It can be the time of the calendar year where we all appreciate the chill breeze, cozy climate and the hefty showers as the monsoon time has its very own enthralling pleasure, even if it will come with normal troubles like h2o stagnation, raise in mosquitos, substantial humidity, site visitors jams and disturbance of the typical routine. The rainy season frequently gives a lot-needed relief after the scorching summer season but it is also acknowledged to bring along a bevy of health conditions like flu, malaria and dengue.
The onset of monsoons provides along a host of illnesses and bacterial infections that can pose a significant range of wellness threats for you and your spouse and children as the chance of currently being uncovered to a number of viruses, microorganisms, parasites and other infections is two instances better throughout the monsoon than in any other period. The large moisture material in the air and h2o accumulation permits destructive micro-organisms to prosper, major to a variety of health and fitness- relevant conditions moreover, the amplified humidity can lead to quite a few fungal infections, allergy symptoms and pores and skin ailments but with a couple simple safeguards, you can appreciate the temperature as properly continue to be healthful and in good shape.
In an job interview with HT Life style, Kavita Devgan, Nutritionist at Tetley Inexperienced Tea Immune, shared, “During monsoons our immunity can take a beating as infections are rampant. Hence it is critical to diligently examine the food stuff we take in to give our body a good probability in opposition to seasonal infections. This is where you may well opt for together with Vitamin C in your diet. A solid antioxidant, this vitamin helps help the immune system. You can get it from some citrus fruits like kiwi and oranges, inexperienced and purple veggies way too. An additional helpful way of scoring this vitamin is by sipping a environmentally friendly tea that has been infused with vitamin C.”
In accordance to Dr Karthiyayini Mahadevan, Head – Wellness and Wellbeing at Columbia Pacific Communities, there are quite a few techniques to improve the immune procedure but the most significant and productive way is through priming the intestine. He outlined the tips to tackle this:
1.Nourish the intestine flora with ample fibres. This is accomplished via eating seasonal greens like ash gourd, ridge Gourd, snake gourd and bottle gourd. These vegetable fibres act as prebiotic for nourishing the intestine flora. Fibre is also sourced by feeding on sunflower seeds, melon seeds and flax seeds.
2.Put together the intestine flora with ample probiotics like residence churned butter milk and yoghurt. One particular have to consume only portable h2o from a recognised supply exactly where it is harmless to drink.
3.Adhering to well timed food stuff, consuming the proper amount and high quality help in supporting the immune process. Consuming evening meal before 7 PM provides sufficient time to digest meals right before slumber. Stay clear of consuming large protein for meal as large animal protein is not easily digested which in the long run affects the high quality of slumber
4. Owning a well balanced meal with intricate carbohydrate, enough protein and right quality of body fat aid the dietary everyday demand of macro and micro nutrients. The micronutrients serve to support the metabolic processes and the macro nutrition supply fuel and building blocks.
Dr Karthiyayini Mahadevan reported, “Our historic wisdom through Ayurveda and Siddha methods of healing offers far more value to the food items encouraged according to unique structure. Our festivals and rituals assistance this changeover concerning seasons and put together us to get prepared for the following year via selected sort of special eating plans. So let us put together our gut to aid the immune program.”
Highlighting some safety measures to improve your immune method and remain healthy during the monsoons, Dr Mahesh Kumar, Guide, Internal Drugs at Narayana Well being Town, recommended:
1. Hydration is most significant – The monsoon time can lead to dehydration. Hence, remaining hydrated during the monsoon is a need to to retain the overall body in prime form and ward off seasonal bacterial infections. Retain your self hydrated by not just ingesting drinking water but also with wellness beverages, for example, tender coconut, fresh new apple or pomegranate juice are excellent resource of electrical power and vitamins.
2. Demanding no to outside meals – Light-weight residence-cooked food stuff is most ideal for the monsoon time, as it is uncomplicated to digest. You must strictly steer clear of feeding on exterior foodstuff, due to the fact it is exposed to an open up setting. The exposure increases the likelihood of it being a breeding floor for microbes and germs, rising the probabilities of contracting bacterial infections
4. Beware of mosquitos – With a couple precautions, a person can conveniently obtain a way to have a mosquito-free of charge residence. To start with, use insect repellents generously, as mosquito-borne disorders these types of as dengue and malaria are rampant through the year. 2nd, be certain there is no open up h2o storage in your residence, for the reason that mosquitoes are born in stagnant drinking water. And finally, continue to keep your home windows and doors shut to prevent them from entering the residence.
5. Attire – Aside from donning whole-sleeved apparel, stay away from donning cotton dresses for the reason that it absorbs h2o substantially quicker. Get your clothing ironed to dry out the moisture existing in your apparel.
6. Stay clear of crowd – Because a the greater part of people today have a tendency to endure from flu or the widespread chilly throughout the monsoon year, it’s critical you retain distance from this kind of people today. When you’re traveling, make absolutely sure you stay extra safeguarded
7. Keep personalized hygiene and hold your surroundings clean up – Protecting own hygiene is a must at all times use an umbrella or raincoat when you go out, just take a shower when you come back, consume one thing to warm yourself, and wash or sanitize your hands meticulously just before taking in. Also continue to keep your surroundings clear and disinfected
8. Workout every day – If you haven’t previously started, now is the suitable time to exercising! Moderate physical exercise can also boost the immune technique by regenerating the immune cells routinely. You can get started little and that as well, from the convenience of your personal property. Begin with brisk strolling or light-weight jogging or skipping to get your human body running. Really do not neglect to warm up beforehand with some stretch workout routines, so your overall body does not really feel sore. Frequent workout reduces blood tension, retains your weight in verify, and also improves your cardiovascular well being. It further more encourages healthier immunity from an array of illnesses and infections. 1 of the greatest benefits of work out is that it lets you to check off your exercise goals, but it also releases endorphins, which is the happy hormone in your mind, so earning you feel lighter and content internally. Offered the latest scenario, a very little little bit of training can elevate your moods and assistance take care of pressure stages. A single need to work out for 150 minutes per week.
9. Omega- 3 fatty acids – The vital omega-3 fatty acid is not just to raise your brain and heart wellbeing, but it also performs a pivotal purpose in strengthening your immune reaction. Commonly located in fatty fish, walnuts, flaxseed, chia seeds, and plant oils- it performs by boosting the exercise of white blood cells that more combat off damaging germs/viruses. The omega-3 fatty acid can also decrease swelling (anti-inflammatory residence) thereby rushing the recovery procedure soon after you capture an an infection.
10. Antioxidants-abundant food items – The key operate of antioxidants is to damage no cost radicals that are developed in the system through working day to working day things to do like ingesting, exposure to the atmosphere, and anxiety. The oxidative burst of anti-oxidants can also demolish certain forms of bacteria and viruses. Antioxidant ingestion can appreciably enhance the immune process in particular beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, carotenoids, lycopene, selenium, and manganese. The finest way to take in your anti-oxidants is by which include purple and yellow coloured foodstuff in your diet primarily fruits and greens abundant in vit b12, vitamin A and anti-oxidants
11. For folks susceptible to allergy symptoms, infections, monsoon season may well exacerbate their symptoms. As a result, it is very important to steer clear of exposures to regarded allergens and generally retain all needed medications useful. Adhering to these straightforward actions could support you to maintain good well being position and stay risk-free and disease-absolutely free throughout this monsoon season. Vaccination in opposition to frequent infections like influenza will absolutely assist in blocking recurrently slipping unwell.
Normally the widespread monsoon ailments remain undetected until finally there is a big symptom or a big impression on the health and fitness of a human being but Dr Priyanka Rohatgi, Chief Nutritionist/Dietician at Apollo Hospitals, details out that early analysis and a few preventive and hygiene actions can continue to keep you remain protected throughout this season.
She suggested some nutritional tips and stated, “While keeping away from road food/junk food items is vital, make absolutely sure to increase foods rich in Vitamin C and fibres to your food plan. More compact foods- Due to high humidity in the course of the wet time, he human body normally takes a lengthier time for digestion. Hence, it is finest to have smaller foods somewhat than larger sized types. To raise your immunity, involve herbs and spices like ginger, garlic, cinnamon, turmeric, holy basil, and so forth, in your diet plan. Loaded with necessary vitamins and anti-oxidants, these are handy for your in general health and wellness. Food items loaded in mineral and iron like pulses and cereals should be essential elements of your diet throughout rainy year. You can have properly-cooked sprouts, soya beans, corns, ragi, and so forth, in generous portions.”
Major foods in accordance to her for security against wet time infections contain –
1. Scorching Soups: Diet plan in monsoon year really should include things like soups to hold physique warm as properly as to combat infections. Soups with child’s favorite veggies can be included or soups these types of as hen and hen noodle soups are proposed to include in food plan. Soups really should include extracts of Ginger and Garlic that have antibacterial homes. Black Pepper can also be included in spices to enhance the immune-boosting electricity current in the soup.
2. Citrus fruits: Children are extra inclined to injuries even though taking part in outdoor and indoors. To encourage the healing method and for boosting immunity to fight bacterial infections Vitamin C which is present in rich quantity in citrus fruits is the finest source. Hence, adding citrus fruits in child’s diet plan can be useful for them. Citrus fruits this kind of as orange, lemon, sweet lime, grapefruit are superb resource of Vitamin C. Other resources are guava, papayas, tomatoes, bell peppers and broccoli.
3. Vegetables: The great source of folic acid and Vitamin C in greens are eco-friendly leafy veggies like Spinach which must be involved in one’s food plan at the very least three moments a 7 days. A part of cruciferous veggies like cauliflower and broccoli can be incorporated in a food plan for atleast twice a week. Cruciferous veggies can help eliminating toxic compounds from the system and protect against health issues.
4. Nuts: Dry fruits and nuts are between the greatest meals to have throughout monsoon for young children, primarily Almonds. They help in strengthening blood circulation, boosting immunity and promoting general wellness to the body. Dry fruits can be employed in diverse recipes like brownies, cake and laddoos just after retaining the style in intellect.
5. Other meals: In other meals, a protein loaded eating plan is pretty vital for the growth of youngster as properly as for boosting immunity. This can include egg, hen, fish, dals, paneer, soya, tofu etc. It is also favored to include yogurt or curd in a eating plan as it is probiotic and the bacteria’s current in the curd can enable in increasing immunity and battle bacterial infections.
Dr Priyanka Rohatgi suggested, “Staying well-hydrated with clean h2o is advisable. Water is extremely crucial for human human body as it will help in strengthening the organs and increases wellness. This all will direct a baby more robust, healthier and happier. For a nutritious monsoon do not compromise on two important routines- ample slumber and a standard work out regimen. A arduous actual physical exercise strengthens the immune procedure as a result, if outside training isn’t feasible, opt for yoga or aerobics to keep active.”
Staying a mother or father, guardian, or caregiver of a youngster with epilepsy implies monitoring your child’s health, scheduling appointments, and maintaining track of drugs. Not to mention the extra tasks you may perhaps have at residence and at operate. All of this can be tough to deal with and leaves you with tiny time to glance immediately after you. July 24 is Intercontinental Self-Treatment Day and Countrywide Parents’ Day. Get this day to prioritize your perfectly-being and use these 5 self-care tips to assistance you get care of by yourself. A mum or dad or caregiver that procedures self-care will be equipped to much better treatment for individuals all around them.
1. Manage Healthy Behavior
A uncomplicated way to prioritize your self-care is by creating wholesome practices. If you have a handful of minutes available in your working day, master how to prepare dinner a new recipe with some of your favourite meals. Choose an easy recipe that only usually takes a handful of methods to make and can be prepared swiftly. This will lower stress and help you have a lot more time for other duties all over the day.
Producing a great sleep timetable is also incredibly vital for a father or mother or caregiver to a kid with epilepsy to establish. According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, a single third of older people in the United States do not get sufficient sleep. Receiving ample snooze can be even additional complicated for a mum or dad or caregiver of a boy or girl with epilepsy if your youngster is at risk of getting a seizure at night time. You might rest in your child’s place, your boy or girl may perhaps rest in your space, or you may possibly get up several instances a evening to check out on your little one. Take into consideration using a seizure notify gadget that will awaken you if your baby desires support through the evening. Also take into consideration placing up a agenda with another member of your spouse and children to assist keep an eye on your boy or girl throughout sleeping several hours. Sleep can pose a wonderful challenge for households impacted by epilepsy. Attempting your ideal to regulate your routine as much as achievable can support you get the relaxation you have to have.
2. Check out Meditation
Meditation is a wonderful apply for mom and dad or caregivers who do not have a good deal of time in their day but require assistance minimizing stress. In accordance to the Countrywide Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH), “Some forms of meditation include keeping psychological emphasis on a distinct feeling or a repeated term or phrase. Many others include the practice of mindfulness, which involves maintaining notice or recognition on the current minute without generating judgments.” Meditation and mindfulness can enable you mirror on positive ideas and cope with working day-to-day difficulties.
3. Acquire Time to Exercise
Yoga, gentle jogging, or having a stroll are just some ways you can practice self-care by way of training. You could devote a good deal of time concentrating on the wellbeing of your children or other spouse and children users. On the other hand, physical action can enable boost your personal health by lowering blood force, improving psychological health and cognitive function, and reducing your possibility of stroke. Some moms and dads or caregivers may possibly not really feel relaxed leaving the residence to go physical exercise, or even workout in a area that is too considerably absent from their child in the event their child has a seizure. In this situation, established up a schedule with a buddy, loved ones member, or other trusted adult to view your kid when you just take time to work out.
4. Discuss with Close friends and Loved ones
Connecting with pals and loved ones possibly practically or in-individual is a superior way to decompress if you are experience overwhelmed. If you are enduring caregiver overload, conversing to a further guardian or caregiver of a baby with epilepsy may well supply you some extra steering.
5. Do One particular Point You Love Each Working day
You could have a passion that you really don’t have the likelihood to do generally. Set aside a brief period of time of time just about every working day to participate in one thing you enjoy to do. Paint, read, journal, backyard garden, bake, volunteer, or test a little something absolutely new! These hobbies may seem tiny, but they are a way for you to concentration on self-enhancement and participate in something entertaining. Your cost-free time can also be applied to chill out alternatively than pursuing a interest. Look at your favored comedy display and chortle alongside with your spouse and children, participate in a board game, or make a playlist of your family’s favorite tunes and listen to it collectively. Doing something pleasurable with your liked types can be just as gratifying as pursuing a solo pastime.
The most critical component of self-care is remembering that it suggests a thing various for everybody. Locating what is ideal for you to protect your physical, psychological, and emotional wellness is essential. You can use these solutions as starting factors on your self-care journey.
Uncover Enable & Guidance
If you discover that you need to have much more help or you are suffering from symptoms of anxiousness or despair, please talk to with a health care company.
The Epilepsy & Seizures 24/7 Helpline has trained experts standing by to present you with assistance, hope, assistance, and entry to countrywide and nearby resources.
In a new review, Johns Hopkins Medication researchers examined a lot more than 100 topical cannabidiol (CBD) products accessible on the internet and at retail retailers, and located sizeable evidence of inaccurate and misleading labeling of CBD material. The analyze also exposed that some of these nonprescription products and solutions contained amounts of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the key active component in hashish that can result in a “high,” including some solutions that claimed to be free of THC.
The study, printed July 20 in JAMA Network Open, further more uncovered that some of the CBD solutions designed therapeutic statements not permitted by the U.S. Food stuff and Drug Administration (Food and drug administration). To date, the Fda has only authorized a person prescription CBD product to deal with seizures linked with uncommon epilepsy disorders, and two prescription THC products and solutions for nausea and vomiting affiliated with chemotherapy and for loss of urge for food and pounds loss associated with HIV/AIDS.
“Misleading labels can end result in persons working with badly controlled and high priced CBD solutions rather of Fda approved solutions that are established as risk-free and productive for a given well being condition,” claims research guide creator Tory Spindle, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins College School of Medicine.
In accordance to the National Institutes of Health’s Countrywide Centre for Complementary and Integrative Wellness, CBD and THC are the most frequently identified compounds in the plant Hashish sativa. A essential big difference between the two is that THC can create a psychoactive “high” influence at substantial doses, whilst CBD doesn’t.
Under the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the Farm Monthly bill), CBD goods that contain much less than .3{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} of THC are not deemed federally unlawful substances. This has designed CBD solutions particularly well-known and extensively readily available to buyers almost anyplace, but it also would make it complicated for the Food and drug administration to tackle unapproved promises and mislabeling. On the other hand, Spindle notes, “Latest analysis has proven that persons who use CBD products and solutions containing even compact quantities of THC could perhaps check optimistic for cannabis utilizing a typical drug examination.” This has not been determined for topical CBD goods, but the authors are at the moment studying it.
For the analyze, the research staff procured 105 CBD topical solutions – including lotions, lotions and patches – online and at brick-and-mortar retail spots in Baltimore, Maryland, in July and August 2020. Solutions were analyzed applying a technology named gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to establish the real amount of money of CBD and THC they contained.
Only 89 (85{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}) of the 105 examined products mentioned the whole quantity of CBD in milligrams on the label. Of the 89 goods, 16 (18{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}) contained fewer CBD than advertised, 52 (58{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}) contained far more CBD than advertised and 21 (24{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}) ended up accurately labeled. On typical, the in-retailer merchandise contained 21{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} a lot more CBD than advertised and the on-line items contained 10{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} far more CBD than marketed, although CBD label accuracy different extensively throughout goods.
THC was detected in 37 (35{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}) of the 105 items, even though all were within the authorized restrict of .3{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}. Four (11{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}) of these 37 had been labeled as “THC free,” 14 (38{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}) stated they contained fewer than .3{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} THC and 19 (51{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}) did not reference THC on the label.
Of the 105 items, 29 (28{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}) designed a therapeutic claim, generally about agony/swelling, 15 (14{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}) created a beauty/magnificence claim (e.g., that they relieve wrinkles or nourish/improve skin) and 49 (47{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}) famous they had been not Food and drug administration permitted. The other 56 (53{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}) products and solutions created no reference to the Food and drug administration. “It is really essential to be aware that the Fda has not approved CBD merchandise to address any of the circumstances advertised on the products and solutions we examined,” suggests Spindle, who also is a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Hashish Science Laboratory.
“The variability in the chemical articles and labeling found in our study highlights the require for superior regulatory oversight of CBD merchandise to guarantee customer protection,” claims Ryan Vandrey, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University College of Medication and the study’s senior author. These kinds of regulation, the authors consider, would assure CBD merchandise meet set up benchmarks for excellent assurance so people can make educated selections about item assortment and are not misled by unproven therapeutic or beauty promises. The research authors also caution that people today must look at with their wellbeing care practitioner ahead of starting up any CBD regimen.
In addition to Spindle and Vandrey, other researchers who contributed to the study include Dennis Sholler and Edward Cone from the Johns Hopkins College Faculty of Medication, Timothy Murphy and Mahmoud ElSohly from ElSohly Laboratories, Ruth Winecker from RTI Intercontinental, Ronald Flegel from the Material Abuse and Mental Well being Expert services Administration (SAMHSA) and Marcel Bonn-Miller from the Canopy Expansion Corp.
This exploration was supported by the Material Abuse and Psychological Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Resource:
Journal reference:
Spindle, T.R., et al. (2022) Cannabinoid Information and Label Accuracy of Hemp-Derived Topical Solutions Obtainable On the internet and at National Retail Suppliers. JAMA Network Open up.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.23019.
Scientists reviewed research investigating the consequences of carotenoids on women’s wellbeing results.
They located that greater carotenoid ingestion may possibly cut down the hazard of developing a number of well being situations.
They concluded that presented the high probability to enable and lower probability of damage, methods concentrating on carotenoid intake in ladies could be effective.
Even though women are inclined to have for a longer time lifespans than gentlemen, they also have far more health ailments.
Some investigate indicates that these variances may well arise from diverse degrees of publicity to oxidative anxiety both of those from way of living things and interior elements these types of as endocrine dissimilarities.
If this is the scenario, anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory features in the diet regime could be a benign way to minimize oxidative and inflammatory worry and as a result strengthen overall health.
Not long ago, scientists reviewed experiments investigating the influence of diet program on autoimmune ailments in girls.
They located that consumption of pigmented carotenoids may possibly be critical for avoiding visible and cognitive loss.
“This review builds on a long time of past get the job done conclusively showing that a diet significant in fruits and vegetables- numerous of which comprise carotenoids, dependable for some of the vivid hues of fruits and greens- is connected with nutritious aging and longevity, and a decreased danger of persistent disease,” explained Amy Keller Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolic process and Diabetes at the University of Colorado Denver, not involved in the review.
“The causes why this is so are probably multifactorial, but doable causes why carotenoids are advantageous are mainly because of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory exercise,” she included.
In the evaluate, the researchers observed that very low bone mineral density can be detected in girls in their 30s and accelerates following menopause.
Scientific tests have demonstrated that some carotenoids may well slow bone loss.
These include things like lycopene — located in tomatoes, as nicely as beta-carotene and lutein (L), and zeaxanthin (Z) which are discovered in leafy greens and eggs.
Previous research indicates that carotenoids inhibit mind beta-amyloid deposition and gradual down fibril formation, equally of which are associated with dementia.
The researchers additional that other scientific tests demonstrate that high ranges of serum carotenoids have also been connected to a minimized chance of:
When asked about how pigmented carotenoids these types of as L and Z could increase health and fitness, Prof Billy Hammond of the Behavioral and Mind Sciences College at the University of Ga, one particular of the study’s authors, told Professional medical Information Now:
“The previous adage that you are what you try to eat is basically true. What you eat influences the composition of your mind and the chemical compounds referred to as neurotransmitters and hormones that are included in its functionality.”
He explained that the mind is composed of all over 60{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} extra fat, which tends to make it specially vulnerable to oxidative strain. To counteract any opportunity destruction, our brains usually incorporate lipid-soluble anti-oxidants from meals like eggs and leafy greens to defend the brain. Troubles come up as present day weight loss plans are likely to incorporate less of these anti-oxidants than required.
Although carotenoids consumed from food may strengthen overall health outcomes, research implies that supplemental variations of these vitamins and minerals may not generate the same influence. This is since personal nutrition may well not impact the overall body in the identical way as when eaten as component of a fruit or vegetable.
With this in thoughts, Wendy L. Bennett, MD., Associate Professor at the School of Drugs at Johns Hopkins University, not involved in the research, instructed MNT:
“Taking vitamin E or beta‐carotene health supplements will not protect against or delay the onset of AMD. The exact likely applies to vitamin C and the multivitamin (Centrum Silver), [as found in a clinical trial].”
“There is no evidence about other antioxidant supplements, this kind of as lutein and zeaxanthin. Vitamin nutritional supplements may well have dangerous outcomes, and very clear evidence of profit is wanted before they can be recommended,” she added.
The researchers concluded that offered the superior chance to assist and reduced probability of harm, ways focusing on L and Z intake in gals could be effective.
When asked about the study’s limitations, Dr. Keller famous that foreseeable future function ought to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the scientific final results mentioned in this review.
Dr. Hammond added that it is pretty demanding to relate a single enter this sort of as vitamin E to a advanced endpoint that develops in excess of an entire life time. He added:
“Most degenerative disorders, like dementia, are as intricate as growing older by itself and involve several exposures that only matter a tiny at a supplied time but a whole lot when aggregated around 50 many years. Imagine, for case in point, that a presented nutritional component decreases your danger by 1 per cent a calendar year. [It may seem small, however] a person {fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} a calendar year for 70 several years even though, usually means a reduction in risk of about 30{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}, which is large.”
Dr. Bennett observed, nonetheless, that the scientists did not perform unique exploration, this means that their synthesis and summary of evidence may perhaps be vulnerable to bias.
When questioned about what other vitamins may well have a protective effect on women’s health, Dr. Keller stated:
“In addition to carotenoids, flavonoids also are accountable for the colours of fruits and greens. Our crew reports the likely of a flavonoid, (-)-epicatechin, found in generally consumed food items this kind of as chocolate and tea. This compound improves vessel health in our experiments. As ladies drop cardiovascular risk protection immediately after menopause, supporting their vascular well being by means of nutrition with qualified bioactivity may well assistance women’s health in getting old.”
Dr. Hammond included that common way of life things this sort of as finding a lot more physical exercise and eating a healthy diet program are also vital to enhancing overall health. He claimed: “It is frequent to assume of solitary elements of diet regime- like prescription drugs or ‘a tablet for every single ill’. Whilst supplementing is sometimes a superior method, optimizing diet plan is your finest initial tactic.”
In an work to aid well being treatment businesses protect patients’ private health and fitness data, the Nationwide Institute of Requirements and Technology (NIST) has current its cybersecurity direction for the wellness treatment industry.
NIST’s new draft publication, formally titled Utilizing the Wellness Insurance coverage Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule: A Cybersecurity Resource Guideline (NIST Specific Publication 800-66, Revision 2), is designed to assist the sector retain the confidentiality, integrity and availability of electronic guarded wellness information and facts, or ePHI. The time period handles a large variety of patient information, which includes prescriptions, lab benefits, and records of hospital visits and vaccinations.
“One of our major targets is to assist make the updated publication far more of a resource manual,” said Jeff Marron, a NIST cybersecurity expert. “The revision is much more actionable so that well being care organizations can strengthen their cybersecurity posture and comply with the Stability Rule.”
The Health and fitness Insurance plan Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal legislation that necessitates the generation of nationwide specifications to secure sensitive client wellbeing data from currently being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge. Element of HIPAA is the Security Rule, which exclusively focuses on defending ePHI that a wellness care group produces, receives, maintains or transmits. NIST does not make laws to enforce HIPAA, but the revised draft is in preserving with NIST’s mission to give cybersecurity direction. NIST’s up-to-date steerage is significantly well timed as the U.S. Section of Well being and Human Solutions has pointed out a increase in cyberattacks affecting well being care.
NIST is in search of remarks on the draft publication right up until Sept. 21, 2022.
One of the primary causes NIST has designed the revision is to combine it with other NIST cybersecurity direction that did not exist when Revision 1 was posted in 2008. Considering that then, NIST has designed its very well-regarded Cybersecurity Framework, and it also has repeatedly current its assortment of Stability and Privateness Controls (NIST SP 800-53) that companies can use to tailor their very own possibility management techniques. The new HIPAA Security Rule advice draft helps make specific connections to these and other NIST cybersecurity assets.
“We have mapped all the aspects of the HIPAA Stability Rule to the Cybersecurity Framework subcategories and to controls in NIST SP 800-53’s latest edition,” Marron said. “We have improved our emphasis on the guidance’s danger management ingredient, such as integrating company threat administration principles.”
The draft can take into account extra than 400 unique responses NIST gained to its pre-draft call for responses very last 12 months. Marron describes the draft as additional of a refresh than an overhaul, as the document’s construction has transformed only a little bit, but the articles has been up to date with an amplified emphasis on assessment and administration of danger to ePHI. Quite a few of the major variations are implied in the publication’s “Note to Reviewers,” which asks readers for thoughts on distinct sections.
Marron stated that as with many relevant NIST cybersecurity publications, the revised draft was not intended to be a checklist for wellbeing treatment businesses to observe, but alternatively to guideline them in improving upon their management of threat to ePHI.
“We present a source that can assist you with applying the Security Rule in your have corporation, which may have certain demands,” he claimed. “Our purpose is to offer you direction and assets you can use in just one readable publication.”
NIST is accepting comments on the draft till Sept. 21, 2022, by electronic mail to sp800-66-reviews [at] nist.gov.
In stoking fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) about vaccines, antivaxxers frequently try to induce disgust and revulsion. There have been many examples of this technique over the years, such as trying to portray vaccines as laden with horrific toxins (such as formaldehyde and mercury), ranting about the use of “monkey cells” or cells from other animals to make them, and claiming that they contain “fetal tissue” (or cells or DNA), with Mike Adams, for instance, going so far as to portray vaccines as child sacrifice in which doctors are “injecting the child with foreign DNA extracted from other children sacrificed at abortion centers”. (I can always count on Adams to provide me with examples of the most over-the-top version of any antivax tropes that I wish to discuss.) Over the years, I’ve seen antivaxxers demonize mercury, aluminum adjuvants, all manner of vaccine ingredients (as long as they can be made to sound scary to people without much knowledge of chemistry), technologies used to make the vaccines, and basically anything about vaccines that can make vaccines seem “dirty,” “contaminated,” and dangerous. The latest example bubbled up over the last couple of weeks over the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, which was granted emergency use approval (EUA) earlier this month, which was soon portrayed in a similar light, with special attention being paid to the moth cells used to produce the protein antigen for the vaccine and, to a lesser extent, the choice of adjuvant for the vaccine.
Antivaxxers versus mRNA- and adenovirus based COVID-19 vaccines
Before discussing the misinformation about Novavax, I will briefly—for me!—recount how the latest version of antivax rhetoric portraying vaccines as toxin-laden and horrific had already been successfully employed against existing COVID-19 vaccines. In this case, the key tool that antivaxxers have used to spread FUD about COVID-19 vaccines has been the newness of the technologies used to develop them. Although introducing mRNA into muscle cells in order to provide them with the template to make a specific protein—in the case of COVID-19 vaccines, the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which stimulates an immune response that also targets the virus—is an old technology, dating back more than three decades, the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA-based vaccines represent the first successful use of mRNA encased in lipid nanoparticles as a vaccine administered to hundreds of millions of people. This has led to the repurposing of old antivax fear mongering about how vaccines “alter your DNA” or are “transhumanism” to result in antivax claims about COVID-19 vaccines that they “permanently alter your DNA“—contaminating it with that deadly spike protein!—and, like attenuated live virus vaccines, lead to “shedding“. The same fears were expressed about the adenovirus-based COVID-19 vaccines, like Johnson & Johnson‘s. None of this is true and, as is almost always the case, the claims were based on distortions, misunderstandings, and misrepresentations of research and biology. However, such misinformation can seem believable to those without the background in molecular biology to recognize it as the BS that it is, which brings me to the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine.
The FDA grants an EUA for Novavax, and antivaxxers react
The Novavax COVID-19 vaccine was granted emergency use approval (EUA) a couple of weeks ago. This particular vaccine has long been viewed with hope because, instead of being an mRNA-based vaccine (like Pfizer and Moderna vaccines) or a viral vector-based vaccine (like the Johnson & Johnson vaccine), Novavax is a subunit protein vaccine. For instance, this article about the EUA in Politico noted:
The vaccine, a two-dose series administered three weeks apart, is manufactured using a lab-made spike protein produced in insect cells and an adjuvant obtained from the bark of a tree native to Chile, offering a different and older vaccine technology than is used in the messenger RNA vaccines and Johnson & Johnson shot. It is authorized for people ages 18 and older as a primary series, meaning the shot is intended for the roughly 10 percent of adults who have not yet received a Covid-19 vaccine.
Novavax executives have said they hope the shot will see uptake in individuals who have expressed hesitancy toward other Covid-19 vaccines or are allergic to components of the others’ ingredients.
“Today’s authorization offers adults in the United States who have not yet received a Covid-19 vaccine another option that meets the FDA’s rigorous standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality needed to support emergency use authorization,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement.
While I welcome new vaccines against COVID-19 (and Novavax appears to be a decent one), I’ve long been very skeptical of the Pollyannish hope expressed by public health officials and Novavax executives that this vaccine will somehow so reassure the vaccine-hesitant that they’ll finally—finally!—after more than a year and a half get vaccinated against COVID-19 because an “old school” vaccine that’s just protein and an adjuvant has been made available. Unfortunately, the history of the antivaccine movement and antivax fear mongering should have made it obvious that this would not happen. I expect that there might be some people for whom Novavax could possibly be the final development that reassures them enough to be vaccinated, but, as anyone who’s dealt with the antivaccine movement knows, it’s probably going to be a small number, nowhere near enough to have the seemingly “game changing” effect that I’ve seen predicted on occasion, for example:
I think everyone that’s already been vaccinated has been waiting for this option so we can all laugh at those that finding new excuses not to vaccinate
— disappointed by uk child vaccine policies (@simon_gordon_) July 14, 2022
I’m not going to be as sarcastic as the person who responded to Dr. Griffin, but he’s correct. Only those utterly unaware of the history of the antivaccine movement could think that the introduction of Novavax will have an effect on vaccine hesitancy other than at the margins.
Those who follow my not-so-super-secret other blog will realize that I’ve already written about Novavax and the fear mongering that’s started about it. (Actually, the fear mongering started in 2020, when the project was first announced.) Although there will be overlap between this post and what I wrote last week, over the weekend I had an idea for a take that I wish I had included; so I’m going to discuss that take here. Also, I found out more about a certain purveyor of antivax misinformation and wanted to include that as well. So there’s overlap, but there’s also a lot more.
First, though, let’s recount what happened soon after the news that Novavax had been granted an EUA broke. Company executives and some public health officials had expressed hope that this recombinant protein-based vaccine will be more palatable to the vaccine-hesitant than existing vaccines using new (and therefore scarier) mRNA and adenovirus platforms, but the reaction to two aspects of the vaccine demonstrated that, for antivaxxers, it’s the vaccine, not any platform or ingredient, that’s scary, and unfortunately they have become very skilled at transmitting that fear to the vaccine-hesitant. This is a long-standing technique that needs to be addressed.
How Novavax is using baculovirus and moth cells
Before I discuss the antivaccine misinformation being used to stoke FUD about Novavax, I’ll start by describing the technology that is actually used to make the Novavax vaccine. Oddly enough, I found a good source for this on an antivax website, specifically the official website of Barbara Loe Fisher’s National Vaccine Information Center, where they posted a link to an old Washington Post video about Novavax under the title “How the Novavax Coronavirus Vaccine Uses Moth Cells“. I’ll include the video and a link to the original WaPo article for your information:
The video notes that the use of moth cells is nothing more than another technique to produce large quantities of recombinant protein to be used as the antigen in a vaccine, further pointing out that recombinant proteins produced by various techniques (like the use of baculovirus in moth cells) have long been used as antigens in vaccines against diseases like influenza, human papilloma virus (HPV) infection, and hepatitis B. Referring back to the Pollyannish optimism about such “old school” vaccines, I can’t help but mention that, of course, we’ve long known that antivaxxers never, ever, ever portray vaccines like these using recombinant proteins as their antigens as toxic ineffective sludge, right? I think you know the answer to that question if you’ve been reading this blog.
Of course, the baculovirus/insect cell expression system is nothing new. Baculovirus is a viral vector (like adenovirus, lentivirus, and a lot of other viruses commonly used in molecular biology) that’s long been recognized as a versatile system for expressing recombinant proteins in the lab. It’s mainly used to infect insect cells and, like other viral vectors, induce them to produce whatever protein is encoded by the DNA sequence inserted into them. Baculovirus-insect cell systems as a means of generating recombinant protein used to be fairly tedious in that it was difficult to engineer the virus and to isolate the proteins produced from the cells, but a lot of advancements in biochemistry and technology have made it much more feasible to use this system to generate the large amounts of high-quality recombinant protein needed to manufacture a vaccine like Novavax. Baculovirus systems are also in wide use in research for purposes like cell-based assays, gene function studies, and, of course, production of recombinant proteins. As an aside, one other advantage of baculovirus and insect cells is that they allow for the generation of recombinant protein at a much lower temperature. Mammalian cells are generally grown at 37°C; insect cells are often grown at 27°C. One way to look at the baculovirus-“moth cell” system is that it’s just another method for using viruses to produce recombinant proteins in eukaryotic cells.
Scientists selected the desired genes that code for the desired antigen, in this case as for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
They then put the genes into a baculovirus, an insect virus.
The baculovirus infects moth cells and replicates inside them.
These moth cells manufacture lots of spike protein.
The spike protein is then extracted and purified for use in the Novavax vaccine.
Again, one notes that baculovirus/insect cell expression systems have long been used to produce the protein antigen used in influenza vaccines. Indeed, a review article from 2006 shows the various methods by which baculovirus systems can be used to produce vaccines:
Flow chart showing four different methods to make a vaccine based on your favorite gene (YFG) in the baculovirus expression system: (1) protein expression in insect cell bioreactors using the polyhedrin locus for expression, (2) protein expression in insect larvae leaving the polyhedrin gene intact; expression is driven either by a duplicated p10 promoter or by the original p10 promoter, (3) baculovirus surface display methods where YFG is fused to GP64, and (4) DNA vectors with a mammalian promoter (mp) for synthesis of your favorite gene product (YFGP) in the target species. Subsequent steps in the process are: (A) selection and PCR amplification of YFG, (B) cloning into the appropriate baculovirus vector, (C) generation of recombinant BV particles or occlusion bodies, (D) production in insect cells in bioreactors or larvae, (E) purification of recombinant YFGP or collection of BVs loaded with either YFGP or YFG, and (F) delivery of prophylactic or therapeutic vaccines.
As you can see, the baculovirus expression system is indeed versatile, which is why baculovirus expression systems have been used to make vaccines for nearly two decades. Like all such systems, it has its advantages and disadvantages, one disadvantage being that it doesn’t always attach the right sugars to glycoproteins because insects don’t always attach the same sugars to their glycoproteins as mammals, but in many cases it can be an excellent choice to use to express recombinant protein. In the case being discussed, Novavax scientists inserted the genetic sequence encoding the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein into a baculovirus vector and then used this vector to infect ovary cells from the fall armyworm moth to produce large quantities of antigen for their vaccine. The scientific name for the species is Spodoptera frugiperda, which is why the cell line used with this particular baculovirus system is called Sf9. This cell line is a derivative of a cell line that has been around since the 1970s.
Novavax: Moth cells and DNA!
I’ll begin with the misinformation about Novavax based on the portrayal of the baculovirus/Sf9 expression system as “moth cells” that contaminate the vaccine with “moth DNA”. After the announcement of the EUA for Novavax, in a counterpoint to Dr. Griffin’s optimism it didn’t take long for me to start encountering Tweets like these:
so novavax uses GE moth cells which produce antibodies and will be better tolerated, but what are they fed? mRNA so not making real viral antibodies (no-one has been able to do that) you also get genetically engineered cell products but no passive immunity
This one was actually not quite so bad, simply claiming that Novavax is “genetically engineered” (and therefore presumably “unnatural”) and falsely stating that it won’t result in the production of “real viral antibodies” (whatever he means by that).
Others were a bit more…”critical”:
I’ll discuss the moth DNA angle in more detail shortly and conclude by comparing it to an example that more than a decade ago I used to write about quite a bit. In the meantime, let’s move on to this one:
Let’s just say that that video is…quite something. For one thing, if the blurb for the video is any indication, Dr. Jane Ruby appears not to know the difference between DNA and mRNA. Also, WTF? Ruby refers to Novavax as a “deadly moth DNA spike protein”? What did she do? Throw a bunch of random antivax words into a blender? In any case, Dr. Ruby has not been featured on SBM before, although she was once mentioned as being part of a lineup of speakers targeting the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn with COVID-19 misinformation. Elsewhere, I note that she is one of the prime sources of the myth that COVID-19 vaccines cause “self-assembling” clots with “nanowires” that kill; she also promotes the false claim that COVID-19 vaccines are laden with graphene oxide.
Who is Dr. Ruby, though? Here’s what she claims on her website:
Dr. Jane Ruby is a medical professional and a pharmaceutical drug development expert with over 20 years of experience in regulatory processes for drug approval with the FDA and the EMA. She is also a published international health economist who has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows across America. Dr. Ruby worked on the human research studies to launch some of the most famous compounds in the world in Depression, Alzheimer’s disease, Addiction, and Cardio-pulmonary diseases.
If all that’s true (doubtful), where did Dr. Ruby go so wrong that she would spew such idiocy as in the video? It’s a hopeless question, I guess, given the long and depressing litany of health care professionals with advanced degrees who have become COVID-19 misinformation grifters since the pandemic started, a litany that includes, among many others, Peter McCullough, Robert Malone, Simone Gold, Stella Immanuel, the entire cast of the quack group America’s Frontline Doctors, and more doctors than I care to list here. However, as we will see later, Dr. Ruby is not actually a physician at all.
I must confess that I really struggled to get through the whole 18 minutes of Dr. Ruby’s video, because there was so much repetitive antivax nonsense in it that it actually made my brain, which has nearly 25 years of experience dealing with nonsense like this, hurt. Early in the video, Dr. Ruby mentions that she’s gotten lots of emails and questions about Novavax from people who refuse to take mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines who ask her if they should take Novavax instead, given that it’s not an mRNA vaccine, but rather a potentially more “acceptable” recombinant protein-based vaccine. On the surface, this would seem to support the idea that Novavax might entice those afraid of new mRNA technology in vaccines to accept an “old school” vaccine. It doesn’t. Predictably, Dr. Ruby’s answer is not only just a “No,” but an “Oh, hell no!” After that, she starts listing every antivax trope you can imagine about the vaccine, starting out by claiming that Novavax is no more a “vaccine” than the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, which, as you’ll recall, were falsely characterized as “gene therapy” and not vaccines.
After I finished facepalming over Dr. Ruby’s claim that Novavax uses the same mRNA technology as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, I was curious how someone claiming to knowledgeable about COVID-19 could say something so utterly at odds with molecular biology. So I kept watching. To explain what she means, Dr. Ruby references this illustration. I took a screenshot:
See! See! The baculovirus DNA encoding spike protein is transcribed into mRNA in the moth cells! Checkmate, provaccine New World Order-loving fascists!
I just kept facepalming. Dr. Ruby went on and on and on about how supposedly Novavax is using “synthetic” codes for proteins “never before seen in nature”—she even uses the term “in silico”—to “stimulate moths” to make billions of copies of the “toxic spike protein” that they then extract noting that your body isn’t making the evil toxic spike protein (as is the case in mRNA vaccines) but that the moth cells are. This explanation, while technically correct (barely) deceptively conflates the use of a baculovirus containing the specific cDNA code to serve as the template for moth cells to make spike protein, which is later extracted, isolated, and used to make a more traditional protein-based vaccine, and the mRNA technology that induces the cells of the recipient of the vaccine to produce spike protein. Yes, mRNA serves as the final template for protein manufacture in both systems, but it’s not as though the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines involve harvesting cells from your deltoid muscle and isolating the spike protein being made by them due to the mRNA vaccine. This explanation is so deeply stupid that there are only two possible explanations. Either Dr. Ruby is deeply ignorant of some very basic molecular biology that was basic three decades ago when I first studied biochemistry and molecular biology, or she’s lying, knowing that her audience is deeply ignorant of very basic molecular biology. Take your pick. (I suspect the latter, but will concede that the former is quite possible.)
Dr. Ruby also describes how the spike protein is isolated with “moth DNA” that’s included in the nanoparticles, so that you still have a problem with a “genetic code that is going to embed in your cells and God knows what it’s going to create from the moths” and then you have “directly injected billions of these toxic spike proteins”, which will supposedly wreak havoc in your body, including causing infertility.
Dr. Ruby goes beyond that, though. In her world, apparently, those rendered infertile by Novavax will be the lucky ones. Why? Well, let her explain, as I suggest that I deserve hazard pay for taking the time to transcribe this passage:
If you are lucky enough to conceive—and this goes for all of these shots—the next generation through recombination of mom and dad’s genetic material can have offspring that will suffer and be damaged and freak—freak manifestations. We don’t even know what those are going to look like yet. So stop looking at Novavax as a possible safer alternative. To what? To tyranny? To a sick, psychopathic cabal that wants to damage God-given DNA forever and say, “Wooo, we’re better than God”?
This is very much like the idea of “purebloods” that antivaxxers co-opted from the Harry Potter novels, the idea being that, like the magical purebloods in the story, who are untainted by “muggle” (nonmagical) blood, those who are unvaccinated have “pure blood”. As I’ve long pointed out, a huge part of alternative medicine relies on the concept that “contamination” (these days more frequently referred to as “toxins”) cause most, if not all, disease, and various “detoxification” regimens that make up so much of alternative medicine (and, not coincidentally, the basis of many treatments for many conditions—like autism—that antivaxxers used to attribute to vaccines) have more in common with religious purification rituals than they do with science or medicine. The concept is so pervasive in antivax circles that sometimes antivaxxers would rather risk death than “contamination”. For example, Del Bigtree came dangerously close to death from bleeding hemorrhoids because he refused a transfusion with “vaccinated blood”. (I kid you not. Read the details if you don’t believe me.)
This concept of “purity” versus “contamination” (implied to be with evil) also has a lot to do with the idea that “natural immunity” to a disease and has so infected the discourse over COVID-19 vaccines that one of my go-to video clips when discussing this topic is of Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper from one of my favorite movies of all time, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb explaining how fluoridation is a Communist plot to “sap and impurify” the “precious bodily fluids” of real Americans, mainly because anti-fluoridation, antivaccine, and anti-GMO pseudoscience all tap into the alternative medicine fear of “contamination” as a cause of ill health and “purity of essence” (again, from Dr. Strangelove) as key to good health. In this case, Dr. Ruby is portraying the vaccines as tampering with God-given purity and setting humans up as “better than God”.
In a truly facepalm-worth bit, Dr. Ruby then goes on to claim that Novavax “uses the mRNA technology” and that “it doesn’t make it safer and it doesn’t make it better” than mRNA vaccines, while repeating yet again that Novavax is “not a vaccine.” Rather, to Dr. Ruby, Novavax is a “toxic poison designed to change your DNA forever”, which, she notes, is the “long game” and the “endgame.” She then disingenuously claims that she’s not trying to “scare you”, just to scare you out of taking any more shots.
Then she moves on to the adjuvant, because of course she does.
“Deadly tree bark toxins”
Consistent with old antivax narratives, Dr. Ruby also complains about the use of “lipid nanoparticles” in the vaccine, just like the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines do! Specifically, she refers to the use of “tree bark toxins” as an adjuvant, as it turns out that, instead of using the aluminum-containing adjuvants that many older vaccines do, the Novavax vaccine uses a lipid adjuvant. This is a theme that has arisen about Novavax in antivaxland. Here’s an example from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense claiming that the “nanoparticle adjuvant” (which Novavax calls “Matrix-M”) is horrifically harmful:
Nevertheless, in pre-COVID-19 studies of experimental vaccines containing Novavax’s Matrix-M, researchers waxed enthusiastic about the nanoparticle-based adjuvant’s “significant” and “potent” action — including its strong “immunostimulatory properties” even without any accompanying antigen.
And, where nanoparticles are concerned, the Novavax COVID-19 shot actually delivers a double whammy, combining Matrix-M with genetically engineered spike protein nanoparticles.
As Novavax explains it (for some reason putting the word “adjuvant” in quotes), “The spike protein is the ‘signal,’ but … we want your immune system to hear that signal loud and clear [and] that signal boost comes from our Matrix-M ‘adjuvant.’”
Matrix-M has been around a long time; for instance, here’s a study from a decade ago showing its immunostimulatory properties. Adjuvants, of course, have long been used to increase the immune reaction triggered by an antigen in a vaccine, thus allowing the use of much less protein; the most commonly used adjuvant is, as most of you know, aluminum. (And we all now that antivaxxers trust aluminum adjuvants, right? Just kidding! They hate aluminum adjuvants as much as they hate mRNA in vaccines!)
Where, however, did the bit about “tree bark” come from? It turns out that Matrix-M is a natural product, specifically a saponin derived from the soapbark tree (Quillaja saponaria), so-named because its bark contains saponins, which can be made into soap.
Saponins, particularly those obtained from Quillaja saponaria Molina, are known potent adjuvants and Quillaja saponins (QS) have for long been used in animal vaccines. Saponin-based adjuvants can be formulated in different ways; in free form [2], with aluminium hydroxide [3], in ISCOMs (immunostimulating complex) [4] or in ISCOM-Matrix/Matrix structures [5]. QS constitute a heterogeneous mixture of related but different chemical structures with various immunostimulatory activities, safety profiles and particle forming properties. By purification of the QS raw material, distinctive fractions with different characteristics can be defined.
The ISCOM, a potent adjuvant formulation first described in 1984 by Morein and co-workers [4], consist of stable complexes composed of saponin, cholesterol, phospholipid and incorporated antigen(s). The hallmarks of the ISCOM technology are the dose-sparing potential [6], induction of high and long-lasting antibody titers and potent T cell responses [7]. However, later it was shown that antigen incorporation is not critical for these immune properties. Antigen and empty ISCOMs i.e. ISCOM-Matrix/Matrix could simply be mixed with sustained vaccine efficacy [5]. In this study we use a novel adjuvant formulation based on two different Matrix particles made from two separate purified fractions of saponins, yielding Matrix-A™ and Matrix-C™ [8]. These Matrix particles, approximately 40 nm large, are subsequently mixed at defined ratios to get the Matrix-M™ adjuvant.
And there you have it! The dreaded nanoparticles! Recall how antivaxxers fear mongered about the lipid nanoparticles used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to encapsulate the mRNAs used and assist their entry into cells. Again, fear mongering about lipid nanoparticles is nothing more than the “toxins” gambit reborn and retooled for COVID-19 vaccines, sometimes with some truly off-the-wall versions. Given that Matrix-M is a form of lipid nanoparticle as well, the antivax attacks on the Novavax COVID-19 are very predictable. You’d think that antivaxxers, being all about “natural immunity” and “natural medicine”, would be more accepting of an adjuvant that is a natural product, the story of whose repurposing and sustainable production is actually quite fascinating.
Dr. Ruby spends several minutes basically saying the same sorts of things that RFK Jr.’s minions said, while bragging that “no one else” is warning about Matrix-M, even though RFK Jr. is spreading the same misinformation about it. In any case, the claim that vaccines cause autoimmune disorders, by whatever proposed mechanism (whether sort of plausible or completely fantastical), is an old antivax trope. In this case, RFK Jr. references antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), an autoimmune disorder characterized by recurring blood clots as well as fetal loss, fetal growth retardation and other obstetric complications. I might have to address this “hypothesis” (if you can call it that) in more detail in the future, as the same claims pop up over the lipid nanoparticles used in mRNA-based vaccines. Until then, I’ll just refer you to Yehuda Shoenfeld and ASIA as examples of how the false claim that vaccines have caused a massive increase in incidence of autoimmune disease started and persists.
And, of course, to Dr. Ruby and other antivaxxers like RFK Jr., because Novavax uses lipid nanoparticles, even though they are quite different from the lipid nanoparticles used by Pfizer and Moderna to encapsulate their vaccines, the Novavax vaccine must also cause infertility and all the other bad things that antivaxxers have been falsely blaming on lipid nanoparticles since the mRNA-based vaccines were first approved for use.
After suffering through her video, I started wondering: Who the heck is Dr. Ruby? The last time I wrote about this over at my not-so-super-secret other blog I didn’t really look too hard into this. I assumed that she was just some physician who used to work for pharmaceutical companies who somehow got into COVID-19 disinformation grift. While I was correct that Dr. Ruby is into disinformation grift, I was wrong to assume that she is a physician. I rather suspect that’s the whole point behind her shtick, as you will see.
Who is “Dr. Ruby”?
A search of PubMed for Dr. Ruby does show that at one point she worked for Medical Affairs at Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Malvern, PA. She does appear to have 23 publications dating back to the 1990s, although most of them appear to be about outcomes of opioid treatment or concerning healthcare costs, not, as she claims, clinical trials of groundbreaking drugs. (If she did indeed do such work, it isn’t reflected in her PubMed record.) She also appears to have worked at various times for other pharmaceutical companies (SK Life Science, Pear Pharmaceuticals, Indivior, and Forest Laboratories, which is now Allergan) in HEOR (health economics and outcomes research). Before that she was a nurse and nurse practitioner/advanced practice nurse, not a physician, having gotten a masters in nursing at the University of Rochester. Now don’t get me wrong. I love NPs. I’ve defended them on many occasions against outlandish attacks by my fellow physicians. However, “Dr. Ruby” does not appear to have a doctorate even in nursing. What she does have are a PhD in psychology from Kennedy Western University in Psychology and a Doctor of Education (EdD) from the University of Rochester, as well as masters degrees in nursing and International Health Economics. One can’t help but conclude that Dr. Ruby is definitely trying to give the impression that she is a physician, complete with her frequently appearing with a stethoscope and lab coat. I’d be willing to bet that her audience thinks she’s a physician. She isn’t, and if her CV is any indication she hasn’t even practiced nursing for over 20 years.
These days, Dr. Ruby lists as her position President at Ruby Health Consulting – HEOR (again!), and, of course, she has her own show hosted on the Stew Peters Network, for which she made the video above. Just a perusal of this show, which is on Rumble, of course, shows that it’s a full-on right wing conspiracy and medical misinformation show. Don’t believe me? Just peruse the list of videos for yourself. Also, note how her sponsors include lots of companies marketing quackery and supplements, including her own “superfoods” line of products.
Again, one of the hallmarks of science denial is fake experts, often with credential inflation, and that’s what we have here. Not only does it appear that it’s been over two decades since Ruby has practiced nursing, advanced practice or otherwise, but there’s nothing that I’ve been able to find about Ruby’s history to suggest that she has any special expertise in the relevant fields of infectious disease, virology, molecular biology, epidemiology, immunology, or, well, any field relevant to commenting authoritatively on the safety and efficacy of vaccines other than—maybe, judging from her publication record—a bit of epidemiology in unrelated fields.
Her “credentials,” such as they are, do appear to be unfortunately more than adequate to provide a veneer of scientific expertise good enough to fool her audience.
It’s always the vaccines. Always.
None of the reaction to Novavax is a surprise to any of us who’ve been combatting antivaccine misinformation for a long time. It was entirely predictable that antivaxxers would latch onto the use of a moth cell line to portray the vaccine as “dirty”, foreign, and “contaminated”. As I like to point out, the idea that the animal used in the process of making vaccines dates back all the way to Edward Jenner’s time, as shown in this classic cartoon from the early 1800s portraying the fear of antivaxxers that the “cow pock” used to vaccinate against smallpox would turn people into cows:
Even a few years after Edward Jenner introduced the smallpox vaccine, the idea that vaccines somehow permanently alter humans had begun. (Source: Wikipedia and the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-3147, color film copy transparency.)
Going back to the NVIC article citing the WaPo article with the video describing the use of moth cells to make spike protein. In the comments, a commenter named Pam observed:
I am not an entomologist but I do garden a lot and see many moths. Since the video only talked about proteins and mRNA, I wanted to know more about what moths can do to a human in general. Moths are of the paraphyletic group meaning many have a common ancestor. Does that suggest what affects one species genetically may affect other species? Not sure. Did they say what species of moth they used in the Novavax? I did some online research and found some moth caterpillar species cause lepidopterism (caterpillar dermatitis) if touched. Lymantria dispar, the spongy moth (has black and red spots in caterpillar stage) carries the NPV (spongy moth virus). Could this NPV make its way into moth vaccines? Would make a great sci-fi novel plot–every vaccinated person grows antennae and makes coccoons [sic]. The comment about “Mothman cometh” brought all sorts of sci-fi musings to mind. Have not gotten a vaccine since 2006 and won’t be wanting ANY soon. Adjuvants are on my no-list since the allergist said this may be what I react badly to when getting a vaccine. Being out in natural settings with Nature is wonderful. Science should stop messing with the genetic make-up of any living being. Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.
David Hedison as the titular character in the 1958 horror film The Fly, which also starred Vincent Price.
Jeff Goldblum in the 1986 remake of The Fly. David Hedison, Vincent Price, and Jeff Goldblum all agree: No insect cells and DNA, ever!
Is Pam joking about Novavax turning its recipients into moths? My interpretation is that she was only partially joking. She is, however, echoing a very old antivax trope, namely the idea that vaccines somehow change your very essence to be more like the vaccine. In the 1800s, it was cows because cow pox lesions were used to vaccinate against smallpox. Now? It’s moths. The NVIC article, of course, is nothing new, just a resurrection of the same fear mongering about moth cells that had been going on ever since antivaxxers had discovered that spike protein to be used to manufacture Novavax was to be produced using a Baculovirus system and moth cells.
There are other examples, of course. For instance, you might remember how about a decade ago antivaxxers were making a big deal out of the use of monkey kidney cells to produce polio virus for the oral polio vaccine in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which Mike Adams, for instance, described as vaccines “routinely” containing “hidden cancer viruses derived from diseased monkeys”. While it is true that the oral polio vaccine was contaminated with a monkey cancer virus (SV40) during that time period, even though there is no good evidence that this contamination resulted in an increase in cancer.
A more direct predecessor to the claim that moth DNA from Novavax will somehow corrupt your DNA to the point that your offspring afterwards will be “freaks” is less obvious. The claim that moth DNA from Novavax will somehow wreak havoc in your body is very much of a piece with old antivax claims that the HPV vaccine will “contaminate” your DNA with stray fragments of DNA leftover from the production of other vaccines could “permanently alter your DNA” and wreak havoc in your body. For instance, one favorite antivax talking point before the pandemic was that there was sufficient resemblance between nucleotide sequences in HPV and some human genes that when HPV sequence got into human cells, it could result in “molecular mimicry” that would target the recipients for attack by the immune system and produce autoimmunity. (There’s no good evidence that this actually happens, as the amount of HPV DNA in HPV vaccines is truly minuscule.)
Another favorite antivax “mechanism” for vaccine-induced harm was the concept that human DNA from the cell lines (you know, those awful “fetal cells”) could get into cells in the central nervous system, recombine with the DNA in those cells, and produce proteins that the immune system “saw” as “altered self”, resulting in an autoimmune reaction that “damaged” the brain to cause autism. This particular idea provoked a lot of laughter among molecular biologists because of how antivax reporter Sharyl Attkisson (who’s since gone on to become an all-purpose conspiracy “reporter”) quoted the author of an antivax review article proposing this idea thusly:
Why could human DNA potentially cause brain damage? The way Ratajczak explained it to me: “Because it’s human DNA and recipients are humans, there’s homologous recombinaltion tiniker. That DNA is incorporated into the host DNA. Now it’s changed, altered self and body kills it. Where is this most expressed? The neurons of the brain. Now you have body killing the brain cells and it’s an ongoing inflammation. It doesn’t stop, it continues through the life of that individual.”
“Homologous recombinaltion tiniker” instead of homologous recombination (the actual process by which very similar pieces of DNA can integrate themselves into a genome) will never not be funny to me. It’s an idea that persists until today and has been applied to fear mongering about mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines. As much as the misspelling echoes through a very specific segment of those who oppose antivax disinformation even 11 years later, it’s the same idea, that vaccines somehow “contaminate you”.
Then there are adjuvants. It was easily predictable that any adjuvant used in a COVID-19 vaccine would be targeted by antivaxxers to be portrayed as horrific sludge that will kill you or, failing that, cause autoimmune disease. After all, aluminum adjuvants have long been a target of antivaxxers, who falsely describe it as “poison” that kills.
Of course, fear mongering about adjuvants, moth cells and DNA, fetal cells and DNA, HPV DNA, spike mRNA, lipid nanoparticles, and other vaccine ingredients, is just a subset of a larger antivaccine narrative, one that I like to refer to as the “toxins gambit“. It’s a narrative that seeks to portray vaccines as so riddled with horrific toxins and awful substances—aborted babies!—that you’d be crazy to inject them into your body. Two decades ago it was the mercury in the thimerosal preservative used in several childhood vaccines that was falsely blamed for autism, with evidence continuing to accumulate showing no link. Then it was the formaldehyde used to inactivate viruses used in vaccines – never mind that the body makes formaldehyde as a byproduct of metabolism and that the amount in vaccines is much smaller than the small amount that the body routinely makes. Then there’s the claim that there’s antifreeze in vaccines. There’s not. This claim was based on the confusion between ethylene glycol (which is in antifreeze) and polyethylene glycol (PEG), a polymer used in many topical and medical products. Basically, PEGylated drugs have been around a very long time.
I could go on and on, but I think that I’ve described enough examples. You get the idea. For antivaxxers, it’s all about the vaccines, not the ingredients, the adjuvants, the cells used to produce the antigen, or the platform used to make the vaccine. Prove that one of these is safe, and they’ll move the goalposts, effortlessly shifting to another. You could produce a vaccine that’s nothing other than protein antigen and buffered saline, and antivaxxers would find a way to blame the antigen and/or the saline. That’s because it’s vaccines and vaccination that frighten antivaxxers. The rest is just window dressing, made-up reasons antivaxxers find to justify their fears. Unfortunately, these antivaxxers then transmit those fears to those predisposed to distrust pharmaceutical companies, doctors, drugs, and all that is associated with them.
We have little choice but to play Whack-A-Mole to refute fear mongering about individual vaccine ingredients, but we shouldn’t forget that these are just distractions from the real issue: Vaccination itself. A common narrative among antivaxxers is that vaccines are “disease matter” injected “unnaturally” into the body. It is a potent narrative designed to cause revulsion, and it’s unfortunately very effective at that. It’s also the narrative that we most need to overcome far more than obviously ridiculous claims about “moth DNA” turning people into insects. It doesn’t matter if it’s recombinant protein and not whole virus that is used. It doesn’t matter if the antigen is produced by injected mRNA or just injected as protein. It’s the vaccines. It’s always been the vaccines. It will always be the vaccines.
