By Neal Naito, M.D., March 29, 2020, New York Times
These are excerpts from an article in the NY Times.
The premise is that in some cases the first sign of viral load from Covid-19 is a sore throat, fever and cough as the virus sets up initially in the nose and throat prior to descending into the lungs. The goal is to reduce viral load early while still in the upper airway to reduce morbidity and mortality. We have been hearing of the progression to intubation and ventilator as the virus becomes an acute respiratory distress syndrome attacking the lungs with greatly decreased prognosis.
“Gargling is a common hygiene measure in many countries. In East Asia, particularly in Japan, gargling is strongly encouraged by the national government, along with other practices like hand-washing, wearing face masks and social distancing, as a matter of routine hygiene during the regular cold and flu season.
Most of the early studies suggesting that gargling may help to prevent and treat upper and lower respiratory infections, not surprisingly, come from Japan.
The most intriguing findings center on the use of an over-the-counter povidone-iodine oral gargle solution, which has been commonly used for decades by people in Japan and elsewhere to treat a sore throat. In a small Japanese experimental study from 2002, 23 patients with chronic respiratory disease gargled four or more times a day with a povidone-iodine solution. Researchers found that, compared to the number of acute respiratory infections before the group started gargling, regular gargling for several months to two years with the povidone-iodine solution led to an approximate 50 percent reduction in the incidence of acute respiratory infections. Gargling with the solution led to a reduction in infections caused by some fairly virulent bacteria, among them Pseudomonas, Staph (including MRSA) and Haemophilus.
A recent German lab study sponsored by a manufacturer of povidone-iodine sore throat gargle solution, for example, reported that the solution was shown to eliminate over 99 percent of the coronaviruses that cause SARS and MERS (very close cousins to the current Covid-19).
In the United States, povidone-iodine solutions are sold as skin disinfectants, which contain ingredients that can cause serious harm if ingested; preparations that are suitable for gargling are not generally available in this country. It’s critical that people not gargle with skin disinfectant solutions, including those that contain povidone-iodine.”
A Canadian company Iotech has a “safe” non povidone iodine solution recommended for rinsing in the dental industry for periodontitis and managing high risk oral pathogens and viruses .
In independent laboratory testing, they did successfully destroy the normal Coronavirus strain (#229E) but there has been no testing against Covid-19.
In March, 2014, ioRinse Oral Rinse (at a concentration of 25 ppm of molecular iodine) was tested for its’ efficacy against the normal Human Coronavirus strain 229E and Rhinovirus type 14 strain 1059, two prominent upper respiratory viruses at a 30 second exposure. The testing was conducted at Bioscience Laboratories, Bozeman, Montana and also included testing on the following antiseptic mouth rinses (Colgate Total, Scope Classic and Listerine Ultraclean). None of the other mouth rinses were effective against either Coronavirus or Rhinovirus. ioRinse completely inactivated both Coronavirus and Rhinovirus at 25 ppm molecular iodine. Today, ioRinse RTU is formulated at 100 ppm molecular iodine… 4 times the amount of io.
Brad Bale MD has recently advocated gargling with salt water at the first sign of sore throat or cough with the rationale of neutralizing the Coronavirus.
Other nasal sprays and rinses include Argentyn-23 a silver colloidal and Xlear , a xylitol spray . The FDA and FTC jointly issued warning letters to Vital Silver and Jim Bakker for promoting colloidal silver products.
Consider early intervention should you experience the early warning signs of Covid-19. Only time and research will show if Covid-19 responds like earlier versions of the coronavirus.