In Part Three of our series, Dr. Frank Lipman and Dr. Rob Rountree shared the nutritional recommendations they’ve proposed for their patients, particularly a botanical extract called Quercetin and the immune-regulating properties of Vitamin D.
An important note: No dietary supplement can diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, including COVID-19. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is especially important to understand that no dietary supplement, no diet, and no lifestyle modifications - other than the recommended social distancing and hygiene practices - can prevent you from being infected with the COVID-19 virus. No current research supports the use of any dietary supplement to protect you from being infected with the COVID-19 virus.
The video starts with a title screen. A maroon and orange gradient aura shifts in the upper right corner of the screen as words appear. They read “Dr. Frank Lipman and Dr. Robert Rountree answer questions about COVID-19 and give some practical advice” and appear over two short resume blurbs about the two doctors. The blurbs read: “Dr. Frank Lipman, M.D., Functional Medicine Doctor, New York Times Best Seller” and “Dr. Robert Rountree, M.D., Functional Medicine Physician, Chief Medical Officer for Thorne.
After a few seconds the words pan up the screen as a question fades in from below. The question reads: “What are some of the natural compounds you’re currently recommending to patients?”
Dr. Robert Rountree, M.D.:
I would say some of the best researchers on quercetin, what is quercetin is? Well, besides being one of my all time, favorite supplements going on 35 years, I've been prescribing it for that long. Is a yellow pigment that's found in most fruits and vegetables, but especially rich in apple skins and onions, especially red onion skins. So, onion soup is a really good source, of quercetin. But most people, if they're eating salads, they're getting quercetin. So, you're already eating it in your diet.
As Dr. Rountree talks, words appear on the right side of the screen emphasizing his points. The text only serves to clarify what is being said and does not add any new information that isn’t already present in what Dr. Rountree has to say.
Dr. Rountree, M.D.:
But it was discovered years and years ago that quercetin is the really good new immune supportive agent. Some of the early research was on allergies because quercetin stabilize as a type of white blood cell called mass cells. Mass cells release histamine. Histamine is what causes all that nasal congestion and sneezing that you get with allergies and with a cold.
The one thing about quercetin is that it's very poorly absorbed. So you have to take a lot of it if you're just buying straight quercetin powder and we're talking 3000 milligrams or so a day. But there was a study on quercetin phytosome, which is quercetin that's bound to sunflower lecithin. And that studies show that it dramatically enhance the absorption of the quercetin. So if you're taking quercetin phytosome, you need generally one or two caps once or twice a day. It's inexpensive, safe, non-toxic. Kids can take it, little kids can take it. So it's my top supplement where I just think everyone should take this. And then, if there's any indication that an infection is coming on, you can triple that dose. You could do like 500, three times a day. Frank, you use quercetin don't you?
Dr. Frank Lipman, M.D.:
Yeah. I mean, I've been using it more often now, but I haven't used it as much as you do, but I do. And now I've been taking it as well, but I use it, but I'm actually going to use the quercetin phytosome because as you said, it's better absorbed. I've usually been using it in other formulas. And obviously it's not enough, but thanks for that.
Dr. Robert Rountree, M.D.:
There's a pretty good reason to believe that quercetin is a worthwhile thing. Now I'm not saying, hey, just take the quercetin and you're done. I'm just saying that's the top of my list, right? I think the more the merrier is like, this is a soup here of immune supportive agents.
Dr. Frank Lipman, M.D.:
Vitamin D obviously is one of those nutrients. Also, you can measure it. We see so many people have low vitamin D. So we can assume that most people need vitamin D. What I'm actually recommending to people who don't have the levels measured, just take 5,000 a day in the meantime, anyway. 5,000 a day, although some people say it's too much. I've never seen a overdose on 5,000 at all.
Dr. Robert Rountree, M.D.:
Ever.
Dr. Frank Lipman, M.D.:
Most important, with vitamin A and vitamin D is a fat-soluble. So what I hear all the time, people take it and they take it with a salad or they're not taking it with fat, and then it's not going to be absorbed. So the important thing about A and D you need to take it with fat. Otherwise, you're not going to get any D into you.
Dr. Robert Rountree, M.D.:
So the interesting thing about vitamin D is that if the immune system is under functioning and you add vitamin D, it brings the immune system up to a normal functioning level. But if it's overfunctioning, it actually down regulates it, it decreases the activity of vitamin D, which is why it's been used for autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, right? So vitamin D is, you could call it an adaptogen. It's really a hormone. We think of it as a dietary supplement, but it's working like a hormone that regulates the immune system. Now, this is a important point because I saw a paper that came out of the University of Arizona Integrative Medical Center, where they were saying be really careful with vitamin D because it could cause a cytokine storm in people that have COVID-19, you know what? I've never seen one study that says that this happens, right?
It's totally fantasy. There's also a pretty famous nutritionist named Chris Masterjohn, who says, if you're taking vitamin D and you get COVID-19, you better stop it immediately or your immune system is going to go haywire. There's no evidence that that happens. There's just none. And so it's total speculation. I'm seeing a lot of this kind of speculation out there. Don't take elderberry if you've got COVID because it'll make your immune system go haywire. Well, show me the evidence. If you take your immune cells and put them in a test tube and add some elderberry, it activates the immune cells. Well, that's what you want. That doesn't mean that herbs like elderberry, or echinacea, or Andrographis, or any of these immune boosting herbs, that doesn't mean that if you take them over a period of days that your immune system is going to get boosted into the, it's not going to skyrocket into the universe. It doesn't work that way. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of how these herbs work.
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