Continued from my last post.
To recap, here are the facts of my story so far: First, a few months ago, I was ill on a Saturday night into Sunday in particular, and I felt off all day Saturday. Second, I had no symptoms after waking up the second time Sunday morning. Third, my friends had confirmed diagnoses of COVID after our weekend together. Lastly, I was exhausted from my long day the previous Thursday, which could have caused the fatigue, fogginess, and malaise that I experienced.
As for the subsequent antibody test? It came back negative, meaning I did not have antibodies. I will never know if I had COVID that weekend. The negative results do not confirm whether or not I had an infection. What I do know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that I am not unique in the way that my body handled this potential infection. We are still learning the reasons why some of us escape COVID despite exposure or the reasons some of us get severe COVID, mild COVID, or COVID without any symptoms. Regardless, there are some things we do know for sure, and they all equate to this: when treated properly, our bodies are not powerless to COVID.
Good Health Matters
Doing the right things relative to your diet, exercise, supplementation, sleep, and stress level DOES impact on your immune function and your overall Health and Wellness. There is no question about that. And it's never too late to make lifestyle improvements.
Meanwhile, by now we have all heard about the “comorbidities” that will influence the severity of your case when exposed to COVID-19. These include obesity, diabetes, COPD, emphysema, as well as preexisting cardiovascular and kidney disease. This is in addition to speculation, based on data, that even your blood type can have an influence on how severe your symptoms may be, or if you have any symptoms at all.
In addition, I offer here a few more theories for your consideration:
The Theory of Trained Immunity
I may have had cross immunity to this virus, because I, like many, experienced childhood viral infections. This is a theory postulated by an individual with whom I have been speaking about this and many other topics regarding the virus, its vaccine, and others. Arthur E. Brawer, M.D., Director of Rheumatology, Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, New Jersey, authored the following commentary in his article, “Pandemic Science: Does the Complexity of Nature Far Transcend Man’s Ingenuity?” The piece was published August 23, 2021.
Dr. Brawer emphasizes something known as “antigen non-specific immune memory,” or “trained immunity.” He refers to the concept that many childhood viral infections such as Chickenpox, German Measles, regular Measles, and Mumps can “permanently prime the innate arm of the immune system to react more swiftly and with greater effectiveness against coronaviruses.”
In other words, he asks whether or not the infections we had as a child–the common childhood diseases as we used to refer to them–could actually create a stronger immune response later in life to this new virus?
Sadly, Dr. Brawer also postulates that this “trained immunity” could be “... nullified by all the multiple immunizations routinely administered to children to prevent such natural infections, thereby increasing adult COVID-19 morbidity and mortality?” Thus, he also asks whether or not vaccinating children against these viral infections could actually cause a weaker immune response when the previously vaccinated (for these childhood diseases) person is exposed to the novel coronavirus?
He goes on to relate this phenomenon to the increased incidence of autoimmune issues in young individuals. He notes the increasing incidence of a positivity rate of ANA blood tests, which is a general test for autoimmune conditions. He notes that, 40 years ago, the positivity rate in 13–19-year-olds was 3%. Today, it’s 20%. Is there a correlation? Perhaps, but that is the topic for another installment.
Back to my vacation experience with COVID. I honestly was convinced that the entire event was simply due to the physiologic effects of the fatigue that I had been subjected to the previous Thursday and Friday. Who has ever had all of the COVID symptoms in 8 or 9 hours and then felt fine? Regardless, if it was COVID in spite of my negative antibody test, did my trained immunity handle it before my adaptive immune system even kicked in? Here’s another piece for pondering:
When I was a child, I was given the smallpox and polio vaccines and no others, except perhaps a tetanus vaccine at some point in my childhood. This is unlike today, when children are given some 70 or so inoculations during their school years. I experienced chicken pox, and the mumps as I recall. But the big-time infection that I remember barely surviving was the Hong Kong flu of 1968. I remember having a prolonged high fever (104’ish) for days. I wasn’t hospitalized (hospitalization wasn’t so common in those days), but I remember our doctor coming to the house. I recall my mother at my bedside placing cool compresses on my head as I drifted in and out of consciousness.
I eventually got over that one, but I can’t help but wonder if having all of the usual childhood diseases and surviving those as well as this big one didn’t have some, (maybe significant) impact on my getting through my COVID exposure as rapidly as I did. Did these events boost my immune function to this new virus? Perhaps. And perhaps the same history of natural immunity to other viral infections has boosted the resistance of others who have not been as severely affected by this virus.
Innate Immune System
Another explanation for my experience is that it is quite possible my “innate immune system” may have killed the virus before it infected my cells. Here is an explanation of the innate immune system, and the difference between the innate and the “acquired” or “adaptive immune response” from the 2013 book, Autoimmunity : From Bench to Bedside.
“The innate immune response is the first mechanism for host defense found in all multicellular organisms. The innate immune system is more ancient than the acquired or adaptive immune response, and it has developed and evolved to protect the host from the surrounding environment in which a variety of toxins and infectious agents including bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites are found.
“The immune system is complex and is divided in two categories: i) the innate or nonspecific immunity, which consists of the activation and participation of pre-existent mechanisms including the natural barriers (skin and mucosa) and secretions; and ii) the adaptive or specific immunity, which is targeted against a previously recognized specific microorganism or antigen. Thus, when a given pathogen is new to the host, it is initially recognized by the innate immune system and then the adaptive immune response is activated. Innate immunity is the host’s first line of defense and is intended to prevent infection and attack the invading pathogens. This nonspecific mechanism is fast (minutes to hours) while the adaptive response takes longer (days to weeks).”
You can read more about these divisions of your immune system in Chapter 2 of the book.
So, did my innate immune system take care of this infection that I experienced in a matter of hours? And since the innate immune system is non-specific – meaning that it does not attack a specific micro-organism but rather works to gobble up any and all non-host organisms – it could be the reason I did not form antibodies specifically for COVID-19. In other words, I killed it off before the specific attacking bug was identified, and my body developed an organism-specific antibody.
This may also be part of the reason why I didn’t have any symptoms during my wife’s bout with COVID, in spite of the fact that I was caring for her for over a week.
Questions Remain
There has been a lot of speculation and conjecture about the origins of this viral infection. Our own National Institutes of Health (NIH) once performed gain of function research on this particular viral strain here in the U.S. That research was moved out of the country and was being continued in a research facility in Wuhan, China. Some in the NIH have denied this. Study of COVID’s origins continues, hopefully by those aware of these facts.
Still, as evident from a stream of articles I've written, I have been pondering this pandemic for some time. I certainly don’t have all of the answers about all of this. The facts about what we did right and the larger list of what we did wrong in handling this pandemic will come to light as we move further down the road and learn more.
Going Forward
The fact of the matter is that I appreciate the gravity of the situation that we have all found ourselves caught up in over the last 2 years. I have had family and friends hospitalized with COVID. By laying out my own experiences with the virus, I certainly am not minimizing the severity of the pandemic or horrible experiences of others. I simply believe that my subsequent, totally asymptomatic, caregiving for my wife when she became infected with and tested positive for COVID-19 had to be due to the fact that I had fought the virus somewhere along the last 2 years.
I know that following my 10-day asymptomatic caregiving event with my wife, I tested negative. I also know that, other than what I described to you, I have experienced no symptoms of COVID over the last 2 years in spite of the fact that I have cared for my patients 4-5 days per week.
And please remember: I don’t just preach to you in a hypocritical way about what you should do! I do my best to walk the talk. I simply try to practice what I preach, each and every day. As I said, I do my best. None of us is perfect, but I feel that I must lead by example, so I exercise to Move Right (even my profession is exercise). I take my supplements daily. I do my best to make the best choices and Eat Right. I do my best to manage my stress well, so I work to keep my “Think Right” in line. And I do my best to get my rest and support my immune system by getting proper rest and Sleep Right (granted, I didn’t do so hot on that the Thursday prior to my visit with our friends).
And I do our full system detoxification Cleanse Program at least once each year.
In the end, when it comes to sorting out the many confusing messages about COVID, you must come to your own conclusions. Perhaps you will arrive at the same conclusions that I have. Or you may come up with your own variations. My contention is that we may never know the real answer to this conundrum.
I simply am glad that I have been able to assist many who have been in the dark about what they could do to bolster their own immune functions in order to be able to fight off this viral scourge and remain out of the hospitals.
For that opportunity I feel that I was and am blessed,
Dr. Pfeiffer