Dr. MacMahon: Don’t Stop Gargling

Dr. MacMahon: Don’t Stop Gargling

By Edward MacMahon

Yes, mouthwash is not a total defense against Covid-19. However, gargling with a virucidal liquid is definitely a defense against the virus in the early stage of its life cycle.

The reason that gargling is an effective treatment for early stage Covid are anatomical and therefore also functional.

Mouthwash, as the name implies, is for rinsing out the front of your mouth. When the dentist says “rinse” you bend your head and neck downward over a sink and spit out the contents in the front of the mouth.

Gargling, in contrast, requires you to first take a deep breath, then tilt your neck and head upward so that your throat is also pointed upward. Then you slowly let the air out of your lungs. This causes turbulence in the fluid without swallowing any of it.

The inspiration-expiration-turbulence cycle is followed by a short interval when the mouth contents are moved to the front of the mouth. This allows the patient to take several deep breaths through the nose before beginning the next cycle. The critical difference between dental rinsing and simulated gargling for Covid virus is easily demonstrated

A negative testing volunteer was given a two-week course of gargling with a standard Listerine product in the morning and an equivalent dental rinsing in the evening. The saved gargling specimens were consistently different in appearance from the saved dental style rinsed specimens.

Thus, functions like gargling are seen in animals such as the lone wolf howling at the moon. That howling causes a turbulence to effect some secondary gain.

It can be hypothesized that many of the eight million-plus Covid carriers in the U.S. are asymptomatic because the virus load is balanced by a functionally equal amount of antibodies.

If so, then one also can hypothesize that a course of gargling with a Listerine like product that includes the safe, cheap and potent Zthymol Viruside has the potential to stop the progression of the second wave to a large number of patients in late stage respirators.

Dr. MacMahon, now retired and living in The Plains, was a long-time orthopedic specialist and surgeon.