Immune Systems Advisor

We know that while a large percentage of the population only experiences mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19 and won’t require hospitalization, others experience severe symptoms and complications, require hospitalization, or may even die. The cytokine storm may be one possible way to explain the severe reaction of those in hospitals.  This may also explain why younger people and those with a healthy immune system and without preexisting health conditions tend to have an easier time. Their bodies may release lower levels of cytokines creating just enough inflammation for healing. There are a number of things that you can do to improve your immune system, including using foods rich in immune nutrients that may help to calm a cytokine storm ( J Biol Regul Homeost Agents ,  The Lancet ,  Microbiol Mol Biol Rev ) . Image credit: ClevelandClinic ...

The protein in the food we eat — especially rich in meats, fish, shellfish, dairy products, and legumes such as lentils, peas, and beans — is made of building blocks called amino acids. One of those building blocks is L-arginine, or just “arginine.” Arginine is the raw material from which we make  nitric oxide. Nitric oxide plays three critical roles that are likely to be extremely important for COVID protection: Since nitric oxide is antimicrobial, the immune system always makes massive amounts of nitric oxide to kill pathogens. Nitric oxide is the main vasodilator. This means it dilates your blood vessels, making them wider, and allowing blood to flow more freely. This would protect against clotting. In the lungs, nitric oxide combines with another molecule we make from the protein we eat, glutathione, to make  nitrosoglutathione . Nitrosoglutathione is our own natural bronchodilator. This means it opens up the airways, just like nitric oxide opens up the blood vessels. This...

The phrase "plant-based diet" is being tossed around a lot these days. The Skeptical Cardiologist never knows what people mean when they use it and so must assume that most of the world is also puzzled by this trendy term. For some, a "plant-based diet" is what vegans eat. Veganism combines a diet free of animal products with a moral philosophy that rejects the "commodity status of animals." Vegans are the strictest of vegetarians, eschewing milk, fish, and eggs. One plant-based diet advocate in the introduction to a  special issue of the  Journal of Geriatric Cardiology  wrote that "a plant-based diet consists of all minimally processed fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, herbs, and spices and excludes all animal products, including red meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy products." You will notice that this cardiologist "excludes all animal products" and that the qualifying phrase "minimally processed...