Does Quercetin make COVID-10 vaccines more effective?

Older people have weaker immune responses and are known to respond less well than younger adults to many vaccines, including the seasonal influenza vaccine. This is partly down to frailty, which cannot be easily remedied, but can also be due to deficiencies in vitamins and minerals – known as micronutrients.

Immune health and vaccines go hand in hand. For the immune system to fight off infection or generate good protection against a disease following vaccination, it needs a variety of micronutrients. This is likely to be just as true for COVID-19 as for other diseases. Given that malnutrition is common among elderly people, raising their vitamin and mineral levels before they get vaccinated could be a way of boosting the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. 

According to Martin Floreani:

"One does not really work without the other, vaccines are only as good as your immune system. The vaccine is the blueprint, but ultimately your immune system is the one doing all the work. The challenge that the immune system is put up to when vaccinating is higher. So vaccines basically are teaching the immune system to target a new enemy that is difficult for the immune system to identify otherwise. So in that process, there's a lot of things going on that are triggered in the immune system."

Quercetin

Quercetin is a natural antihistamine and anti-inflammatory plant pigment that boosts your immune system. Foods high in quercetin include onions, kale, tomatoes, broccoli, asparagus, berries, red wine, citrus fruits, cherries, and tea. 

Obesity, type 2 diabetes and hypertension are risk factors (co-morbidities) that are associated with severe COVID-19. According to research, quercetin has been shown to help fight obesity, Type 2 diabetes, circulatory dysfunction, chronic inflammation and mood disorders. It has even been found to help lower blood pressure. 

Powering up the immune system

As the European Food Safety Authority notes, the vitamins A, B6, B9, B12, C and D and the minerals zinc, selenium, iron and copper are all needed for the immune system to function as it should.

Each of these micronutrients – as well as vitamin E – has been shown to play multiple roles in supporting immune function and reducing the risk of infection. Research has found a link between having an impaired immune system and having low amounts of many vitamins and minerals.

When the immune system isn’t properly fuelled and is impaired, this can then lead to poor vaccine responses. For example, a review of nine studies – together involving 2,367 people – found that individuals deficient in vitamin D were less well protected against two strains of flu after having been vaccinated compared to those who had adequate vitamin D levels.

By contrast, randomised controlled trials of micronutrient supplements (such as vitamin B6, vitamin E, zinc and selenium) in older people have been shown to increase the ability of the immune system to respond to challenges. Furthermore, it appears that to work at its best the immune system needs vitamins C, D and E together with zinc and selenium in excess of amounts that can usually be achieved through diet alone. For example, selenium levels above those typically regarded as optimal have been associated with a better cure rate for COVID-19.

Dietary changes or nutritional supplements could be used to improve people’s immune function. marilyn barbone/Shutterstock

Trials in older people have also shown that responses to vaccination are better after actions are taken to improve nutrition. For example, one study found that people aged 65 to 85 who ate five or more servings of fruit and vegetables per day showed a significantly stronger response to a pneumococcal vaccine than people of the same age who ate only two servings of fruit and vegetables or fewer.

In another study, giving daily vitamin E supplements to people over 65 was found to increase the amount of antibodies they produced following vaccination against hepatitis B and tetanus. And in people deficient in selenium, daily supplements were found to improve some aspects of their immune response to a live poliovirus vaccine and also reduce the emergence of mutant viral strains.

This latter result illustrates the fact that new viral variants are more likely to emerge in people whose bodies are “oxidatively stressed”. Oxidative stress can be caused by taking in inadequate levels of antioxidant nutrients – for example selenium and vitamin E.

Time for booster supplements

This all becomes problematic when knowing how common nutritional deficiency is. In a review of nutrition spanning seven western countries, people over 60 were found to be consistently deficient in selenium, zinc, iodine and copper.

And, while this issue disproportionately affects the elderly, it is not limited to older age groups. The 2019 UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey showed “a sustained worsening of the dietary intakes and chronic shortages of several of the nutrients involved in supporting the normal immune functions” across age groups. The micronutrients people lacked included vitamins A, B12, C and D and the trace minerals zinc, selenium and copper.

Offering micronutrient supplements could be a cheap way of boosting the effects of vaccines. Martin Carlsson/Shutterstock

Such micronutrient deficiencies may limit the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines. Given this, we propose that all those at risk of nutritional insufficiency should take a supplement containing the recommended daily allowance of nutrients important to immune function for a period of weeks before and after they receive the vaccine. People who could benefit from this include the underweight elderly, those on restricted diets, and certain BAME communities who may be at risk of vitamin D deficiency.

It’s possible to buy a three-month supply of multivitamin and mineral supplements for no more than £3.00. Ideally, such a supplement would be provided free of charge by governments or health authorities to all those aged over 70. When set against the average cost of vaccination per person, this would provide a great potential gain for only a modest investment.

Two Over-the-Counter Medications You Should Not Take Before your COVID vaccine

If you’re taking two common over-the-counter medications, you could be setting yourself up for shorter immunity.

  In a new interview with ABC News, Simone Wildes, MD, a member of Massachusetts' COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Group and an infectious an infectious disease specialist at South Shore Medical Center, says that both ibuprofen, the effective ingredient in medications like Advil and Motrin, and acetaminophen, found in Tylenol, could actually make the COVID vaccine less effective. While some people may take acetaminophen or ibuprofen to lessen the pain associated with shots, Wildes says, "We do not recommend premedication with ibuprofen or Tylenol before COVID-19 vaccines due to the lack of data on how it impacts the vaccine-induced antibody responses."

According to a 2009 study published in the journal Lancet, among 459 healthy infants, half of whom were given paracetamol, an acetaminophen-based pain reliever, prior to a vaccine and half of whom were given a placebo, immune responses to the vaccine "were significantly lower in the prophylactic paracetamol group," the study's authors found.

While both acetaminophen and ibuprofen can help reduce unpleasant vaccine side effects, like fever, researchers from the American Society for Microbiology have found that taking NSAIDS (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs)—a category of medication that includes ibuprofen—"could be harmful or beneficial, depending on the timing of administration." Craig B. Wilen, MD, assistant professor of Laboratory Medicine and Immunology at Yale University School of Medicine, noted that specific NSAIDs were found to "[dampen] the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection."

"We are recommending that unless people have a substantial reaction to the first dose that they hold their [pain relievers]," William Schaffner, MD, an infectious disease specialist and professor of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, explained to ABC News.

Adapted From: https://theconversation.com/how-to-make-covid-vaccines-more-effective-give-people-vitamin-and-mineral-supplements-154974