September 3, 2025 • 9 mins
Dr. Gregory Poland talks with Mendte in the Morning about the latest medicine found to decrease the risk of Covid.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, let's get to doctor Gregory Poland. He is a
(00:02):
health and medical expert who was a leader in vaccines
and infectious diseases at the world renowned Mayo Clinic. He's
also president of the Atria Research Institute in New York.
And doctor Paulwind. This is pretty exciting news, especially in
the wake of a pushback on the COVID vaccine. There
(00:23):
is apparently a popular anti histamine that can decrease the
risk of COVID.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Is that right? Yeah, this is really interesting, Larry. It's
an antihistamine that's used in a lot of nasal sprays
called asil asteine, and somebody had the idea to do
a study with it, and lo and behold, what did
they show? They showed a decrease by seventy percent in
(00:49):
PCR confirmed covid infection, a decrease in the number of
symptomatic days, and a different virus called rhinovirus. People who
got the nasal spray had about a one point eight
percent incidents of getting infected. If they didn't use it
about a six point three percent increase. Now, the kicker
(01:11):
on this is, we don't really know the mechanism and
in this study, people had to use the nasal spray
three times a day for almost sixty days.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
So most people don't use a nasal spray three times
a day for sixty days. I guess that is your point.
And also finding the active ingredients I think is it
will really be the pot of gold. Right as soon
as you find that, then everything else about the nasal
spray you don't really need.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
That's right, and they'll be able to exploit that. You know,
it's an early study. It's a really interesting study, and
stay tuned. More needs to be learned.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So you said a popular antiastamine nasal spray. What is
the nasal spray? Is it many of them or just
or just a c there's a lot.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Of them that use this particular ingredient called as a lastein,
and it's an antihistamine, as I say, So you know
that that's interesting. Is it's shutting down something that the
body makes that actually encourages COVID infection through the nose.
We don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Is there any drawback to taking a nasal spray three
times a day?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
This is a good question, Laurie, and the answer is yes.
People get dryness, they can get cracking of the mucosa
around the nose. They can get burning, stinging headaches. So
it's not like well, I mean, it's like anything. There's
always side effects to something that we use. It's the
(02:48):
balance of benefit and risk that we look for.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
So I would imagine your recommendation is to people that
are hearing this and may go out and start using
nasal sprays three times a day, to wait for further
studies exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
It would be premature to start using this clinically, but
you know, I wanted to make people aware of it
that there are what we call repurposed drugs. So this
is a drug that's out there for allergic rhinitis that
may have a repurposing that's valuable. We'll see.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Well, this is a little bit concerning. There is a
surprise increase in colorectal cancer among the young.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, this is this is We've been watching this year
by year, Larry. The risk has increased by two percent
every year. So in the last twenty five years, the
risk of colorectal cancer and people under the age of
fifty five has gone has doubled. Now you look at
it at a lifetime level, one in twenty four men
(03:53):
and one in every twenty six women will develop colorectal cancer.
That's why we have screen guidelines. What's new is that
the guideline has said, if you're of average risk, that is,
you don't have a family member who had coorectal cancer
or inflammatory biwel disease, you start screening at age fifty.
(04:15):
That has now been moved down to age forty five
for everybody because of this dramatically increased risk. When I
was training, I saw one case of coorectal cancer in
a woman in her thirties. This diagnosis is now being
made much more commonly for people in their twenties and thirties.
(04:39):
In fact, coorectal cancer is now the second leading cause
of cancer death in people under the age of fifty.
This is really surprising.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
It is surprising, and immediately you go to what could
be the cause of that, and do I guess? We
don't know at this point.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
We there's speculation and there's some you know, biologic plausibility
behind it. But the high fat, ultra processed food diets
that people eat, we know that obesity, smoking, alcohol use
all are implicated because they cause changes in what's called
(05:19):
the bowel or gut microbiome that is the pattern of
microbes that are in the bowel and that keep it healthy.
So I think what it has to do with is
our own lifestyle choices and the way our culture is
sort of shaping lifestyle behaviors and sedentary behaviors.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
So now you're saying a colonoscopy is needed starting at
the age of forty five rather than fifty. What about
these non invasive colon cancer tests that I see.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, good question, Natalie. These are you know, are really helpful.
You know, there's a variety of ways to screen colonoscopy,
which is which everybody has heard of, collography CT collography
where you swallow die and they do ct scans through
the bowel, not quite inative. And then the non invasive
(06:13):
test that you're talking about, colon guard that looks for
DNA evidence of not only bowel but along the whole
GI track cancer. The problem with that test is that
it doesn't it's not very sensitive for catching very early
cancers or the precursor to colorectal cancer, which is colon polyps.
(06:39):
So the advised thing is that you have a colonoscopy
first determine if you're at risk because of polyps and
then with your doctor work out the schedule and type
of screening.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
You know, Natalie is really into this one story I'm
about to bring up, so I'm gonna let her take
the lead after I just mentioned that in Europe they
have banned nail polish use the gel, the gel nail
gel nail.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Yes, yeah, that's an interesting one, starting September first, and
it was a it was a hard stop. You couldn't
use existing stock or anything. No use of gel nail
polish that contains something an ingredient called TPO. It's got
a long name, trimethyl benzoil dipentyl phosphine oxide. The reason
(07:34):
that's why they pay me so much where yeah, I wish.
The reason they use it is that it dries very
quickly under the UV light and it gives that strong,
ultra glossy sine. But the problem is, and if you've
ever accompanied your daughter or your wife into one of
these nail salons, you smell it immediately. It is ben
(07:59):
associated with fertility issues, adverse reproductive health damage to the
nail plate, infections of the nails where the nails turn
thick and yellow or green. So it's Natalie and I
were talking a little bit earlier about it. It's actually
a pretty strange custom that women paint their nails, that
(08:23):
they put on the acrylic nails, etc. I suspect I
don't know this, but I suspect that something you see
in wealthier societies rather than poorer societies.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Well, I know we're running out of time, but it's
a really interesting story because if you go into any
nail salon, I mean, just from my experience, over fifty
percent of the women are using gel nails. They're putting
their nails under the UV lights and they're using these products.
So it's something I guess to be aware of.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Just quickly, Doctor Paul, And would you suggest to stop that?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Well, there are TPO free gel nail pole, so ask
for a polish that's TPO free.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Doctor Paul and Gregory Poland health and medical expert, Leader
Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at the Mayo Clinic and President
of the Atria Research Institute in New York. Thanks so much,
Well, let's get to doctor Gregory Poland. He is a
(00:02):
health and medical expert who was a leader in vaccines
and infectious diseases at the world renowned Mayo Clinic. He's
also president of the Atria Research Institute in New York.
And doctor Paulwind. This is pretty exciting news, especially in
the wake of a pushback on the COVID vaccine. There
(00:23):
is apparently a popular anti histamine that can decrease the
risk of COVID.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Is that right? Yeah, this is really interesting, Larry. It's
an antihistamine that's used in a lot of nasal sprays
called asil asteine, and somebody had the idea to do
a study with it, and lo and behold, what did
they show? They showed a decrease by seventy percent in
(00:49):
PCR confirmed covid infection, a decrease in the number of
symptomatic days, and a different virus called rhinovirus. People who
got the nasal spray had about a one point eight
percent incidents of getting infected. If they didn't use it
about a six point three percent increase. Now, the kicker
(01:11):
on this is, we don't really know the mechanism and
in this study, people had to use the nasal spray
three times a day for almost sixty days.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
So most people don't use a nasal spray three times
a day for sixty days. I guess that is your point.
And also finding the active ingredients I think is it
will really be the pot of gold. Right as soon
as you find that, then everything else about the nasal
spray you don't really need.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
That's right, and they'll be able to exploit that. You know,
it's an early study. It's a really interesting study, and
stay tuned. More needs to be learned.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So you said a popular antiastamine nasal spray. What is
the nasal spray? Is it many of them or just
or just a c there's a lot.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Of them that use this particular ingredient called as a lastein,
and it's an antihistamine, as I say, So you know
that that's interesting. Is it's shutting down something that the
body makes that actually encourages COVID infection through the nose.
We don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Is there any drawback to taking a nasal spray three
times a day?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
This is a good question, Laurie, and the answer is yes.
People get dryness, they can get cracking of the mucosa
around the nose. They can get burning, stinging headaches. So
it's not like well, I mean, it's like anything. There's
always side effects to something that we use. It's the
(02:48):
balance of benefit and risk that we look for.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
So I would imagine your recommendation is to people that
are hearing this and may go out and start using
nasal sprays three times a day, to wait for further
studies exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
It would be premature to start using this clinically, but
you know, I wanted to make people aware of it
that there are what we call repurposed drugs. So this
is a drug that's out there for allergic rhinitis that
may have a repurposing that's valuable. We'll see.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Well, this is a little bit concerning. There is a
surprise increase in colorectal cancer among the young.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, this is this is We've been watching this year
by year, Larry. The risk has increased by two percent
every year. So in the last twenty five years, the
risk of colorectal cancer and people under the age of
fifty five has gone has doubled. Now you look at
it at a lifetime level, one in twenty four men
(03:53):
and one in every twenty six women will develop colorectal cancer.
That's why we have screen guidelines. What's new is that
the guideline has said, if you're of average risk, that is,
you don't have a family member who had coorectal cancer
or inflammatory biwel disease, you start screening at age fifty.
(04:15):
That has now been moved down to age forty five
for everybody because of this dramatically increased risk. When I
was training, I saw one case of coorectal cancer in
a woman in her thirties. This diagnosis is now being
made much more commonly for people in their twenties and thirties.
(04:39):
In fact, coorectal cancer is now the second leading cause
of cancer death in people under the age of fifty.
This is really surprising.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
It is surprising, and immediately you go to what could
be the cause of that, and do I guess? We
don't know at this point.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
We there's speculation and there's some you know, biologic plausibility
behind it. But the high fat, ultra processed food diets
that people eat, we know that obesity, smoking, alcohol use
all are implicated because they cause changes in what's called
(05:19):
the bowel or gut microbiome that is the pattern of
microbes that are in the bowel and that keep it healthy.
So I think what it has to do with is
our own lifestyle choices and the way our culture is
sort of shaping lifestyle behaviors and sedentary behaviors.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
So now you're saying a colonoscopy is needed starting at
the age of forty five rather than fifty. What about
these non invasive colon cancer tests that I see.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, good question, Natalie. These are you know, are really helpful.
You know, there's a variety of ways to screen colonoscopy,
which is which everybody has heard of, collography CT collography
where you swallow die and they do ct scans through
the bowel, not quite inative. And then the non invasive
(06:13):
test that you're talking about, colon guard that looks for
DNA evidence of not only bowel but along the whole
GI track cancer. The problem with that test is that
it doesn't it's not very sensitive for catching very early
cancers or the precursor to colorectal cancer, which is colon polyps.
(06:39):
So the advised thing is that you have a colonoscopy
first determine if you're at risk because of polyps and
then with your doctor work out the schedule and type
of screening.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
You know, Natalie is really into this one story I'm
about to bring up, so I'm gonna let her take
the lead after I just mentioned that in Europe they
have banned nail polish use the gel, the gel nail
gel nail.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Yes, yeah, that's an interesting one, starting September first, and
it was a it was a hard stop. You couldn't
use existing stock or anything. No use of gel nail
polish that contains something an ingredient called TPO. It's got
a long name, trimethyl benzoil dipentyl phosphine oxide. The reason
(07:34):
that's why they pay me so much where yeah, I wish.
The reason they use it is that it dries very
quickly under the UV light and it gives that strong,
ultra glossy sine. But the problem is, and if you've
ever accompanied your daughter or your wife into one of
these nail salons, you smell it immediately. It is ben
(07:59):
associated with fertility issues, adverse reproductive health damage to the
nail plate, infections of the nails where the nails turn
thick and yellow or green. So it's Natalie and I
were talking a little bit earlier about it. It's actually
a pretty strange custom that women paint their nails, that
(08:23):
they put on the acrylic nails, etc. I suspect I
don't know this, but I suspect that something you see
in wealthier societies rather than poorer societies.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Well, I know we're running out of time, but it's
a really interesting story because if you go into any
nail salon, I mean, just from my experience, over fifty
percent of the women are using gel nails. They're putting
their nails under the UV lights and they're using these products.
So it's something I guess to be aware of.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Just quickly, Doctor Paul, And would you suggest to stop that?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Well, there are TPO free gel nail pole, so ask
for a polish that's TPO free.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Doctor Paul and Gregory Poland health and medical expert, Leader
Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at the Mayo Clinic and President
of the Atria Research Institute in New York. Thanks so much,
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