In this livestream Dr. David Perlmutter discusses several emerging COVID‑19 concerns. He opens with CDC data showing that nearly 40 % of hospitalized patients are aged 20‑54, emphasizing that American youth face higher risk due to obesity, diabetes, and poor diet. He links these metabolic issues to gut‑microbiome dysbiosis and argues that lifestyle‑related inflammation may explain severe outcomes in younger adults. Perlmutter then critiques the use of ibuprofen and other NSAIDs, citing a BMJ article that advises against ibuprofen for COVID‑19 symptoms and noting that NSAIDs can alter gut bacteria similarly to proton‑pump inhibitors, potentially worsening inflammation and increasing risk of stroke or Alzheimer’s disease. He introduces the hygiene hypothesis, pointing to the striking lack of reported cases in Haiti and low incidence in sub‑Saharan Africa, suggesting that limited early‑life microbial exposure may impair immune regulation. He reviews a JAMA study of four young medical professionals who, after meeting recovery criteria, continued to test positive for SARS‑CoV‑2 for up to 13 days, raising questions about when it is safe to re‑enter households. Additional evidence from British sources is presented linking high BMI (especially >40) to heightened COVID‑19 risk, reinforcing the obesity‑microbiome connection. Perlmutter calls for systematic microbiome sequencing of COVID‑19 patients and controls, urging research institutions to investigate microbial signatures that may predict disease severity. The session includes a brief Q&A where he advises against ibuprofen until more data emerge, mentions potential benefits of NAC and sauna, and addresses supplement concerns. Technical difficulties and a poetic interlude conclude the broadcast, with a promise to post a microbiome‑focused video and appear on The 700 Club Interactive the following day.
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Hello everyone. Had a few technical difficulties today. Power went off and I'm hoping it's working right now. Again, I'd love an indication from our viewers that this is finally working. A little bit of wonky day, what can you say? And I'm going to begin by talking about whoever is signing on. I see there are people now joining. Let me know that the audio is good, please. I heard that it wasn't happening and that we did certainly lose our last broadcast. Looking for someone to comment on the audio. I watched these young kids on Miami Beach saying, well, they're not going to be concerned about the coronavirus. After all, they've been planning spring break for 2 weeks. So I think that— I'm listening. Good. Audio good. Thank goodness. Good. Great. Meant to be. So I think that the decisions that young people are making may not be necessarily good for them, good for us older people. We know that they can be carriers. We've got a lot to talk about today in terms of the idea of when you are finally virus-free. Some really eyebrow-raising information has come to us, and I see everybody's coming back now that we've had a few glitches. Thank you for that. Where we're going to start is an announcement by the CDC published in the New York Times. Let me read to you. CDC data showing that nearly 40% of patients sick enough to be hospitalized were aged 20 to 54, meaning younger people are being hospitalized. And, you know, you might say, well, I can't understand how that could be. I mean, these are America's young kids. They're— They're healthy. Why would they get coronavirus and have to be hospitalized? Well, here's the point. A, that Americans' youth are not necessarily as healthy as in other countries. You know, we rank around 46th or 47th in healthcare in the world. It's just the statistic. We have exceedingly high rates of adolescent obesity, diabetes in teenagers. And, you know, certainly a lot of this is diet-related and lifestyle-related as well. But look, we're going to learn in just a little bit that obesity and that weight may well be a powerful factor as it relates to risk for having a serious consequence related to having COVID-19 infection. 40% of these patients are sick enough to be hospitalized are aged 20 to 54. You know, and a certain percentage of them are going to need to be in the intensive care unit on a ventilator, and that's going to be something that just may not be available very, very soon, as in the next week or so. So to see kids out on the beach because it's spring break, that's a behavior that's based upon acting from the self-interest, here and now impulsivity. And we've got to rein kids in. With all due respect, we need to bring the adult back to the equation here and make some rule changes to get these kids inside and isolated from others. It's very, very serious. We added so many cases today, it's breathtaking. It can hardly keep up. So I'm going to give you the link for that. I'd like you to take a look at that. This is— Where is it? I'll post this now. This is from the CDC talking about the increased risk in for younger kids. Our kids are not healthy. Now, I'm going to try to unify today all of these ideas about why younger American kids are having more serious problems, why ibuprofen might be a bad idea, and even why some of the underlying medical conditions. may pose a significant risk for having a serious outcome. We next move to the ibuprofen question. I'm going to post a link that we just posted on drperlmutter.com about this because I think a lot of people are taking ibuprofen. And if you want to text some of your friends, remind them that we've come back on, that this might be a good time to do that. We've got a lot of information. People are getting a lot of myalgias, headaches, other types of pain, taking ibuprofen for it. It looks like according to BMJ, and I'm going to give you the article, COVID-19 ibuprofen should not be used for managing symptoms, say doctors and scientists. Is it true or not true? I would not now be taking ibuprofen. Why do younger Americans have a worse outcome now? I'm going to unify all of these ideas in a little bit, but, you know, let me just preface it all by saying that what do we depend on for good immunity and for keeping inflammation in balance? Think about it. What have we been talking about for the past decade? What we've been talking about is the gut bacteria, the microbiome, and we know that there's a relationship between weight gain, between type 2 diabetes, And changes in the gut bacteria, i.e., changes in immunity, increased inflammation. We know that ibuprofen is associated with significant changes in the gut bacteria. I'll give you some data on that as well. And we know that, you know, there are some inflammatory issues that are increased in risk in people that are chronically taking ibuprofen or other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, like having a stroke. Like getting Alzheimer's disease, both of which are inflammatory conditions. We know that ibuprofen changes the gut bacteria like proton pump inhibitors do. So what I'm going to do later this evening for everybody is I've already created a video with slides showing the science, talking about this interesting relationship that now might explain why younger people in America are having worse outcomes, why to this date there has not been a single case reported in Haiti. We will talk about something called the hygiene hypothesis whereby people who have lived these sterile lives like most of us have as opposed to people living in sub-Saharan Africa where the risk, rather the incidence of coronavirus infection this time around is very, very low. And as mentioned in Haiti, no cases. So maybe the hygiene hypothesis is coming back to haunt us in terms of our sense of germs and sterility. The hygiene hypothesis proposed by Strachan back in the 1980s, a publication in the British Medical Journal, might be a good thing to Google. It's really interesting, proposing that lack of childhood exposure to things like bacteria And even helminths, things like worms, may be the reason we have so much allergy and so much immune issues in children these days. Now, I want to move on, and again, I'm going to get you the link to— well, actually, we'll post it here on Facebook and also on YouTube. I want to move on to something that's very, very important. Is it published yet? Not yet. And that is, when is it safe to bring people back into your house who have had coronavirus? Now they're feeling better. Are they okay to come home? And I'd like to say, well, you know, a few days of no fever, everything should be good, especially if they can be tested. Can I turn up the volume? How's my volume? I need to know. Still too low to hear. Darn. Let me— I'll use 2 microphones. Maybe that'll help because maybe this is the one that's initialized, but I don't know. Tell me, folks, if that seems better. I don't know. Okay, it may be better. We had everything shut down, so there you go. Need to know— James, why don't you text me back? Let me know how the audio is now. Sound is really low. Okay. Anyway, somebody text me back, let me know. This is a very, very important study and I'm going to send it to you right now. Yeah, I need to know how the volume is. Anyway, and this is a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association. What did they find? Volume is good. Volume is good. Yes, we've had— who knows why the power went out. So thank you. And it helps us get a little bit of a handle. Didn't help much. I'm not sure what to do, folks. Okay. It helps us get a bit of a handle. I'll try to talk louder on when people are ready to come back into the house. I'm going to post it for you right now. And okay, thank you, Jonathan. I got your text. And I want you all to look at this because this is Very, very important. And here we go. What the study tells us, it followed 4 medical professionals. They were young guys, 30 to 36 years old. They developed COVID. They were in China and they were all diagnosed with blood testing, rather throat testing, nasal swabs, treated with Tamiflu, and then they were considered that they had recovered When they had 2 tests over 2 days that were negative. Okay? These are proven cases of a coronavirus and now they are tested and they're testing negative. They were quarantined at home for 5 days and then retested. They continued to undergo throat swabs for the coronavirus after 5 days for up to 13 days post-recovery. And here's what is fairly interesting about that, not fairly interesting. The results showed that every test between day 5 and 13 again was positive for the virus. The quote from the journal article, these findings suggest that at least a proportion of the recovered patients may still be virus carriers. I don't know how to interpret that in terms of what that means. It was done back in February. When do we know people are safe to come in the home? That's a good question, I think, to ask in light of this JAMA study. The next study that I would like to talk about is that it lists a study from the British journals, Manchester Evening News, talking about having a high body mass index, being overweight, As being among the highest risk as it relates to coronavirus infection. Those at increased have been advised to be particularly stringent in following social distancing measures. New guidance lists overweight people, BMI greater than 40, among the very highest risk for coronavirus. Is it because of the body fat and the inflammation that that produces? Is it because of their changed microbiome, their gut bacteria that correlates with, okay, that correlates with obesity, don't know. So this is a very interesting thing to consider because overweight or obesity along with emphysema, bronchitis, heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease, Parkinson's, problems with the spleen like sickle cell disease, etc., anything that weakens the immune system will likely be at higher risk, that's for sure. So the— what I'm saying is that how does that relate to the microbiome? If you look at maps that look at rates of obesity in the world and you look at maps that show— and we're going to— I'll show you that in a minute. You look at maps that show where coronavirus is most active, you'll see a very strong correlation. So it doesn't mean, let's say, that obesity is making the situation worse, although I suspect it is. It might mean that the issue here is the microbiome, the microbiome that is related to obesity, that is related to diabetes, related to heart disease, Alzheimer's, and all of the other situations that seem to be associated with higher risk. Again, why are Are there no cases in Haiti? The reason I mention that is I did visit Haiti after their devastating earthquake in 2010, and I was very taken by how the patients that we were treating, some of whom lost arms or legs, nonetheless, when we would do surgery on these patients, they weren't getting antibiotics. They were outside in tents provided by UNICEF. And we didn't see much infection, you know, and I was very, very impressed with their immune systems. And it gets back to this notion of the hygiene hypothesis. So what we've done is we've created a movie for you, a video rather, that we will post in a little bit on YouTube and on Facebook. And I'd like you to take a look at that because I think what I am calling for is for Yeah. For our microbiome research colleagues like University of California San Diego, you know who I'm talking to, we need to start sequencing microbiomes from controls and from individuals who are at— seem to be getting the infection and see if there's any difference. Hopefully that might lead us to a place of being able to understand how these changes might be remedied That I think might take many, many months, but you know what? Every journey begins with the first step. Having said that, let's take some questions. Aspirin, ibuprofen, and yeah, okay, again, brand names include— thank you for that post, Sandy Rodriguez. Again, the nonsteroidals are what people seem to be concerned about. And I hear that my volume is still very low. I don't know why that is. But, okay. Anyway, I think I'm going to leave this then since it is the way it is. The others are saying volume is perfect. Okay, good. Many people commenting on the volume. I got that. Okay. So let me just answer a couple of questions. I'm going to tell you I will be, I think tomorrow, on 700 Club Interactive. What's that? with Gordon Robertson and going to be answering a lot of questions about latest developments. Yeah, yeah, Maureen Danielle is telling us about Tamiflu side effects. No drug interaction is necessarily going to be, going to be without risk, right? We always look at the risk-benefit ratios. Sauna has proven highly effective in killing the virus. I think it would probably kill the virus in terms of killing the virus on surfaces. How effective it is for humans, we just don't know. Lee Karetas is talking about NAC as possibly helping stop the virus. I don't know that we have studies on that specifically, so I can't say. There you go. What is your professional opinion about taking ibuprofen during symptom stages? I am not going to take it until we learn otherwise. Okay, anyway, I'm allergic to quinine. Would there be any problem taking the hydroxyl form? I don't know the answer to that. I would say that the preliminary research shows that hydroxy is a better form, but we see— and we see that it is going to be fast-tracked. Anyway, I think that people seem like— anyway, they're hearing me better with headphones. I'm going to read a little poem and jump off because I'm not sure, folks, that the volume is good. Power went out in this area. What can I tell you? I will definitely come back tomorrow and give it another shot. Let me read to you a poem by Mitchell Browder. Mitchell, if you're listening. It is called Paint. Everybody ready? Here we go. I picked up a brush and $80 worth of paint. After a few tries, I know that kind of artist I ain't. So I will paint a picture in your head with the words that I write instead. I'll start with the sky. Use your imagination. Blue, blue, like the first day of summer vacation. Next is the grass, tall and green. The breeze makes it wave and the sun makes it sheen. Just beyond the grass and the sand dunes, and just above that, a seagull looms. The air is sweet with the scent of the ocean and the coconut in my suntan lotion. The sun is warm and bright and I have to squint at that little boy's kite. I crest the dune and there is the sea. The waves crash and foam and softly roar at me. I wade in. It is quite cold. Now let's sign this in the sand where the waves hit the shore and the sea meets the air and the land. Now step back and look. What a wonderful view! And the canvas can go wherever Because it's in you. Thank you for that. Apologies for the technical issues today. Make sure that we'll get those squared away as best we can, and I will talk to you guys all tomorrow. And tomorrow, I don't know at what time, but I'll be on The 700 Club Interactive and then back on the regular program, I think on Tuesday of next week. But of course, we'll see you tomorrow at 5:00 PM Eastern. Watch for the post later tonight for the video about the microbiome and what you can do, and we'll get that to YouTube as well. Bye for now.
