Prof Jean Bousquet’s Sauerkraut Therapy

There is a simple solution to this terrible pandemic, and it’s sauerkraut.

Cabbage, best fermented and flavoured with some spices, and maybe even followed by a cigarette, is what will prevent you from dying from COVID-19. There is peer reviewed science, even a double-blind broccoli clinical trial without ethics approval, but with an entire multinational scientific consortium and even the Charité Berlin behind it, all led by a French emeritus professor of allergology, Jean Bousquet.

Latvian Sauerkraut

A paper appeared online in August 2020 and then in the March 2021 issue of the Wiley journal Allergy, which has the impact factor of 8.7 and is the official journal of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI). Its Editor-in-Chief is the Zürich professor Cezmi Akdis, who also happens to be one of that paper’s authors, an interesting coincidence.

Jean Bousquet, Josep M. Anto, Wienczyslawa Czarlewski, Tari Haahtela, Susana C. Fonseca, Guido Iaccarino, Hubert Blain, Alain Vidal, Aziz Sheikh, Cezmi A. Akdis, Torsten Zuberbier and ARIA group Cabbage and fermented vegetables: From death rate heterogeneity in countries to candidates for mitigation strategies of severe COVID‐19 Allergy (2020) doi: 10.1111/all.14549

The paper postulates that it’s the fermented cabbage in form of sauerkraut or kimchi which prevents deaths from the coronavirus infection. The authors even discovered a molecular mechanism, here the paper’s abstract:

“Large differences in COVID‐19 death rates exist between countries and between regions of the same country. Some very low death rate countries such as Eastern Asia, Central Europe, or the Balkans have a common feature of eating large quantities of fermented foods. Although biases exist when examining ecological studies, fermented vegetables or cabbage have been associated with low death rates in European countries. SARS‐CoV‐2 binds to its receptor, the angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). As a result of SARS‐CoV‐2 binding, ACE2 downregulation enhances the angiotensin II receptor type 1 (AT₁R) axis associated with oxidative stress. This leads to insulin resistance as well as lung and endothelial damage, two severe outcomes of COVID‐19. The nuclear factor (erythroid‐derived 2)‐like 2 (Nrf2) is the most potent antioxidant in humans and can block in particular the AT₁R axis. Cabbage contains precursors of sulforaphane, the most active natural activator of Nrf2. Fermented vegetables contain many lactobacilli, which are also potent Nrf2 activators. Three examples are: kimchi in Korea, westernized foods, and the slum paradox. It is proposed that fermented cabbage is a proof‐of‐concept of dietary manipulations that may enhance Nrf2‐associated antioxidant effects, helpful in mitigating COVID‐19 severity.”

The authoritative peer reviewed study in an official society journal used this figure from an earlier preprint by some of the same authors:

As you see, back in the summer 2020, Latvia used to smash COVID-19 with cucumber pickles (skābēti gurķi) and sauerkraut (skābēti kāposti), which makes me tremendously proud in several respects.

This is the referenced preprint from July 2020:

Susana C Fonseca, Ioar Rivas, Dora Romaguera, Marcos Quijal-Zamorano, Wienczyslawa Czarlewski, Alain Vidal, Joao A Fonseca, Joan Ballester, Josep M Anto, Xavier Basagana, Luis M Cunha, Jean Bousquet Association between consumption of vegetables and COVID-19 mortality at a country level in Europe bioRxiv (2020) doi: doi: 10.1101/2020.07.17.20155846

From the abstract:

“Of all the variables considered, including confounders, only head cabbage and cucumber reached statistical significance with the COVID-19 death rate per country. For each g/day increase in the average national consumption of some of the vegetables (head cabbage and cucumber), the mortality risk for COVID-19 decreased by a factor of 11, down to 13.6 %. Lettuce consumption increased COVID-19 mortality.“

Now it’s time for you to meet the French genius behind the Latvian superfood which will save the world: Jean Bousquet.

First, who is Professor Bousquet? Simply put: a genius, an Übermensch, the wisest man France ever blessed the world with.

Personal HAHA

We learn this from a laudatory paper written by one Anna Bedbrook and the German dermatology professor Torsten Zuberbier at the Charité Berlin, whose name we will encounter regularly on Bousquet’s COVID-19 therapy papers. The Bousquet hagiography was published in April 2020 in that same journal Allergy, probably to prepare the world for the impact of a genius.

Anna Bedbrook & Torsten Zuberbier Legends of allergy and immunology: Jean Julien Raoul Bousquet; a Chemist, a Pharmacist, a Biologist, a Physician and—above all—an innovative scientist Allergy (2020) https://doi.org/10.1111/all.14321

It was also re-published as a longer version on the website of the EU-funded excellence network Ga²len, which was about allergy and asthma and was funded between 2004 and 2009. Its president was Zuberbier, and Bousquet was vice-president. The friendship remains until today, somehow all recent COVID-19 studies by Bousquet show Charité and the Humboldt University Berlin as his affiliation, but never his presumed emeritus professorship at the University of Montpellier. Another affiliation which Bousquet (and the only affiliation his admirer, the former INSERM scientist Bedbrook) provides is “MACVIA‐France, Montpellier, France” which is actually not a research institution, but a 2016 EU-funded network which funding has long since ended.

This is what Zuberbier and Bedbrook wrote about their dear colleague:

“Jean – born in 1946 – has surely everything that is needed to become a legend. […]

Jean is certainly the only physician to our knowledge who has completed 4 different university degrees, becoming a chemist at the age of 21, a pharmacist at 22, a biologist at 24 and a medical doctor at 29. His capacity of high productivity and diversity of projects conducted simultaneously was demonstrated when he obtained PhD and MD degrees in the same week – one in pharmacy “Immunology of the pleural fluid” and one in medicine “Allergic risk and its prevention” – whilst at the same time organising an international meeting on allergen standardization!

Of course, he also carries academic degrees in the other disciplines. How can anyone accomplish this??? “

Beats me.

We also learn that Prof Bousquet already as a child had “genius-like tendencies“, taught himself to read at the age 6, which he then did with the speed of “the xerox machines of his time“, to became “an actual walking encyclopedia“. Also:

“To be noted that Jean has published over 1,000 articles throughout his career, the majority of which having been written by himself, and has an extremely impressive Hirsch factor of 158 on Google Scholar.“

The alpha male is also described to own a fancy German car and is of course the best in driving, plus he beats everyone in tennis. Aged 73 at the time of writing, the 1946-born professor “can be quoted that he himself is already a living example of a personal HAHA (HYPER Active and Healthy Ageing)“. Professor Bousquet also “seems to know most of the names of these top restaurants as well as the city of their location.” Currently, the genius is preparing the monumental paper which will “link allergy and active and healthy ageing, not only with climate change but with the truly universal term “planetary health” which unites all necessities of our planet, going beyond the wishes of a better nature, a better climate and better wildlife protection“. Bedbrook and Zuberbier conclude:

“Well, Jean, whatever you think… We think that you are not just “any” guy but a most wonderful and brilliant (no other word to describe you) person and, to be precise, you are already more than a “Legend in Allergy”. You have well and truly earned your place as a “Legend in Medicine”!“

Snotty ARIA

The same Bousquet hagiography tells us what that mysterious ARIA Group is, which authored the above presented COVID-19-crushing studies:

“He soon then discovered that allergy in general was a rather trivialized area and that linking allergic rhinitis with asthma would gain the attention of the health politicians and WHO. In this sense, he founded his greatest baby – ARIA – the most frequently worldwide-read guideline in asthma and, more than that, a network of renowned researchers spanning the globe. Many of these prestigious people from around the world became his close, foreign “family”. […]

ARIA (Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma) began in 1999 after Jean discovered that there was a definite link between allergic rhinitis and asthma. He was the first person in the world to discover also the political potential of this and thus to get WHO – via the “seriously-regarded” disease asthma – interested in allergy. [..] ARIA now has a 600-member working group in 80 countries and in more than 40 different languages.“

The concept was introduced under the WHO umbrella in 2011 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology by Bousquet and his belonging Ga²len colleague and emeritus rector of the the Ghent University, Paul van Cauwenberge. In 2012, a follow-up appeared in the same journal, titled “Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA): Achievements in 10 years and future needs” and authored by all the ARIA members, although I personally do wonder if they al are aware of it.

Now, you may not have known that asthma is caused by rhinitis (aka clogged nose), maybe that’s because WHO did not follow Professor Bousquet’s guidance after all. Which is stupid of WHO, hopefully they will listen to him and his ARIA colleagues now, because also the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a simple issue of a snotty nose, solvable with sauerkraut and spices.

The first advice was already provided in early April 2020, as a correspondence in The BMJ:

Jean J Bousquet, W Czarlewski, H Blain, T Zuberbier, JM Anto, Covid-19: Why Germany’s case fatality rate seems so low: Is nutrition another possibility, BMJ (2020) doi: 10.1136/bmj.m1395 (Published 07 April 2020)

We have been warned:

“A Mediterranean diet more common in Italy, France and Spain does not appear to be protective. Foods with potent antioxidant or anti angiotensin-converting enzyme activity – like uncooked or fermented cabbage (4-6) – are largely consumed in countries like the low death rate European countries, Korea and Taiwan, and might be considered in the low prevalence of deaths.“

In May 2020, Drs Bousquet, Zuberbier and other ARIA members were already ringing alarm bells, in the peer reviewed journal Clinical and Translational Allergy (then with Springer Nature’s BMC, since 2021 with Wiley, impact factor 5.1). The journal is owned by the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) and its Editor-in-Chief is none other but Professor Bousquet himself. One of the authors is EAACI’s president Marek Jutel. The paper postulated foodstuffs like “uncooked or fermented cabbage” (in Eastern Europe) and “fermented milk” (Turkey) as COVID-19 preventives:

Jean Bousquet, Josep M. Anto, Guido Iaccarino, Wienczyslawa Czarlewski, Tari Haahtela, Aram Anto, Cezmi A. Akdis, Hubert Blain, G. Walter Canonica, Victoria Cardona, Alvaro A. Cruz, Maddalena Illario, Juan Carlos Ivancevich, Marek Jutel, Ludger Klimek, Piotr Kuna, Daniel Laune, Désirée Larenas-Linnemann, Joaquim Mullol, Nikos G. Papadopoulos, Oliver Pfaar, Boleslaw Samolinski, Arunas Valiulis, Arzu Yorgancioglu, Torsten Zuberbier Is diet partly responsible for differences in COVID-19 death rates between and within countries? Clinical and Translational Allergy (2020) doi: 10.1186/s13601-020-00323-0

From the abstract:

“The low-death rate European countries (e.g. Austria, Baltic States, Czech Republic, Finland, Norway, Poland, Slovakia) have used different quarantine and/or confinement times and methods and none have performed as many early tests as Germany. Among other factors that may be significant are the dietary habits. It seems that some foods largely used in these countries may reduce angiotensin-converting enzyme activity or are anti-oxidants.“

I wonder if my Czech or Polish readers find this funny. It seems, even Bousquet is slightly uncomfortable with his own claims. He told me (typos his):

“It is clear that diet is only one of the possible mitigation factors of the severity of COVID-19. Sicne the first wave of the epidemic may different factors have been involved including difference in lockdown between countries brt also and importantly COVIUD-19 variants.”

The virus has mutated to evade the sauerkraut?

Oh, and by the way: it turned out, the above study was done together with the World Institute of Kimchi in Korea. Basically, the authors who declared “no competing interests” whatsoever and funding only from “MASK-air, ARIA“, were possibly shilling for Big Kimchi. A TV interview followed:

Bousquet and his Korean Kimchi partners were quoted:

“Kimchi is rich in antioxidants and can be an effective food for alleviating coronavirus symptoms thanks to its effects in reducing TRP activity,” Professor Bousquet said. “Korea’s low rate of Covid-19 deaths and severe patients could be attributed to kimchi.”

Choi Hak-jong, acting general manager of the institute, also said, “Foreign researchers recognize kimchi’s excellence and great potential. Many Korean researchers are also confirming kimchi’s efficacy on Covid-19 with animal models. Their study results will come out soon.”

Korean government even issued a press conference statement, “to clarify that kimchi cannot cure COVID-19, even though it could boost immunity against the virus“, as quoted by VICE.

Then, in the summer 2020, the preprint and the peer-reviewed paper presented at the beginning of this article arrived. It’s all so straightforward, the solution to COVID-19 is the anti-oxidants! Professor Bousquet even explained it to me in an email:

“Free radicals are not the main cause of aging, but are also involved in severe COVID-19 symptoms. However, antioxidants plentifully contained in cabbage and fermented vegetables such as sulforaphane (cruciferous vegetables) may alleviate COVID-19 symptoms by removing free radicals. Lactic acid bacteria, produced in large during fermentation of cabbage, may be effective in preventing from COVID-19. Because the lactic acid bacteria possess oxidative stress tolerance and antioxidant capacity, they can be potent antioxidants. The lactic acid bacteria synthesize vitamins and minerals, and produce biologically-active peptides with anti-oxidant activity.”

Can Kimchi Protect You From COVID-19? https://t.co/AgCW6y38vG via @vice / @ClearValue_Tax

— Chance Heston 🇸🇪 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 / Pastor Lindholm (@mzw007) April 6, 2021

The world still didn’t listen to the sauerkraut advice, and in autumn 2020 the virus returned in a second wave with a vengeance. But Professor Bousquet and his ARIA colleagues were prepared. This time, the fermented food needed spices. Sauerkraut wasn’t enough anymore, it had to be kim-chi now. Following the growing culinary advice from wise medical scholars from India, China and Persia, who by now declared every single herb and spice to be a COVID-19 medicine, Professor Bousquet and his ARIA group issued their own advice in December 2020:

Jean Bousquet, Wienczyslawa Czarlewski, Torsten Zuberbier, Joaquim Mullol, Hubert Blain, Jean-Paul Cristol, Rafael De La Torre, Vincent Le Moing, Nieves Pizarro Lozano, Anna Bedbrook, Ioana Agache, Cezmi A. Akdis, G. Walter Canonica, Alvaro A. Cruz, Alessandro Fiocchi, Joao A. Fonseca, Susana Fonseca, Bilun Gemicioğlu, Tari Haahtela, Guido Iaccarino, Juan Carlos Ivancevich, Marek Jutel, Ludger Klimek, Piotr Kuna, Désirée E. Larenas-Linnemann, Erik Melén, Yoshitaka Okamoto, Nikolaos G. Papadopoulos, Oliver Pfaar, Jacques Reynes, Yves Rolland, Philip W. Rouadi, Boleslaw Samolinski, Aziz Sheikh, Sanna Toppila-Salmi, Arunas Valiulis, Hak-Jong Choi, Hyun Ju Kim, Josep M. Anto Spices to Control COVID-19 Symptoms: Yes, but Not Only… International Archives of Allergy and Immunology (2020) doi: 10.1159/000513538

This was the abstract:

“There are large country variations in COVID-19 death rates that may be partly explained by diet. Many countries with low COVID-19 death rates have a common feature of eating large quantities of fermented vegetables such as cabbage and, in some continents, various spices. Fermented vegetables and spices are agonists of the antioxidant transcription factor nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2), and spices are transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 and vanillin 1 (TRPA1/V1) agonists. These mechanisms may explain many COVID-19 symptoms and severity. It appears that there is a synergy between Nrf2 and TRPA1/V1 foods that may explain the role of diet in COVID-19. One of the mechanisms of COVID-19 appears to be an oxygen species (ROS)-mediated process in synergy with TRP channels, modulated by Nrf2 pathways. Spicy foods are likely to desensitize TRP channels and act in synergy with exogenous antioxidants that activate the Nrf2 pathway.”

Here are the spices the ARIA Group advices you to eat if you wish to survive this pandemic:

The ARIA list has everything their oriental colleagues already proposed ad nauseam: turmeric (source of curcumin) of course, but also other COVID-19 classics like garlic, chilli, ginger, mustard, pepper and cinnamon (the latter was confirmed as COVID-19 medicine by German scientists at the Max Planck Society and published as Lucas et al 2021 in Frontiers, the best outlet for such things). In this vein, Bousquet and his ARIA team conclude with a very specific advice to eat kimchi, spiced with “garlic, ginger, leaf mustard, and red pepper powder“.

In an email, the professor explained to me why fermented food needs spices to work:

“I initially focused on low death rates in Eastern European countries Asia, including Korea, and Sub-Saharan African countries. Some very low death rate settings (but not Australia or New Zealand) have a common feature of eating large quantities of fermented vegetables and various spices that are not commonly eaten in the Baltic States.“

You see, it’s either a total lockdown with closed borders, or turmeric with chilli which flatten the curve. Strange, Bousquet never discusses India. Maybe they should eat more spices there?

Double-Blind Broccoli

That same kimchi paper hinted at the miraculous healing power of the humble broccoli, with reference to a submitted manuscript. In January 2021, pickles, sauerkraut and kimchi were pushed aside as not concentrated enough in this stroke of genius. By an actual COVID-19 clinical study, and what a study!

Jean Bousquet, Vincent Le Moing, Hubert Blain, Wienczyslawa Czarlewski, Torsten Zuberbier, Rafael De La Torre, Nieves Pizarro Lozano, Jacques Reynes, Anna Bedbrook, Jean-Paul Cristol, Alvaro A. Cruz, Alessandro Fiocchi, Tari Haahtela, Guido Iaccarino, Ludger Klimek, Piotr Kuna, Erik Melén, Joaquim Mullol, Boleslaw Samolinski, Arunas Valiulis, Josep M. Anto Efficacy of broccoli and glucoraphanin in COVID-19: From hypothesis to proof-of-concept with three experimental clinical cases World Allergy Organization Journal (2021) doi: 10.1016/j.waojou.2020.100498 

The paper’s last author is another recurrent name on all ARIA papers about COVID-19, the Barcelona professor Josep Anto, who may be not among the original ARIA team, but he advises WHO as member of the European Advisory Committee on Health Research (EACHR), so there. I’m telling you this to reassure you that global health and WHO pandemic policies are in trusted and qualified hands.

The broccoli capsules, their active ingredient being glucoraphanin, were tested on 3 patients.

Case 1 contracted COVID-19 in August 2020 and was

“a 73-year old man, a former professor of respiratory medicine at the Montpellier University of France (BMI 23, allergic rhinitis, intermittent untreated asthma, and well-controlled type-2 diabetes under metformin, HbA1C: 6.2%). Before developing COVID-19, the patient self-prescribed broccoli capsules OD in the morning for 45 days (Aerobiane, Pileje, France: broccoli seeds 300 mg + glucoraphanin 30 mg, and myrosinase) in the hope to prevent the onset of COVID-19. But he did contract the infection.“

Can you guess who it is? Hint: starts with B and ends with “ousquet”, and anyway, the paper declares in acknowledgement: “JB proposed the treatment and was the patient“. Now you know where the idea to connect snotty nose to asthma and allergies to “global health” came from. That patient 1 was never hospitalised, and developed only a mild to very moderate COVID-19 according to symptom descriptions recorded in his own proprietary “COVID-19 app (MASK-COVID) — available on Android” and marketed by the company KYomed‐Innov which happens to be in Montpelier. In this regard: “None of the authors declared any competing interest“.

Despite the fact that elsewhere, when issuing a quasi-parallel “ARIA‐EAACI statement on asthma and COVID‐19“, Bousquet declared “personal fees from Chiesi, Cipla, Hikma, Menarini, Mundipharma, Mylan, Novartis, Purina, Sanofi‐Aventis, Takeda, Teva, Uriach, other from KYomed‐Innov“.

Patient 1 recovered, because he “had regular contact with Dr. W Czarlewski with whom he developed the Nrf2 hypothesis.^2,3 Dr. Czarlewski [her CV here, -LS] is knowledgeable on natural medicine and was able to discuss the dosage of the broccoli capsules.” Our patient 1 never had any breathing difficulties, never had to go to hospital, and medicated his fever of maximum 38.9° with an increased dose of broccoli capsules and paracetamol. There was the typical COVID-19 dry cough though, so the patient JB appointed himself as a clinical investigator of what was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike RCT:

“A double-blind placebo-controlled trial was carried out on induced cough using 4 placebo capsules or 4 broccoli (300 mg) capsules. The challenge was performed double-blind to confirm that the effect of broccoli seed capsules was real and not biased. The placebo and broccoli capsules were prepared by the Pharmacie des Quatre Seigneurs (Montpellier). The capsules were made up of cellulose (opaque). Neither the broccoli nor the cellulose capsules had any taste, thus there was a total placebo effect. The investigator was not aware of the blinding, nor of the code that was broken after the test. Similar to the open challenge, he took the deepest breath he could, and then exhaled as fast and as hard as possible. He started the test when spontaneous cough VAS was over 5/10. He first measured spontaneous and induced cough scores as well as nasal VAS, 5 min before ingesting the capsule. He ingested the capsule and then measured the 3 parameters every minute for 10 min, at 12, 15, 17, 20, 25, 30, 45 and 60 min.

In the broccoli group, induced cough score was around 7–8 before the dose and below 3 after 6–9 min (Fig. 5). Score levels remained at between 0 and 3 for the 60-min duration of the test. In the placebo group, there was merely no effect.“

I think that even though “the patient and the investigator who proposed the treatment were the same person“, the trial investigator should have randomized his patient also. Like, one cough test randomly assigned to the kitchen, one in the garden, one in the toilet. Just careful: the broccoli dosage was actually somewhat dangerous, as the authors openly admit:

“Using the dose of broccoli recommended by the manufacturer, there was no preventive effect on SARS-CoV-2. However, it is likely that the dose was insufficient for any such effect. The doses required for effective action during the COVID-19 symptoms of case 1 were quite high and should raise safety concerns.“

Patient 1 was not alone. Case 2 was a “61-year old woman in perfect health and receiving no treatment developed mild COVID-19 symptoms“, who caught COVID-19 in September 2020 and for all we know may have been the wife of the patient 1. Noteworthy,

“On day 6, she took 300 mg of broccoli capsules at 14h30. In 10 min, cough and nausea disappeared, and smell and taste improved.“

Patient 2 then medicated her moderate fever with “same dose of broccoli with paracetamol“, and look, broccoli cured her also.

Patient 3 (“63-year-old man with controlled hypertension“) was never diagnosed with COVID-19 by a PCR test, but it doesn’t matter. He experienced the symptoms in October 2020:

“He had rhinorrhea, dry cough, incomplete loss of smell and taste, and fatigue on day 2. On day 3 at 11h00, he had severe cough and fever and took 300 mg of broccoli. Cough and nasal obstruction disappeared very rapidly but fever was slower“.

Now I can’t say who that patient 3 was, probably another JB family member. In any case, also his moderate fever (never over 38.6°) was successfully medicated with broccoli capsules and paracetamol.

Now, all this may sound entertaining, but the methodology certainly proves that the trial was not observational, but actual clinical research, with participants assigned to an experimental treatment and dosed according to the investigator’s instructions. The trial’s records are declared by authors as unavailable. An informed consent is among family members meaningless, anyway the clinical study in Montpellier never had one and neither was there an ethics approval because the authors declared:

“Not applicable since this was a food supplement used at regular doses by the patients of cases 2 and 3 and at higher doses (case 1) by the author of the study.“

Indeed, this is France, where ethics approvals for clinical research are not needed, as Didier Raoult demonstrated dozens of times. But Zuberbier and Bousquet sport a German affiliation, and in Germany even billionaires can get in trouble when running unapproved clinical COVID-19 studies, even on their own family members. As it happened to Winfried Stöcker, founder of diagnostics company Euroimmun (read here), who is now being criminally investigated for testing a self-made COVID-19 vaccine.

In his message to me, Bousquet spoke of FIFTEEN people treated with broccoli capsules. I understand he means his own clinical studies:

“Fifteen clinical cases showed that broccoli seed capsule sometimes added with curcumin  help alleviating COVID-19 symptoms. These effects occurred within minutes and lasted for around 6-8 hours“.

Hot and spicy

Back to our story. There are three more Ga²len preprints which await to be published in respectable peer-reviewed journals. That broccoli study and its preprint are referenced in another Ga²len manuscript, dated November 2020:

J Bousquet, W Czarlewski, T Zuberbier, J Mullol and J Anto, “Oral capsaicin induces a very fast improvement inCOVID-19 symptoms suggesting TRPV1 channel desensitization” Ga²len preprint (2020)

The clinical trial without ethics approval was hotter and spicier than we thought!

“TRP desensitization was suggested in 6 patients with COVID-19 since TRPA1 agonists (curcuma and black pepper with broccoli capsules) reduced cough and nasal obstruction within 10-20 minutes (submitted, available online 5). A series of cough induced challenges were carried out in one patient. Curcuma and black pepper, ginger or green tea improved cough and nasal obstruction in less than 2 minutes (Bousquet et al, in preparation, summary online). These effects were attributed to a TRPA1 desensitization but TRPV1 desensitization was not excluded as the nutrients are also TRPV1 agonists.

In order to investigate a possible TRPV1 desensitization in the same patient, four induced cough challenges were performed using low dose oral capsaicin (10 and 30 mg of Cayenne pepper in capsules).“

It’s 6 patients now, not 3, and still no ethics approval! And the clinical trial was confounded, because the investigator was also medicating himself and others with chilli, turmeric and black pepper, plus teas!

Another Ga²len preprint dated September 2020 rolled out even more culinary ingredients of a combined COVID-19-diabetes therapy.

Jean Bousquet, Jean-Paul Cristol, Wienczyslawa Czarlewski, Josep M Anto, Adrian Martineau, Tari Haahtela, Susana C Fonseca, Guido Iaccarino, Hubert Blain, Alessandro Fiocchi, G Walter Canonica, Joao A Fonseca, Alain Vidal, Hak-Jong Choi, Hyun Ju Kim, Vincent Le Moing, Jacques Reynes, Aziz Sheikh, Cezmi A Akdis, Torsten Zuberbier and the ARIA group, Nrf2-interacting nutrients, insulin resistance and COVID-19: Time for research to develop mitigation strategies Ga²len preprint (2020)

Here a figure telling you what to eat in the pandemic times:

I hope my readers rejoice seeing resveratrol there, which I covered before. Otherwise, the usual oriental wisdom of green tea and curcumin. And note quercetin, which is quite hot these days as COVID-19 medicine because fruits and vegetables are healthy, right?

We also learn that this “diet may be important in the prevention/management of obesity and, at the same time, may reduce the impact of COVID-19“.

Now, remember I promised cigarettes?

Jean Bousquet, Wienczyslawa Czarlewski, Torsten Zuberbier, Potential control of COVID-19 symptoms by Nrf2-interacting nutrients with TRPA1 (transient receptor potential ankyrin 1) agonist activity, Ga²len preprint (2020)

Unfortunately, the study (pdf October 2020) does not reference Professor Bousquet’s French colleagues Zahir Amoura and Jean-Pierre Changeux, who previously proposed nicotine and tobacco products as COVID-19 medicine (read here). The Ga²len trio (for some reason without their ARIA colleagues) discuss smoking:

“Nicotine activates TRAP1¹⁰⁸. The prevalence of smoking among hospitalized COVID-19 patients is low¹⁰⁹. Although many different mechanisms are proposed, the desensitization of TRAP1 by nicotine may be one possibility. If this were the case, it would show that TRAP1 may be involved in severe COVID-19“.

Here a nice picture from that preprint illustrating how smoking and spices work together to prevent COVID-19 death.

The study concludes:

“Finally, as found for TPRV1 and capsaicin tachyphylaxis_⁹⁶,a reduction in the response to repeated exposure may occur during long-term treatment. In this model, Nrf2 and antioxidants may play an important additive role in reducing ROS. This may be the case for low-death rate countries in which large amounts of nutrients interacting with Nrf2 and TRPA1 at the same time are consumed. The long-term consumption of kimchi, which contains pungent nutrients and fermented cabbage, could be the prototype.“

Pungent sauerkraut with cigarettes??

I asked Professor Bousquet for a message to the people of Latvia. Here it is:

“In Latvia, cabbage and fermented cabbage represent traditional foods and their biologic effects may be of importance in mitigating COVID-19 symptoms.“

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