Welcome to Dr. Paz’s Newsletter #2

This newsletter will focus on timely topics that can have a direct impact on your health. I plan on publishing a newsletter about once a month on a current medical/nutritional topic in the news. If you are interested in sending a question, you can send it to drpaz@drpaz.com.  Please remember,  your questions should be of general medical interest and should not include any patient-specific information since this is not a HIPAA compliant email.

 

IT’S JUST MY OPINION. The opinions in my newsletter are based on my interpretation of the literature and my personal experience from tens of thousands of medical visits over the last 37 years.

 

TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR. The information I share in this newsletter is meant for general medical information purposes and is not specific to your medical care. Before you initiate any therapy, you should discuss it with your doctor.  If your doctor is not open to discussing nutritional therapies, maybe it is time to find a new doctor…..

 

With that said, let's move on to Newsletter #2

 

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Covid–19 News

 

I decided to focus my second newsletter, once again, on Covid-19.  As most of you know, the Pfizer Covid-19  vaccine as well as the Moderna vaccine have now been approved for emergency use. The AstraZeneca vaccine is not far behind.  The currently available immunizations require 2 shots, approximately 3 weeks apart.  We are getting hundreds of questions in the office.  Below are some of the most representative.

 

Is the vaccine safe?  All indications are that the vaccine is both safe and over 90% effective.  Unfortunately, we do not know about the potential for long-term side effects. As with most medical treatments, we must decide for ourselves if the benefits outweigh the risks.  At this point, especially in high risk groups, I certainly think that the data favors getting the vaccination.

 

I heard the vaccine was made from aborted fetuses, is that true?  No, the coronavirus vaccines do not contain fetal cells. Both the Vatican and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops approved the use of coronavirus vaccines as ethical. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines use clones of a cell line derived from embryonic tissue from a 1970s-era abortion during laboratory testing, but not production. The AstraZeneca and J&J-Janssen vaccines, not yet approved in the US, use a similar cloned cell line to enable production. But the fetal cells are not present in the resulting vaccines.  All fetal cell lines used originate from the 1973 cell line.  No new aborted fetal cells are being used.

 

What about the allergic reactions?  There have been a handful  of severe allergic reactions-primarily in patients who have a known history of severe allergies.  If you are the type of person that needs to carry an EPI-PEN for severe allergic reactions, you should certainly discuss receiving the immunization with your physician.  The CDC suggests caution if you are allergic to any of the components of the vaccine.  Good luck figuring that one out. 

 

Here’s a list of ingredients:

 

According to the FDA, "the Pfizer /BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine includes the following ingredients: mRNA, lipids ((4-hydroxybutyl)azanediyl)bis(hexane-6,1-diyl)bis(2-hexyldecanoate), 2 [(polyethylene glycol)-2000]-N,N-ditetradecylacetamide, 1,2-Distearoyl-sn-glycero-3- phosphocholine, and cholesterol), potassium chloride, monobasic potassium phosphate, sodium chloride, dibasic sodium phosphate dihydrate, and sucrose". Unlike the Flu vaccine, the Covid vaccine does not contain eggs.


 

When can I get the vaccine?  It depends.  The CDC has recommended a specific rollout based on your risk of exposure and potential for severe side effects.  These are listed below.  However, each state may alter these recommendations.  I would encourage you to check on Michigan.gov regularly for more information regarding immunization sites..  The current recommendation is as follows:

 

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has recommended that phased vaccine rollout goes to the following groups first:

Phase 1a: Front-line health care workers and people in long-term-care facilities.

Phase 1b: People 75 and older and front-line essential workers, in the following categories:

  • First responders such as firefighters, police

  • Teachers, support staff, day-care workers

  • Food and agriculture workers

  • Manufacturing workers

  • Correction workers

  • U.S. Postal Service workers

  • Public transit workers

  • Grocery store workers

Phase 1c: All people age 65 to 74, people age16 to 64 who have high-risk medical conditions, and other essential workers. The high-risk medical conditions listed are:

  • Obesity

  • Type 2 diabetes

  • COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

  • Heart condition

  • Chronic kidney disease

  • Immunocompromised state from solid organ transplant

  • Sickle cell disease

  • Pregnancy

  • Smoker (current or with a history of smoking)

 

What about side effects?  For the vast majority of people, the side effects have been relatively minimal.  About  15% of people developed transient local symptoms(sore arm). Others developed transient systemic reactions, primarily headache, chills, fatigue, muscle pain or fever. These are transient reactions, which indicate a person's immune system is responding to the vaccine, and typically resolved without complication or injury.  These symptoms seem to be a bit worse with the 2nd injection.  Again, because we only have about 10 months of data, long-term side effects are unknown. You may want to contrast this with recent reports of Long Covid-19 Syndrome(see below).

 

What is Long Covid-19 Syndrome? A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association(JAMA, 2020;324(6):603-605)  found that in patients who had recovered from COVID-19, 87.4% reported persistence of at least 1 symptom, particularly fatigue and shortness of breath. Symptoms can last for months. These include the following:

• chest pain
• shortness of breath
• irregular heartbeats
• fatigue
• muscle weakness
• fever
• difficulty concentrating
• forgetfulness
• irregular periods
• impotence
• diabetes
• hair loss
• mood changes
• insomnia
• headaches
• diarrhea
• vomiting
• loss of taste and/or smell
• sore throat
• difficulty swallowing
• skin rash

 

 

What if I had Covid-19?  Even if you had Covid-19, it is still recommended you get immunized.  You should wait until you have recovered and are no longer contagious.  It is generally thought that you have good immunity to Covid-19 for at least 3 months after you have had the disease, so it should be safe to wait that long.  How long natural immunity will last after having the infection is not clear.

 

What about the new mutation? A new, potentially more contagious mutation of Covid-19 was found in the UK recently. It has already been reported in the US. It has variants of the spike protein, which is the target of the current Covid vaccines. Because the vaccine targets multiple areas on the spike protein, we believe it will still be effective.

 

Will this be a yearly shot, like the flu vaccine?  At this point, it is hard to say.  We really do not have enough information regarding long-term efficacy to know if yearly immunizations will be required.

 

Dr Paz, would you get the vaccine?  On December 23rd I received my 1st dose of the Pfizer Covid vaccine.  I had no side effects for the first 24 hours.  After that, a bit of a sore arm and mild fatigue for the next 24 hours. It was not enough of a problem to prevent me from carrying out all my usual activities, including exercise.  My 2nd injection is scheduled for January 11.  I will keep you informed.

 

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