In a previous article we wrote that when the “bacterial heroes”, bifidobacteria, are present in large quantities, it benefits our immune function through potent immune-modulating effects – effects that keep the immune system “in check.” They also help our bodies perform essential functions such as digestion and staving off harmful bacteria.

In addition to digestion our gut has an effect on your mood, vitamin intake, and even our proneness to certain diseases.  There are numerous, easily searchable, resources advising how to improve our gut biome. Below we highlight a couple of them and what officials are doing, or not, to promote non-pharmaceutical therapies.

This article is the second of a three-part series on gut microbiomes or gut biomes in which we attempt to highlight some answers to three questions:

• Part 1: What is ADE and a cytokine storm, and what’s the gut got to do with it?
• Part 2: How do we improve our gut biome?
• Part 3: Why have we not been told about non-pharmaceutical therapies before?

At the beginning of the year Children’s Health Defense’s ‘The Empower Hour’ featured interviews with pediatrician Dr. Michelle Perro and scientist Dr. Stephanie Seneff.

“Immune function begins in the gut,” Perro said. “To support immunity, you have to support the gut microbes, and the first step is diet. Without fibre, microbes don’t do well.”

Topics covered by ‘The Power Hour’, watch HERE, included:

• A study on how to lower dietary risks by choosing organic food.
• Mainstream media isn’t talking about dietary risks and solutions to build a healthy immune system.
• How to get the most nutrition out of your organic food.
• Mothers are reporting more chronic issues, most of them gut health-based.
• How glyphosate may be linked to autism.
• Signs your child may have poor gut health, and how to improve it.

Perro also reminded viewers that the pesticide, glyphosate, is technically an antibiotic, which kills healthy microbes, which weakens the immune system.  Glyphosate is an herbicide used in a lot of weedkiller products in both the UK and USA including Roundup.

On 24 November 2020 the British Nutrition Foundation (“BNF”) held a conference titled ‘Nutrition and Covid-19’ during which a series of eminent speakers discussed new and emerging research on the role nutrition plays in both protecting against Covid infection and reducing the severity of associated health complications.  Topics covered included: obesity as a risk factor; nutrition and immune function; and, the effect of probiotics and prebiotics.

Professor Philip Calder, University of Southampton, explained that a well-functioning immune system is key to providing robust defence against infections such as coronaviruses and Covid. Amongst the many nutrients that are needed for immunity, he highlighted vitamin D, zinc and selenium as being particularly important for anti-viral immunity.

Zinc plays various roles in the immune system including preventing the multiplication of single-strand RNA viruses, like coronaviruses, by inhibiting the enzymes they need to spread. And a deficiency of selenium can: impair immune responses; increase susceptibility to viral infection; permit viruses to mutate; and allow weak viruses to become stronger.

Professor Glenn Gibson, University of Reading, raised interesting points around the potential role of probiotics and prebiotics in supporting the gut microbiome to fight viral infections. The gut microbiome is a harbouring site for coronavirus and clinical outcomes can be governed by the type of gut microbiome the patient has. For example, if the numbers of ‘good bacteria’ in the gut are low it might be more difficult for that individual to fight off the virus.

You can watch BNF’s Nutrition and Covid-19 conference HERE.

In the USA, Dr. Joseph Mercola has written numerous articles and published research showing that vitamin C and D can be used to help treat respiratory diseases.  According to the US Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), vitamin C, vitamin D3 and quercetin products are “unapproved new drugs sold in violation of section 505(a) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.” And so, the FDA also listed Mercola.com on its ‘Fraudulent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) Products’ page and warned him to stop writing about vitamin D.

The FDA has labelled vitamins and supplements as “unapproved drugs” despite a July 2021 study strongly suggesting “that zinc supplementation in the daily range of 25 mg together with zinc ionophores quina tree bark extract and quercetin, as well as vitamins C, D3 and E, and l-lysine, as administered according to study protocols, evidenced the most protective prophylactic effect against COVID-19 and other viral illnesses.”

Meanwhile in the UK, in 2019 an All-Party Parliamentary Group (“APPG”) was set up, the Human Microbiome APPG, to highlight the role of the human microbiome, especially of the gut, in physical and mental health and its potential to prevent many disorders and improve or slow others.

At the beginning of February 2021, one of the group’s members, Julie Elliott MP for Sunderland Central, requested a meeting with Matt Hancock, the then Secretary of State for Health, regarding gut biome therapy and Covid.  She had previously written several times to Hancock on the subject.

Although, finally, in May a nutritional intervention study – ‘The UK Phyto-V Study’ – was launched, the government and corporate media have so far failed the public in not promoting or publicising non-pharmaceutical therapies such as gut biome therapy.

Last year a campaign, MENDCovid19, was launched to petition the UK government and to raise awareness that simple steps – Mind, Exercise, Nutrition, Diet (“MEND”) – can be taken to reduce the risk of infection.  We do not need to wait for an instruction from public health authorities or governments via corporate media.  We can all, with a little research, take responsibility for our own health and follow these simple steps:

• Mind or mental state and stress significantly impact the gut biome and immune system. Meditation, mindfulness and relaxation can help to reduce stress.
• Exercise helps to improve the gut biome and immunity.  It releases endorphins which help to improve mental state and improves circulation.
• Nutrition is essential for the immune system. Diet does not always meet nutritional needs especially in those who are elderly or when fighting illness and infection.  Vitamin C and D and probiotics are proven to help.
• Diet is important for the gut biome and immune system. Simple changes can restore the gut biome and immune system in 24 hours.

The UK government’s procrastination and Dr. Mercola’s story is confirmation that we should not wait for highly paid bureaucrats to make the right decisions for us but, instead, we should take steps to look after our own health.

Further resources:

• Covid 19 and the elephant in the room
• Popular natural products website Mercola.com targeted over COVID claims
• FDA Warning Letter: Mercola.com, LLC
• The UK Phyto-V Study