We had an amazing live webinar with Patrick Holford - it was a fascinating evening, and it was great to hear Patrick’s insights on immunity and health and COVID. Being able to ask him questions is always fascinating, he has an interesting scientific and evidence based approach to the immune system.

How to see the webinar

In case you missed the webinar, I thought I would share some of my takeaways, because as we heard last week, there are effective tools easily available to prevent and fight COVID, to every person, right now. If you want to know more, sign up to the Organico Newsletter and look for the link to the recorded webinar in a newsletter we'll send on the 15th of October.

Patrick's info on COVID

I guess the most important statement, for those of us concerned for our loved ones over this winter with COVID still very much in our Community, was this - that based on his research and everything he has learned about Sars-Cov2, Patrick feels confident enough to say: ‘This is not a fatal disease. We know how to make this not a fatal disease. The science is clear on that, it is just being ignored’.

This is not something he says lightly - and he spent much of the presentation outlining how he came to this conclusion.

The role of vitamin C

First, Patrick shared a short video he made about the use of Vitamin C in ICUs in China - and what jumped out at me from that was that in February 2020, the factory that makes Vitamin C in China shipped 50 TONS of vitamin C to Wuhan. That’s 50,000,000 doses! That’s a pretty significant step for a Government to take. They gave Vitamin C to every frontline worker, every patient was given 6 - 20g per day and every ICU patient was given intravenous vitamin C. And by April, Wuhan had no deaths due to Covid. Patrick thinks that that is in part due to that vitamin C (clearly they also got very good at treating people and developed a complex protocol but Vitamin C was a very important part of that schedule).

In Shanghai, they gave Vitamin C to patients with COVID, and all 50 patients improved and none of them died. There were no side effects, and the hospital stay of those patients who received vitamin C was 3-5 days less that the average hospital stay. It’s also being used with good success in ICUs in New York and London, but apparently Intravenous Vitamin C is in short supply which is a shame, as it seems like we might need a lot of it this winter.

Another thing that absolutely blew my mind was when he said that every single patient in an ICU with COVID 19 had such a low vitamin C level so as to have scurvy - which shows how badly we need it when we are under attack by a virus such as Sars-Cov2. He discussed how, when we are under stress or under attack from a virus or bacteria, we excrete vitamin C. And of course we may not be eating much fruit and vegetables at that stage. So having a supplement to hand is important.

Patrick's vitamin C dosage recommendations

The recommendation (for those of us not in an ICU) is to take 2 grams a day of vitamin C, upping that to 1 gram an hour if you get a sore throat or the start of a cold. Patrick advises that up to 8 grams a day is a safe and effective way to prevent viruses.

Patrick’s advice for the onset of any cold or flu is the following, for an otherwise healthy adult:

  • 1 gram of vitamin C every hour (this equates to 18-20grams in 24 hours)
  • 4 Doses of Elderberry a day
  • Aged Garlic (Kyolic Garlic) 1000mg 2 x a day
  • Up to 60mg Zinc a day for the duration of the illness (though stop this if you have to start taking antibiotics)

And his recommendation for prevention of cold and flues during the winter is

  • 2 grams of vitamin C a day, ideally combined with Elderberry Extract, zinc and ginger
  • 1 multivitamin including 400iu vitamin D
  • Plus an extra 1000iu vitamin D

If you have lung issues, you can add Quercetin to this regimen - quercetin comes from red onions, and helps heal lungs.

On the subject of acidic stomach from taking vitamin C, Patrick said ‘Notice that Nature puts Vitamin C in the most acidic fruits, fruits like lemons and limes, oranges and so on’ and he suggested taking vitamin C in that case with some cider vinegar, to increase absorbency and ease stomach cramps.

The role of vitamin D

Another nutrient we have all heard about in terms of preventing serious COVID infections, is Vitamin D. Patrick said ‘Vitamin D isn’t like vitamin C, you can’t just take a handful of it when you’ve got a cold and the cold goes away. What you need to do is get your blood level up, certainly above 75 nmls per liter and ideally 100 nmls per liter. What Patrick does is he takes a multivitamin containing 400iu of vitamin D and tops up all winter long with an extra 1000iu a day.

Other important nutrients for health

Patrick also mentioned red onions a few times - he eats a red onion every day (it can be cooked but preferably not fried till its brown) because red onions contain a very important nutrient called Quercetin. Quercetin carries Zinc into our cells, and it also helps to repair lungs. ‘If anyone’s been left with lung problems, vitamin C makes Collagen and Quercetin helps to repair lungs’ he said.

He also talked about taking Elderberry extract for colds and flu’s, as it is key in helping us fight off viruses, and he advised taking a dose of the extract 4 times a day if you have symptoms. He also addressed the concerns about Elderberry causing a Cytokine Storm, which is an immune system overreaction which has been shown to happen in some severe cases of COVID. His message was that, although it has yet to be proven the Elderberry is an issue because it’s only a theory at this stage, he would recommend taking it to prevent and treat early stages of a disease like COVID, but avoiding it if a patient is in the ICU.

We asked him about one of the symptoms associated with post-COVID, which is racing heart or heart inflammation, and he said that the first thing to do after COVID is reload Vitamin C, but that after that, if someone has heart issues they should look at a combination of Coenzyme Q10 (the most important antioxidant for the heart), plus the amino acid Carnitine, which is essential for a healthy heart - these two nutrients are good for repairing heart damage.

That’s not the entire contents of the Webinar - if you want more info, you can either watch the Webinar and/or read Patrick’s latest book, called Flu Fighters.

We are disappointed to have to postpone Patrick’s 7 Secrets Workshop till the Spring, we don’t have a date yet but sometime in April I hope to be welcoming him to Bantry again. Have a good October everyone.