Diagnosed with COVID?  What now…

Don’t panic.  The majority of people who get COVID will have minor symptoms with a self-limiting course.  But let’s talk about some things you can do while you are isolating yourself at home to try to prevent a more aggressive course.  I think we need to be more aggressive in the watch and wait phase rather than springing into action only when you go to the hospital because of severe breathing difficulties.

  1.      Stay hydrated. Drink lots of water especially if you have a fever
  2.      Do not smoke or drink alcohol
  3.      Electrolytes – if you are not eating well, then make sure you have some electrolytes in 1 or 2 of your glasses of water a day (doesn’t have to be every glass). NUUN is a tablet form and Pedialyte is even an option.
  4.      Supplements
    •      Stop Elderberry (might be ok in lower doses below 200-300mg but information is not clear about dosing)
    •      Stop Echinacea
    •      Increase Zinc to 75 at first onset of symptoms and continue at this dose daily until symptoms resolve. You can also do a one time increase of taking 50mg then wait one hour and add another 50mg and again wait one hour and take one more 50mg tablet to a total of 150mg.  Only do this once at the very beginning as high levels of zinc can cause too much copper loss and deplete the immune system.  (Zinc sulfate dose is 220mg because the elemental amount of zinc is much less than the chelated zinc glycinate form)
    •      Continue Vitamin D
    •      Continue Vitamin C
    •      Continue Vitamin A
    •      Continue Melatonin 5-20mg at bedtime
    •      ADD NAC (N acetyl cysteine) supports glutathione which helps clear toxins – 600mg daily
    •      ADD Benfothiamine -B1  (may also have a role as preventative)
    •      ADD Curcumin – curcumin has some anti-inflammatory properties that may help decrease the amount of inflammation. Dose this twice a day.
    •      ADD Andrographis – especially if you have a cough. I like Andrographis by Metagenics and would dose this product one tablet every two hours for 12 hours and then one tablet three times a day until symptoms resolve.
    •      ADD potential ACE 2 inhibitors (remember the virus enters thru the ACE2 receptor) A nice review of supplements and their ACE 2 inhibition activity by Dr Chen from Stanford in conjunction with Dr. Du with the University of Hong Kong School of Chinese Medicine.  Here is what they are suggesting:
      • Licorice (glycyrrhizin) – be careful as licorice can cause an increase in blood pressure in some people
      • Hersperetin – Hesperidin is a flavonoid compound in orange peels that gives the flavonoid hesperetin to the body. Our product Methoxyflavone by Metagenics has a high concentration of hesperidin.  Take this twice a day
      • Scutellarin- this is also a flavonoid like Herperetin but has additional benefits. It has numerous benefits including anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-coagulation and has been used to treat strokes and heart attacks.  Follow directions on bottle.
      • Baicalin – this is derived from a specific species of Scutellarin and is also called Chinese Skullcap.  Follow directions on bottle.

6.     Supplements to try to decrease cytokine storm

      • Curcumin as above (twice a day)
      • ECGC (green tea extract) 600mg twice a day  *may keep you awake so adjust dosage as needed
      • Ig26 by Xymogen:  2-3 capsules in the morning
      • Mung bean seed root
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7.     Medications:  Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) and Azithromycin (Zpack) combination has been speculated to help with COVID.  There was a study published from France reporting a significant reduction in viral load within one week of starting the treatment of the two medications.  This study is being met with many objections because there was not a control group not being treated to see if there was selection bias or just a natural regression of the virus.  In New York a physician did his own non-published internal review of his patients using the protocol with the addition of zinc and reported no progression of severe illness requiring ventilation and a physician in California had the same results. It is also being met with many objections because it was not a formal study and there was no control group.  I just listened to the OSMA (Oklahoma State Medical Association) webinar on COVID19 and they are discouraging any use of these drugs until further studies have been done.  Governor Stitt issued an executive order limiting the prescriptions of Plaquenil and Zpacks because the land run rush on these drugs depleted the stores for people who are on these medications for other reasons.  The shortage also depleted any access to these drugs so if a physician did want to try it they will not be able to get the Rx filled.  If you want to look at an interesting evaluation of a study this click here.  Of note, the case reports I saw are not the study they are evaluating in this article.  It just points out the potential issues with the way we evaluate data.  I am hopeful that some more literature will emerge soon as it does seem promising and I want our physicians to be able to write for this drugs as long as they are not contraindicated with a specific person’s medical conditions.

Other medications that are being looked at include Ivermectin and other anti-malarials.  Nitrous Oxide has also being looked at as an ACE receptor blocker but be careful with this as it can cause a drop in blood pressure.

I’m sure there will be more medications tried in many different parts of the world so stay tuned…

I think the goal of keeping people out of the hospital and out of  critical care units should be the focus rather than watching and waiting to see if they progress!  I have opinions on how they are viewing the medications and potential treatments but I have always tried to just stick to facts.

Here are the facts….

Please be proactive.  This is your wake up call.  Take care of yourself.  Start eating better.  Start exercising.  Stop smoking.  Work on your cholesterol and diabetes and really and truly commit to making your health the number one priority.  If you can’t do it on your own let us help!  It is time for each of us to step up and take control of ourselves.  We have learned that nobody else can do that.

There is hope though.  We will all get thru this together.
What may seem like an eternity today,  will hopefully subside within a several months.

Focus on all the ways our community is coming together and take one moment, one day at a time.

To your health and safety,

Laura