Nicotine for Long Covid 3 Month Update with Evan H. Hirsch, MD - #156

Nicotine for Long Covid 3 Month Update with Evan H. Hirsch, MD - #156

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Hey there. Welcome back to the energy MD podcast, where we help you resolve your chronic fatigue syndrome and long COVID By addressing the real root causes, what I call the toxic five, a combination of heavy metals, chemicals, molds, infections and nervousness, nervous system dysfunction, so that you can get back to living your best life. So today, we're going to be talking about part two of the nicotine patch protocol. So last time I had talked to you about why nicotine might be a good option for you if you have MECFS and or long COVID And some of the research behind it, some of the preliminary research that we were seeing. And now I kind of wanted to give you an update, after doing it with about a dozen, a dozen people in my program, and what we're seeing right now is about 50% of people are noticing an improvement. And for some people, it can be pretty immediate, but for the most part, we're doing like a round of people, you know, 14 days

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at the seven milligrams, and then seeing what happens. And for some people, nothing happens. And so oftentimes we'll repeat it, but and for other people, they may notice an improvement, but the symptoms, the symptom improvement wanes after a period of time. So for example, we've had some people in the program where they've got headaches or some other symptoms, fatigue, body pain, and some of those symptoms will improve after they've done the round for the two weeks. Then they continue on. They're no longer doing the nicotine patches. And what they're finding is that after a couple of weeks, all of a sudden the symptoms start to creep back in. So then what we're having them do is to do a another round. And so this means that they would do another 14 days of applying the seven milligram patch and leaving that on for 24 hours. For some people, we are seeing some reactions where we do have to cut the patch in half, or have them take the patch every other day, or have them skip a couple of days and kind of decrease their reaction. And I think part of this is is happening because the nicotine is releasing the spike protein from the ACE two receptors, so then all of a sudden, you've got more spike protein floating around in your body. So if you don't have fiber analytics or antivirals or things that are going to potentially digest the spike protein or decrease the amount that's floating around, then you would potentially feel worse, okay, because it is, in fact, contributing to your total body burden. And the nicotine is working in a number of different ways. So yes, it is kicking the spike protein and other viruses off of their receptor sites, but then it's also binding to the parasympathetic nerve terminals preferentially. So acetylcholine is the main parasympathetic nervous system neurotransmitter. It activates the parasympathetic, which is the Rest Digest and heal, as opposed to the sympathetic, which is the

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the more fight or flight or freeze. And so we really want to stimulate the parasympathetic. And so the nicotine is doing that. It actually binds preferentially to that acetylcholine receptor, more than acetylcholine does actually. So that's one of the reasons why it can be so beneficial. So it's doing some nervous system retraining, and then it's also kicking off the the viruses and the spike protein off of their off of the receptor sites. Okay, so I think sometimes that's what's happening. We are seeing some negative effects, and it seems like that's kicking up the immune system. We have seen people with rashes. Sometimes they're reacting to the excipients or to the the components that are found in the patch itself, and sometimes they could just be reacting to the nicotine in the body and increasing that immune system response. But I digress. So for the people who experience improvement and then their improvement wanes, and then they go ahead and they do another round. It seems like they're having more improvement, and then sometimes it wanes, and sometimes it persists, or the benefits persist. Now if it wanes, oftentimes it's, it's, it's taking longer to wane, so the improvements are lasting for a longer period of time, so when they start to wane again, then we're doing another round. So that's what we're finding to be effective. And you know, a lot of this is, is really trying to figure out what the Goldilocks dose is for an individual. So I talk a lot about Goldilocks doses. And so this is the ideal dose for an individual. Everybody's an individual, everybody's different, and treatments need to be personalized. And so consequently, you may be fine with a seven milligram patch every single day and not have any sort of negative effect, and only positive effects or no effects at all. And for other people, they may need to take a half a patch a day.

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Or they may, may need to take it every other day, etc. So it's figuring out what's going to be the ideal dose, and then figuring out how long people need to take it for and and how long it's going to take before you actually feel better. So for some people, you know, some of the preliminary research was actually finding that people really just needed one week, Max, two weeks in order to have improvement in their symptoms up to six months. So that's not really what I'm seeing in in clinical practice.

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So

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that's been interesting to see that that you know the difference between the research and what people are seeing with some of the long COVID people and some of the long COVID people that we're seeing as well, where we are finding that some of those symptoms are the improvements are weaning, and then they have to do another round. There are some people that we are asking to do a round of the 14 milligrams, and that's 14 days of that. But in general, we're sticking with the seven milligrams. You know, one of the biggest objections that people have to utilizing nicotine is their concerns about dependency, you know, getting addicted to it. But in the research studies, we're not seeing that anybody is having dependency. And I'm also seeing that in clinical practice as well. It appears that the dose is low enough where that's not an issue. And to give you an idea about how it compares with smoking, when you take a drag of a cigarette, you're getting one to two milligrams over that moment, essentially over a minute or so. That's different than seven milligrams over 24 hours, okay, which potentially is giving you about point three milligrams per hour. Okay, so divide that over 60 minutes, and it's such a small amount, as opposed to getting one or two milligrams over a minute, right? So I think that's part of the reason. Why is this just there's just not a big bolus of nicotine that's being consumed. There is some dizziness and some other side effects that people are experiencing. So just be aware of that. And if that happens, what I'm recommending to people is to take a break from it and then start off at a lower dose.

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Okay.

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The other thing that's been interesting that is, is the timing of when to do this. So I have been starting people off with utilizing the nicotine patch, just because oftentimes it can be a significant improvement rather quickly. And having those those wins initially can be incredibly helpful. But for people who aren't having success, either they're having negative reactions or they're just not noticing anything, it seems like doing it more when we get into step four,

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seems to make a big difference. And so just as a reminder, my four step process is to initially figure out the causes that people have. Step two is replacing the deficiencies in vitamins and minerals and hormones and mitochondria and lifestyle habits. So that gives people a bit of a boost, increases their energy just a little bit. Let's say you're at a four out of 10, where 10 is ideal energy. You're able to increase the five out of 10 with less crashes and less naps during the day. That's definitely a win. And then step three, we're opening up the detox pathways, the liver, the kidney, the lymph, the neuro lymph, which is in the brain, the gallbladder, the intestines, all these pathways, so that when we get into step four and we start removing the heavy metals, the chemicals, the molds, the infections and the nervous system dysfunction, what I call the toxic five, that we're going to be a lot more successful once we've started to open up these detox or drainage pathways in step three. So what I'm finding is that once we get into step four, and we start addressing the viruses with the herbal antivirals that we use, you know, just a reminder that we're 100% online, I operate as a coach online, and everything that I'm using is natural and herbal, and we're going after every single infection that could be present in the body to Make sure we leave no stone unturned, and that's that's really what I've learned over the last decade of specializing in chronic fatigue syndrome and now with long COVID The last couple of years, is that the only way that we're not going to be successful is that if we don't address all of the causes that an individual has. And unfortunately, all lab testing is highly imperfect, and I've been fooled time and time again. So what I found is that it's actually less expensive and more efficacious to just address all of the toxic five and so that means all of the heavy metals, all the chemicals, all the molds, all the infections, and then the nervous system dysfunction. So in terms of the infections, we're addressing not only spike protein, but we're addressing other viruses, Epstein, Barr, cytomegalovirus, HHV six, and then also bacteria and yeast and parasites and Lyme and Lyme co infections. Okay, and so we're adding in tinctures for each of these things in order to get to the ideal dose for an individual all the time, doing this dance between STEM.

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Three and step four to make sure that you don't have a lot of die off, to make sure that you don't feel worse while you're going through this process.

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So what I'm finding is that sometimes introducing the nicotine patch, or coming back to it once we have already introduced natal kinase and bromelain and some of these antivirals, which all can work against the spike protein can be very helpful, so that when the nicotine starts kicking the spike protein off of the receptor sites, we actually have ways of digesting the spike protein and then also addressing the virus as well. So that is another way that we are finding to be really supportive. And I can't really emphasize how important it is to work on the nervous system dysfunction. You know, we have a component in our program where we address it. It's not as deep as the Gupta program or primal trust or DNRs. It is more basic. We have a basic and advanced version, but we try to make it as easy for you as possible while you're going through the rest of the process really figuring out or what I found is that it really is this compliment, not just the nervous system retraining on its own, but it's addressing all of the toxic five that's going to make you that much more successful. Because it's important to remember that it's not just mental and emotional stressors over time that causes the nervous system dysfunction, but also the other toxins, the heavy metals, the chemicals, the molds, the infections, all of those will cause nervous system dysfunction, and, in turn, immune system dysfunction. So addressing those by working on the nervous system, by doing a nervous system

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a nervous system program, can be very helpful. But then also looking at some devices, and that's the next step that I'm taking right now, is looking at what devices are most efficacious in retraining the nervous system, in being vagal, that are vagal nerve stimulators,

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or other things that are working to retrain the nervous system. So that's kind of the next step with what we're doing to help people get better faster. It is important to remember that nicotine is only one part of the equation and that sometimes it can make a difference, but I have not seen it yet to take people to the finish line. So it is important to address all of the toxic five and that's what I've seen over the last decade with MECFS chronic fatigue syndrome, is that it's it's this compliment, it's addressing all of these things to make sure that we leave no stone unturned and so that you are most successful. So if you are interested in seeing if we're a good fit to work together, you can go ahead and click on the link below and watch my latest master class on that. After you watch that, you'll be prompted to get on a free call with me. This is for serious folks only. We are not the most expensive program out there, but we're definitely not the cheapest. So if you're ready and willing to invest the time, the energy and the money is needed to get better, and finally, get to the finish line, so that you no longer have to deal with your MECFS or your long COVID, get on a free call with me, and let's see if we're a good fit to work together. All right, have a wonderful day. I'll see you next time.