Tag Archive for: inflammation

Vitamin D vs. Long COVID

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Returning to the vitamin D study, the rest of the headline suggested that taking vitamin D upon getting COVID may reduce symptoms of long-term COVID (LTCOVID), a serious aftereffect of a COVID infection that can impact the nervous and muscular system. Brain fog, chronic fatigue, and pain are some of the common symptoms.

The reason for hope with LTCOVID symptoms is that those subjects who continued to supplement with vitamin D showed a lower propensity for LTCOVID symptoms than the placebo group. It was not statistically significant with 21% of the vitamin D group showing symptoms of LTCOVID versus 25% in the placebo group, but it provided hope for further research; there were no differences in serious adverse events between the placebo and vitamin D groups.

Two things I found interesting: first, those subjects in either group who had normal vitamin D levels in their blood didn’t have an advantage over those who had very low or low levels of vitamin D. That surprised me as one would think that having a good baseline would be protective in some way. Maybe not.

Second, whether vitamin D impacted COVID as to length of symptoms, it showed that vitamin D supplementation at the first symptom of COVID may be protective. The amounts used in the study were two days at 9,600 IU and then 3,200 IU daily for eight weeks or more, based on the length of the study.

Why would vitamin D be beneficial after a person contracted the virus? Speculation by two researchers, one of the authors and a scientist from another lab, was that vitamin D boosts the immune system by reducing inflammation during the infection. The only way we’ll know for sure is by doing more research.

For now, it’s up to you and your healthcare professionals how best to deal with your next COVID infection. Vitamin D seems to be a viable option.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: J Nutr. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tjnut.2026.101398

Immune Booster 2 and 3

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Continuing with our look at how to approach the first tickle of a cold or seasonal allergies, we’ll finish up with the final two parts of our immune boosting supplements.

Garlic

The second part of our immune boost supplements is garlic; it’s been noted to have beneficial properties for over 5,000 years. Garlic thins the blood, thereby benefiting blood pressure, and helps lower cholesterol. Garlic does many things, but what benefits our immunity is its ability to boost the immune system while reducing inflammation.

There’s little question that garlic helps the immune system. It’s been used as a dietary treatment to help the immune system recover from chemotherapy; it’s also been used in supplement form to help the immune system get and stay stronger. That’s an obvious way it helps with viruses and allergies, but it also acts as an anti-inflammatory. It’s important to remember that inflammation occurs whenever our body is under attack—not necessarily broken-leg inflammation, but the release of negative hormones. Garlic helps reduce that type of inflammation.

Just as with echinacea, it’s important to begin as soon as the first tickle occurs. The quantity would be 600 mg taken three times a day. That makes our immune system start to work better.

Vitamin C

The third part of our immune system boost is vitamin C; also known as ascorbic acid, it’s best known as an antioxidant. From the research of Linus Pauling until today, vitamin C has been studied extensively. Even though vitamin C hasn’t been proven to prevent a cold, it does seem to reduce the symptoms of a cold. That may be the result of its antioxidant capacity to reduce inflammation.

When the body is exposed to viruses or allergens, the immune response is triggered. That’s desirable, of course, but what we don’t like are the symptoms associated with the response, such as watery eyes, runny nose, congestion, and on and on. While the exact mechanism is unknown, what may be happening is that vitamin C may be clearing up the free radicals in immune response cells, thereby allowing them to function better. No one knows, but it makes sense.

Take 250–500 mg three times a day. Some people increase their C to 10 times that amount, but my strategy is always to take the lowest amount to get the result I want.

The Bottom Line

The old adage “There’s no cure for the common cold!” was correct and still is as of this date. But if you want to reduce the symptoms and possibly the duration of common infections such as colds, the flu, or even seasonal allergies, remember the immune boosting trio.

Let’s summarize our immune boost formula, keeping in mind the number of tablets can vary depending on brands. Three times per day, take these:

            500 mg echinacea

            600 mg garlic

            250–500 mg vitamin C

Remember: the first tickle in your throat is the best time to start the immune boost trio.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Nutrients. 2022. https:// doi.org/10.3390/nu14214604

When It Comes to Carbs, Quality Matters

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You probably guessed right after reading Tuesday’s Memo that there are benefits from the quality of carbohydrates a person eats on a low-carb diet. In fact, one might say that because the carb intake is very low, every decision matters. Before getting into the results, let’s use the definition to identify the carbohydrate quality used in the study.

Good Carbs, Bad Carbs

High-quality carbohydrate diets are characterized by higher intakes of whole grains, non-starchy vegetables, whole fruits, nuts, and legumes, with correspondingly higher dietary fiber.

Lower quality carbohydrate diets are characterized by higher intakes of refined grains, sugar-sweetened beverages, baked desserts, and other sweet snacks.

The Results

While there were numerous statistical applications used, when comparing the lowest quintile of high-quality carbohydrates with the highest, as the percentage of high-quality carbohydrates increased, the markers of inflammation decreased.

When comparing the lowest quintile of low-quality carbohydrates with the highest quintile, the markers of inflammation increased as the percentage intake increased.

Understand that the high-quality carb eaters ate low-quality carbs as well, just not as much as the low-quality carb eaters. That means you don’t have to eat only one way. I’ve been developing a carb theory, one that goes along with the 80/20 rule: if you can eat well 80% of the time, you can loosen up 20% of the time, at least when it comes to carbohydrate quality.

The Bottom Line

This was not the be-all, end-all study; they used food frequency questionnaires, and I’ve talked ad nauseum about why I think they’re not much better than no info at all. But it was a practical approach to establishing that eating better most of the time can have benefits and may even reduce the risk of disease. We’ll see if there are future papers that track morbidity and mortality in the same group of subjects. Until then, eat less, eat better, and move more.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Current Developments in Nutrition. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cdnut.2025.107479

Lower Carb Diet: Does Quality Count?

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The Framingham Study began in 1948 and focused on monitoring nutrition and cardiovascular disease among other conditions. The purpose was to monitor the dietary and health habits as well as the health outcomes of a large group of people over time. Much of what we know about diet and cardiovascular disease comes from the longitudinal data collected; that study continues today with a focus on the children whose parents were part of the original study. Study participants have regularly scheduled physicals and blood work as well as dietary intake assessed by a food frequency questionnaire.

The researchers wanted to study the effect of high-quality carbohydrate intake versus low-quality carbohydrate intake on markers of inflammation in those people following a lower carbohydrate diet. These were not hard-core ketogenic diet followers; the average carbohydrate intake was about 41% instead of the typical 50% to 60%. Subjects had similar intakes of percentage of protein and fat intake. They were compared by the quality of the carbohydrates that they ate.

The subjects were followed for over six years to see if there were any changes in inflammatory markers, because inflammation is related to an increased risk of many diseases and conditions including cardiovascular disease. Was it beneficial to eat better carbs? I’ll let you know on Saturday along with comments about the significance of this study.

Tomorrow night is the Insiders conference call. If you want to participate and get your questions answered, become an Insider by 8 p.m. ET tomorrow night; I’ll include you in the call or you can listen to the replay.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Current Developments in Nutrition. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cdnut.2025.107479

More About Fats and Oils

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In my research on fats and oils, I found out a few things I didn’t know and discovered some more research about seed oils. The issues raised about seed oils have always been related to how unhealthy seed oils are rather than the overconsumption of seed oils. But are they as hazardous as they’re made out to be?

I Bet You Didn’t Know…

Did you know that lard comes from rendering—melting down—pig fat?

Did you know that tallow comes from rendering beef fat?

The fatty acid arachidonic acid is used to make prostaglandins, hormone-like fatty acids that can impact inflammation. The highest amounts are found in animal fats, not seed oils. The gurus’ claim that all seed oils cause inflammation isn’t true; it’s the amount consumed that matters.

The deadliest fatty acids are trans-fatty acids (TFAs). They can be made from seed oils that have been hydrogenated or saturated fats that are kept at high frying temperatures for long periods of time.

Research Update on Oils

Researchers collected data on the production of trans-fatty acids from cooking with seed oils, including those that contain hydrogenated oils, which are man-made by heating oils at high temperature. They found that as long as seed oils didn’t contain hydrogenated oils, keeping the frying temperature below 400° didn’t produce appreciable TFAs in any seed oils tested.  

The Bottom Line

When cooking with animal- or plant-based fats and oils, it’s important to keep the cooking temperature below the smoke point to limit the production of TFAs, which are associated with heart disease. Also, choose oils without hydrogenated fats in them.

To reduce inflammation, it doesn’t really matter whether you use seed oils or lard or tallow—it’s the amount you consume that’s going to make the difference. Eat less. Eat better. Move more.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Nutrients 2022, 14, 1489. https://doi.org/10.3390/ nu14071489

Protect Your Brain—Eat More Magnesium

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In the last Memo, we were left with the researchers’ question: if magnesium intake and BP were not related to a neuroprotective effect, what was? The researchers had some idea based on prior research: inflammation. Let’s take a look at what they found on the follow-up to their original study.

The methodology and subject pool of the study was essentially the same as the other study with the addition of several measures of inflammation, including hs-CRP. Researchers found that as magnesium intake increased, inflammation decreased. Subjects with higher levels of magnesium intake had increased brain volumes including grey matter and white matter, but not white matter lesions. This was an observational study, so cause and effect cannot be determined, but with close to 6,000 subjects, I think we can safely say there’s a definite relationship between magnesium intake and a neuroprotective effect.

How Much Do I Need?

The average intake of magnesium was 360 mg for men and 340 mg for women. A reader recently sent me a post in which a physician recommended that everyone should take 500 mg of magnesium every day. I’m not going to go that far because there’s still too much we don’t know. The biggest issue is we don’t know where the subjects got their magnesium; this study was done in the United Kingdom and they tend to eat more plant-based foods than Americans.

I’ve written to the lead author of the study to see if they plan to publish another study breaking down the contribution from foods and from supplements—I’ll let you know what he says. For now, I’m going to recommend that we increase our consumption of the top five sources of magnesium from foods. Those are:

         1 ounce pumpkin seeds
         3 ounces spinach
         1 ounce almonds
         3 ounces avocado
         1 ounce dark chocolate

If you’re interested in more information on magnesium and its benefits, become an Insider and you can listen to a replay of the last Insider conference call. Remember: Eat less. Eat better. Move more.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: European Journal of Nutrition (2024) 63:1807–1818

How Can Vaccinations Reduce Alzheimer’s Disease?

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In reading possible explanations for the potential benefits of flu vaccinations for reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), it always comes back to reducing inflammation. Further, it isn’t just the flu vaccine that seems to have that effect. Pneumonia, DTAP booster, shingles, and others have also been studied with similar results: vaccinations seem to reduce the risk of AD. The question is still why? I’ll give you two possibilities.

Vaccines Stimulate the Immune System

Whenever you get a vaccination, the immune system is stimulated. It may be that the activated system addresses weaknesses in the immune system that should be protecting the nervous system. Some researchers speculate it may reduce the formation of amyloid bodies (sticky proteins that harm the brain) and prevent the progression of dementia.

One thing to remember is the population being studied. It might be that, in spite of lifestyle habits, inflammation increases as we age, specifically in the brain. Some people may have genetics that can help. However, it may not just be the nervous system in the brain that’s at risk from increased inflammation. There is an increase in cardiac arrythmias of all types, decreases in muscle function, and many other effects that we attribute to simple aging. It may not be as simple as working hard on a healthy lifestyle, and it may exceed our attempts at living healthier.

Viral Infections Cause Inflammation

“I never get sick!” I’ve heard that a time or two. My question is “How do you know?” Maybe you’re sick, but your immune system has fought off all the symptoms you expect. The assumption is that every virus you get exposed to will leave you with some form of physical manifestation: a cough or runny nose during a cold, vomiting or diarrhea with a food-borne pathogen, or a fever from the flu.

But how do you know that you’re not in a state of inflammation, wreaking havoc on your nervous system, your heart, or another organ? You think your immune system isn’t working even though you don’t “feel” it? It can be. If we’re not flat on our backs, we don’t think we are undergoing immune system challenges. That’s simply not reality, and the problem is that the challenges get worse as we get older.

The Bottom Line

I think this research causes a dilemma for some people: vaccinate or not? As we get older, our immune system doesn’t work as well. Let’s be honest: lots of things don’t work as well, but we’re still kicking, darn it! What we could ignore in our youth now demands our attention. Yes, we need a healthy lifestyle that includes a better diet, a little exercise, and some immune-boosting supplements such as vitamin D and C.

The challenge is the anti-science climate we now live in, and nothing is more controversial than talking about vaccinations. Opinions may be based on flawed science—or in some cases, no science, just opinion—and access to social media where people can say anything they want to say. For me, the science is pointing to benefits from vaccinations if you’re older than 65. Just spread them out over a few weeks or months to give your immune system a chance to adapt.

Whatever you decide to do, it’s your body. It’s your choice.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

References:
1. J Alz Dis. 88 (2022). 1061–1074. DOI 10.3233/JAD-220361
2. Vaccine. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.08.046

Soreness and Specificity of Training

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The first Super Bowl Webinar I ever did was about specificity of training. A running buddy years ago summarized how to run faster this way: “If you want to run faster, you gotta run faster.” In other words, even short bursts of running very fast would eventually help build speed more than slow, long runs.

The key element of specificity of training is that you can’t run faster by swimming or cycling or weight training; you have to do that by running. The same concept applies to just about any physical endeavor. Chefs can’t improve their knife skills by running or weight training: they have to spend hours chopping and slicing.

If you use an elliptical trainer or recumbent bike or you ride a bicycle, you’re training specific muscles to fire in specific patterns. When you change to another mode of exercise such as walking or running, you’re going to use the same muscles but in different ways; some muscles maintain balance and others maintain posture in addition to those that are doing the bulk of the work moving your body. And they’re different in different modes of exercise; even with all my education and experience, I was surprised at how sore I was when I had to switch from running to walking. Until you’ve trained those muscles for the particular activity, you’re going to be sore. And the sad news is that it gets worse as you get older.

Dealing with Discomfort

The important thing to understand is that this discomfort is temporary; the exception is if you had an orthopedic issue that never has been resolved. For me it was my knee, and now that’s resolved. If you’ve avoided getting something repaired, it’s your call but the longer you wait, the more you risk not getting back the mobility you had.

If you’ve changed your mode of exercise, here are some ways to deal with it:

  1. Start with heat followed by easy stretching. We think that our muscles and connective tissue are like rubber bands while stretching. Not exactly accurate, but warm muscles are more pliable so doing some kind of warm up will help you avoid injury. Easy does it; stretching too far too fast is a recipe for even more pain.
  2. Increase fluid intake to “flush” out some of the breakdown products of muscle and other connective tissue.
  3. Use glucosamine and vitamin C to help the connective tissue repair process. The purpose of breakdown is to build back better, but to do that, you need the nutrients that repair the microtears in the connective tissue.
  4. Ice specific areas, especially the front of the shins; shin splints is the common name for pain in this area. The connective tissue compartment that holds the tibialis anterior muscle (the one that pulls up your toes) isn’t very pliable, so reducing inflammation in that muscle can really help.
  5. Most of the soreness you’re feeling is from inflammation. If you feel you need to, and have no medical reason you can’t, use a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug such as ibuprofen; it relieves pain, but reducing inflammation is key to your recovery and continued progress.

The Bottom Line

It can literally be a pain to start to exercise or change your mode of exercise. There’s a price to pay but in comparison to the benefits you’ll get, the cost is minimal. Be sure to start slow: if you push too far too fast, you’re going to set back your progress while you recover. In the long run, you’ll get farther by taking small steps so you can keep going without a pause for injuries.

We’re not done talking about walking yet, but if you have any stories about finding the right shoe for you, let me know. I’m doing background research on that, so I won’t write about it next week—you have time to send me your stories.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Knowing Your Health Patterns

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The reason it’s important to track health variables is to find any patterns in the results. Remember the study on hs-CRP and cancer? Paula immediately looked up her CRP levels and found two things. First, it had gone down consistently over several years. Second, she hadn’t had it tested every year, but she will from now on.

Remember my blood pressure? I tracked it from that point (five weeks post-surgery) through today. From 177/107, it has come down appreciably though not in a consistent way; it’s consistently around 130/80 before exercise and 110/70 after exercise. That’s two patterns.

There are some other patterns that may be more relevant. For example, perhaps you’ve had heartburn after eating. Tracking what you eat may show a pattern that the higher the fat content, the worse the heartburn seems to be; the same may be true with constipation.

In short, you may find that one thing leads to another, but only under certain conditions. It’s knowing which conditions that’s most important to finding an answer to your health issue.

Patterns for Disease States

Many conditions have patterns of events that can be predictive of disease. For example, as bone density declines, your risk of a bone fracture increases. As blood pressure goes up, so does the risk of stroke. For type 2 diabetes, as blood sugar and HbA1c rise, so does the risk of prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, and all the accompanying complications.

Those types of patterns can be predictive of disease. Or they may not. As we’ve learned in the Memos, risk factors set the odds but they’re not cause and effect. But there’s another reason.

Your Pattern

The reason tracking to establish patterns of response is important to you is that it may just be your unique pattern—because while we’re all the same in many ways, we all have our unique variations. You may not know what’s unique about you because you haven’t tested it or tracked it to find your pattern. But whether it’s your blood pressure, your blood sugar, your response to foods, or some other variable, it simply may be your individual pattern and may be indicative of nothing.

That doesn’t mean you don’t get the issue checked out by a healthcare professional, but it may mean you don’t have a disease or condition as a general response would indicate. And since you know your pattern, you can track the results of any medication or other intervention your doctor prescribes.

The Bottom Line

Tracking variables to detect patterns is useful to us all. While it won’t help everyone who tries it, the goal is to know yourself better. You won’t have to do it forever, but if you’re concerned about a specific condition, this is a way to help yourself.

And it won’t necessarily be bad news; Paula was relieved to find her hs-CRP had been going down, and you may find an encouraging pattern as well. Even if the results are not what you’d hoped, better to know than not know, right? Because now you can take action.

If you have no idea where to begin, become an Insider or Member at DrChet.com. You’ll have exclusive access to me by email or phone, and I can guide you in checking out whatever factors could be related to the health issue you’re concerned about.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Track Your Health Issue

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Over the past few months, I’ve written about my blood pressure increasing from being sedentary for five weeks after my knee replacement. I’ve also written about hs-CRP in the study on inflammation and cancer. In addition, I’ve gotten questions about the impact of foods on the digestive system and the variation in blood sugar readings throughout the day.

While the questions vary, my answer is always the same: track it for a while. Whether it’s on a fitness watch, on a spread sheet, an app, or a notebook, record it somewhere. Doesn’t matter how you do it—just record the numbers along with other pertinent information, such as:

  • Date and time of day.
  • What you ate, if it’s important to the issue such as gastroesophageal reflux, or if you’re restricting calories for weight loss or longevity.
  • When you took your meds and supplements.
  • How well and how long you slept.
  • If it’s your blood pressure, record your anxiety or stress level as well as reading in relation to exercise.

The combination of factors is endless, and not every factor will be as obvious. If you continue to track it, you’ll have an edge determining what is and isn’t related to what you’re tracking.

Could this be a lot of work? Yes. Will you find an answer? Maybe, maybe not. What it can do is allow you to discover something that’s useful and I’ll talk about that on Saturday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet