"Primum non nocere", first do no harm- Hippocrates

What is the first thing all health professionals learn at university?…  the famous Hippocrates quote, “first do no harm”. And boy are we failing at this one at the moment.

Now before I begin, this post is not meant to be an argument for / or against the controversial jab, rather it is a collection of my thoughts and opinions that I have formulated from 6 years of full time study, 15 years of clinical experience, countless hours of CPE training, and the ability to cut through the bullshit posted on social media and via news outlets. I hope to provide you will the tools you need, that if you do decide to go down the path of vaccination, “may” assist your body to deal with it a bit better.

 This may come as a shock to most, but I caved. I got my first jab 2 weeks ago and am due for my second on the 17th of December. Now I firmly believe it is no one else’s business but that of the individual what they choose to do, but I do feel in my position I want to share my why. I was initially not going down this pathway, taking the clinic online as part of the strategy, as the mandate itself applies to Naturopaths as well. Do I think the risk outweighs the benefit for me, Yes. Do I think it will help me in any way. No.

Unfortunately when I sat down and thought a bit harder, it affects my corporate work, volunteer work, travel with kids sport and the overseas trips that have been booked since 2019. Not to mention a World Championship race that I will simply not miss. Now I am not going to be a wanker and say I had no choice, because I damn well did. We all do. But my hands were certainly tied to a point, Jody 0: Gov 1.

Working in health care I see what is happening. I see the patient reactions. I see them NOT getting reported as the paperwork is “too much drama”. I see the reactions beginning to be normalised by health professionals. The vax reaction figures you see are a load of shit, you are seeing a drop in the ocean of what is really happening. How can we make medicine safer if we stick our heads I the sand? What happened to “first do no harm”. What we don’t see though, that is what scares me more. 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, lets just say I am not going to be without work. You can not always see or feel what shit storm is brewing at a physiological level.

But we also need to stay level headed. And keep asking questions, whether that be “for” your belief or “against” it. For example one of my questions is, the young patients presenting to the ED with pericarditis/ myocarditis post vax… Would these patients have been the ones who got really sick with the virus if unvaccinated? Or have we just done them unjust harm with a drug still in trial? Would they have got the virus and been absolutely fine? Who knows?

That all being said, the burning question from you all is “what did I do” to help with the damage control.

Firstly I chose a timeline in which I would be in a training break/ low volume training. Why? Because an endurance athletes heart is not the healthiest of tissues, nor is their immune system when in peak training/ racing. Pick a time you can be physically and emotionally “destressed”.

Second, I did a full (and I mean FULL) panel of bloods 48 hours out. If shit is going to hit the fan, I am going to have tangible evidence. And I wanted to make sure, physiologically speaking, my body was in as good a shape as it could be. In the clinic I use iScreen for patient pathology, and I love their Endurance + Nutrition Panel (more info here ).

The panel is not just for athletes, it is a great all rounder and I do this test every year, and yes, I pay out of my own pocket for it. You could request your GP send for some testing but it won’t be this thorough. So much on that panel I would consider important but if I had to narrow it down to 3 I would choose Vitamin D, Zinc and Inflammatory markers, added to this any pre-existing issues you have had with pathology, get that checked to.

So I was rested, I was physiologically sound, now the nutritional support.

Now what I did may seem excessive to some, or even not enough for others. I have heard stories of people ordering hundreds of dollars and bottle upon bottles of things they have read about that can help. In my opinion, giving the body supraphysiologic doses of copious amounts of nutrients and herbs is probably more detrimental than the virus, or vax itself.

I chose a regime that gave me bang for my buck and broadly addressed the issues that may arise.

4 weeks out:

Vitamin D: 4000IU per day.

Vitamin D to modulate innate and adaptive immunity, is necessary to illicit a strong immune response to acquire vaccine immunity and increase host resistance to infection. It is well known that vitamin D plays an important role in regulating immune function, with deficiency impacting the activity of T regulatory (Treg) cells and Th cells, as well as the production of antibodies and regulation of dendritic cell function. Vitamin D enhances the adaptive immune response by increasing the differentiation of monocytes to macrophages and stimulating white blood cell proliferation, essential to the neutralisation of viral infections. With receptors expressed on a wide variety of cell types, vitamin D is involved in the modulation of activated T and B lymphocytes, necessary for acquired immunity.

Zinc (+ Vitamin C): 40mg per day.  

Zinc is involved in several aspects of immunological function, including the development, function and mediation of immune cells such as neutrophils, monocytes and natural killer (NK) cells, as well as the development of acquired immunity and T lymphocyte function; which are important processes for infection prevention and maintaining vaccine immunity. Vitamin C stimulates white blood cell production and function, enhances NK cell activity and chemotaxis, supports clearance of spent neutrophils from sites of infection, increases serum levels of antibodies, and augments lymphocyte differentiation and proliferation; facilitating innate and adaptive immune responses necessary for acquiring immunity

N-Acetyl Cysteine: 1000mg per day.

N-acetylcysteine (NAC), the acetylated variant of the amino acid L-cysteine, is an excellent source of sulfhydryl (SH) groups, and is converted in the body into metabolites capable of stimulating glutathione (GSH) synthesis, promoting detoxification, and acting directly as free radical scavengers. In other words, helping to protect against a potential inflammatory shit storm, and protect the heart. It is also very useful during an actual infection. My Homocysteine levels were far from ideal so this one was a must.

In the lead up I was also taking CoQ10 150mg and a Magnesium + Activated B complex powder that are part of my usual routine.

Post Vax there was additional support as follows (to be continued 4 weeks post 2nd jab):

Vitamin D and Zinc remained the same (please note the dosing I was using was formulated specific to MY needs and my blood levels).

NAC increased to 2000mg per day

Specialised Pro-Resolving Mediators (SPMs): While the resolution of inflammation was once considered to be a passive process, it is now understood that it is instead an active process which requires the involvement of lipid mediators called specialised pro-resolving mediators (SPMs) which you could simplify to be kind of an “activated” version of omega 3s. SPMs promote inflammatory resolution, reduce pain, encourage the clearance of pathogens and mitigate pathological inflammation, without immunosuppression. These qualities make SPMs an important consideration for inflammatory conditions and in my opinion, a potential protector for the inflammatory shit storm that the jab and the virus seem to cause.

Mushroom Complex (Cordyceps; Coriolus; Ganoderma; Shiitake): once again, here we are looking at immune modulation and anti-inflammatory actions to help the body resolve any potential immunological inflammatory storm.

Now these are what in my educated opinion provided bang for my anti-inflammatory and immune buck, not overburdening the system with too much “stuff”, evidence based and clinically relevant. This regime might not suit everyone, and there are situations where I would have a completely different recommendation depending on health conditions, prescription medications and pathology. Never take a bunch of random things without the assistance of a healthcare professional. You can do more harm than good.

 There are also situations where I think you are playing with fire. If you have an auto-immune condition, or are pregnant, I wouldn’t be going into this lightly. And as for our kids, well let’s just leave them alone for the sake of our future please.

In regards to my first jab, apart from feeling physically ill at the anxiety of the whole thing, there wasn’t much to write home about (for now). I will report back after the second. I am using this as a little N=1 experiment and will do some follow-up pathology after. As I mentioned earlier, the absence of an initial overt reaction at this point means absolutely nothing. The long term effects we are yet to discover, and I can confidently say it is this that will sadly keep me in a job for years to come.

Make a decision that is right for you, support your body through the process, and most of all, be kind to those around you.

J Xx