The Genetics of COVID-19, Part 1

There are many factors that determine who’s more prone to hospitalization or death from coronavirus infection. But among them—and now subject to intense research—are individual genetic predispositions. Certain genes can make you more susceptible to an inflammatory cascade—cytokine storm—that presages a bad outcome in COVID-19. Integrative physician Dr. Sharon Hausman-Cohen, MD, is co-founder of IntellxxDNA, a service that helps health professionals interpret their patients’ genetic profiles. She sheds light on how variations in gene expression can influence pathways integral to viral infection. These analyses, based on saliva samples, can yield critical insights about deployment of various nutraceutical treatments—including elderberry, andrographis, astragalus, vitamins A, C, and D, zinc, fish oil and specific pro-resolving mediators (SPMs), quercetin, melatonin, EGCG, and curcumin. Click HERE for part 2.