Helios Spring Newsletter
Helios Offers Long Covid19 Care
Helios is at the forefront of Integrated care for sufferers of long-term problems of COVID19. You may have met someone who has been struggling to regain their health months after having COVID19. We are carefully watching the science of COVID19 and the care of COVID long-haulers, to provide effective Integrative care for these concerning chronic symptoms. We are working closely with “Survivor Corps”, the largest and most complete website for tracking the research and experience of long COVID19 sufferers. They have graciously offered to include us in their COVID care center listing. https://www.survivorcorps.com/
The Helios Family Continues to Grow!
You may have met Marcos Quintana who is currently training at the front desk. Marcos will soon start training for blood draws and Medical Assistant responsibilities. We will be joined in June by Margarite who will start training in June. These awesome additions to the Helios staffing family will allow us to more efficiently meet your medical needs in 2021.
How to Know if You Have Had Covid19
This is a good question. Many times COVID19 is asymptomatic. As the kinds of symptoms from post-acute COVID19 vary widely, how does one figure out if new symptoms are a post COVID19 condition? Most of the common antibody tests detect the spike protein antibody, which is also generated after the Coronavirus vaccines. This means that these antibody tests cannot distinguish between immunity for COVID19 or from the vaccine. Fortunately, Vibrant America has an antibody panel that detects the antibody to the Coronavirus nucleic protein. This antibody elevated in blood strongly indicates that you have had COVID 19, even if you were asymptomatic. This antibody panel also detects elevations in 3 antibodies to the spike protein. When these antibodies are elevated, it strongly indicates that your vaccine was effective. There is also a cellular immunity test offered by Boston Heart Labs that more thoroughly detects immunity to Coronavirus. Let us know if you think that either of these tests are appropriate for you.
Covid19 Vaccination Concerns
Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, as you may know, are based on messenger RNA from the Coronavirus. Injection of this mRNA prompts the production of the Coronavirus spike protein which is then seen by the immune system as foreign. Subsequently, one’s immune system knows how to recognize this Coronavirus protein which prevents one from getting COVID19- the illness.
This type of vaccine is new. The only previous mRNA vaccine had been the ebola vaccine. Understandably many are concerned about the long term ill effects of this new vaccine type. One especially common concern is that the mRNA will stay in one’s body or insert itself into our DNA causing long term problems. Hang in here with me because a little (and probably more than you want) molecular biology is needed. First mRNA is a message and like all messages, it is vital for your body to clear the old messages to see clearly the new ones. All of your cells are constantly destroying mRNA after it is read. If it didn’t do so, we would be a molecular mess.
Much like a chalkboard that was never erased before new information was written on it. What is more, you have circulating in your blood small pieces of mRNA and DNA from the food you ate recently. These foreign mRNA and DNA are similarly routinely destroyed. So the mRNA in the COVID19 vaccines does not and cannot persist but for some minutes in your body. The half-life of mRNA is 3 to 8 minutes. That means half the vaccine mRNA is destroyed each 8 minutes. After a couple of hours it is all gone.
What about DNA vaccines such as the Johnson and Johnson? A very similar story, the half-life of naked DNA is about 16 minutes. What is more, neither the DNA or the mRNA from vaccines can interact with your carefully guarded DNA in the nucleus of your cells.
Many may still be concerned about long term side effects. This concern about vaccine side effects has been around since vaccines have been made. For instance, there are still concerns about long term side effects for vaccines that have been used for 50 years. This highlights the problem with studying rare but real side effects of vaccines. It is likely that there will be concerns about these COVID19 vaccines 50 years from now.
What is one to do? Chinese medicine answers this question more readily. If you think that you are at risk for problems post-vaccination then see Dr. Hampton here at Helios (or see a good doctor of Chinese medicine). Through such information as pulse diagnosis, she can detect any energetic and/or organ dysfunction. Acupuncture and herbal medicine balance your system both physiologically and energetically to strengthen your body and help mitigate any long-term suffering from the vaccine.
Masks
While masks are no longer required in many settings they are still required in medical settings. We are still required to have all patients and staff wear masks. Please have your mask ready on entry to the building. The entire Helios staff is fully vaccinated. We are quite pleased that none of the Helios staff came down with Covid19. We continue to do all we can to keep Helios a safe place to receive your care.