Maryanne asked me about my personal regimen regarding zinc + quercetin (in a thread in response to the “Trump on the Hydroxy” show), and it got a little long so I’ve moved it to its own blog post.
Maryanne said:
Apparently, quercetin taken in large doses can have adverse side effects. . . .
So, first a bit about symptoms and “side effects,” then I’ll explain my personal regimen. These are usually in fact immunopathology, i.e., an indication that your immune system has found “bugs” and is fighting them. That’s what a fever is, for example, or any other cold/flu symptom. They are the proof that your immune system is working. So they (the symptoms) should be managed until your immune system itself literally kills them (the bugs, and the cytokines caused by their tiny deaths) off. (I discussed this in more detail in another comment, in response to the Airplane Travel Being Safe BWN show.)
I’m taking 500mg of quercetin (and the formula I’m taking includes 500mg of Vitamin C and several digestive enzymes) plus 50mg zinc picolinate 2 to 4 times a day, depending on how I’m feeling and what I’m doing. For example, tomorrow I have to make a 75-mile drive (and back) so I’m going to forgo the zinc today (but continue with quercetin + C) because I’ve already found that stopping the zinc reduces the symptoms dramatically.
I am taking lots more than most of the people experimenting with this therapy on the private medical website I belong to. Just one dose a day is usually enough to produce immunopathology. My 75-year-old mother added 500mg of quercetin per day to her regular supplement regimen, and she is experiencing plenty of symptoms (mostly cough and fatigue). I am pushing a bit harder for myself because I want to get through it faster. I have a cough too; it keeps changing but is much, much better now (after a month on this regimen) than it was in April, and I still have plenty of fatigue and brain fog, plus several other more minor symptoms. For the first couple of weeks, I had severe loss of appetite, but that has gone away.
I have been using zinc picolinate because the picolinate itself is a slight ionophore. Before that, I used zinc “chelate,” but before that I used ordinary zinc gluconate (the most common form). I get more nausea from the latter. Even with the “better” forms of zinc, though, I have to take some food with it. And before I obtained quercetin (which at the time was a little hard to find) I was taking the zinc with very strong (steeped overnight) decaf green tea (nothing special, Wal-Mart brand) and I was getting immunopathology from that too, but it was much harder to control. I stopped drinking the green tea when I got the quercetin. I’m going to switch to (or add) green tea extract (EGCg) as an ionophore soon, probably next week sometime.
I wrote another post a few weeks ago explaining how ionophores work.
I have a long-term illness (EBV, among other things) and I suspect I had the Wuhan virus in late March, and it was lingering with milder symptoms until I started the zinc + quercetin. I am getting an antibody test soon.
EDITED TO ADD: 1. I used zinc lozenges when I first started taking it because I had some on hand. It was a generic of the “homeopathic” remedy which I think is Zicam, not certain. It only had about 10mg of zinc, or maybe 15? Also, when I started taking zinc gluconate (the most commonly available), I cut the 50mg tablets into fourths and took 2 or 3 throughout the day with food. This was before I got quercetin and I was taking it with decaf strong green tea.
2. Also, I was just reviewing my symptoms diary, and discovered that within 24 hours of starting quercetin, I was able to sleep without cough medications for the first time in a week. I should point out too that I had not taken cough medications of any kind for my entire adult life until then, because I think cough syrup is one of the most disgusting things to ingest ever devised by mankind. I assure you that any further description would be TMI, but I mention it because the cough I had was the worst I’d had since I don’t know when. This was exactly one month after the acute flu stage of what I suspect was the Wuhan flu. In other words, the cough didn’t go away, and eventually got so much worse that in order to sleep I had to take the disgusting cough medications. But after two doses of quercetin in addition to the then-low doses of zinc I was already taking, in the afternoon and evening, stopped that cough enough that I could sleep without any cough medication, less than six hours after the first dose.
This is, of course, completely in line with the relief reported by Dr. Zelenko’s patients.
I initially thought, after a week of the regimen, that I was completely cured except for a mild cough. But the symptoms have not completely gone away. They fluctuate, but are mostly under control. I believe, based on my understanding of how the Wuhan flu works as well as all of the other persistent viruses I’ve had for decades, that the zinc+ionophore continues to seek out viruses and it is helping my immune system to finally eradicate them. I’ve had a mild cough and sinus drainage for so many decades that I thought that, like the fatigue, it was just a part of life. But now it comes and goes and I believe I’m going to kick it for good.
8 replies on “My personal zinc + quercetin regimen”
UPDATE: Just for the record. I eventually ended up taking WAY too much zinc and quercetin, and stopped the entire regimen for a couple of months. I was taking between 200mg and 300mg of zinc picolinate per day (50mg four to six times per day), plus the quercetin (500mg the same four to six times per day).
I am now taking only 11mg of zinc picolinate once per day, and it is definitely working against viruses. I will soon be upping the dose to 15mg per day. I am not taking any quercetin right now.
Also, in addition to the zinc picolinate and quercetin, I was also taking a full dose of Ivermectin once per week. (Didn’t want to mention that at the time.) I also took a break from it. I started back at 1/3 dose once per week, then twice per week, and am now taking 2/3 dose twice per week.
So if you are looking into trying one of these therapies, take my experience to heart. More is not always better!
Brief update. I got the antibody test, and the result was negative. I do not know which test it was.
So one of three things is true:
1. I never had SARS-CoV-2;
2. the test was faulty; or
3. the zinc + ionophore treatment has so thoroughly eradicated it that I don’t even have antibodies.
No opinion on which of these options is correct. I could easily believe any one of them.
I am currently taking a break from zinc + ionophore. I will get back to it probably in early June (next week). I was hoping that this week I would feel better enough to get some chores done, which has mostly been true, though not feeling as well as I’d hoped.
Just wondering… if you have seen Dr. Mercola’s article on Zinc & Quercetin?
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/04/20/zinc-dosage-for-immune-system.aspx?cid_source=prnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1HL&cid=20200420Z1&et_cid=DM514911&et_rid=854759722
Good stuff!
Thanks for the discussion of your experience…
Just for the record, if you want to answer, what underlying (auto-immune) ailment/disease have you had low these past decades?
I, personally, have the (auto-immune) Hashimoto’s disease, otherwise known as hypothyroidism, and have been trying different doctors and treatment/supplements/lifestyles outside the realm of main-stream medicine. (on a different note, is there some collusion between the 2 MSMs? Main stream media and main stream medicine!?)
It’s a ponderance!
I have chronic fatigue. When I was first diagnosed over two decades ago, they tested me for a lot of viruses and I had nearly every one they tested for. The principal one is Epstein-Barr Virus but it was only one among many. My understanding (which may be faulty, it’s been many years and I lost the records) was that these were active viruses at the time. My immune system had become depressed through long-term stress and so all these viruses reactivated at the same time.
Since you express interest in something outside the mainstream, I’ll send you a private message about the protocol I follow. A lot of people use it who have a wide variety of chronic disease, including Hashimoto’s, though usually that is only one diagnosis among many. The protocol is based on a sophisticated understanding (at the molecular level) of the “Vitamin” D receptor and its role in the immune system. It has improved my health dramatically, but not enough. This new breakthrough about antiviral therapies may be the missing piece.
Interesting that you mention the ‘Vitamin D receptor’.
One of the things I’ve found – for myself, by myself – is that I literally crave sunshine. When I used to be sick – w/ a cold, w/ sinus or ear infections – I would haul myself outside, even if I was tired, achy… In the desert (where I live, transplanted from the mid-West) there’s always plenty of sunshine! Wind (the ‘W’ word, always to be mentioned but not named!), that’s another topic!
Yes, that effect is well known. Functionally, it’s the equivalent of taking a mild dose of a steroid. The temporary suppression of your immune system makes you feel better. For a generally healthy person, that’s fine, even good. For a chronically ill person whose immune system is dysregulated, not so much.
Healthy people make a certain amount of “Vitamin” D in their skin when exposed to sunshine, but their bodies regulate it, and it stops after a short time. That’s why sunbathers don’t get too much.
I’ll have to leave a detailed explanation of “Vitamin” D and how it is misunderstood for a later time. Suffice it to say, it is very complicated, we still don’t fully understand it, and much of the received doctrine requiring supplementation is exactly backwards, being based on studies done decades ago based on a non-scientific agenda (much like today’s studies designed to show that hydroxychloroquine is dangerous and doesn’t help against the Wuhan virus). New studies on “Vitamin” D come out almost weekly now, but their goals and interpretations are based on those old, agenda-based studies, so their conclusions are often the opposite of correct.
Shortest version: don’t take thousands of “IU” of ANY substance, on any timetable. Just don’t.