Dr. Frank Lipman, Functional Medicine Doctor and NY Times Bestseller and Dr. Robert Rountree, Functional Medicine Physician and Thorne's Chief Medical Advisor, joined us to talk about the ongoing pandemic.
An important note: No dietary supplement can diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, including COVID-19. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is especially important to understand that no dietary supplement, no diet, and no lifestyle modifications - other than the recommended social distancing and hygiene practices - can prevent you from being infected with the COVID-19 virus. No current research supports the use of any dietary supplement to protect you from being infected with the COVID-19 virus.
The video starts with a title screen. A maroon and orange gradient aura shifts in the upper right corner of the screen as words appear. They read “Dr. Frank Lipman and Dr. Robert Rountree answer questions about COVID-19 and give some practical advice” and appear over two short resume blurbs about the two doctors. The blurbs read: “Dr. Frank Lipman, M.D., Functional Medicine Doctor, New York Times Best Seller” and “Dr. Robert Rountree, M.D., Functional Medicine Physician, Chief Medical Officer for Thorne.
After a few seconds the words pan up the screen as a question fades in from below. The question reads: “What are some patterns you are noticing in New York regarding the virus and its impact on your community?”
Dr. Frank Lipman:
I'm in New York City, which is the epicenter. I'm not on the front lines, but from friends and colleagues on the front lines, that's been really hard. Hospitals have been overloaded, people have been really sick. It's been a major problem.
As Dr. Lipman talks, words appear on the right side of the screen emphasizing his points. The text only serves to clarify what is being said and does not add any new information that isn’t already present in what Dr. Lipman has to say.
Dr. Frank Lipman:
What I'm seeing in my practice or hearing from in my practice are people who either haven't been that sick. A lot of the people actually haven't been that sick and who have had it, often have had a healthy lifestyle. Have been taking certain supplements, which is obviously anecdotal, but I'm definitely hearing that.
The second pattern I'm seeing is people seem to be, or some people seem to be having this for a long time. They seem to get over the initial infection and then they get reinfected or something secondary happens that can last for not just usually a week or two. Sometimes it goes on for three weeks, even in longer some people.
The other pattern that we're seeing is that generally the healthy people, or what we would call metabolically healthy, people are doing better. And the people who are dying or not doing so well are people who have diabetes, heart disease, obese, chronic illness, but generally what we would call metabolically unhealthy. Those are the patterns we're seeing.
And lastly, social distancing definitely works. I mean, New York, we seem to have hit a peak, and it seems to be going down. So we need to continue doing that. And as it spreads throughout the country, that's what I would tell you what's happening, what I'm seeing in New York.
A new question is posed via onscreen text: “How will social distancing help during this pandemic?”
No, there's no question that it's working. I mean, we can see it in New York. And why social distancing works is if you ... I'm obsessed with this viral load concept-
Dr. Robert Rountree:
Yep, yeah.
Dr. Frank Lipman:
... that the amount of virus you're exposed to, if you social distance, you're not re-exposing yourself to a virus all the time. So I think that's part of it. Why it flattens the curve is if you're staying away from lots of people, you're not having a lot of people infected all at the same time, which is what the problem has been in New York or Italy and Spain, it overloads the hospital system.
So what the benefits of not flattening the curve, not what I'm suggesting, is the only way we're going to get past this is, or on a country level, is when we have herd immunity or maybe a vaccination. So I think the herd immunity will come about quicker because we've had so many infections. Whereas a place like Australia where they've managed it pretty well, but they're going to have years and years of probably smaller outbreaks and not so much of a problem because the herd immunity will take longer to build up.
What happens is, let's say I have the virus and I give it to five other people and they develop antibodies to it. And herd immunity means you become immune to it by developing antibodies. And I think a lot of us probably have them, or have been exposed and have them just by being exposed to other people. The more people that have the antibodies, the less of a problem it is.
And I think the future of how we're going to stop social distancing and get back to life is actually probably measuring antibody levels. I mean, I think probably everyone should have antibody levels checked and that can determine what you can do. But we still don't know how effective those antibody levels are, because I just saw something out of Korea that people are getting reactivated.
But theoretically, once you test someone and they have antibodies, they shouldn't be getting the infection again, theoretically, but all things are off the charts now. So I'm not sure what's what the story is with coronavirus, but that's the theory.
Sorry, I'm going off question here. But I think social distancing definitely works because you're staying in your own little circle. You're not spreading the virus. You're not being exposed to the virus. And with a lower amount of people being infected in a smaller amount of time, you're not overloading the hospital system, which is what happened in New York, and is probably going to happen in more and more places across the States.
But Bob, this viral load thing, why isn't ... This is why I think these young doctors or doctors working on the front lines, especially without PPE, it's crazy, are getting sick because they're exposed to ... Or the respiratory therapists in particular, they're exposed to such a big dose of the virus, if you have, it's like ... We don't say that with toxins, but the dose is the poison. What do they say? The dose is the poison, the poison is the [crosstalk 00:05:56].
Dr. Robert Rountree:
The dose makes the poison, yeah.
Dr. Frank Lipman:
The dose makes the poison, right.
Dr. Robert Rountree:
Right. Well, I mean, that's probably true for this particular virus, is that infectious dose, that initial exposure probably explains why so many healthcare providers are getting seriously ill. Which has happened all over the world, it happened in China. So in China, they said, "Well, it mostly affects old people and healthcare workers." And these healthcare workers were younger. Well, they're getting blasted with these aerosols.
The real question is how much of a virus can you be exposed to without getting sick? And it's going to take a while to figure that out. But if we knew that, that will answer questions like, well, is it safe to go for a walk if you're wearing a bandana? If you're not wearing a surgical mask, you're wearing a bandana, which presumably still gives you some exposure, is that really going to help?
I do want to point out something one of my patients said to me yesterday, which he said, "Look, Bob, let's just clarify. We're talking about physical distancing, not social distancing."
Dr. Frank Lipman:
[crosstalk 00:07:13].
Dr. Robert Rountree:
He says, "I don't want to give up the social stuff because I enjoy having my connections with you." And more and more people are doing exactly what we're doing right now. We're just talking by Zoom chats or telephone, et cetera. I've even seen some bands do concerts.
Dr. Frank Lipman:
Yeah, yeah.
Dr. Robert Rountree:
And that's amazing, how they time that so that they're actually playing together. So, in terms of our mental health, as we physical distance, we need to figure out how to shorten the social distance-
Dr. Frank Lipman:
Exactly.
Dr. Robert Rountree:
... but increase the physical distance.
Dr. Frank Lipman:
Yeah, I think that's a really important point. I think a really important aspect of staying healthy, staying connected, and becoming lonely and depressed and being by yourself or not connected is an issue. So I think it's a great point. And it's about the physical distancing, not social distance.
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