 The cells in the nose and throat and the innate immune system are very closely connected to the adaptive immune system, which is the part of the immune system that produces antibodies. But when antibodies are called in, we also get a rapid increase of inflammation. This episode is intended only to expand your knowledge and is not a substitute for seeking medical advice. It's important to first communicate with your doctor regarding any of the information you wish to put into practice, especially for serious illnesses. Okay, let's get started. All right, Nazley, it's great to see you again. It's been a number of years and I'm happy to catch up with you. So let's talk about our nasal and throat membranes. Can you explain how they work as a first line of defense against airborne illness? Sure, I'd be happy to, and it's great to see you again too, Dr. Gundry. Nose cells are essentially skin cells that line our nose and throat. But instead of being seven to 10 layers thick, like the skin, they're only one to two layers thick, like the gut lining that I'm sure all of your listeners are very familiar with. Also like the gut lining, they sense what's happening outside and have alarm signals that they use if they sense something dangerous, like a virus or bacteria. They also have their own immune system called the innate immune system. It doesn't produce antibodies like the adaptive immune system, but it is the first line of defense and it can trap infection because before it gets too out of control. Respiratory viruses like cold and flu viruses always begin in our nose and throat, which a lot of people don't realize. So you're saying that even if I say I had developed a chest cold, for instance, that cold actually didn't start in my chest. It had to go through my mouth and nose first. Exactly. That's exactly right. In fact, some very interesting studies on why children don't get infected to the same degree as adults found that it's most likely that their innate immune systems are much stronger than adults and that could be the reason. The cells in the nose and throat and the innate immune system are very closely connected to the adaptive immune system, which is the part of the immune system that produces antibodies. Once the virus or bacteria gets past the first line of defense, which is the innate immune system and the cells lining our nose and throat, then the adaptive immune system and antibodies kick in. But when antibodies are called in, we also get a rapid increase of inflammation because they need to infiltrate from the blood through our respiratory membranes where the bacteria and viruses are. We start to feel much more sick and all the variety of symptoms get much worse. We really don't want that to happen and we really don't need it to happen a lot of times if our first line of defense is strong. It's very important because antibodies do protect us, but I'm just saying that our first line of defense needs to be strong as well. Talk to me about this mucosal defense system in our mouth and nose. Why that initial response or initial defense system is so important for defending our bodies from disease? The epithelial cells in the innate immune system keep viruses from getting into our lungs. Respiratory infections, as we talked about before, almost always start in the nose and throat before they progress to the lungs. That's why it's best to stop them while they're still in the nose and throat and to make sure that like our gut lining, our respiratory lining is nice and strong. I talk a lot about mucous being very important in protecting our gut barrier. Tell me why SNOT is such a good thing and we really want to have great SNOT. SNOT, our mucous, is a very powerful component of the innate immune system. It's actually a very complex viscous fluid and it's one of our body's key weapons. First of all, it's sticky, so many harmful things get trapped in it before they can get into our bodies. They get stuck in the mucous and then we swallow the mucous and then we all know what happens when we swallow things. They have to deal with the hydrochloric acid in our stomachs and a pH of 2 or 3, which very few things can survive. That's also why we can eat a lot of things that are not exactly sterile and we live. So SNOT is great. It traps a lot of harmful things, brings it to our stomach where they get broken down before they can invade the delicate respiratory lining, which I said again is one to two cells thick. In addition, SNOT contains many powerful molecules such as lysozyme and lactoferrin, which are also found in breast milk and have key defense mechanisms that help our immune system. And they also by themselves can disable viruses and bacteria. So, SNOT is a very, very important component of our innate immune system. What kind of threats exist when it comes to the health of our oral and nasal microbiomes? Well, for some of us with various lifestyle factors such as aging, poor nutrition or exposure to too many environmental toxins, our oral and nasal defenses are weakened and therefore we're more prone to get sick. Other things that might weaken our initial respiratory defenses are dehydration, allergens, and also most over-the-counter cold and flu medications, particularly those that contain chemical decongestants such as pseudoephedrine and phenyl ephrin. These products dry up the mucus and make us much less able to produce another key molecule, nitrous oxide, which you have spoken about on many of your other episodes. It's a powerful antimicrobial defense as well. Interesting. The microbiome in our nose and throat are thought to help us produce this vital nitrous oxide. I think you've spoken about nitrous oxide being a component of the microbiome before as well. Also, as the mucus in our nose dries up and becomes thicker, cilia in our nose beats slower. Cilia are small hair-like projections that move mucus. Also something that's found in the gut. We produce one and a half quarts of mucus a day and, as I said before, swallow most of it. We swallow about two times a minute, even when we're sleeping. All of this is cleaning out our respiratory epithelia. As I said before, as viruses and bacteria get trapped in the sticky mucus and are swallowed, they're no longer able to make us sick. So one and a half quarts of mucus every day. Wow, that's a lot of mucus. Yeah, it is. Even though mucus contains a lot of powerful molecules, it's actually 90% water. All right, so kind of on the same subject. It's true that respiratory illnesses such as a cold are more common in colder months. So why is that? Yeah, that's actually true. Grandmom was right and there are two reasons for that. The first reason comes back to the cilia, which I just discussed. They become rigid in cold temperatures and are less able to move mucus. The other reason is that cold viruses actually prefer cold temperatures. They reproduce faster at colder temperatures. In fact, in our lab, when we study rhinoviruses, we bring down the incubator a couple of degrees centigrade so that they can multiply faster and can test them better. And a rhinovirus is one of the common cold viruses. That's correct, yes. Why might it be that some people experience seasonal allergies and others seem totally unaffected? I think your husband is a perfect example you were mentioning. Yes, yes. My husband gets a lot of allergies and he suffers from sinusitis, I think. Well, much like leaky gut and IBS, there are several theories, but no definitive answer just yet. If someone has allergies, it means their immune system is hypersensitive and overreactive, as you spoke about in many of your episodes. Allergy symptoms are the result of inflammation. Inflammation can be beneficial in small doses. It's the body's way of protecting itself, but as you know, it needs to be controlled. So going back to what we were speaking about earlier about the innate and adaptive immune systems, allergies happen usually when antibodies, particularly IgE, enter the nose and throat. But as we spoke about before, antibodies come with a lot of excess inflammation because they need to penetrate through the respiratory epithelia to get there. So you don't necessarily want them when you're just inhaling some pollen. Basically, it's an overreaction and there could be various reasons why some people are more prone than others. Perhaps they're more exposed to other types of allergens in their lifetimes. Perhaps it's due to living in indoor environments or exposure to pollution. There are a lot of theories. Okay. All right. So tell us about BioVanta and why it was designed for cold analogy symptoms. What exactly is it? Sure, of course. I'd be happy to. BioVanta is the first over-the-counter drug in the cold, cough, and sore throat category that's also 100% natural. Obviously, there's a lot of homeopathic products, supplements, but BioVanta is classified as an over-the-counter drug and regulated by the FDA and is also 100% natural. It has a unique mechanism of action. It's the only product that was designed to address upper respiratory inflammation directly, which is the root cause of cold symptoms. Most other products on the market just mask symptoms and inflammation. They don't actually treat it at the source. In addition, most of the products in the over-the-counter, cough, and cold category were approved decades ago using old science. So how does this differ or compare, I guess, is the better word to the other over-the-counter, cold, sore throat products? Well, we actually tested this. We recently published the results in a peer-reviewed scientific publication. You can find a link to it on our website, BioVanta.com. We found that not only was BioVanta more effective than all the other products we tested, but most products actually damaged the respiratory epithelia and created holes in it, much like leaky gut, but in the nose. Now, that doesn't sound like a very good idea. No. So, I mean, this sounds like a total different way of dealing with these cold and cough and sore throat symptoms. Yes, totally, totally different. You need to really take care of the nose and throat as much like the gut. The cells are very similar. So how does BioVanta do that? What are the key ingredients that allows you to actually take care of the nose and throat? BioVanta contains a small dose of plant-based acetyl salicylic acid or aspirin, which is one of the oldest medicines known to men, and truly a wonder drug. It also includes lysozyme, lactoferrin, and aloe. In combination, they work synergistically to stop inflammation. The key to the use of acetyl salicylic acid is the dose. BioVanta contains a very small dose of naturally-derived acetyl salicylic acid, as well as, like I said, lysozyme and lactoferrin. We derive our acetyl salicylic acid or aspirin naturally, so it's not petroleum-based, and ours comes from methyl salicylate, which, as you may know, is in a lot of common foods like broccoli, coffee, and wintergreen oil. Plants use it as their own natural defense system against pathogens, such as viruses. Lysozyme comes from egg white and lactoferrin comes from dairy, but they're also found, like I said, in breast milk and a lot of mammals produce. Mammals and other animals produce these compounds for protection, as we do. Everything we use in our products comes from 100% natural sources. As I mentioned before, these are powerful molecules that we also have in our stock. You do say that aspirin is beneficial in low doses, but not in high doses. Can you explain that further? Aspirin is a key inhibitor of cox enzymes, which play a key role in inflammation. At low doses, aspirin blocks some cox enzymes, but if you completely block them, then we found that another more inflammatory pathway kicks in. This is also described in our paper that you can find on our website. We don't fully understand why, but we do know that there's a delicate balance in inflammation. This is becoming more common in other areas of medicine and research as well. It could be that some low level of cox enzymes are necessary and that the body treats it as an alarm signal if it's too low. This is similar to why some people are told to take a baby aspirin every day instead of full strength. What kind of tests have been done on the effectiveness of BioVanta? We've been studying this area for over 10 years. Also, all the ingredients that we use are very well studied and very well understood. They've been around a long time. They're also all natural and extremely safe. We just found the best and most efficacious combination of these ingredients. Also, we're fortunate enough to be able to test them in our system, the organoid system, which I mentioned before, which has only become available in the last few years. We're able to test different combinations, different doses, and see what worked well for stopping inflammation and keeping the respiratory cells healthy. The FDA doesn't treat drugs lightly. You must have been very convincing to the FDA that this product was not only safe but also effective. Did you have to provide a lot of documentation to the FDA? Yes. We have a very good regulatory team, and they're very well versed in what the FDA looks for. The FDA is very, very concerned about safety, as you know, and efficacy. The answer is yes. Yeah. Well, Dr. Lofetti, it's great for seeing you again and sharing this information with us. So, where can listeners find out more about BioVanta and your research? Thank you so much, Dr. Garni. It's great to speak with you and see you as well. I would encourage your listeners to visit BioVanta.com to learn more about the product and its ingredients, and also to read our paper. You can also visit appliedbioink.com to learn more about our company. If you want to give BioVanta a try, you can use 15 Gundry, 1.5 Gundry, to buy it on BioVanta.com or on Amazon.com. Great. Would we find this in our local drug store right now, or is it just easier to go to your website or Amazon? Oh, yes. I forgot to mention. We are being carried at CVS, Walgreens, Target, which we're very proud of, because these are top retailers, and they have a really high bar for accepting products. So, you can find us at major pharmacies, but the discount code, I think, would only apply on Amazon and BioVanta.com. Yeah, I think you're right. One last question. Is this a product that if you're feeling the symptoms of seasonal allergies or you feel you're coming down with a cold, that's when to start it? Could you ever preemptively use it in allergy season, or do you have any information about that? I think that you could preemptively use it, because we have all natural ingredients. Unless, of course, you have an allergy to one of the ingredients, like egg milk or aspirin, then you shouldn't use it. But, yeah, anyone else can use it preemptively at any time, because it's all natural. And it would also be best to use it at the start when you just start feeling the symptoms coming on the first day or two. You could use it later, but it's going to have the most effect early on, because as you know, inflammation is like a cascade, right? And so, it just keeps amping up. So, you want to kind of try to catch it before it gets too strong. Well, this is the perfect time of year to have you on, because, yeah, allergies are going to start, and the cold season is rampaging right now. And I think it's great, particularly listeners of my podcast want always a more natural approach to dealing with this. And I congratulate you on looking for a natural solution, rather than the crazy stuff we've been bombarding us and our kids with for 40 years. It is really crazy stuff. And thank you. You're an inspiration to all of us, and always promoting natural products, so I thank you as well. Well, great. Promoting natural products, but also natural lifestyle. Very good. All right. Well, keep up the good work. What's in the future before I let you go? Is more interesting stuff coming down the pipeline? Yes, actually. Thank you for asking that. So, we started Applied Bio, by the way, my other co-founder is my husband. We started Applied Bio with the idea of tackling respiratory viruses. So, our first technology was actually in those areas. And then, when we further researched the respiratory system and the respiratory epithelia, we saw that there was a great opportunity here in the OTC category. So, this is our first product, but our technologies, our older technologies, actually, antiviral technology, and that's going to be coming down the pipeline soon, as soon as we do clinical trials. And that's a much more rigorous FDA process, so it's going to take some time. But it's basically antivirals, nasal sprays. All right. Sounds like we really need that as well. So, good luck with getting that FDA clinical trials. I've been in them. It's hard work, but hopefully they'll be with it. I don't take it lightly, but thank you. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dr. Gundry podcast. Make sure to check out the next one here. What does our oral health have to do with the health of the rest of our body? Come on, Nadine. Well, as I'm sure we all know, the mouth is a principal portal into the body, and it helps us assimilate our world.