Donnie Yance is an internationally known master herbalist and nutritionist. He is the author of the book, "Herbal Medicine, Healing and Cancer" and "Adaptogens in Medical Herbalism"
Many plant molecules, such as polyphenols, interact with and modulate key regulators of mammalian physiology in ways that are beneficial to health. The more we understand about this interaction, the more effectively we can target both the prevention and treatment of disease.
Polyphenol compounds, when ingested, interact with receptors and enzymes within the consumer. The fact that stress-induced plant compounds tend to upregulate pathways that provide stress resistance in humans and animals suggests that plant consumers may have mechanisms to perceive these chemical cues and react to them in ways that are beneficial. The term xenohormesis is used to explain this phenomenon (from xenos, the Greek word for stranger, and hormesis, the term for health benefits provided by mild biological stress, such as cellular damage or a lack of nutrition).[1]
When it comes to the question of vaccine immunity verses natural immunity, the stance taken by the CDC is that vaccine immunity is stronger, which they maintain is confirmed by research. But when you analyze the study they use and compare it to, for example, the Israeli study that states the opposite, there is an enormous discrepancy. And this discrepancy is between studies that are designed to answer the same question.
The Israeli study[1] found that the vaccinated have a 27 times higher risk of symptomatic infection than those who recovered from Covid-19 infection. At the same time, the vaccinated were nine times more likely to be hospitalized for Covid. In contrast, a CDC study[2] by Bozio et al. claims that the Covid recovered are five times more likely to be hospitalized for Covid than the vaccinated. Both studies cannot be right.
While a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report released findings that alleged recovered individuals have a 5.5 times more likely chance of being hospitalized when compared to vaccinated people with no prior infection, no other independent research corroborates these findings.
This CDC report was recently dismantled by Harvard epidemiologist Dr. Martin Kulldorf and was revealed to have fatal flaws.[3] He states that the Israeli study was a “straightforward and well-conducted epidemiological cohort study that is easy to understand and interpret.” At the same time, he found the US study filled with flaws, deeming it fatally flawed. He goes on to say, “It is surprising that the CDC chose this case-control design rather than the less biased cohort design selected by the Israeli authors. Such an analysis would answer the question of interest and may have given a different result more in line with the Israeli study.”
A very recent December 4th, 2021, study[4] supported the finding of the Israeli study, in that infected individuals with or without one vaccination dose have better protection than uninfected doubly-vaccinated individuals 3 to 8 months after the last immunity-conferring event. The data from this study does not suggests that vaccinated individuals were more protected than previously infected individuals 3 to 6 months after the immunity-conferring event. This study highlights that hybrid immunity is the strongest immunity. In other words, those that have been both infected and have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
How the Omicron Variant Differs
Other variants including Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta have had maybe eight or 10 mutations in the spike protein, and that’s largely what’s given them their advantageous phenotype. Omicron originated with 30 or more mutations in the spike protein!
There has been rapid spread in South Africa’s Gauteng province of Omicron as it rapidly replaces Delta. Omicron is spreading almost three times faster when compared to the Delta variant, which was two times faster compared to previous variants.
Early Lab Data Provide Glimpse into Omicron’s Immune Escape
Preliminary data from a small study at a prominent South African lab have found a 41-fold reduction in neutralizing antibody titers for the Pfizer vaccine against Omicron.
Omicron was first identified on 23 November in South Africa by researchers using genome sequencing to investigate a puzzling surge in case numbers there. Daily cases went from 274 on 11 November to 1000 a fortnight later, and currently number more than 2000.
Stéphane Bancel, chief executive of Covid-19 vaccine maker Moderna, has predicted that omicron will cut the efficacy of existing vaccines. The new variant is also expected to be more resistant to antibody treatments such as those developed by Regeneron. “That is really a cause for concern,” says Barclay.[6]
Most experts now propose Omicron most likely developed in a chronically infected Covid-19 patient, likely someone whose immune response was impaired by another illness or a drug. When Alpha was first discovered in late 2020, that variant also appeared to have acquired numerous mutations all at once, leading researchers to postulate a chronic infection. The idea is bolstered by sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 samples from some chronically infected patients.[7]
Cancer Patients May Have Double the Risk of Breakthrough Infection After Covid-19 Vaccination
Most patients with solid tumors develop antibodies after Covid-19 vaccination, but many patients with hematologic malignancies fail to seroconvert, according to a meta-analysis published in the European Journal of Cancer.[8] Studies have shown that a “substantial proportion” of blood cancer patients who did not produce anti-S antibodies following complete vaccination continue to be seronegative after receiving an additional dose.[9]
The fact that some patients have poor immune responses even after 3 vaccine doses highlights the importance of additional precautions to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection, according to Dr Vaca- Cartagena.[10] However, it does appear for the time being that vaccine boosters provide protection to cancer patients. The meta-analysis did not include data on seroconversion rates in cancer patients after a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.[11] Since the researchers conducted the meta-analysis, studies have come out suggesting that additional vaccine doses may benefit patients with cancer.[12],[13]
Viral resistance can drive enhanced infectiousness of SARS-CoV-2, which in turn may ultimately enable SARS-CoV-2 to utilize alternative cell surface determinants to enter permissive cells. It is plausible that mass vaccination may drive the virus to fully exploit its evolutionary capacity, including its ability to use alternate receptor domains other than the Spike protein. This can lead to enhanced pathogenicity.[14] This is not an anti-vax statement, but rather an insight into the importance of supporting our innate healing capacity.
Viruses continually mutate, and by relying solely on vaccines, we are engaging in a never-ending race to stay ahead of the mutations. Supporting our overall health and innate immune response capacity is not variant specific and is a prudent approach to Covid-19, particularly as it becomes more apparent that there will never be a “post-Covid” world. We need to understand and accept that Covid-19 is here to stay. We need strategies beyond vaccines alone for living with this virus, starting with building our own robust health and immunity and reducing known risk factors where possible.
There are volumes of existing irrefutable evidence that foods, herbs and specific nutrients possess potential antiviral immune enhancing ability against SARS-CoV-2. According to recent research, herbal medicines, like herbs and essential oils, may have a part to play in counteracting Covid-19.[15] As we head into the 3rd year of living with Covid-19, there is no doubt in my mind we would be in a very different situation today if we had embraced dietary, herbal, and nutritional medicine for supportive care during the past two years, but it’s not too late to start. In my next blog, I’ll be sharing all the wonderful antiviral properties of some of my favorite essential oils.
[1] Sivan Gazit, Roei Shlezinger, Galit Perez, Roni Lotan, Asaf Peretz, Amir Ben-Tov, Dani Cohen, Khitam Muhsen, Gabriel Chodick, Tal Patalon, Comparing SARS-CoV-2 natural immunity to vaccine-induced immunity: reinfections versus breakthrough infections
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415
[2] Laboratory-Confirmed COVID-19 Among Adults Hospitalized with COVID-19–Like Illness with Infection-Induced or mRNA Vaccine-Induced SARS-CoV-2 Immunity — Nine States, January–September 2021, Weekly / November 5, 2021 / 70(44);1539–1544, On October 29, 2021, this report was posted online as an MMWR Early Release.https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7044e1.htm
[4] Yair Goldberg, Micha Mandel, Yinon M. Bar-On, Omri Bodenheimer, Laurence Freedman, Nachman Ash, Sharon Alroy-Preis, Amit Huppert, Ron Milo, Protection and waning of natural and hybrid COVID-19 immunity, MedRxiv, BMJJ Yale, doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.04.21267114
[5]Kristina Fiore, Early Lab Data Provide Glimpse Into Omicron’s Immune Escape, MedPage Today December 8, 2021,
[6] Vaughan, Adam, Omicron emerges, 4 December 2021 | New Scientist | 7, Mutations could have accumulated in a chronically infected patient, an overlooked human population, or an animal reservoir
[9] Re D, Seitz-Polski B, Carles M, et al. Humoral and cellular responses after a third dose of BNT162b2 vaccine in patients treated for lymphoid malignancies. medRxiv. Published online July 22, 2021. doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.18.21260669
[15] Vellingiri B., Jayaramayya K., Iyer M., Narayanasamy A., Govindasamy V., Giridharan B., Rajagopalan K. COVID-19: A promising cure for the global panic. Sci. Total. Environ. 2020:138277. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138277.
The Role of Polyphenols and Botanicals in Reprogramming Metabolism
According to the World Health Organization, one-third of all cancer deaths are preventable through an increased consumption of natural compounds able to modulate key molecular signaling cascades that ultimately inhibit cancer cell proliferation and induce apoptosis.[1],[2],[3],[4],[5],[6]
One of the many cancer targeting effects of botanical and food compounds is their ability to increase efficiency of energy metabolic pathways and potentially reprogram cancer cell metabolism. The metabolic properties of malignant cells differ significantly from those of normal cells, providing the potential to target cellular metabolism to improve the selectivity of anticancer therapeutics.[7]
In exciting new research, clinical studies for the first time are reporting convincing evidence of the value and credibility of herbal therapeutics in cancer treatments. As an herbalist, botanical medicine has been an essential part of my toolbox for decades as a useful complement to conventional medicine in oncology as well as other chronic diseases, and for general health optimization.
Health Optimization and Adaptogens –
An Effective Strategy Against Pathogens
In general, I
am astonished by how little attention is placed on the value and importance of
good health in our society. In the face of the current pandemic, with
underlying co-morbidities present in an estimated 60% of the population,
increasing the risk of death from complications, there is an even greater
urgency to educate our communities and urge our citizens to adopt the key
components to optimal health. For example, there is now a clear association
between diabetes and increased mortality and severity in COVID-19 pneumonia,
and ocular symptoms of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2).[1]
These and many other underlying conditions can be successfully managed by
applying the fundamental building blocks to optimal health and wellness, which
include nutrition, botanical medicine, lifestyle, and diet. The more robust our
health at the molecular, cellular, and organ system levels, the better equipped
we are to resist and recover from disease.
The vibrant colors we observe in plants serve a
different role depending on the organism being considered. For the plant itself, the pigments may aid in
the absorption of light and photosynthesis, as well as contribute to metabolism
and reproduction. For birds and insects,
the pigments provide a signal to the availability of food, such as nectar or
pollen. For humans, the pigments may
provide a clue of the type of health benefits we are likely to incur upon
ingestion.
