Food: The vaccine we already have

Provocative title of a commentary recently published in the Lancet

I was scouring the literature for another reason (because contrary to what my social media enemies think, that’s actually part of my job) and came across this commentary:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37567199/

This is a commentary about a clinical trial published in The Lancet. The clinical trial evaluated the impact of providing nutritional supplementation to household contacts of tuberculosis (TB) cases on the incidence of TB in those close contacts. Before anyone gets too skeptical, understand this is a very typical study design, and honestly, for a clinical trial to get published in the Lancet, it must be really really good. Because remember, TB study papers have been kicked to the curb in preference to COVID-19 studies… but I digress.

What is the most amazing about this commentary are all the truth bombs. Things that many people have been claiming for years but The Science and others would claim is witchcraft and not true, but this commentary provides the citations to back it up. I’ll just bullet point them here - the commentary is a short read and I highly recommend it.

• TB incidence plummeted in many parts of the world before a vaccine was available. The driving force was socioeconomic transformation.

• There was a sharp rise in TB incidence during the Dutch Hunger Winter (1944-45), showing the impact of malnutrition on TB risk.

• Nutritional support was the cornerstone of TB treatment in sanatoria.

• In 2021, one in five incident TB cases were attributable to undernutrition.

• The clinical trial showcased by this commentary showed a 40% decrease in incident TB among household contacts, and showed no adverse effects. This is significant because nutritional support is cheaper than preventative therapy (some countries over isoniazid for 6 months, though those specific drug recommendations are changing), though this antibiotic treatment is both more expensive and could have adverse effects.

The point of this substack? This study provides a reminder that putting aside “natural” remedies thoughtlessly is a bad idea. Doctors and scientists alike have a habit of not valuing non-pharmaceutical solutions. That needs to stop.