Okay. Adam Stern also says, "Can you please give me a little more color on timing into
taking zinc supplements as it relates to the COVID protocol? Really how long before or after can you
take zinc if you eat any of the foods that you should not eat it with, like wheat and nuts?
And is coffee on that list? Not sure how this affects the ability for the body to absorb. Also,
can you explain the advantage or disadvantage of taking pills versus lozenge for your all
your zinc intake? Finally, any thoughts on kids taking zinc for the protocol 9 or 11, 14 and 15.
So for zinc and food, the main issue is that,
my guess is that a carnivore meat based meal, would probably enhance zinc absorption, but that's
never really been tested. There's some controversy in the field over whether you should take zinc on
empty stomach or not. So my position is basically like if it's practical for me to take the zinc
on an empty stomach, do an empty stomach. And if it's not practical for you to take the zinc
on an empty stomach, do it on a phytate free meal - no whole grains, nuts seeds or legumes.
And I think that if it's practical for you, it would be best to consider it an empty
stomach three hours after the last time you ate, one hour before the next time you eat.
So if you eat every four hours taking the zinc at the three hour mark would be best.
And if that is not practical for you, I would take it at least 40 minutes
after the last time you ate and at least 40 minutes before the next time you eat. But if
you can't at least meet that minimum and that's the minimum, that's not the ideal, but if you
can't at least meet that minimum, then don't focus on the timing focus on the phytate free meal.
So take your zinc with a meal that has no whole grains, nuts seeds or legumes. Now the problem
becomes if you're in the high risk version of the COVID protocol And you are trying to really
maximize your systemic supply of zinc. You are really taking that zinc four times a day and
that means that you are now on a phytate free diet. So if you don't want to be on a diet that
has no whole grains, nuts seeds and legumes, you really should try to meet the timing requirements,
but you can take away from the meals. But you can mix and match them, right?
So eat one phytate free meal, then you can take one of the doses of zinc with that, but in the
other two or three meals, you focus more on the timing trying to take zinc on an empty stomach.
And then unfortunately coffee is a zinc inhibitor. And so you really should take the zinc away from
the coffee. In terms of pills versus lozenges. The pills are great for supplying the zinc
systemically, the lozenges are great for supplying the zinc to the nose and throat. Presumably
in an early illness with the common cold you're all in the nose and throat, for COVID you are
probably in the early stages, you caught it in the nose and throat, and it took longer to really
start messing with the lower respiratory tract. And I think from a preventative standpoint, or
actually I think from a preventative nutritional standpoint, they're trying to maximize systemic
zinc. So you're focusing on capsules or foods. But you also, if you believe you are going into
high risk situations, you also want to make sure that your nose and throat are sort of up to par,
where if they're the first to be slammed with a viral insult,
you know that their zinc concentrations are very good. And so that's why in the protocol, I also
say that in high risk situations before and after potential exposure, there's use of zinc lozenge.
Now the zinc acetate is best for getting the zinc into the nose and throat. If it
gets into those and throat, that means it doesn't get into the rest of the body and If
it gets in the nose and throat, it's not really getting to the rest of the body. And so I don't
know what proportion of the zinc acetate lozenge gets into nose and throat rather than the rest
of the body, but I do know that if you're using something like zinc gluconate, that probably half
as much is getting into the nose and throat. And so you're getting a lot more to the rest of the
body. But since I don't really know the mix, my general approach would be use zinc acetate
lozenges to get into the nose and throat, use capsules to get into the rest of the body.
And so I think if you have become ill and you're sneezing and you have a sore throat
and you're coughing, you really know that at that point, you want to count the zinc into the upper
respiratory tract. But I don't think that that means that you don't want to keep getting zinc
systemically because you do. Especially because there are many other tissues that are vulnerable
to COVID. So if you look at the four case reports with the treatment with zinc lozenges,
they just use only zinc lozenges. But if you look at the COVID protocol, you have a mix of both.
And so I think that makes it both in the COVID protocol,
is basically designed to make sure that yes, once your nose and throat have been assaulted, that
you're flooding them with maximal zinc, but you still aren't neglecting to make sure that you get
zinc systemically because you're not inhaling the zinc. So it's not really getting into your lungs.
And covid 19 has a possibility of infecting many other organs. So you don't want to only
get the zinc there. Even though presumably, if it just got into your nose and you get rid of it,
it's not going to spread, right? So that is the top priority. I just don't think it makes sense
for it to be the only priority under any context. And hence mixing the two approaches. And for kids,
It says it at the top of the protocol that
I would just take the dose and assume that dose is for a 2000 calorie diet. And then modify it
by using the kids caloric intake. And so a simple formula to do that would be
divide the dose by 2000 and then multiply it by the number of calories the kid eats per day.
I think that's the simple way to do it. And I'm not suggesting that everyone should be
adjusting it by calories. I think for adults just use the standard dosing, but for kids, just
if you're concerned about overshooting, the kids' nutritional tolerance for that thing,
because they're small, I do based on food intake in that way. Thank you Adam for your questions.