Michael Murray MD: The Longevity Matrix
Now we’ve talked about attitude and lifestyle. Still, the most significant factor leading to immune dysfunction is a lack of certain key nutrients and a lack of a high-quality diet. Some of the foods that I think are really important to focus on are richly-colored vegetables rich in carotenes. I came across a study that was done in 1931. In some ways, it wasn’t that sophisticated, but the results were amazing. When they looked at blood levels of carotene and the number of school days missed, they found that kids with lower carotenes had a significantly greater number of missed school days, primarily due to infections. In comparison, kids with higher carotene levels had fewer infections and fewer school days missed. The reason is that these carotenes are so important in helping the function of the Thymus Gland.
I mentioned the Thymus Gland earlier. It’s the key organ of our immune system, and it’s responsible for maturing a type of white blood cell called the T Cell. These cells are critical in fighting cancer and fungal and viral infections. What they’re finding in Covid 19 is that in people who have had an infection, with or without symptoms, their levels of antibodies are disappearing. Typically, the focus has been on when we talk about immunity to a virus; we focus on antibodies. That’s the way that most vaccines work. You give a part of that virus or inactivated virus. The body responds by producing antibodies produced by a different type of white blood cell called B Cells. When these antibodies bind to those antigens, viral proteins, or other organisms’ proteins, they wipe out the infecting organism. With Covid 19, it’s the T Cells that are more important as these can kill viruses not by producing antibodies but by a direct cellular attack. We have specialized T Cells called Memory T Cells. Researchers have discovered that about 40% to 50% of people walk around with partial immunity against the SARS COV-2 virus. This discovery means that many people have been exposed to other types of Coronaviruses – because Coronaviruses can cause the common cold and evidently, the T Cells have recognized SARS COV 2 in some people, just as it might recognize a prior Coronavirus they may have been exposed to – so there’s some immunity. That kind of explains why some people have mild or no infections. It also gives hope that we’re maybe closer to herd immunity than we previously thought based on looking at antibody levels.
So, how do we help with T Cell function? How do we help improve our virus-killing activity? By supporting the thymus gland. One – stress is really detrimental. Two – not getting enough sleep is detrimental to thymus function, and then I mentioned the carotene link. Thymus tissue is susceptible to oxidative or free radical damage. When exposed to higher pro-oxidants, highly reactive compounds in food, cigarette smoke, or pollution, the thymus starts to involute. It shrinks, which leads to significantly impaired immune function, particularly cell-mediated immunity, controlled by these T Cells. So, the elderly are particularly hit hard with Covid 19 because of depressed cell-mediated immunity, primarily due to reduced thymus gland function. Now, put elderly people on a high potency multiple vitamin and mineral formula. You will see improved immune function because the thymus gland is getting the support it needs. The thymus gland needs all these essential nutrients. People have to realize that these are termed essential nutrients for a reason. They’re required for our body to function correctly, which is evident in nutrient deficiency’s impact on our immune systems.
Sandie Sedgbeer: Stress plays a critical role in suppressing our immune system. Yet, with the media creating so much fear in people, everybody is far more stressed than they were before. We know that our soil is depleted and that the foods we’re growing aren’t as rich in nutrients as they were 30-40 years ago. We’ve got GMO’s to contend with. It seems that we’re fighting a battle on every front, and the only thing that doesn’t seem to be a problem is the fact that we have access to much better nutrients via supplements.
Dr. Michael Murray: Absolutely. No question about it. You touched on a couple of things that we don’t focus on much, and that is that we have nutrient-depleted soil and that the level of nutrients in our foods is far lower than it was 100 years ago. Just look at the size of some fruits. I remember when I was a kid, how big an apple was. Today’s apples are enormous, but they are less nutrient-dense than foods in the wild, which are much more nutrient-dense. So, we’ve bred our food supply high in calories, in some regard, but low in vitamins and minerals. That’s one reason we have these issues.
Sandie Sedgbeer: We hear a lot lately about Superfoods, but when you compare Superfoods. You compare a supplement, for example, one produced by a trusted manufacturer, we know what’s in that supplement. Still, we don’t know what’s in that Superfood. Are we getting to a place where we’re going to stop eating food, and we’re going to start eating more supplements?
Dr. Michael Murray: Yes. I do everything. People always ask me what the most important recommendation I can give people is. My answer, which I highlight in The Longevity Matrix, is that our body is a system. In many cases, we’re not feeding it what it needs. All these nutrients that are getting attention right now for their immunity-fighting effects are only as beneficial as the chain’s weakest link.
So, Vitamin D. The research on Vitamin D is very compelling, not just against viral infections but also Covid 19. In people who have low vitamin D status, the risk of having more severe symptoms increases dramatically. Vitamin D works best when accompanied by a host of other nutrients that are critical to immune health. Zinc is getting a lot of attention. It’s the master nutrient for thymus function and cell-mediating immunity. Selenium is also critical. If you look at the severity of Covid 19 factions in regions with low Selenium status, the association is pretty straightforward. There hasn’t been any clinical evaluation of selenium status and Covid 19. Still, there are some interesting correlations between the severity of selenium deficiency in a region and the severity of Covid 19.
For example, suppose you look at China. Some areas have high selenium content in the soil and areas where the selenium content is very, very low. When you look at a map of Covid 19 severity—patients hospitalized or developed severe symptoms of Covid 19—it overlays perfectly with those areas with low selenium status. Selenium is one of the most important antioxidant nutrients, and it’s critical to thymus gland function. Selenium supplementation, even in people who had adequate Selenium levels, significantly improved white blood cells’ ability to kill tumor cells. This is mostly a reflection of cell-mediated immunity.
At this time, I would recommend taking 200 mcg per day of Selenium. I like yeast-based Selenium. There’s a form called SelenoExcell that has the best science behind it, and it’s been shown to outperform other forms of Selenium. Selenium is very important in protecting against heart disease – lots of great epidemiological data there – and very important in fighting cancer. We could wipe out the risk of prostate cancer in about 50% of men simply by giving them a special form of Selenium.
Sandie Sedgbeer: What about other nutrients like high-dose vitamin C, alpha-lipoic acid, melatonin, probiotics, homeopathy. There have been so many things that have been touted and shouted down by the media. It’s difficult to know what is real.
Dr. Michael Murray: There are a lot of good things that are real. Zinc is real. Zinc inhibits an enzyme called viral replicate. If you block the replication of the virus, you basically stop the infection in its tracks. One of how Hydroxychloroquine is going to work is through the action of zinc. Hydroxychloroquine opens up channels that allow ionic zinc to be transferred into the cell. There’s a flavonoid called Quercetin that has the same effect. We can get a lot of Quercetin from onions and garlic. Quercetin is the backbone structure of the flavonoids that are in berries and chocolate. Green tea has some flavonoids that were also shown to increase the inter-cellular concentration of zinc. So, flavonoids help zinc work better.
On the flip side, zinc helps our immune system and these flavonoids to exert some direct anti-viral effects that are fantastic. When we look at some of these studies, we see a synergistic effect, so zinc works very well with vitamin C in many functions. It works well with Vitamin D, and it really works well with a lot of these flavonoids. So, again, we see the importance of diet come into play. I think that when it’s all said and done with this Pandemic, we’re going to come out of it recognizing that diet is really the critical factor in determining the function of our immune system and our susceptibility to this virus.
Continue to Page 3 of the Interview with Dr. Michael Murray
