration, risk and other asymmetries to the benefit not of the clients but to the Owners of the Con (OOTC).

3. Overstate assets by listing illiquid, insider-controlled, non-marked-to-market assets at valuations completely disconnected from reality, i.e. what they would fetch on the open market in size. Rely on assets issued by the firm or its subsidiaries for the bulk of the firm’s assets, i.e. its claim of solvency.

4. Attracting new capital investments and client funds with ‘too good to be true’ (but borderline plausible, given the fantastic growth and track record of high returns) returns, goals and promises to cover the normal churn of redemptions, so the fraud goes undetected. (Ponzi Scheme)

5. Play fast and loose with leverage, the full extent of which isn’t disclosed to clients or regulators.

6. Issue securities (i.e. ‘money’ — tokens, bonds, shares of stock, etc.) whose value is based on the firm’s fraudulently listed assets and mouth-watering growth.

7. Persuade investors and clients that you’re doing them a favor by letting them get a piece of the action. In other words, exploit their near-infinite greed.

8. Present a facade of prudent, audited, transparent, regulated stability which cloaks the interlocking network of fraud, bogus accounting, illiquid assets, etc. and insider looting.”

The video directly below is from a friend of mine, Mark Moss. I have spoken at his last two events, and he has a solid handle on this mess. Mark has a strong understanding of financial reality and the crypto space. I strongly recommend it.

Two other leaders in the crypto field, Peter McCormick and Preston Pysh also discuss the absolute insanity of the FTX scandal (video below). They even give SBR (Sam Bankman-Fried) a new acronym, Scam Bankrupt Fraud. If you understand crypto you will really enjoy this detailed analysis. Preston has extensive experience in the financial journalism world and shifted to crypto several years ago.

The environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) credit system is an early phase of the new financial system envisioned by the WEF. Basically, your ESG score decides your company’s ability to obtain loans and investment opportunities, and in the future, the same “social conscience”-type scoring will apply to private individuals as well.

As shown in the Fox News video above, Bankman-Fried was hailed as the most generous billionaire on the planet, and he made bold promises to finance globalist causes such as climate change with billions of dollars.

Was his promotion of ESG and stakeholder capitalist ideology the reason why people who should have known better turned a blind eye to what was clearly a fraud? (For a summary of the fraud, see ReallyGraceful’s video at the top of the article.) Apparently, blatant drug use advertised on social media didn’t even raise warning flags.

As noted by ZeroHedge:27

“Evidence is mounting that the equity measures involved in Stakeholder Capitalism will actually erase wealth rather than create wealth. To be sure, it would make the majority of people financially even — Instead of being equally rich, we will all suffer in equal poverty.

The downfall of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried illustrates this problem with clarity. Fried constantly espoused the pie-in-the-sky ideals of Stakeholder Capitalism, engaging in a kind of corporate charity built on socialist guidelines and climate cultism, while at the same time draining client accounts.

Fried suggests that his intent all along was to expand capital as a means to give it away to leftist causes … The problem was he failed in business while giving away the money of his clients at the same time … Fried explicitly stated that his company would not use client funds in such a way. He lied to them …

Fried is a perfect example of why corporation leaders have no business being involved in social engineering. They are not qualified enough nor intelligent enough nor benevolent enough to mold society at large …

Beyond that, the Stakeholder Capitalism ideology is rooted in socialist drivel … The model is designed to inevitably reduce the standard of living for most people over time rather than improve it. Fried just showed us how and why.”

The meteoric rise and sudden cataclysmic collapse of FTX also appears to have been manufactured to serve a larger geopolitical purpose. The proverbial ink on headlines announcing the vaporization of billions of dollars had barely dried before U.S. Treasury secretary Janet Yellen announced the crypto market will require “very careful regulation” moving forward.28

FTX’s collapse “shows the weakness of the entire sector,” she said.29 As noted by ReallyGraceful, it seems Bankman-Fried was set up to be the “fried bank man.”

Is it just a coincidence that the march toward CBDCs in the U.S. started last week, when the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Innovation Center (NYIC), announced that it would be launching a 12-week proof-of-concept pilot for a central bank digital currency, or CBDC?30

The Australian government has also doubled down on its commitment towards a robust regulatory framework for crypto.31 Daily Skeptic’s Joshua Stillman Adds Concerns About CBDCs:32

“Given the ubiquity of credit and debit cards, payment apps and other online payment systems, digital money has been bound to happen for some time. The risk isn’t the electronic part, that’s inevitable — it’s the fact that a central bank will oversee the digital currency.

From my vantage point, it’s impossible to overstate the risk presented by CBDC. Whether it’s a utopian vision based on good intentions or a sinister plot to crush our sovereignty, the result may be the same: control. A Central Bank Digital Currency has all the downsides of fiat money, plus the added layers of surveillance and programmability overseen by the state.

If CBDC ultimately becomes the new monetary system, its core features will make it so that world governments will no longer need something like a global health crisis to print money or close society. Lines of code can shape our behavior and ensure we’re forced to stay home. The entire platform will be designed to expel labor that is no longer deemed necessary.

Central Bank Digital Currency will enable governments to impose top-down control, à la Chinese Social Credit Score. Some central bankers are even saying the quiet part out loud. Whether or not this is the program’s objective, has there ever been a time in history when governments rejected the power they are given? At this stage, this isn’t some tinfoil hat theorizing, either.”

Michael Lewis, author of “Big Short,” reportedly spent months with Bankman-Fried, collecting material for a new book. Time will tell which slant Lewis chooses to go with — Naïve hero? Ruthless crook? Overzealous philanthropist? Heartless thief? Money launderer? Clueless patsy in a geopolitical game of mass control? We’ll have to wait and see. In the end, certain facts remain. Regular people were robbed of billions, while globalists, Democrats and Ukraine got rich.

>”,”action”:null,”class”:null}”>NEXT ARTICLE >>

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.

• Increasing research shows that maintaining healthy levels of body fat and greater muscle mass has an effect on your brain health and may slow your rate of cognitive aging

• People with higher amounts of abdominal fat had worse fluid intelligence with age, while those with greater muscle mass were more protected against such declines

• Women who had greater muscle mass tended to have better scores in fluid intelligence during the study period

• Past research has linked midlife obesity with an increased risk of mild cognitive impairment, changes in short-term memory and executive functioning and dementia

• In addition to regular exercise to increase muscle mass, eating a ketogenic diet to maintain a healthy body weight and avoid obesity may support your brain health as you age

Staying fit as you age is about far more than aesthetics. Increasing research shows that maintaining healthy levels of body fat and greater muscle mass has an effect on your brain health and even your rate of cognitive aging. It’s known, for instance, that being obese in midlife and early late-life is associated with worse cognitive aging.1

What’s more, the amount of muscle and fat you have may be a more important factor in how your level of fluid intelligence decreases over time than your chronological age. Your chronological age, i.e., your age in years, is just a numerical measurement, but your real age is your biological age as dictated by your choices and habits, as well as your modifiable risk factors like levels of muscle and fat.

While many people tend to gain fat and lose muscle mass as they age, this can be largely combated by staying active and eating right — lifestyle choices that will influence your cognitive function significantly.

In a study by Iowa State researchers, data from 4,431 adults were examined to compare levels of lean muscle mass, abdominal fat and subcutaneous fat with changes in fluid intelligence — the ability to solve problems in new situations — over a six-year period.2 3

Those with higher amounts of abdominal fat had worse fluid intelligence with age, while those with greater muscle mass were more protected against such declines. In fact, women who had greater muscle mass tended to have better scores in fluid intelligence during the study period.

Study co-author Auriel Willette, assistant professor of food science and human nutrition at Iowa State University, said in a news release, “Chronological age doesn’t seem to be a factor in fluid intelligence decreasing over time. It appears to be biological age, which here is the amount of fat and muscle.”4

What’s more, the study revealed a link between the immune system and how changes in fat levels affect cognition. Previous research suggests a higher body mass index (BMI) leads to greater immune system activity in the blood, which in turn activates the immune system in the brain, with a negative outcome on cognitive function.5

The featured study also found that changes in white blood cells called lymphocytes and eosinophils explained the link between abdominal fat and worsening fluid intelligence in women. In men, basophils, another type of white blood cell, were linked to about half of the link between fat levels and fluid intelligence, the study found.6

“Lymphocytes, eosinophils, and basophils may link adiposity to cognitive outcomes,” the researchers explained.7 Similar research has revealed that overweight and obese individual have greater brain atrophy in middle-age, corresponding with an increase in brain age of 10 years.8

Obesity has multiple effects on the brain, including anatomically speaking. Obese individuals may have reduced gray matter in brain regions such as the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and other subcortical regions. Atrophy in the hippocampus, in turn, has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease.9

Gray matter is the outer layer of the brain associated with high-level brain functions such as problem-solving, language, memory, personality, planning and judgment. Even in elderly people who are otherwise cognitively normal, obesity is associated with measureable deficits in brain volume in the frontal lobes, anterior cingulate gyrus, hippocampus, and thalamus compared to individuals with a normal weight.10

Further research published in Radiology found that obesity may lead to alterations in brain structure, shrinking certain regions.11 Among men, higher total body fat percentage was linked to lower brain gray matter volume. Specifically, 5.5% greater total body fat percentage was associated with 3,162 mm3 lower gray matter volume.

Among men, 5.5% greater total body fat was also associated with 27 mm3 smaller globus pallidus volume, an association also seen in women. In women, 6.6% greater total body fat percentage was associated with 11.2 mm3 smaller globus pallidus volume.

The globus pallidus is a brain region that plays a role in supporting a range of functions, including motivation, cognition and action.12 Obesity was also associated with changes in white matter microstructure, which may be related to cognitive function.13

Cognitively speaking, there’s also a strong link between obesity and deterioration in cognitive function, as well as to other brain disorders such as dementia, anxiety and depression. Further, past research has linked midlife obesity with an increased risk of mild cognitive impairment, changes in short-term memory and executive functioning and dementia.14

Obesity’s effects on brain health are also due to its associated health problems, including heart disease, diabetes and atherosclerosis, each of which can have its own deleterious effects on your brain. For instance, as noted in Frontiers in Neuroscience:15

“Obesity-derived vascular problems, such as atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis, which are systemic diseases, are known to affect the steady blood flow of vessels that feed the brain, thus contributing to cognitive impairment or even stroke, where large areas of the brain die due to the stop in the blood flow of a major brain artery caused by a blood clot.”

In terms of diabetes, of which obesity is a key risk factor, having this condition in midlife is associated with a 19% greater cognitive decline over 20 years compared with not having the condition.16 Even those with prediabetes had significantly greater cognitive decline than those without.

Indeed, “Epidemiological studies have linked type-2 diabetes mellitus with cognitive impairment and dementia, with insulin resistance and hyperglycemia as the probable mechanistic links,” researchers noted.17

Coming full circle, eating a highly processed, junk food diet not only increases obesity risk but also can lead to normal but elevated blood sugar levels that, in turn, can lead to impaired glucose metabolism and Type 2 diabetes. Both diabetes and higher fasting glucose levels are linked with lower total brain volume.18

Impaired glucose metabolism is then associated with neurodegeneration that impairs cognitive function. This connection begins not in old age but much earlier, such that following a healthy lifestyle in young adulthood may be protective against cognitive decline later.19

Obesity can trigger chronic inflammation in your body, and chronic inflammation in your brain (neuroinflammation) is known to impair neurogenesis, your brain’s ability to adapt and grow new brain cells. It’s also linked to neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and it’s been suggested that “Obesity may serve as an amplifier or initiator of the chronic inflammation observed in AD patients.”20

Further, higher levels of inflammatory markers have also been associated with lower brain volume, including “greater atrophy than expected for age.”21 Excess body fat, particularly visceral fat, is also related to the release of proteins and hormones that can cause inflammation, which in turn can damage arteries and enter your liver, affecting how your body breaks down sugars and fats.

According to a study in the Annals of Neurology, “[A]dipose-tissue derived hormones, such as adiponectin, leptin, resistin or ghrelin, could also play a role in the relation between adipose tissue and brain atrophy.”22 Further, obesity may also be associated with lower volume in brain regions that regulate food-reward circuitry,23 possibly influencing overeating.

While obesity takes a toll on your brain, increased muscle mass protects it, which is likely one reason why strength training has been found to be beneficial for your brain. In other words, your body’s physical strength may serve as a marker of your brain power.

In fact, strength training is known to trigger beneficial neurobiological processes,24 leading to positive functional brain changes, including in the frontal lobe, with corresponding improvements in executive functions. One systematic review even found that strength training led to less white matter atrophy in the brain, with researchers noting:25

“Taken together, during aging processes, a substantial decline in muscular strength, especially in lower limb muscles, occurs, and accumulating evidence suggests that lower muscular strengths are linked to poorer cognitive performance.

Hence, resistance (strength) exercises (a single bout of resistance exercise, also referred to as acute exercise) and resistance (strength) training (more than one resistance exercise session, also referred to as chronic exercise … ) seem to be promising activities to ensure the preservation of physical functioning and cognitive functions with aging.”

Regular strength training, in addition to other forms of exercise and daily activity, is an important strategy for keeping your brain sharp and may help to offset some of the cognitive decline that occurs with age.

While obesity may accelerate neurodegeneration, regular exercise to increase your muscle mass will be protective. Further, eating a ketogenic diet will help protect your brain from free radical damage and will supply the cells with preferred fuel while also helping you to lose weight and avoid obesity.

A ketogenic diet is high in healthy fats and low in net carbohydrates (total carbs minus fiber), prompting your body to start burning fat as its primary fuel, rather than sugar. This produces ketones, which not only burn efficiently but are also a superior fuel for your brain. Ketones also generate fewer reactive oxygen species (ROS) and less free-radical damage.

One of the simple strategies you can implement is to take ketone precursors like refined MCT oils of caprylic acid (C-8). The eight-chain carbon fats are readily converted to ketones. I personally use up to 5 ounces of our Ketone Energy when I have maxed out my protein and carb intake and need a source of healthy clean fat. This keeps my ketone level around 1 to 2.0 mmol/l. Just recognize that you have to build up to a high dose of MCT oil slowly or you will have problems with loose stools.

Recent studies have also demonstrated the benefits of nutritional ketosis for brain health. In one, researchers found a ketogenic diet improved neurovascular function, in part by improving your gut microbiome.26

In a second study, the researchers concluded a ketogenic diet acted as a veritable “fountain of youth” in their animal study by significantly improving neurovascular and metabolic functions, compared to the animals eating an unrestricted diet.27 Releasing ketones into your bloodstream helps preserve brain function and protects against cognitive impairment and other neurodegenerative diseases.28

KetoFasting, the program I developed and detail in my book, “KetoFast: A Step-By-Step Guide to Timing Your Ketogenic Meals,” combines a cyclical ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting with cyclical partial fasting to optimize health and longevity.

Not only can KetoFasting help you to lose weight, but your cognition typically improves thanks to the biological cleansing and regeneration that occurs throughout your body, including your brain.

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.

• Patients who tested positive for COVID-19 — including 190 outpatients and 280 hospitalized patients — received either oral zinc or a placebo twice daily for 15 days

• Those taking zinc had a nearly 40% lower rate of death and admission to the intensive care unit (ICU)

• Those in the zinc group had, on average, a 3.5-day shorter hospital stay while their symptoms resolved 1.9 days sooner than those who received a placebo

• Research published in 2020 demonstrated that zinc is crucial to immune system function and deficiency can raise your risk of severe COVID-19 illness

• Zinc has antiviral properties and acts as an immunomodulator; it also inhibits RNA synthesis and viral replication, while deficiency is associated with reduced natural killer cell function

It’s estimated that 1 in 3 Americans is deficient in at least 10 minerals, zinc included.1 Not only does this put them at risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes,2 but it may increase risk of death or a hospital stay from COVID-19 if you’re infected.3

Zinc has been acknowledged as an essential mineral for human health since the 1970s.4 It’s the second most abundant trace mineral found in the human body,5 but your body cannot store it very well, so you need to consume foods with zinc every day to meet your body’s needs. More than 300 enzymes in your body require zinc for normal function,6 and it’s well-recognized for its role in immunity and normal immune system development.7

During the pandemic, the late Dr. Vladimir Zelenko treated thousands of COVID-19 patients using a combination of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), azithromycin and zinc sulfate,8 with great success.

However, the use of zinc for SARS-CoV-2 was a topic routinely flagged by COVID fact checkers as “misinformation,” so word didn’t really get out about its potential as an anti-COVID agent. Now, research once again shows zinc’s promise for keeping people healthy if they get COVID.

A team of researchers with Fattouma Bourguiba University Hospital in Tunisia set out to determine zinc’s efficacy in treating adults with COVID-19. “Like in many other diseases, regulation of white blood cell production using immuno-nutrition is a novel concept that could be applied to COVID-19,” they noted. “Some molecules and nutrients such as zinc play central roles in keeping the function and integrity of the immune system.”9

They conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, during which patients who tested positive for COVID-19 — including 190 outpatients and 280 hospitalized patients10 — received either oral zinc or a placebo twice daily for 15 days. Those taking zinc had a nearly 40% lower rate of death and admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). They also had shorter hospital stays and cut the number of days needed for their symptoms to resolve.11

Specifically, mortality after 30 days was 6.5% in the zinc group compared to 9.2% in the placebo group. ICU admission rate was 5.2% in the zinc group and 11.3% in the placebo group. Further, those in the zinc group had, on average, a 3.5-day shorter hospital stay while their symptoms resolved 1.9 days sooner than those who received a placebo.12

The beneficial effects of zinc were seen even in subgroups of patients, including those under 65, people with comorbidities and those who needed oxygen therapy at the start of the study. No severe adverse effects were seen. In fact, more minor adverse events occurred in the placebo group (7.1%) than in those taking zinc (3.9%).13 The researchers concluded:14

“To our knowledge, this study is the first well powered, placebo-controlled clinical trial to report results of zinc for the treatment of patients with COVID-19.

When administered orally to patients hospitalized with COVID-19 without end-organ failure, zinc demonstrated its efficacy to prevent ICU admission and to reduce hospital length of stay; for outpatients, zinc reduced symptom duration. Zinc should be considered for the treatment of patients with COVID-19.”

Research published in 2020 demonstrated that zinc is crucial to immune system function and deficiency can raise your risk of severe COVID-19 illness.15 “The study data clearly show that a significant number of COVID-19 patients were zinc deficient,” the researchers noted. “These zinc deficient patients developed more complications, and the deficiency was associated with a prolonged hospital stay and increased mortality.”16

There are a number of reasons why lack of zinc could worsen COVID-19 outcomes, not the least of which is zinc’s antiviral properties and action as an immunomodulator. Zinc inhibits RNA synthesis and viral replication, while deficiency is associated with reduced natural killer cell function.

Zinc supplements have long been used to treat the common cold, which is usually caused by coronaviruses, and are known to shorten the duration of symptoms and severity of respiratory infections.17 Writing in the Journal of Infectious Disease, researchers explained:18

“Interestingly, hydroxychloroquine, a drug used initially in the management of COVID-19, is an ionophore that transports zinc across the hydrophobic cell membrane.

Moreover, evidence specifically suggests that zinc supplements with antiviral drugs containing zinc ionophores precisely target and bind to SARS-CoV-2 preventing its replication within the infected host cells. Intracellularly, zinc binds with RNA-dependent RNA polymerase causing elongation inhibition and decreased template binding of the viral mRNA.”

Chances are you’ve heard of HCQ being used for COVID-19, but the real key in early treatment protocols that used HCQ is the zinc. The primary role of the HCQ is to boost zinc uptake in the cell.

In similar research, COVID-19 disease severity was associated with low levels of selenium and mortality was associated with zinc deficiency, particularly in patients with diabetes. However, the majority of those who died had a combination of selenium and zinc deficits.19

Micronutrients such as zinc, the researchers explained, “may be of high relevance for reducing SARS-CoV-2 infection risk, supporting the immune system in combating the virus, and avoiding long-term adverse health issues from COVID-19.” They added:20

“There are … a number of studies and reviews highlighting a potentially important role of Zn [zinc] supply, Zn status and Zn distribution in COVID-19, suggesting supplemental Zn as a promising therapeutic adjuvant.

Virus replication is enhanced in Zn deficiency, and supplemental Zn can inhibit virus spread and proliferation, as shown in preclinical studies and infected subjects. It is assumed that Zn deficiency predisposes to severe COVID-19, and accordingly high death rates of COVID-19 patients with Zn deficits have been observed in clinics.”

Zinc’s complex role in immune function continues to be unraveled. Zinc is required for the development of disease-fighting T cells and for the regeneration of your thymus, which produces T cells.

Further, a molecule inside your cells called GPR39 acts as a sensor that tracks changes in external zinc, and when the level rises, GPR39 triggers the release of a key renewal factor and thymic regeneration. In short, it appears that zinc helps the immune system to regrow immune cells.21

“What we think is going on is, as you give zinc supplementation, that gets accumulated within the developing T cells. It gets stored and stored and stored, then the damage comes along and the zinc is released,” Dr. Jarrod Dudakov, an immunologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said in a news release.

“Now you have more zinc than you normally would, and it can instigate this regenerative pathway.”22 Zinc also influences immune function in a number of additional ways, including:23

• People who are deficient in zinc have an increased susceptibility to pathogens, as zinc helps prevent viruses from entering24 and replicating25 inside your cells.

• Zinc mediates nonspecific immunity, including natural killer cells and neutrophils.

• Zinc deficiency prevents the activation of T-lymphocytes, production of Th1 cytokine, and the ability of B lymphocytes to help. During deficiency, B lymphocyte development is also compromised.

• Deficiency affects the function of macrophage cells, which can trigger cytokine production26 and dysregulated intracellular death. Thus, with a deficiency in zinc, you not only get more viral infections, but these trigger an increase in the hyper inflammatory response.

• Zinc is central to DNA replication, RNA transcription and cell activation and division.

• Zinc supports growth and function of ciliary hairs in your respiratory system. Research published in the American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy27 showed zinc stimulates ciliary beat frequency and may help improve mucociliary clearance, which is essential for clearing the lungs of mucous. Another group of scientists found that supplementing animals deficient in zinc affected the length of the cilia and number of epithelial cells in the bronchus.28

• Zinc improves your respiratory epithelial barrier.29 30

• Zinc influences interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), which plays a significant role in defending against intracellular pathogens.31 When there is a reduction in this cytokine, your immune function will be impaired.

One caveat regarding zinc is that it’s not very bioavailable. To improve its uptake in your cells, zinc ionophores are useful. These work by shuttling zinc through the cellular membrane and into the cell, which is crucial for its role in stopping virus replication. In addition to HCQ, mentioned earlier, other zinc ionophores include chloroquine, quercetin and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).32

When HCQ was banned from use for COVID, many wisely turned to quercetin, which is available over the counter and also has beneficial properties, such as antiviral activities,33 of its own. A number of studies have shown quercetin, when used early, also lowers your risk of hospitalization and death from COVID,34 and improves clinical outcomes.

Common signs35 your body may need more zinc include lack of appetite, mental lethargy, impaired sense of taste or smell, frequent colds, flu or infections, hair loss36 and poor neurological function.37 Individuals at higher risk for zinc deficiency include those with malnutrition, persistent diarrhea,38 the elderly, people with inflammatory or autoimmune diseases, chronic alcoholics, vegetarians and vegans.

Although it may be necessary to supplement during illness when your body needs more zinc, I recommend trying to get your zinc from foods. Fortunately, many foods are rich in zinc, including the following:39 40 41

• Alaskan King crab

• Oysters

• Almonds

• Cashews

• Kidney beans

• Pastured chicken

• Lamb

• Chickpeas

• Oatmeal

• Grass fed beef

• Cheddar or Swiss cheese

• Yogurt

• Mushrooms

• Spinach

• Pork chops

• Pumpkin seeds

>”,”action”:null,”class”:null}”>NEXT ARTICLE >>

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.