March 25, 2020 • 7 mins
Dr. Leo Galland, internist practicing in New York City, joins us to offer some preventive and protective tips on what you can do to keep your body in the best fighting shape against coronavirus. Dr. Galland suggests taking some Vitamin D, a low dose of melatonin, and some other supplements to help out.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Wednesday, ma. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily Dive
podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily coronavirus update.
Joining us now is Dr Leo Gallant, in turn is
practicing in New York City. Thanks for joining us, Dr Gallant,
it's good to be speaking with you today. We wanted
to continue talking about coronavirus COVID nineteen. One of the
(00:20):
latest things that we just saw is that doctors in
the United States are calling for the loss of sense
of smell and taste to be added to the list
of screening tools for COVID nineteen. Apparently a lot of
people that have come down with this have reported this
loss of sense of taste and smell. Dr can you
tell us anything about that. So far, loss of smell
(00:44):
and taste are related to one another. Much of what
you taste is really because you're smelling it. There are
two known factors so far that impact on smell and taste.
One is zinc, so that with zinc deficiency there can
be a loss of both. And there are also maybe
neurological factors that contribute to this loss of smell, for example,
(01:07):
as an early symptom of Parkinson's disease, and coronaviruses are
known to enter and impact the brain, so as a
symptom of COVID nineteen infection, this may implicate either metabolic
change in the body tying up zinc or some neurologic effect.
(01:28):
Whether it's specific enough for COVID nineteen or not, I
don't know, but it seems as if this is a
good symptom for people to be aware of. This is
all very new stuff. Obviously, we're learning more and more
about the virus as the days go on. Some of
the reports said that in Germany it's reported that more
than two in three of the confirmed cases have this
loss of smell and taste. So just another thing to
(01:51):
be on the lookout for there when you're trying to
figure out if you might have come down with this. Doctor,
I also wanted to ask, you know, for a lot
of the people that gets sick, I think they numbers
still experience mild symptoms. I mean, we really just treat
those symptoms specifically, and from what I've been reading, you
treat it kind of like a regular cold and flu
(02:12):
if you can lots of fluids, lots of rest, you know,
the whole chicken soup thing. What can we do, What
can we do to help our bodies be ready for
something like this? All right, well, this is my perspective
on this um. The good news is that or more
of people who develop this infection really have a pretty
(02:33):
trivial infection that does not lead them to need medical care,
and that may be handled symptomatically. There are a number
of substances, There are a number of things that you
can do, and the number of natural products that you
can take that may help keep you in that There
(02:55):
appears to be a kind of two phases to illness
with COVID nineteen. At least this is what's reported from England,
and I think it's what we're seeing here that the
early phase phase one last a few days, maybe five
days on average. Their mild symptoms, fatigue, muscle likes, sore throat,
and who get better recover at that point and they
(03:18):
may still shed the virus for two or three weeks
after they recover, but they don't require further treatment. Then
there's a second phase in which their shortness of breath
and cough signs of pneumonia, often leading the hospitalization. That's
the phase that we want to help people avoid and
(03:39):
in looking at the biology of the virus and the
immune response to it. I think there's several things that
people can start doing and need to start doing long
before they're infected in order to support the immune system
and support the body's anti inflammatory responses to COVID nineteen
infection so that they they never developed phase two of
(04:04):
the infection. Among those things, of course, they're the basic
things like try to get enough sleep, try to eat
a healthy, balanced diet, don't smoke, stop vaping if you vape,
don't stay up watching late night television, m or using
computers late at night because that interferes with your immune system.
(04:24):
There are some supplements that are important. Vitamin D is
number one. It has anti viral effects. It also improves
the function of your immune system hands anti inflammatory. During
the winter, especially in the northern half of the US,
Virtually everyone needs to take some vitamin D supplementation dose,
(04:45):
ranging from about a thousand units to maybe five thousand
units a day, depending on the individual. It's best absorbed
is taken with your main meal. A second factor that's
really important for supporting immune responses and inflammation when it
comes to this virus is melatonin. Melotonin is a hormone
(05:05):
that is normally produced at the base of your brain
in the pituitary glend. The amount that a person makes
normally is the equivalent of about half of milligram, which
is significantly less than is in most of the pills.
We think of Melatonin is having to do with sleep.
It is produced in the dark, and so if you
(05:25):
have an artificial light late at night, if you're watching
computer screens or television late at night, your body makes
less melatonin. I recommend that for a lot of my patients,
taking a low dose of melatonin, maybe a half mellogram
at night about ten pm, may be helpful and may
also help to condition the body's immune response to be
(05:49):
less reactive in a negative way to the coronavirus. There
are a handful of other supplements that, based on the
research literature, may inhibit the growth of coronavirus and also
support the way the body is impacted by the coronavirus,
(06:10):
and these are commonly available and are used quite a bit.
One of them is kirk Kuman, which is known as
an anti inflammatory. It's been extensively studied. I do want
to say that there are no clinical trials with these
and these are not treatments for COVID nineteen infection. These
(06:31):
are preventive protective measures. This is all to keep the
effort to keep your body healthy should something should you
come down with something like this, right we are, we
are all at least half of the people in this country.
You're going to wind up being infected with this virus
over the next several months because the quarantine measures aren't
really designed to eradicate the virus. They're designed to slow
(06:55):
the rate of new cases so that the health care
system doesn't get overwhelmed. And of course, the greater percentage
of people who remain in that in that group that
does not get very sick, that never has to never
gets into phase two of the illness, the better that
will be, not only for you personally, but for your community,
(07:19):
for the country as a whole. And so that's the
reason I've been making these recommendations. Dr Leo Galland in turn,
is practicing in New York City. Thank you very much
for joining us. Okay, good to talk with you. I'm
Oscar Ramiers and this has been your daily coronavirus update.
Don't forget that. For today's big news stories, you can
check me out on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday
(07:40):
through Friday, so follow us in I Heart radio or
wherever you get your podcasts.
It's Wednesday, ma. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily Dive
podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily coronavirus update.
Joining us now is Dr Leo Gallant, in turn is
practicing in New York City. Thanks for joining us, Dr Gallant,
it's good to be speaking with you today. We wanted
to continue talking about coronavirus COVID nineteen. One of the
(00:20):
latest things that we just saw is that doctors in
the United States are calling for the loss of sense
of smell and taste to be added to the list
of screening tools for COVID nineteen. Apparently a lot of
people that have come down with this have reported this
loss of sense of taste and smell. Dr can you
tell us anything about that. So far, loss of smell
(00:44):
and taste are related to one another. Much of what
you taste is really because you're smelling it. There are
two known factors so far that impact on smell and taste.
One is zinc, so that with zinc deficiency there can
be a loss of both. And there are also maybe
neurological factors that contribute to this loss of smell, for example,
(01:07):
as an early symptom of Parkinson's disease, and coronaviruses are
known to enter and impact the brain, so as a
symptom of COVID nineteen infection, this may implicate either metabolic
change in the body tying up zinc or some neurologic effect.
(01:28):
Whether it's specific enough for COVID nineteen or not, I
don't know, but it seems as if this is a
good symptom for people to be aware of. This is
all very new stuff. Obviously, we're learning more and more
about the virus as the days go on. Some of
the reports said that in Germany it's reported that more
than two in three of the confirmed cases have this
loss of smell and taste. So just another thing to
(01:51):
be on the lookout for there when you're trying to
figure out if you might have come down with this. Doctor,
I also wanted to ask, you know, for a lot
of the people that gets sick, I think they numbers
still experience mild symptoms. I mean, we really just treat
those symptoms specifically, and from what I've been reading, you
treat it kind of like a regular cold and flu
(02:12):
if you can lots of fluids, lots of rest, you know,
the whole chicken soup thing. What can we do, What
can we do to help our bodies be ready for
something like this? All right, well, this is my perspective
on this um. The good news is that or more
of people who develop this infection really have a pretty
(02:33):
trivial infection that does not lead them to need medical care,
and that may be handled symptomatically. There are a number
of substances, There are a number of things that you
can do, and the number of natural products that you
can take that may help keep you in that There
(02:55):
appears to be a kind of two phases to illness
with COVID nineteen. At least this is what's reported from England,
and I think it's what we're seeing here that the
early phase phase one last a few days, maybe five
days on average. Their mild symptoms, fatigue, muscle likes, sore throat,
and who get better recover at that point and they
(03:18):
may still shed the virus for two or three weeks
after they recover, but they don't require further treatment. Then
there's a second phase in which their shortness of breath
and cough signs of pneumonia, often leading the hospitalization. That's
the phase that we want to help people avoid and
(03:39):
in looking at the biology of the virus and the
immune response to it. I think there's several things that
people can start doing and need to start doing long
before they're infected in order to support the immune system
and support the body's anti inflammatory responses to COVID nineteen
infection so that they they never developed phase two of
(04:04):
the infection. Among those things, of course, they're the basic
things like try to get enough sleep, try to eat
a healthy, balanced diet, don't smoke, stop vaping if you vape,
don't stay up watching late night television, m or using
computers late at night because that interferes with your immune system.
(04:24):
There are some supplements that are important. Vitamin D is
number one. It has anti viral effects. It also improves
the function of your immune system hands anti inflammatory. During
the winter, especially in the northern half of the US,
Virtually everyone needs to take some vitamin D supplementation dose,
(04:45):
ranging from about a thousand units to maybe five thousand
units a day, depending on the individual. It's best absorbed
is taken with your main meal. A second factor that's
really important for supporting immune responses and inflammation when it
comes to this virus is melatonin. Melotonin is a hormone
(05:05):
that is normally produced at the base of your brain
in the pituitary glend. The amount that a person makes
normally is the equivalent of about half of milligram, which
is significantly less than is in most of the pills.
We think of Melatonin is having to do with sleep.
It is produced in the dark, and so if you
(05:25):
have an artificial light late at night, if you're watching
computer screens or television late at night, your body makes
less melatonin. I recommend that for a lot of my patients,
taking a low dose of melatonin, maybe a half mellogram
at night about ten pm, may be helpful and may
also help to condition the body's immune response to be
(05:49):
less reactive in a negative way to the coronavirus. There
are a handful of other supplements that, based on the
research literature, may inhibit the growth of coronavirus and also
support the way the body is impacted by the coronavirus,
(06:10):
and these are commonly available and are used quite a bit.
One of them is kirk Kuman, which is known as
an anti inflammatory. It's been extensively studied. I do want
to say that there are no clinical trials with these
and these are not treatments for COVID nineteen infection. These
(06:31):
are preventive protective measures. This is all to keep the
effort to keep your body healthy should something should you
come down with something like this, right we are, we
are all at least half of the people in this country.
You're going to wind up being infected with this virus
over the next several months because the quarantine measures aren't
really designed to eradicate the virus. They're designed to slow
(06:55):
the rate of new cases so that the health care
system doesn't get overwhelmed. And of course, the greater percentage
of people who remain in that in that group that
does not get very sick, that never has to never
gets into phase two of the illness, the better that
will be, not only for you personally, but for your community,
(07:19):
for the country as a whole. And so that's the
reason I've been making these recommendations. Dr Leo Galland in turn,
is practicing in New York City. Thank you very much
for joining us. Okay, good to talk with you. I'm
Oscar Ramiers and this has been your daily coronavirus update.
Don't forget that. For today's big news stories, you can
check me out on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday
(07:40):
through Friday, so follow us in I Heart radio or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.