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Pandemic Journey Day 55

May 15, 2020

Today’s medical insight – Once again, son #1 finds  the chicken soup video or podcast or Reddit meme that brings some good medicine to a day. That doughnut and a blow job swap for a roll of TP ditty swung between guffaw and WTF.  Today the medical righteous was invited into the room – Joe Rogan interviewed Dr. Rhonda Patrick, a biochemist specializing in nutrition, aging, and disease. She was on her game!  Parsing out concise research information in a biomedical patois that made me glad that I taught biology and life science. I would have been otherwise lost in the lingo like cytokines (messengers of the immune system), macrophages (white blood cell that eats invaders) and etiology (origins). Additionally she had killer recall for data from supporting studies.  Maybe this is what it takes for a woman scientist to be seen as bona fide but then again, maybe she just loves the jargon and has a penchant for numbers and data. It was a lot to take in and her audiences are probably self selected nerds like me. 

The cream of this conversation floated up in a discussion about vitamins.  Yes, vitamins! She shared that Vitamin D, both a fat-soluble vitamin and a hormone, is being studied for its effect in reducing inflammatory responses with influenza and other diseases.  It has been found that low Vitamin D levels are a marker for deteriorating health. In fact there are several studies indicating a connection between Vitamin D deficiency and the severity of a body's response to SARS –CoV2. Seventy percent of Americans are deficient in this nutrient, but not surprising given the amount of time that we spend inside.

In Sweden, where there is a large Somali immigrant population, and the data shows they have suffered at a higher rate from COVID infections than native Swedes.  She is looking at the evolutionary biology behind this.  Vitamin D is called the sunshine vitamin because the body synthesizes it from UVB radiation. Over time, humans that evolved in equatorial regions, like the Somalis, developed levels of melanin in their skin to provide "shade" from the sun while still being able to absorb adequate levels of Vitamin D.  Moving to countries at higher latitudes with less intense sunlight has complicated their body's ability for adequate absorption. She suspects that a deficiency in Vitamin D is an underlying driver for the severity of their response to the virus.  She also thinks this is a factor with African Americans who experience more severe complications and mortality from COVID.  

I did a little poking around and found vitamin D correlation studies underway in Spain, Finland, Ireland, and the US. As Wuhan tests all of its eleven million citizens for COVID, here is another golden research opportunity. An readily available licensed vaccine is still many months out. So it makes sense to give a parallel focus to the therapeutics of fighting this viral infection. 

Dr. Patrick spoke to the vast differences in how vitamins behave in the body as compared to pharmaceuticals – no surprise.  Pharma meds respond as if  like they on a military mission, while the vitamin response appears to restore homeostasis. I vote for restoring homeostasis. Think about it. Over millennia, bodies cultivate subtle and not so subtle relationships with everything else around them.  Their reservoirs of modulating and remedial biochemicals are an expression of that.  Why not optimize that sort of inherent body wisdom when we can?  (I know, it is like asking why we must genetically engineer corn.)  At this point, I think some useful questions could address the effects of living elsewhere from the geography that our bodies evolved in.  The way humans have moved and are moving around the planet must influence the way our genetics and biochemistry response to disease. 

The way forward with this pandemic and future ones, that are certainly coming as we maintain status quo,  is not one for national competitions but must be a global endeavor.  A doughnut for a roll of TP makes sense in local commerce. A super-duper missile vaccine that will blow China and Europe’s out of the water does not.


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