In this episode, I speak with Michael Murray, ND – who is one of the world’s leading authorities on natural medicine and author of The Magic of Food and the Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine. We will talk about the importance of nutrients in health and six more natural keys to wellness.
As you will discover through this episode, proper levels of nutrients are needed for optimal health wellness. Therefore, I have developed Energy Essentials and Superfoods, the ultimate multivitamin, mineral and immune boosting supplement in the market with effective doses. You can get your own bottle here! If you are interested in the ULTRABRAIN supplement mentioned in the beginning of the podcast, get it here!
Table of Contents
In this episode, Dr. Murray and I discuss:
- The role of vitamin D levels in COVID-19 severity
- The importance of nutrients for proper immune function
- Common symptoms of leaky gut
- The power of yeast for boosting immune function
Listen or download on iTunes
Listen outside iTunes
Transcript
Ari: Hey there. This is Ari. Welcome back to the Energy Blueprint Podcast. I am here now with Dr. Michael Murray, who is one of the world’s leading authorities on natural medicine. I want to say on a personal note this is one of the very few individuals that I have just enormous respect and admiration for. This is one of very few individuals that I myself follow very closely and really pay attention to as just one of the most brilliant minds in all of natural health. I have just an unbelievable amount of admiration and appreciation for this man’s work. He’s been doing it for decades now, and he’s really a legend in the realm of natural health. On a more sort of a less personal note, his official bio is that he’s published over 30 books featuring natural approaches to health.
He is a graduate, former faculty member, and serves on the board of regions of Bastyr University in Seattle, Washington. And he’s the chief science officer of Enzymedica. He’s also the author of The Magic of Food and the Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine. This man is the author of the Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, and it is really an encyclopedia. I have it. It’s like 800 pages or something. And it’s wonderful. So, I’m very excited for you guys to hear this. And I know it’s going to be packed full of great stuff as always. And in this presentation, he’s going to be talking all about how to supercharge your immune function. So welcome Dr. Murray, such a pleasure to connect with you as always.
Dr. Murray: Oh, it’s great fun. And I love talking to your audience. They’re well educated. They’re inspired. And they take action.
The most important keys to supercharge your immune function
Ari: Absolutely. So, let’s get into it. Where do we begin with immune function? Very important topic right now with everybody in lock-down. I mean, I don’t know how this will be in mid-July when the summit is airing, but hopefully— — I’m sure immune function and awareness of maybe the potential for future waves of coronavirus or other pandemics is still on people’s mind even a couple of months from now as this interview is airing. So how do we supercharge our immune function? Where do you want to begin?
Dr. Murray: Well, first of all, thank you so much. And we had a great conversation before we got going here, and I wish everyone could have listened in on that because I think there are a lot of gifts that this COVID-19, this SARS- CoV-2 virus is going to give us. And the biggest one may be that there’s an increased understanding that if we don’t have a strong immune system, we’re going to become more susceptible to an infection, and that could be something that could cause severe consequences. And there’s an equation that I want all of you to understand is called the infection equation, and what determines the outcome is the strength of a person’s immune system coupled with how virulent, how strong, how aggressive, how infective, and lethal that infecting organism is.
So if we have a weak immune system, and we’re met with a significant challenge with a highly infective virus, it could lead to very severe disease. And we’ve seen that with this SARS-CoV-2 virus. On the flip side, if we have a strong immune system, and we come in contact with smaller viral loads of a highly infectious virus-like SARS-CoV-2, we’re going to have less severe and possibly absolutely no disease at all. So the infection equation is looking at the strength of our immune system, coupled with how infectious and severe that virus or other organism is. And the key thing is building up our immune system. And our immune system is a reflection of our overall health. The two go hand in hand.
Ari: I have to mention real quick. Just an hour or two before recording this, I just saw a new study that came out on a prison. I forget where it was, but group of prison inmates, of the people who had it—— I think several hundred people in the prison got it. And of those prisoners who got it, 96% of them were asymptomatic.
Dr. Murray: There you go. Yeah, and we saw that with some of the early studies with some of the cruise ships, and that was an elderly population. So age is not the critical determinant of whether you’re going to get a severe infection or not. It’s the strength of your immune system. And as I said, it’s kind of a reflection of our overall health. I just finished a book we talked about it earlier. It’s called The Longevity Matrix, and what I did in that book is I took a systems approach to living longer. And the thing about a system is that it’s composed of many different parts that work together, and our immune system reflects the true system, and our overall health reflects interrelationship between all the different body systems.
And there’s a strong correlation between the health of our entire system and the health of each individual component, whether it’s the heart, whether it’s the liver and detoxification, whether it’s brain, whether it’s the immune system. So I like to build a strong foundation before I start throwing other things on top of it. When I was in practice, it was bizarre to me that so many patients I’d ask them to bring in all of their supplements. And we did a diet diary before they came in so I could get a sense of what their diet was like. And we did a lifestyle evaluation, and what amazed me is that it was like they had great art, but they didn’t have any strong walls to hang that art.
So I like to build health from the ground up by paying attention to four cornerstones: developing a positive mental attitude, following a health- promoting lifestyle, eating a highly nutritious diet, and then supplementing our health through dietary supplements, bodywork, anything that’s going to build us up and support us. And for some people, that may mean a medication, but for most people, the goal is to keep them away from medications because many of them are detrimental to our system as a whole. And in particular, we’re talking about today the immune system, and I’ll give you some examples going forward.
Ari: I want to mention one thing. This is something we talked about in the podcast interview we recorded geez, probably over a year ago at this point. But to quote you on something you said, you said one of the great myths about natural medicines is that they are not scientific. The fact of the matter is that for most common illnesses, there is greater support in the medical literature for a natural approach than there is for drugs and surgery. And I think that’s such an important thing for people to understand, especially people who are skeptical of natural stuff. And especially, I think—— I mean, I really believe, and I think you agree that the best medicine we have for protecting ourself from infectious disease and future pandemics is a health-promoting lifestyle, as you were just alluding to, and some of these nutritional medicines, natural medicines, and supplements.
Dr. Murray: Absolutely. And there’s so much that we can do proactively to improve our health. And there’s no guarantee. There are a lot of factors that go into health and in disease. And we’ve all known people that have seemingly done everything wrong and yet lived a long and healthy life. They are the outlier. They are the exception. And by the same measure, we’ve also known people that had done everything right and maybe haven’t been as healthy and maybe had a shorter life span. But if we look at large groups of people, we can see that there are certain health practices that are associated with a longer life and living better. One of the healthy diets that have been kind of propped up there is the traditional Mediterranean diet. Now, I’ve done a little modification of that diet.
I crossed out sweets, and I crossed out bread, pasta, rice, and starchy vegetables. In this day and age, we just don’t need kind of those empty calories. I’d rather get my calories for more nutrient-dense foods. Foods that have a lot more in them than just complex carbohydrates. So vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, fruits. Those should be our primary foundations of our diet, and then good high-quality oils and the right types of fat. Getting good high- quality protein. All important for proper immune function. When we talk about the immune system, people immediately think of their white blood cells, and they’re important, but the first line of defense in our body is our physical barriers, like our skin and our mucosal linings of our respiratory tract, of our gastrointestinal tract, genital and urinary tract.
So if there’s a breakdown in those physical barriers, and that’s one of the things that I think has led to an increased risk of developing COVID-19—kind of a breakdown in some of the physical barriers against a viral infection. So the health of those mucus membranes is really important. I’m going to give some recommendations along those lines, but a lot of the same nutrients that are important for helping our white blood cells and our thymus and other immune cells work well are also involved in the health of our physical barriers. The second line of defense referred to is our innate immune system, our nonspecific immunity. And this includes those large white blood cells known as macrophages. These are monocytes that have taken up residence in tissues, neutrophils, natural killer cells, dendritic cells.
They offer nonspecific immunity. They’re not responsible for developing antibodies against specific organisms or a cell-mediated attack against those specific organisms. They act generally to fight off infective organisms. And another second line of defense is a very complex hormonal system of immunity as largely controlled by our thymus gland. Our thymus gland is the major gland of our immune system. This gland lies in a Bible-like fashion in our upper chest. And as we age, it tends to involute or shrink. And that’s one reason why many people as they age become more susceptible to infections, particularly viral infections and yeast infections, because these infections take advantage of a weakened cell-mediated immunity. And that’s immunity that is not based upon developing antibodies against an organism, but more effective killing of it through some specialized white blood cells.
These are mainly T cells, thymus-derived cells. So maintaining thymus function is really important. I’m going to give you some recommendations how to that, but it’s important to understand how all these pieces fit. The last line of defense is our adaptive immune system, where we develop antibodies or cell-mediated immune responses to specific organisms, whether they’re a virus, yeast, or bacteria. So we have B-cells that make antibodies. Then we have T cells that exert cell-mediated immune responses that are able to kill viruses intracellularly. So kind of a different approach than the antibody approach.
So when we look at what leads to decreased immunity, it’s really interesting because this situation we’re in, Ari, we’re seeing some really smart people say really stupid things. When I was watching one of these interviews with some of our experts, and they were asked, what can you do to enhance the immune system? And here are these doctors that are supposedly experts in infectious conditions.
Ari: I think I know where you’re going with this. I think I’ve seen a string of articles in mainstream media outlets.
Dr. Murray: Yeah. There’s nothing you can do.
Ari: It’s a myth that you can boost your immune function.
Dr. Murray: Yeah. Like, are you kidding me?
Ari: Yeah. This is being pawned off as the scientific position.
Dr. Murray: Oh, my God. Yeah. And I made a post this week that was really popular. And I just pointed out that in naturopathic medicine, we focus on the terrain and in conventional medicine, they’re focused on the beast. They’re focused on the germ. And Louis Pasteur said on his deathbed, the pathogen is nothing. The terrain is everything; even he knew that was true. So what are some underlying factors that contribute to decreased immunity? Number one is nutrient deficiency. That’s well known. A deficiency of any single nutrient can lead to immune dysfunction. And that can mean the difference between not only getting an infection but not having the surveillance of your immune system working properly, and maybe a cancer cell grows out of control. So nutrient deficiency is the number one factor that leads to decreased immunity.
And I’ve used that word system a lot. And you hear experts talk about vitamin D or vitamin A, or vitamin C. The thing is your immune system requires all essential nutrients, and a deficiency of any one of them might mean impaired immunity. And it may mean that something like vitamin D that you may be taking high doses of may not be able to do its work because it works as part of a system. I mean, yeah, you need to have your keys to start your car. That’s very important, but if that car’s out of gas or the Tesla doesn’t have a charge, it’s not going to be able to go. So our vehicles are examples of systems and missing part, or a part that’s not working properly means that vehicle isn’t going to be able to perform its function. Same thing is true of our immune system.
So nutrient efficiency, number one factor leading to decreased immunity— stress, insulin resistance. Yeah, that’s one of the risk factors for COVID-19. Chronic inflammation, any sort of chronic inflammatory condition, weakens your immune system. Again, that’s what we’re seeing with COVID-19: food allergies and intolerance, the presence of a leaky gut. And I’ll talk a little bit about what that is, but if a person gets more than two or three colds a year, and the average adult gets five colds a year. I went 22 years without having a cold. I’m on a new stretch of two and a half years. Hopefully, I’d like to finish my life off of never having another cold.
The importance of nutrients for immune function
Ari: You’re doing better than me. I have an eight-month-old and a three-and- a-half-year-old. So sleep has been pretty bad the last few years. And my kids have come home sick from—— My three-year-old has come home sick from hanging out with other kids and going to this school. And he sleeps right next to me, bad sleep, plus that exposure. I’ve gotten sick a few times over the last few years.
Dr. Murray: Yeah, I went 22 years without a cold and having sick kids and traveling and shaking hands and not practicing social distancing and all that. So if you get more than two or three colds a year or if colds seem to really linger, I guarantee you that your odds of having a leaky gut are really high because I think that’s another key underlying factor for low immune function. Increased toxin exposure, and then, of course, some people are just predisposed. We all have a tendency to have a weak link. For some people, it may be their heart. Others it might be their liver. For some, it’s their brain. And then for others, it could be their immune system. So I’m sure your audience is familiar with this term leaky gut.
But our gut barrier is supposed to be very tight. We have these junctions between cells, and the cells are supposed to be really tight so that we don’t absorb things that shouldn’t be absorbed from our gut into our circulation. If we start absorbing these compounds from our gut, that leads to overwhelming our immune system, particularly kind of that second line of defense—our macrophages, our dendritic cells, and these garbage collectors. If they are overwhelmed, and these toxins go deeper, they then impact liver function. And then they get into the systemic circulation and really disrupt immune function. So dealing with a leaky gut is very important in dealing with improving our immune system. So what are some of the causes of leaky gut? Again, nutrient deficiency because if we are deficient in nutrients, our cells that line the gut aren’t able to function properly.
Those cells turn over every four days. So they require a steady stream of nutrients. And if we are deficient in any essential nutrient, then those cells are going to be fragile and susceptible to damage. And then that’s going to lead to that leaky gut. Food allergies or intolerances, having the wrong type of gut bacteria and other organisms, dysbiosis. So antibiotics, drugs that disrupt the intestinal environment, are really detrimental. And this includes prescription and over the counter drugs, particularly acid-blocking drugs and non- steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Other things, high sugar intake, overeating, getting the wrong types of fats, excess alcohol, and poor digestion and absorption due to digestive enzyme insufficiency, these are all causes of increased intestinal permeability.
I mentioned the thymus gland earlier. I’m going to talk a little bit about what we can do to make this gland work so well. And this gland for years it was kind of thought of just being a remnant of childhood that it didn’t really have any functions in adults. But as we started to learn about the immune system, we realized that our body is really designed to have a fully functioning thymus throughout our entire lifespan. Now, many people don’t because, as I said, that thymus gland will shrink. It’s very sensitive to free radical or pro- oxidative damage. So this is where our antioxidant intake really comes into play.
Ari: It’s worth noting there’s a parallel also with the brown fat, brown adipose tissue that for many years, for many decades, it was thought, oh, only babies have this. And as we grow from babies to adults, we naturally lose our brown fat stores. Well, it’s not supposed to happen. It’s a result of modern lifestyles and lack of exposure to the elements and being outdoors that and being indoors and climate-controlled environments that our bodies basically say, oh, if you’re not going to be exposed to the elements, then I guess we don’t need this brown fat, this internal heater anymore. So it atrophies. Just like if you don’t use a muscle, it atrophies, and the thymus gland also involutes in kind of a similar way. I mean, I don’t know to what extent. The parallel stops there as far as what factors kind of stimulate the thymus to stay alive, but it helps to explain that.
Dr. Murray: Yeah, it is largely similar to those factors that protect our body linings like our skin and our mucus membranes, or the thymus is largely composed of epithelial cells. So these cells are very susceptible to oxidative damage. So antioxidants—— I mean, Ari, one of the best studies I read it was a study that was conducted. I think it was 1931. It is a really ingenious study. I mean, vitamin A was the first vitamin that was discovered. It was given that name A not only because it was the first, but also because it showed anti- infective properties and carotenes, beta carotene, in particular, can be converted to vitamin A, but there are about 600 carotenes that aren’t converted to vitamin A.
And we used to think that if they weren’t converted to vitamin A, they didn’t have any benefit, but now we know that that’s not true. But anyway, in this study from 1931, it was a simple study. They looked at blood levels of beta carotene, and they measured the number of school days children missed, and it was a large study. And what they found is that the higher the level of the beta carotene in the blood, the fewer the number of school days missed. Now that may have been a marker for eating more vegetables. But it was also a marker for preserving thymus function because beta carotene and carotenes, in general, they exert significant protective effects on the thymus. The thymus, as I mentioned earlier, produces these T cells that are involved in cell-mediated immunity that’s critical in fighting against yeast and viral infections at this time. It also produces immune-enhancing hormones. So it’s very important.
Other things that we need to do to support the thymus gland is we need to supplement with nutrient co-factors, and the best way to do that is to do—— I recommend taking a foundational supplement program. And that includes a high potency multiple vitamin and mineral formula, extra vitamin D3, some sort of plant-based antioxidant, and then a good high-quality fish oil. These are the things that I recommend everyone take, not just for their immune system, but for overall good health. A high potency multiple has been shown to be able to restore immune function in both children and adults, particularly in the elderly. And in these situations, it’s due primarily to, I think, supporting the thymus gland along with all of the other individual components of the immune system. As I said and made a key point of it, our system requires all these nutrients.
And so, we want to make sure that we’re taking a good nutritional insurance policy. That’s another name for a good high-quality multiple vitamin and mineral formula to make sure we’re getting all of the essential micro-nutrients that we need. Now, people always ask me what do I take? And so, I show you my daily packet—what I take daily. And I also show what my 15-year-old daughter took before this COVID-19 situation, and what she’s taking now. This is a time where we have to be vigilant. We have to protect ourselves even more so. So my foundation supplement program for immune health during this sort of stress is going to be even more aggressive than the normal. So I’m going to talk about some of the key nutrients that are important beyond taking a multiple vitamin and mineral formula.
Ari: Dr. Murray, can I add one interesting little note on the thymus gland?
Dr. Murray: Sure.
Ari: So I think you know, but light is a real area of very deep interest to me. And so, I wrote a book, The Ultimate Guide to Red and Near-Infrared Light Therapy. And then my next book is coming out on sunlight more broadly, and all the different bio-active wavelengths and all the different mechanisms, vitamin D, but also goes way beyond vitamin D. And part of the reason I’m writing a book is that there’s so many amazing benefits of sunlight that go beyond the vitamin D story that people are just unaware of. And one interesting note, though, is that red and near-infrared light, there’s some research showing that done on the thymus gland may help slow or stop the process of thymus involution. And so, light may tie into this story, too. Adequate sun exposure, sunbathing with your bare chest, and getting that red and near-infrared light through the chest may have some benefits as well there.
Dr. Murray: That’s fascinating. I like that. I don’t know if you’ve ever had this experience, Ari, but I’ve always thought it was tied to brown fat, but when I have certain meals and mainly Japanese food or sometimes East Indian food, I will feel heat in this area, and I’ll wake up in the middle of the night, and I will feel a lot of heat in this area.
Ari: For people listening who are not watching the video, you’re talking about the upper chest where the thymus gland is located.
Dr. Murray: Yeah. So I always kind of equated that to brown fat activation that thinking about it is probably more thymus.
Ari: Yeah, interesting.
Dr. Murray: Yeah. Let’s talk about some key nutrients for immune function, and these are nutrients that right now, I think, make good sense to take extra amounts of vitamin A in the retinol form. And I’ll explain the difference there. And then beta carotene, vitamin D, vitamin C, B vitamins, zinc, and selenium. And I want to talk about each one of these. First off, vitamin A, I said the retinol form. Retinol can be a tragedy meaning it can cause birth defects. So companies got away from using retinol and started using beta carotene in multiple vitamin and mineral formulas. We need both. Vitamin A, preformed vitamin A, has been shown to produce phenomenal results in decreasing the risk of mortality and morbidity from viral illness.
This has been demonstrated around the globe. It’s been shown to be effective against measles, respiratory syncytial virus. That’s shown to be effective in other types of viruses, as well as other types of infections. It is, I think, a really good idea to take extra vitamin A. Here’s what I recommend for men, 10,000 IUs. For women, 5,000 IUs is safe. Don’t go above that unless there’s absolutely zero and I mean zero chance of being pregnant, but for most women, because they’re smaller, 5,000 IUs is fine. During an acute infection, we want to take advantage of the loading dose. Again, for women, this is only applicable if there’s zero chance of pregnancy, but 50,000 IUs for a day or two is a good loading dose. And the key thing for women, if you’re a childbearing age, if there’s any chance, just don’t take more than 5,000 IUs of vitamin A per day and that applies to lactation.
Ari: Do you know about how much vitamin A is in a liver? What amount of liver would equate to these doses?
Dr. Murray: Yeah, like a chicken liver or beef liver, it would be, I think—— My guess is that three and a half ounces of liver would probably have 5000 to 10,000 IUs of vitamin A.
Ari: Got you.
Dr. Murray: Yeah. So it would be in that range. So beta carotene, I mentioned that earlier. I don’t think it’s necessary to supplement. I think this is another reason to just pay attention to your carotene intake. Take advantage of maybe having some carrot juice every once in a while, but eating yams, richly colored vegetables, green leafy vegetables, all rich sources of beta carotene. Look at the palms of your hand. I know not everyone can see me, but I’ve got pretty good Carotenodermia. That means you can look at your palms, and if they have a slight orange tint, that’s healthy because that means that you are depositing carotenes in your epithelial cells in your skin. And you’re also depositing those excess carotenes in your thymus, and they are acting to protect that thymus against involuting.
So I don’t think you need to take carotenes per se to provide that extra benefit you need. I think it’s a good reminder during times of increased risk of an infection, just to make sure you get a lot of green leafy vegetables, dark- colored vegetables, and high carotene foods. Vitamin D, I’m not going to spend a lot of time on. Everyone is talking about it. And it’s great to see the same experts that say that you can’t boost your immune function tell you that, well, maybe stick some vitamin D. I mean, even the former head of the CDC who said it looks like vitamin D is a good thing. High-quality evidence from 25 randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled studies show quite clearly that vitamin D3 supplementation reduces the risk of experiencing respiratory tract infections—lots of emerging data on the role of vitamin D against SARS-CoV-2.
Ari: Yeah. You saw the recent data that came out showing—— I mean, it was a massive effect size. It was like something like vitamin D deficiency versus sufficiency was like gave you 19-fold times increased risk of dying from COVID-19.
Dr. Murray: When they broke people down of being vitamin D deficient, then vitamin D insufficient or having what are called normal, maybe not ideal or optimal, but normal vitamin D levels. What they found was, yeah, in people who had severe disease, boy, it hit those people that had the lowest levels of vitamin D. Moderate disease, those that had severe deficiency and insufficient intake, and very few people with adequate vitamin D had those sorts of serious consequences.
And then all of those that had mild infections—— I should say most of the people that had mild infections had higher levels of vitamin D. Very clear emerging data coming out that vitamin D is extremely protective against this particular virus. And we know that it’s protective against colds and flu. I liked this one study that looked at the effects of placebo versus 800 IUs of vitamin D3 a day versus 2000 IUs of vitamin D3 a day. This was a one-year study. Only one subject had a cold or flu symptom taking a higher dose of vitamin D3 while those that took the placebo there was a very high incidents of colds and flu-like symptoms.
Ari: Interesting. So what was the dose of vitamin D in that study? 5000?
Dr. Murray: They had two different doses, and both were effective. They did see a dose-response, and that means that more produce better results. So the study had three arms. One arm took the placebo. The other took 800 IUs of vitamin D3, and the last took 2000 IUs of D3. I believe that getting a blood level is a good idea. Some people may not be utilizing D3, as well as they should. And the only way to really determine that is to get a blood test. So a lot of people might be lolling themselves into a false sense of security because they’re taking lots of D3, but if they’ve never had a D3 test, they may still be low in D3. They may need higher amounts.
So we can use the blood tests to make sure that we’re in that sweet spot. I like to see it between 50 and 99 nanograms/ml. I think that’s where we should be. And certainly, we don’t want to be at toxic levels, but we want to have optimal levels, not just normal or not just enough. We want to make sure that we have the optimal amount. I want to encourage people to stay on top of vitamin D research because it’s dynamic. There’s so much that’s coming out and has come out over the last 15, 20 years.
So I recommend people go to the vitamin D Council website. It’s a great free resource to stay on top of the latest research on vitamin D3. I’m not going to talk about the B vitamins. I’m going to talk about zinc and selenium. Then we’re going to talk about some special immune-enhancing compounds, but zinc is kind of the gatekeeper of our immune system. And it’s involved in virtually every aspect of immunity, especially how our thymus functions. It’s critical in the action of those thymus hormones. It’s also critical to the function of every type of white blood cell. It’s responsible for helping the immune system coordinate efforts. It’s involved in the signaling amongst the different cells. And it also exerts direct antiviral actions. And this is really been highlighted with, again, this SARS-CoV-2 virus. Chloroquine got a lot of notoriety, and it may be effective as a preventer, and the way it works regardless is that it acts as what’s called a zinc ionophore. What that means is it opens up channels that allow zinc to enter the cell.
This is very important for lots of reasons against a virus. It’s really important because zinc is a natural inhibitor of what’s called replicates. This is an enzyme that a virus uses to replicate its genetic code. So zinc is a direct inhibitor of that enzyme. So it exerts direct antiviral effect. So it’s not enough that we have enough zinc in our body. It has to be getting into those infected cells, and zinc ionophores can help accomplish that. So what are some natural zinc ionophores: flavonoids, quercetin, green tea extract. These are examples of some really effective zinc ionophores.
And again, I think there’s a lot we can do with our diet in terms of flavonoid intake. Flavonoids are plant pigments that are found in berries, found in all fruits: citrus fruit, legumes, red kidney beans, black kidney beans, great sources of flavonoids. And most medicinal herbs owe their benefits to their flavonoid content. So high flavonoid intake, I think, is very important in protecting against viral infection. The flavonoids have some direct antiviral effects, but they also are important for immune system, and they are important in helping zinc act as an inhibitor of that replicates.
Ari: Yeah. I mentioned when you first came out with some emails and some articles talking about the zinc ionophore action of hydroxychloroquine and mentioning quercetin, EGCG. I think you also may be mentioned curcumin in that as well. I started digging into some of the zinc ionophore stuff. And interestingly, there was somebody up in Canada, a researcher, who’s actually studying quercetin for COVID-19. Quercetin as a treatment and he got—— This was maybe in early March, but he got I think a million dollars or $2 million to go find a study on quercetin and its ability to combat COVID-19. So just to let listeners know, some of these individual things that he just mentioned there maybe by themselves pretty potent medicines.
Dr. Murray: Yeah, I think so. Like I said, these flavonoids are responsible for many of the medicinal effects of plants in general, but in particular, plants that have long been used in fighting viral infections like black elderberry. Flavonoids are responsible for those benefits. The last nutrient that I want to talk on is selenium. And I think this is kind of like—— It’s a kind of forgotten key nutrient for the immune system. It’s critical to all components of the immune system, and selenium deficiency is really common in many parts of the world. And it definitely results in depressed immune function. Sodium supplementation, usually at a dose of 200 micrograms per day, has been shown to be very effective in enhancing immune function even in people who have normal selenium concentrations in their blood.
In one study, they saw almost a doubling or more than a doubling in the ability of white blood cells known as natural killer cells to kill tumor cells in an overall 82% increase in natural killer cell activity. Now, there’s different forms of selenium out there, Ari. And the one that I like, I like high selenium content yeast. The best study of these sorts of products is a source called Seleno Excell. This was the form of selenium that was used in the nutritional prevention of cancer study.
Now, this form, it originates from a special strain of Baker’s yeast, and this form of Baker’s yeast accumulates selenium into some of its proteins. Then the yeast is deactivated. It’s heat-killed, so it doesn’t reproduce in the body, and we’re only delivering the nutritional benefits. But the reason that I’m making a distinction here is because when you look at the research done with this yeast-based form of selenium, and you compare it to other forms of selenium, the other forms of selenium don’t have the same benefits. Like in that nutritional prevention of cancer study, the Seleno Excell group experienced a 50% reduction in cancer mortality. They also showed it’s related to prostate cancer, reduced prostate cancer, incidents by 63%. There’s a study called the select study that was done with selenomethionine, and they did not see that sort of benefit. And they actually showed that it may not be a good combination with synthetic vitamin E and selenium.
Ari: If that’s the case, is it possible that some of the effects that they’re seeing is from compounds in the yeast itself, like the beta-glucans or something to that effect?
Dr. Murray: Exactly. And I have a slide, and it’s called, is it the selenium or the beta-glucan?
Ari: Oh, there we go. Maybe I subconsciously internalized that as I was getting your slides.
Dr. Murray: You’re a smart guy. You have to answer. The question is, why didn’t the selenomethionine, which is an excellent form of selenium, produce the same sort of benefit. And it may be that the benefits that have been seen in clinical studies—— Like there was a study that was done where they looked at antioxidant response to selenomethionine versus a yeast-based, this Seleno Excell. And what they showed was that the selenomethionine was not really effective, but the yeast-based Seleno Excell extremely effective in protecting against cellular damage. And yeah, it is. It’s really interesting.
Ari: Does it relate to the form of selenium founded in Brazil nuts? And I also know Brazil nuts, commonly known as a food rich in selenium, but there’s this issue with, depending on the source of the Brazil nuts, they vary wildly in terms of selenium content from like very little to a massive amount per nut.
Dr. Murray: Yeah. And with nuts and seeds, in general, I tell people to mix it up. Don’t eat the same nut because they’re highly concentrated sources of many nutrients, particularly trace minerals. So it’s better to rotate and mix them up and eat a variety and not just the same nut every day. We have such a rich food supply. Most Americans eat the same foods, even if it’s healthy food. They’re eating the same foods day in and day out, and that’s not healthy. So I don’t know. I think that it’s more than the selenium. I guess you know that’s an opinion. I think it is the beta-glucan, and I’m going to talk about beta-glucans next. I’m going to talk about a special yeast, another beta-glucan product called Wellmune, and I’m singling it out because it has the best research behind it.
It’s a highly purified proprietary product. We hear these terms, beta-glucans, and that there are different beta-glucans. We can get them from yeast and from mushrooms. We can find them in grains like oat bran, but the beta- glucan from this Baker’s yeast it’s a highly branched, and it’s kind of like a key that binds to receptor sites on our white blood cells and literally turns them on. And it produces what are called pathogen-associated molecular patterns. Well, let me explain what that means. These are critical steps that our immune system takes so that our immune system is activated, but it is able to recognize non-self versus self.
These pathogens associated molecular pattern activators, like Wellmune, they help the immune system better distinguish an infecting organism versus the body’s own tissue. And that’s what we want. We want the immune system to be triggered in such a way to fight against infection and not attack our own tissues. So primed by beta-glucan, primed by Wellmune, our immune system has been shown to produce significant protection against upper respiratory tract viruses. This has been demonstrated in a number of double-blind placebo-controlled studies.
How beta-glucans can affect health
Ari: Quick question for you, and you’ve alluded to this, and you have it on your slide here this image of the structural difference between, or the chemical difference, between yeast beta-glucans versus fungal-like medicinal mushrooms, shiitake and maitake, and Chaga and all the rest of them. Have you seen compelling research that has compared the effects of maybe similar amounts of beta-glucans from fungi versus yeast, and like do you have good reason to believe that there is a really different or better effect from one or the other?
Dr. Murray: Absolutely, yeah. And I’m always going to tell people what I see from looking at the literature and opinions that I formed. Sometimes I’m just reporting facts, and sometimes different manufacturers out there might get upset with me, but I’m just reporting what the facts seem to tell me. If we’re looking at like other yeast-based beta-glucans, some of them which have been studied, if you look at the impact in reducing the—— First of all, the other forms—— I’ll share with you what the results were with Wellmune.
Like in one study, a 71% reduced risk of developing an upper respiratory tract infection and a significant reduction in the severity and duration in other very popular beta-glucan from yeast, same type of yeast—Baker’s yeast—that’s commercially available, they didn’t show any effect in reducing the incidents of an upper respiratory tract infection. And they only showed an 11% improvement in reducing the duration and severity. So instead of five days, you are sick for four days and eight hours. It’s not that significant. So let me talk a little bit about some of the fungal or mushrooms. I think the dosage is higher. I think you can get really good results, but the dosage is higher. For example, there’s the optimal——
Ari: You mean the optimal dosage?
Dr. Murray: Optimal dose is higher. Like are you familiar with AHCC?
Ari: No. I’ve read it here and there, but I’m not deeply familiar with it.
Dr. Murray: Yeah, it’s a mushroom-based product. It has good research behind it. It has shown good results, not great results, but good results. But the dose is three to six grams per day. So as far as dosage of some of these mushrooms, I think the beta-glucans are really locked in there. The way that they were produced or processed or made in traditional Chinese medicine, you boil them down for days and really break down those molecules, and I don’t know if you’ve ever taken any of those brews, but they didn’t taste so good, but I think those are really effective because you’ve broken down those structures really well. Fermentation may allow for that to a degree. But a lot of times, we don’t have good clinical research on some of these mushroom products that are being touted out there. Maitake is a bit different. We do have some data looking at maitake beta-glucans, and I think you can get effective dosages at more reasonable levels, not in the grams, but in the 100 to 250 to 500-milligram doses.
Ari: Got you. One more question. You mentioned two kinds of yeast products, the Seleno—— Sorry, Seleno something.
Dr. Murray: Yeah, Seleno, Excell.
Ari: Seleno Excell and Wellmune. One because it concentrates selenium and the other one has been, I assume it’s some sort of proprietary extract to concentrate the beta-glucans. I’m just wondering how these two products might compare to, let’s say just a large dose of standard Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Dr. Murray: That’s a really good question. If we look at how our immune is made, it’s a little bit special. So basically, the beta-glucans exist in an inner core layer. The outside is like a glycoprotein, but then there’s an inner layer, and this is where the beta-glucan is, and when they produce it, basically, you’re stripping away that glycoprotein, and they’re getting rid of all the internal components of that yeast. So you’re delivering a pure beta-glucan. Sometimes those other cellular components, they can produce perhaps some effects that aren’t entirely wanted. So, for example, what am I talking about?
Well, yeast can be very rich in nucleic acid. So someone who has gout might trigger it. There are also in yeast cell walls things that are called zymogens, which produce a feeble response. They activate the immune system in a way to promote fever. So I think there are some benefits to using that pure beta- glucan, and that’s really what Wellmune has devoted a lot of their focus on, and as I said, it has great research—over 20 double-blind studies. And I like this one study. It was a 28-day lifestyle study, and they looked at the ability of Wellmune to reduce the risk of developing an upper respiratory tract infection.
And this is the one that showed a 71% effectiveness rating in reducing the risk of developing a cold or flu. There were other benefits. There’s such a link between our immune system and how we feel, and what this study showed is that Wellmune helps people feel better, improve their overall general feelings of health. It increased their vigor. It reduced fatigue. It also improved mental clarity and reduced some feelings of anxiety in some people. So again, our immune system is closely linked to the way that we feel by helping our immune system function better. Sometimes we see improvements in depression, anxiety, in how our brain works. And that’s what they showed. They also showed Wellmune is very effective in children. And this was at a lower dose. Typically, the dose of Wellmune is 250 to 500 milligrams per day.
Most of the studies, the double-blind studies showing a benefit, just used 250 milligrams per day, which is easily delivered. In the studies in children, they used depending on the age of the child. If the child was one or two, they would give them 35 milligrams. If they were three to four years of age, they would give 75 milligrams. They’re actually putting it in baby food in many countries because it has such good immune-enhancing effects. And in these studies, they showed—— In the children’s studies with children, the children taking Wellmune had two-thirds fewer upper respiratory tract infections, fewer six days in a 12-week period. And they recorded being significantly healthy. Their parents reported them being significantly healthier in the Wellmune group,
Ari: Right after we finish this interview, I’m going to go buy some for my three- year-old son.
Dr. Murray: Yeah, often it’s put in as an ingredient. I encourage people to go to the Wellmune website. You can learn more about it, and they have a list of products that contain Wellmune. And you’ll see that there are a lot of well- known brands that have Wellmune. I take Emergen-C Immune+. The powder drink mix has Wellmune, and I need extra vitamin C. And I find regular water a bit boring.
Ari: Quick digression and this is maybe a complex topic that you could speak on in great depth, but I’m just curious if you could maybe give a very brief answer to this. When dealing with immune-boosting supplements, let’s say some of the things you’ve mentioned here, or herbs like astragalus or echinacea, things to that effect, is there sort of a length of time that is optimal to use immune-boosting supplements? Like, should they only be used for let’s say eight weeks or 12 weeks or something, or can they be used to great effect and still be effective if they’re used, let’s say every day, all year round?
Dr. Murray: I think you can always find exceptions, but the things that I’ve been talking about, the nutrients, I think those are things that our immune system needs on a continual basis. And I would put a beta-glucan or Wellmune in there as well because it’s not really—— We have a tendency to think of an immune booster just really ramping up the immune system, but basically, think of it more as a primer. It’s getting everything ready, and if the immune system needs to respond, then it’s ready to respond. The next substance that I’m going to talk about is really interesting. I want to come back and talk to you about—— I’ve got a lecture that I’ve given to healthcare professionals, and it blows their mind because I have a different thought about many aspects of the probiotics, and I have a lecture called “Dead or Alive”, and I highlight what are called heat stabilized or deactivated probiotics.
So the next immune enhancer I’m going to talk about, I’ll be able to touch on how this substance balances our immune system, and this substance is called Immuno-LP20, and it’s a heat stabilized Lactobacillus Plantarum. That means it’s a dead probiotic. And what we’re learning about many of these probiotics is that they’re often more effective when they’re dead than they are when they are alive because when they’re dead, it exposes their true active components to our epithelial cells or in our gut or our immune cells. In the case of Immuno Pro-LP, these active components are called lipoteichoic acids on the cell surface. And when you use heat stabilize them; you’re preserving them in their most active form. And this has great clinical documentation. This product was developed in Japan with painstaking research, and they really did an excellent job of understanding how this product is working to enhance the immune system.
And it transfers across our gut epithelium through these specialized cells known as M cells. And what M cells do is that they process information molecules from our intestines, and they then present them to our immune system. And in the case of this Lipoteichoic acid, the M cells take them up. They then expose these compounds to macrophages in what are called dendritic cells. And that leads to an increase in the production of a messenger called interleukin-12. And this is like a call to arms. It’s like an alarm being sent off, and it has phenomenal effects on improving all aspects of our humoral and cell-mediated immunity. It activates both T cells and, ultimately, B cells. So it helps our T cells kill infecting organisms. And it helps our B cells develop antibodies to then help destroy those organisms.
Ari: Quick question. So if it’s sounding, I think, you said sounding the alarm bells, is this something that maybe should only be used in the context of when you already have an acute infection, or is it also a good preventative?
Dr. Murray: I think it’s a great preventative, and that’s how it’s been used.
The dosage is small. It’s like just a little dose of this just to keep that immune system, like I said, primed and ready to go, and these effects are really interesting. So when we look at the way our immune system or white blood cells kill organisms, we need that cell immunity in order to kill organisms that are inside the cells because antibodies can’t get through that cell wall. So in a viral infection, this is really important—activating these T cells, these Th1 cells that activate cellular immunity. And this product has been shown to do that, and also activate those Th2 cells that promote the production of antibodies.
So this is really interesting because typically, what happens when we’re under stress is there’s a reduction in the level of these Th1 cells that promote cell immunity. And so, normally, you have a balance between these two arms of our immune system, but under stress, there’s a reduction of that Th1 to Th2 cells. So we want to restore that ratio because that ratio is really important, not only in helping fight off infections but also in our ability to tolerate allergens. So this Immuno Pro-LP has been shown to be helpful, not only in protecting against upper respiratory tract infections, but it’s also been shown to be protective against hay fever and allergens. So good clinical research behind it showing it to improve that ratio.
And that leads again to an improvement in the quality of life. This highlights, again, that link between the way that we feel and the status of our immune system. If that ratio of helper to suppressor T cells or that ratio of Th1 to Th2 is disrupted, it affects the way that we feel. In the studies against upper respiratory tract infection, there was a 38% reduction in the incidents in the 12-week period and a 25% reduction in the duration and a 25% reduction in the severity. All those are meaningful reductions. So this is something that really stands the test of research. I think it’s something either—— Maybe the Seleno Excell is enough because of the beta-glucans that are in that yeast. I would probably opt to either use the Wellmune or this Immuno Pro-LP for additional support. And the last——
Ari: Or with unlimited funds, maybe both? Would you hesitate to use both? Are you worried about any——
Dr. Murray: I’m not. I take them both. You saw my bag, and that’s all I take during the day. And, of course, I’m eating all sorts of special foods, too. The last thing I’m going to talk about—— There’s so much that we can talk on enhancing the immune system, but I kind of boiled this down to things that I think are really critical during this time, and this time is going to last a while. And so, we want to bolster our immune system. The last thing is N- acetylcysteine. And this is a form of the amino acid cysteine that is a precursor to glutathione, which is our main antioxidant in our cells.
And it is an important factor that helps us get rid of environmental toxins. It also has significant effects on improving the respiratory secretions, and it acts as a mucolytic in breaking down thick mucus. And this is really important. We know that many people that are at risk of developing COVID-19 because of pre-existing condition, those pre-existing conditions are all associated with the reduced production or level of glutathione. So N-acetylcysteine is helping those conditions by boosting glutathione levels. I also think that it’s very important to help our first line of defense against infection, which is the barriers of our skin and respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tract by taking N-acetylcysteine. If you are in good health, 600 milligrams per day is a good amount. If you have COPD, chronic asthma, chronic bronchitis, any sort of condition where you have a thicker mucus, then take 1200 milligrams per day.
We know that this N-acetylcysteine produces mucus modifying effects. Ari, I try to help people, and like you, when I come across interesting information or if I think there’s vital information that people should know, I post it. And I posted how important N-acetylcysteine is for people during this time. And I highlighted all the benefits, and I had a doctor, and a nurse separately make negative comments. They basically said this is all quackery. There’s no science to support that. And I made the mistake of getting into dialogue with them because I said, I don’t understand how you can say that. With an N- acetylcysteine, there have been 39 double-blind placebo-controlled studies. It’s used in hospitals.
Ari: It’s used for Tylenol poisoning, isn’t it?
Dr. Murray: It is. And that really, again, shows that it’s important for glutathione effects. It has significant immune enhancement and anti- inflammatory actions. It exerts anti-microbial effects. I mean, the amount of research on N-acetylcysteine is impressive. I’ve talked about that leaky gut early on. I’m showing that same slide again. N-acetylcysteine has been shown to produce significant benefits in improving gastrointestinal permeability. It helps that barrier function in the gut and the respiratory tract.
So it basically regulates the expression of the genetic manufacture of one of the tight junction proteins. So it can help. If there’s a need for that junction protein to be increased, then N-acetylcysteine can facilitate that. It’s really a critical gut and lung agent. Melatonin falls into that same category. Melatonin is a gastrointestinal hormone. We think of melatonin for its ability to promote sleep. And we think that it’s made only by the pineal gland and the brain, but our gut makes 400 times the amount of melatonin that our brain does. And it really is—
Ari: Does that melatonin get into circulation, or does it stay in the gut?
Dr. Murray: A little bit of it gets into the circulation, and I don’t know—— This would be an interesting presentation, too. It would be the gastrointestinal functions of melatonin. I could get up on his sidebar here, but this one title of this one review article says it all: should we be prescribing PPIs or melatonin for GERD? We’ve got 14 million Americans that are taking PPIs, which increase, in my opinion, the risk of developing viral infections. The way they showed that there was a secondary route for SARS and other coronaviruses— secondary route is that it not only gets to the lungs through the respiratory tract, but also through the gut—was by administering those animals the virus along with a drug like Nexium or Pepcid, the PPI because we have acids, and we have enzymes that digest a good number of those viruses.
So by suppressing the secretion of hydrochloric acid, we allow that virus to grow in the GI tract. I think N-acetylcysteine really is critical during this time for both its effects on the lungs and the gastrointestinal tract. In regards to its lungs, I have an illustration here. What it does is it breaks these disulfide bonds in the mucus, the thick mucus, to kind of bring it back to normal. And that I think makes a much better barrier. When we develop thick, unproductive mucus, it becomes a breeding ground for micro-organisms, and we can then get a secondary infection. So it’s absolutely critical that I think we have a good amount of N-acetylcysteine in our system because, like I said, most people when they’re exposed to SARS-CoV-2, they don’t have any symptoms at all.
But I think if their mucus isn’t right in their respiratory tract and in their gut, it increases the risk of infection. So this is just a real, simple, safe, and effective natural product. It’s very important to use during this time. I don’t like acetaminophen. I go on record every chance I get to tell people to stay away from acetaminophen. It’s one of the worst drugs ever developed. It does not—
Ari: Tylenol, right?
Dr. Murray: Tylenol. It does nothing but suppress symptoms. Yeah, I can block fever, but you know what? You mentioned that they use N- acetylcysteine in hospitals for Tylenol poisoning because Tylenol plummets glutathione levels. We need glutathione to protect ourselves from being infected and protect them against oxidative damage.
Ari: I could be wrong about this, but I know there was some information that came out that was concerning around the use of anti-inflammatories, non- steroidal anti-inflammatories, in the context of COVID and that may make it worse. And then I think, did they recommend—— Was it that they recommended only using Tylenol?
Dr. Murray: Yeah. It’s absolutely idiotic. First of all, I liked what—— One of our noted experts was asked about the link between ibuprofen and COVID-19, and the ibuprofen made it worse, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug made it worse. And he said, well, we probably shouldn’t be suppressing fever, anyway. And it was just kind of a throwaway comment. But then at the same time, they’re recommending the acetaminophen to break the fever. But fever is very important. The link between the non-steroidals and COVID-19, I think, is, again, the gut. We know that in COVID-19, the virus is in the gastrointestinal tract. In fact, the virus will exist in the gut for anywhere from 19 to 30 days longer than it will in the respiratory tract.
So a lot of times, when they thought that people were getting reinfected with the virus, it was just that they never got rid of it. It was still in their system, but it was mainly in the gut, and it would then start seeding the respiratory tract. So as I said, we know that N-acetylcysteine is very effective in chronic bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as a mucolytic agent. Now, over 40 double-blind placebo-controlled studies, this is something that works very well. Yeah.
How proteolytic enzymes affect mucus barrier function
Ari: Sorry if I’m interrupting you. Feel free to complete your thoughts. Just quick question, as I was talking to you about before we started recording, I was thanking you for teaching me about proteolytic enzymes. It sounds like for this very similar purpose for also breaking up mucus and keeping that mucus barrier very healthy. And I’m just wondering if there is a different and distinct benefit from proteolytic enzymes versus N-acetylcysteine in how they optimize the mucus barrier function?
Dr. Murray: Yeah, thank you. I do believe in the benefits of proteolytic enzymes as part of our ability to keep that respiratory tract healthy and also gastrointestinal tract. These systemic proteolytic enzymes like Mucolase or Serratiopeptidase, bromelain from pineapple, these are all serine proteases that have been shown to exert significant mucus modifying effects. They break down the thick mucus but maintain the elasticity and the ability of that mucus to bind to and neutralize viruses, yeast, and bacteria. So I think proteolytic enzymes are definitely a part of the equation, but like I said, this is like an eight-hour lecture that I tried to condense some things that I think are — These are the, I think, the real key things that I think during this time people should be thinking of.
So just to summarize what I’ve talked about, it starts with looking at your immune system from a holistic perspective. So realizing that it’s not about just taking supplements, about eating well, and giving your body all these nutrients that it needs and all these phytochemicals, it’s about following a health-promoting lifestyle, maintaining that positive mental attitude, meditating, and employing the power of the relaxation response. That’s where our immune system is really functioning at a highest level, getting good sleep, avoiding anything that can cause us undue stress, or if we have no way of avoiding it, dealing with it appropriately, realizing what we can change, what we can’t change.
And then as far as supplements go, a high potency multiple vitamin and mineral formula, I think, is a must. The foundations of extra vitamin D3, some sort of plant-based antioxidant, curcumin, quercetin, some sort of green product, grape seed extract, and then a good high-quality fish oil, 1000 to 3000 milligrams combined EPA, DHA, and DPA.
But during this time, I would add to it. And I would also make sure I would
get if I’m a man 10,000 IUs of vitamin A—retinol—if I’m a woman, 5,000 IUs. If I feel like I’m starting to come down with something, I maybe want to blast it, if I’m not at any risk of developing a pregnancy, with a dose of 50,000 IUs for one or two days, and I would look to make sure you’re getting enough zinc.
For men, that’s 30 to 45 milligrams per day. For women, 20 to 30 milligrams per day. If you again, start feeling like you’re coming down with something, it’s okay to go higher than that preferably with some sort of zinc— Something that has some direct effects on the respiratory tract.
And I would also look to that Seleno Excell. I think that that has some extra benefits for selenium. It has some effects on the immune system and antioxidants that we don’t see with regular selenium. Then I think it’s a good idea to take some sort of immune enhancers such as the Wellmune or the Immuno-LP20. You can do both, but I think they work in very interesting ways to make sure our immune system is primed and ready to go if it is challenged. And lastly, I think everyone should be on N-acetylcysteine right now just to make sure our glutathione levels are high and that we have good barrier function in our respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tract to hopefully fight off this virus.
Ari: Beautiful. Dr. Murray, I’m sure you could lecture for five more hours or at least. Again, the author of the Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine. I think five hours is probably a massive understatement as far as you could go on and on about all the different herbs and all the supplements.
Dr. Murray: You and I can talk for days, and there’s so many topics that are related to health, and I just want to give a shout out to you, Ari. I mean, I’ve been in this field for a long time, and I love most of my colleagues because we’re all in it together, but I especially love colleagues that walk the talk in our living examples of what they’re trying to teach others. And I just want to commend you for being an inspiration to all of us. I love your work, and I’m glad to support you any way that I can. And thank you for supporting me.
Ari: Thank you so much. That honestly, I mean, gives me tingles and all the warm fuzzies that it takes you hear that from someone like you. You’re a legend. I’ve admired you for so long. And I hope to one day establish a legacy and have an impact like you’ve had. So thank you, seriously. That means a lot to me. I know, obviously, for people who want to follow your work and hear more from you, learn more from you, which for everybody listening again, this is someone who I personally go to, and I’m fortunate enough to call a friend. I can actually send an email to him and ask him questions, which I should probably take advantage of more.
I worry that I’m going to take up too much of your time, but I know you well enough now to know that I can do that, and you’d be happy to help, but seriously sign up for Dr. Murray’s newsletter, get on his email list, stay up to date on the latest information. He’s been putting out awesome information this whole time from the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic with constant, with novel, cutting-edge tips, just awesome stuff. I’m learning myself a lot from it. And you will, too. So do you want to direct people where they can learn, where’s the best place to sign up, where they can learn from you? And I know you have a free gift as well.
Dr. Murray: Yeah. It’s really easy. If they go to Doctormurray.com, and we tell people to spell out doctor, but even if they just put DrMurray, but it’s Doctormurray.com, D-O-C-T-O-R-M-U-R-R-A-Y.com. On our banner at the top, we have a tab that says free resources, and there are a lot of free resources that are on there, but the one that I really want people to go to kind of take advantage of—kind of a written format of the concepts that I was trying to get across today—I wrote a little PDF called the Seven Natural Keys To Wellness. And it’s a crystallization of those seven things that I think are really key to living a life worth living. And I encourage you to get it.
It’s really easy to get. You go to my website, Doctormurray.com. You click on free resources at the top. You scroll down to Seven Natural Keys to Wellness, and it’ll for your first name and email, and then click that you’re not a robot, hit submit, and then we’ll send it in your email. And I think you’ll enjoy it. It’s a quick, easy read. And then it gets you into our system, and I’d love to have you follow me. I really truly love what I do and passionate about it. And I’m in it for the same reasons Ari is. We want to make a difference in your life. And it’s good to have different voices. And I might tell you something that Ari’s been telling you for years, but maybe for one reason or another, you hear it from me, and it makes all the difference. So you’ve had that experience, I’m sure, Ari. I have had it with friends and family members. I’ve been telling them something for years, and they will hear it from Dr. Oz or——
Ari: Yeah, especially with family, right?
Dr. Murray: They’re like, hey, why didn’t you tell me that? I go, are you kidding me? I’ve been telling you for years, don’t smoke.
Ari: Yeah, this is brilliant stuff. Thank you so much, my friend. I really appreciate and admire you so much and have so much respect for your work. And you’re brilliant. Thank you for the work that you’re doing. It’s phenomenal. For everybody listening, I’m sure you’re blown away with all these novel tools to boost your immune function in this very important time to do that. So hope you enjoyed this. I will see you in the next one. Dr. Murray, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with my audience. I really appreciate it. And can’t wait to connect again.
Dr. Murray: You bet.
Show Notes
The most important keys to supercharge your immune function (07:03) The importance of nutrients for immune function (22:52) How beta-glucans can affect health (55:00) How proteolytic enzymes affect mucus barrier function (1:14:14)