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Long-Covid Supplementation-
When I titled this post I wasn’t sure if I was writing about long-covid supplementation or complementary long-covid therapies. I think you’ll get the idea once you read the post below. Especially the article linked below.
I am a long-term cancer survivor struggling with a host of long-term and late stage side effects. So when I read about inflammation and long-covid I think of supplementation. Or should I say I think of anti-inflammatory
- supplementation,
- nutrition and
- lifestyle therapies.
I think of these anti-inflammatory therapies because they are the therapies that I pursue in an effort to manage my own long-term and late stage side effects that I developed from aggressive chemotherapy and radiation for my cancer.
I believe that long-covid and cancer side effects have a lot in common. Inflammation in particular.
I want to be clear. I included the article linked below to ONLY talk about anti-inflammatory therapies for long-covid symptoms. I not any sort of health professional. I write about cancer and its side effects because conventional oncology offers little in the way of therapies that can treat my many side effects including:
- Chronic fatigue-
- Chemo-brain, memory loss
- Chronic pain
FDA approved therapies are little help to me. This is not a criticism of the FDA. I am simply saying that non-conventional therapies and long-covid supplementation share the concept of inflammation and may therefore overlap. The long-covid survivor may benefit from my experience.
I believe the posts linked below may provide information that may be useful to long-covid survivors.
- Supplementation- Sars-CoV-2 Virus?
- SPPADE = Inflammation
- Eliminate Inflammation, Eliminate Multiple Myeloma
What nutritional supplementation treat long-covid symptoms?
Long-COVID, also known as post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), can present a variety of symptoms that affect different systems of the body.
It’s crucial to consult with a healthcare professional for personalized advice and guidance tailored to your specific symptoms and health condition. That being said, some individuals have reported relief from certain symptoms with the help of various nutritional supplements. However, the evidence supporting the effectiveness of these supplements is often limited and may vary from person to person. Some supplements that have been suggested or studied for potential benefits in long-COVID cases include:
- Vitamin D: Some studies have suggested a potential link between vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 severity. However, more research is needed to establish a clear relationship.
- Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish oil, have anti-inflammatory properties and may support overall health. They are being investigated for their potential role in mitigating inflammation in long-COVID cases.
- Antioxidants: Certain antioxidants, such as vitamin C and vitamin E, may help combat oxidative stress, which can be elevated in some cases of long-COVID.
- N-Acetylcysteine (NAC): NAC is a supplement that can boost levels of the antioxidant glutathione and may have anti-inflammatory properties. Some studies have explored its potential benefits in respiratory symptoms.
- Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10): CoQ10 is an antioxidant that plays a role in energy production within cells. It has been suggested as a potential supplement to support overall health.
Nutritional supplementation shown to treat long covid symptoms are many of the same supplements that I take to treat my own symptoms for
- chronic fatigue
- chemobrain
- chronic pain
I don’t believe that anti-inflammatory therapies will be a silver bullet cure for long-covid symptoms. But I think reducing inflammation in either case- the cancer survivor like me or the long-covid survivor could help.
Are you a cancer survivor? If you would like to learn more about non-conventional therapies shown to manage long-term and late stage side effects let me know- David.PeopleBeatingCancer@gmail.com
David Emerson
- Cancer Survivor
- Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Five Bold Predictions for Long COVID in 2024
“With a number of large-scale clinical trials underway and researchers on the hunt for new therapies, long COVID scientists are hopeful that this is the year patients — and doctors who care for them — will finally see improvements in treating their symptoms.
Here are five bold predictions — all based on encouraging research — that could happen in 2024. At the very least, they are promising signs of progress against a debilitating and frustrating disease…
Researchers identified four clinical phenotypes:
- Chronic fatigue-like syndrome,
- headache, and memory loss;
- respiratory syndrome, which includes cough and difficulty breathing;
- chronic pain; and neurosensorial syndrome, which causes an altered sense of taste and smell…
#4: Anti-inflammatories like metformin could prove useful
Many of the inflammatory markers persistent in patients with long COVID were similarly present in patients with autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, according to a July 2023 study published in JAMA…
The hope is that anti-inflammatory medications may be used to reduce inflammation causing long COVID symptoms. But drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis like abatacept and infliximabcan also have serious side effects, including increased risk for infection, flu-like symptoms, and burning of the skin.
“Powerful anti-inflammatories can change a number of pathways in the immune system,” said Grace McComsey, MD, who leads the long COVID RECOVER study at University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland, Ohio. Anti-inflammatories hold promise but, McComsey said, “some are more toxic with many side effects, so even if they work, there’s still a question about who should take them.”
Still, other anti-inflammatories that could work don’t have as many side effects. For example, a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases found that the diabetes drug metformin reduced a patient’s risk for long COVID up to 40% when the drug was taken during the acute stage.
Metformin, compared to other anti-inflammatories (also known as immune modulators), is an inexpensive and widely available drug with relatively few side effects compared with other medications…”