PERSPECTIVE on "Early At-Home Treatment of Confirmed COVID-19 with NSAIDs and Nutrients" published in Medical Science Monitor 2021 Dec
PERSPECTIVE on "Early At-Home Treatment of Confirmed COVID-19 with NSAIDs and Nutrients" published in Medical Science Monitor 2021 Dec
Doing “anything reasonable” appears to provide tremendous clinical benefit against Cv19 if treatment is implemented early and especially if implemented preventively
Publication with attached PDF: Fazio et al. Retrospective Study of Outcomes and Hospitalization Rates of Patients in Italy with a Confirmed Diagnosis of Early COVID-19 and Treated at Home Within 3 Days or After 3 Days of Symptom Onset with Prescribed and Non-Prescribed Treatments. Medical Science Monitor 2021 Dec DOI: 10.12659/MSM.935379 medscimonit.com/abstract/index/idArt/935379
DrV’s Summary: Early (within the first 3 days of symptoms) at-home treatment of confirmed Cv19 infection among 85 of 158 Italian patients aged 34-60 years was perfectly safe and tremendously effective in reducing duration, severity, and consequences. Treatment contained the following components: indomethacin 75 to 100 mg daily (75 mg for people weighing 70 kg, and 100 mg for 71 kg and over), aspirin 100 mg, omeprazole 20 mg, hesperidin 200 mg, quercetin 200 mg, vitamin C 100 mg. My basic nutritional protocol (PDF provided immediately below) would have likely provided equal or better results, as it would have included the hesperidin, quercetin and vitamin C (along with vitamin D, zinc, selenium, and NAC), avoided the omeprazole and indomethacin, and would have allowed for the aspirin.
DrV’s Commentary: While governments were initially telling people to “go home and wait to see if you get worse” instead of taking any therapeutic action, anyone with a brain knew that early antiviral/antiinflammatory treatment was likely to provide important benefit, and this study clearly proves that this is true, even with relatively weak and incomplete intervention. Weak and incomplete as it is, this simple protocol could have saved (directly) millions of lives and thus could have spared (indirectly) hundreds of millions of people from suffering the consequences of fear-based politics including lockdowns, bankruptcy, and loss of social freedoms and human rights.
DrV’s Analysis and Conclusion: The effectiveness of this weak protocol proves that 1) early intervention is key to preventing complications of Cv19, and 2) the virus appears to take advantage of people who are in a nutritionally-depleted pro-inflammatory state before or at the time of infection.
Indomethacin is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) similar to naproxen used for fever and joint pain; it’s a simple anti-prostaglandin drug and not particularly safe nor effective.
Aspirin is another anti-inflammatory and fever-lowering drug with anti-coagulant benefits; low/moderate-dose aspirin is actually a nice drug except for its contribution to stomach irritation and gastric hemorrhage/bleeding.
Omeprazole is a proton pump inhibitor used to reduce stomach acid production and thereby “protect the stomach” and is commonly used alongside aspirin and NSAIDs to reduce risk of stomach irritation/bleeding and but mostly to protect doctors/hospitals from getting sued in case the patient has a problem. Otherwise, it is a pretty horrible drug that most knowledgeable doctors would seek to avoid using.
Hesperidin and Quercetin are nutritional antioxidants commonly found in fruits and vegetables along with vitamin C; a reasonable health-promoting diet and basic nutritional supplementation as I have described for the past 17+ years would have provided this and much more (see “2011 part8” PDF included above). Doses used in this study are low and these nutrients are not particularly potent, but obviously the combination proved surprisingly useful. This is nothing heroic and isn’t even particularly competent; a naturopathic student would rightly be criticized for using such a weak intervention when we have so much more to offer.
