November 27, 2023
Section I
Literature Review
1) Pericytes are critical cells that sit around the tiny blood vessels called capillaries of the body especially in the brain. They are involved in regulating blood vessel activity. They communicate directly with the endothelial cells making them super important in the activity of the blood vessel and metabolism at the local tissue interface.
From the journal Cell Death and Disease we see: "Crosstalk mechanisms between pericytes, endothelial cells, and astrocytes preserve integrity and function of the blood-brain-barrier (BBB) under physiological conditions. Long intercellular channels allowing the transfer of small molecules and organelles between distant cells called tunneling nanotubes (TNT) represent a potential substrate for energy and matter exchanges between the tripartite cellular compartments of the BBB.........we found that astrocytes form long TNT with pericytes and endothelial cells and receive functional mitochondria from both cell types through this mechanism. The mitochondrial transfer also occurred in multicellular assembloids of human BBB that reproduce the three-dimensional architecture of the BBB. Under conditions of ischemia/reperfusion, TNT formation is upregulated, and astrocytes exposed to oxygen-glucose deprivation were rescued from apoptosis by healthy pericytes through TNT-mediated transfer of functional mitochondria, an effect that was virtually abolished in the presence of TNT-destroying drugs." (Pisani et. al. 2022)
In another study by Pandey and colleagues we see the pericytes having a large role in the deposition and maintenance of memory. They are involved in increasing the protein insulin like growth factor 2 which is directly related to quality of the deposition of memory. Loss of IGF2 and pericyte function is a hallmark of age related mental decline. Inflammation and sloth are direct insults to pericytes over time. The upstream issues are well known to us: ultra processed foods, simple sugars, trans fats, sedentary behavior, toxin exposure are all leading to this reality.
I find it super fascinating that the pericytes produce nanotubes to move intact mitochondria and nutrients from the pericyte to another needy cell. The human body is absolutely incredible. My buddy Huck would love this research. It is meant to work for us and our need to procreate and survive. It only breaks down when our choices do not match up with our needs.
2) Mask mandates for children did not work, again! "We successfully replicated the original result using 565 counties; non-masking counties had around 30 additional daily cases per 100,000 children after two weeks of schools reopening. However, after nine weeks, cases per 100,000 were 18.3 in counties with mandates compared to 15.8 in those without them. In a larger sample of 1832 counties, between weeks 2 and 9, cases per 100,000 fell by 38.2 and 37.9 in counties with and without mask requirements, respectively." (Chandra et. al. 2023)
Never again should we follow blindly the anti-science based recommendations that caused harm with a perceived benefit.
3) In a large UK Biobank population analysis we see a 10 year increase in longevity in men that switch from a highly processed diet to a whole foods diet that maximizes vegetable, legume, nut and fruit intake. Nuff said! (Fadnes et. al. 2023)
4) Was the Covid vaccine safe in pregnant women back in 2021? Marty Makary breaks down the science, i.e. NONE, behind the recommendation to give it to pregnant women in 2021. I find this article profoundly disturbing! How were we recommending a novel vaccine without adequately studying it in an incredibly risky population. The fetal origins of disease epigenetics model makes this completely anti hippocratic. What has medicine devolved into where we recommend a novel mRNA vaccine at the highest levels, i.e. CDC and ACOG without data to support the safety? Insanity.
From the article: "In February 2021, to settle the controversy over whether the COVID vaccines should be used during pregnancy, Pfizer launched a randomized controlled trial of 4,000 pregnant women. But five months into the study, after enrolling 349 women, the study mysteriously stopped recruiting. Pfizer never offered a reason. Most concerning, the pregnancy outcomes of those who participated in the trial, and their babies, are still not public today, nearly two years later.
But the CDC did not wait for good data to make a decisive recommendation. In April 2021, just four months after the COVID vaccine was first granted an emergency use authorization and two months into the then ongoing Pfizer pregnancy trial, Walensky decided not to wait for the trial results, and instead recommended that all “pregnant people” get the vaccine. Three months later, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) followed the CDC and “enthusiastically” recommended it as well."(Makary M. 2023)
The current CDC webpage dedicated to this topic has a list of more recent references from which they derive their current recommendations. Many of the studies are highly questionable observational studies with significant risk of bias.
One meta analysis study seemed reasonably well set up to give an answer and it found no significant risk for pregnancy in 2022. (Prasad et. al. 2022)
The current question I have is this - almost all women of child bearing age have now had natural disease to Sars2 Covid, i.e. natural immunity. Is there still a higher risk of a negative outcome in pregnancy in the Omicron era? If so, how much?
In Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Auger and colleagues noted that the Omicron wave was a 0.3% risk of ICU admission during pregnancy versus 1.8% during the Delta wave - a 6x drop likely due to the viral mutations making omicron less morbid and natural immunity providing increased protection. (Auger et. al. 2022)
For me two things are clear: 1) we continue to erode public confidence when we are not honest and transparent about the data, 2) we have to have government funded DBPC studies to answer these questions definitively.
5) Pregnancy mRNA Covid vaccine associated with reduced infection risk in neonates in the first 6 months of age. The same reductions were not seen unless vaccinated during pregnancy. (Goh et. al. 2023) Then we must ask the question, how high is the risk for neonates? According to the CDC, the Omicron data as reported, the risk of hospitalization peaked winter 2022/2023 at 6 per 100,000 children and waned to 2 per 100,000 this past summer. By reference, influenza has a rate of 100 admissions per 100,000 children. According to the CDC, there have been 362 deaths in 0-6 month old infants since the start of the pandemic without a breakdown by year. The only death data by age that I could find by year is from Michigan which reported 5 deaths per year due to Covid in 2021 and 2022. 1 death was noted in 2023. (Michigan Health) There is the data as I can find it to make decisions on regarding Covid and pregnancy. Tough call.
I generally do recommend the flu vaccine for pregnant women and infants at 6 months of age do its safety profile and risk prevention.
Dr. M
