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Low iron levels resulting from infection could be key trigger of long COVID
Medical Xpress / University of Cambridge / Nature Immunology ^ | March 4, 2024 | Aimee L. Hanson et al

Posted on 03/10/2024 9:42:24 AM PDT by ConservativeMind

Problems with iron levels in the blood and the body's ability to regulate this important nutrient as a result of SARS-CoV-2 infection could be a key trigger for long COVID, research has discovered.

Researchers analyzed blood samples from 214 individuals. Approximately 45% of those questioned about their recovery reported symptoms of long COVID between three and ten months later.

The team discovered that ongoing inflammation—a natural part of the immune response to infection—and low iron levels in blood, contributing to anemia and disrupting healthy red blood cell production, could be seen as early as two weeks post COVID-19 in those individuals reporting long COVID many months later.

Professor Hal Drakesmith said iron dysregulation is a common consequence of inflammation and is a natural response to infection.

"However, if this goes on for a long time, there is less iron for red blood cells, so oxygen is transported less efficiently affecting metabolism and energy production, and for white blood cells, which need iron to work properly. The protective mechanism ends up becoming a problem."

The findings may help explain why symptoms such as fatigue and exercise intolerance are common in long COVID, as well as in several other post-viral syndromes with lasting symptoms.

One approach might be controlling the extreme inflammation as early as possible, before it impacts on iron regulation. Another approach might involve iron supplementation; however, as Dr. Hanson pointed out, this may not be straightforward.

"It isn't necessarily the case that individuals don't have enough iron in their body, it's just that it's trapped in the wrong place," she said. "What we need is a way to remobilize the iron and pull it back into the bloodstream, where it becomes more useful to the red blood cells."

(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: covid; covid19; longcovid; medicalxpress
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To: Myrddin

Is your gallbladder in scope simple due to not know the source of the blood?


21 posted on 03/10/2024 8:21:39 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: gleeaikin
Condolences on the passing of your husband. Last time we corresponded here, he was still with you. I'm 5 ft 11 in and 157 lbs. I've slacked off on my vitamin A and E supplementation due to problems with swallowing pills. I had a distressing incident with a small capsule bouncing between my trachea and sinuses. After 3 "volleys", I managed to catch and expel it. I break my capsules apart and drop the contents into my mouth now and drink water to wash it down. My recent acquisition of ox bile to help the gallbladder issue was greeting with the most vile taste. Ick. I'm adding a bit of "TUDCA" to see if it can help dissolve some of the "sludge" in my gallbladder and biliary duct.

I take 1 gram of vitamin C morning and evening. That has been my practice for over 30 year.

22 posted on 03/11/2024 8:22:06 AM PDT by Myrddin
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To: ConservativeMind
Is your gallbladder in scope simple due to not know the source of the blood?

The first liver clue was high ALP/GGT. I have classic "itching" that comes with bile backup into the blood. I've had an abdominal ultrasound to check liver/gallbladder followed by an MRCP(MRI) for my entire abdomen. My biliary tract is dilated to 17 mm from the "tree" in the liver to the ampulla next to the small intestine. Layers of stones are discernible in the gallbladder and "sludge" i.e. cholelithiasis is observable in the gallbladder and biliary duct. I've clearly had some bile obstruction with clay colored stools and fats floating in the toilet bowl (TMI). The bile isn't getting delivered properly. I'm not anxious to have my gallbladder removed as the long term changes to bowel function are not very pleasant. I am eager to fix the itching. It disturbs my sleep more than the apnea. The elevated ALP goes hand-in-hand with back up bile going into the bloodstream. ALP targets cleanup of the bile that went the wrong way.

23 posted on 03/11/2024 8:31:30 AM PDT by Myrddin
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To: Myrddin

A family member was ultrasounded and they saw it was filled with sludge.

I found that either TUDCA, or perhaps better, Jarrow’s Bile Acid Factors, which worked in a few months. A follow up showed it was all gone.

Do you eat fat, or are you on low fat diet?


24 posted on 03/11/2024 10:12:47 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: ConservativeMind
I eat normal amounts of fat. I have a bottle of TUDCA and a bottle of ox bile. TUDCA is specifically targeted to dissolve gallstones. Ox bile helps thin the bile so it flows smoothly in/out of the gallbladder and down the biliary tract. My preference is to treat the problem of "sludge" with TUDCA/ox bile rather than pull the trigger on a gallbladder removal. The ultrasound, MRCP and upcoming endoscopy have drained my HSA from over $6k to $300 in short order with nothing to show but the imaging analysis. The only progress on the anemia and liver/gallbladder issues is from my own intervention by ceasing the blood thinning supplements and adding heme-based iron supplements. If they want to remove the gallbladder, I'm going to have to pony up money from my after tax savings.
25 posted on 03/11/2024 10:56:28 AM PDT by Myrddin
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To: Myrddin

Just one quick thought for tonight as I have just spent 16 hours working on catching up on back tax paperwork, and need sleep. Your height to weight measures indicate you are very thin. I wonder if you eat enought good fat like extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, omega-3 capsules (soften in mounth a bit, bite, and swallow the oil, spit out the empty capsule), salmon baked with skin on top to get crispy and eat the skin with the salmon. Also don’t remove too much of the fat from steak, and eat the skin on baked (not breaded) chicken. I had a friend who was seriously avoiding fat to lose weight. Eventually she needed gall bladder surgery to remove a bunch of gall stones. Also eat some butter, never margerine. Fat is needed in the diet to trigger dumping of gall from the gall bladder. How much fat do you eat a day. How much carbs and protein. More later when I am awake and done with more taxes.

Your sympathy is appreciated, but my husband died in 2005. I have been with my current partner for 18 years. He seems to have fully recovered from his prostate cancer, and I make him a weeks supply of supplements to take each day of the week. Cheers


26 posted on 03/12/2024 3:02:15 AM PDT by gleeaikin ( Question authority.)
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To: gleeaikin
In 2018, I weighed 146 lbs with 13.7% body fat. My wife's health failed in 2019 with a DKA and T1 diabetes heralded by a seizure in August 2019. At the time, my dietary discipline was target a 1250 calories except Monday/Thursday 600 calories. Macro balance in calories 30% protein/30% fat/40% carb. My wife complained bitterly about the Monday/Thursday discipline. I caved and my weight is now 158. Body fat% around 17%. My health issues started appearing after I caved to stopping the intermittent fasting.

I do indulge a grilled salmon at Texas Roadhouse. In recent weeks, I've added more red meat to rebuild the iron deficiency anemia issues. A gluten free "Good Ol' Boy" pizza at McKenzie River has a bit of fat. Saag lamb is full of butter. I'm getting adequate quality fat. I do have kill oil capsules. As recommended, I just crush them with my teeth and swallow the oil. Discard the capsule.

My taxes are complete, federal refund in hand. All of the recent imaging co-pays wiped out my HSA, so my tax refund may be covering bills related to the colonoscopy/endoscopy on Thursday. Surgical consult Monday for the gallbladder removal.

I conflated your references to your partner with your references to your husband. Thanks for clarification.

27 posted on 03/12/2024 7:55:41 AM PDT by Myrddin
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To: Myrddin

Just a few more thoughts before decending into the IRS miasma once again. My 50 year old son who has recently recovered from a rare neck cancer has a heightened interest in health building. He read one study done by the Army to determine how much carb soldiers should ideally have in their diet. It was 50 grams per day. When you say 40, 30, 30%, are you calculating calories or grams for your percentages? Since carbs have 4 or 5 calories per gram that would be 200 to 250 calories per day. You would then have to multiply calories per gram using 37.5 grams (3/4 of 50 grams) for the 30% figures. That leaves around 337 calories for fat at 30%, using 9 calories per gram, and for protein at 30% another 150 to 188 calories. Since I don’t remember whether it is carbs or protein that is 4 grams and the other one 5 grams, I added the three food groups using the low numbers, then the high numbers and found the midpoint which was 730 calories. This is a starvation diet figure.

I recently watched a program on diet and longevity. The 63 year old presenter who looked slim and healthy recommended people get 90 grams a day of protein for good health. He stressed limiting carbs, and emphasizing green leafy and other low carb veggies, and plenty of healthy fats like olive oil, and other plant based oils. So I multiplied his 90 gms protein by 4.5 to get 405 calories and added that to 225 grams of carbs using 4.5. Adding both figures provides 630 calories which subtracted from your old 1250 calorie diet leaves 620 calories. The 620 divided by 9 calories per gram for fat is just under 70 gms which I will round up to 70. Thus, what is a very low calorie diet at 1250 using recommended healthy grams for carbs and protein gives this plan, based on your protein, fat, carb percents of 30, 30, 40%. The figures I have calculated are: 90 gms protein, 70 gms fat, and 50 gms carbs. Since you are still what is probably an unhealthy low weight even with some increase in calories you now need to decide what to increase. Given the data I found, it would appear to be in the fat area.

When I got very sick after my Vitamin D levels were too low and my weight too high—157 lbs at 5’5” I began to diet in earnest. I have to go do something now, but will post this and come back later.


28 posted on 03/12/2024 8:28:03 PM PDT by gleeaikin ( Question authority.)
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To: gleeaikin
30/30/40 is percentage of calories from each group. 93 gr protein, 42 gr fat, 125 gr carb on a 1250 calorie day. I'm usually within 1% of those targets daily.
29 posted on 03/12/2024 9:46:17 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: Myrddin; ConservativeMind; Qiviut; metmom

First a correction, I once was 5’5”, but at 85 have shrunk to 5’3”. You said you had increased your calorie count because your weight was in the 140s at 5’11”. So regarding the two recommendations based on ideal diet studies, your 93 gr protein is fine, but the 125 gr carb is way above the 50 gr the Army decided based on their study for soldiers, not elderly people. Therefore, if you want to approach the Army figure and not struggle to keep your weight down with very low calorie diet, you will need to increase your good fats. Note, my calculation was at 70 gr fat to stay near the 1250 cal level.

Frankly, based on my experience losing weight from Jan. a year ago, 25 to 30 pounds with no diet suffering, if you do that your weight will not go up a lot and you will probably become a lot more healthy. Regarding counting carbs, all packaged goods now have a chart with fats, carbs, fiber, and protein. meat, fish, poultry, and seafood have almost no carbs to worry about. The green leafies and other low carb vegetables also are not of much concern if your target is 50 gr carbs a day. However other healthy carbs like brown rice and barley, whole grain breads, etc. need to be watched carefully. With them you need to read the labels, subtract the fiber grams from the total carb grams to get the NET CARB number. Add up the net carbs for each day and try not to go over 50. You can look at those figures on cans of beans and lentils to judge whether cooking the dried equivalent will work in your diet or look up figures for them on line. Seeds and nuts are also good, and even for single ingredient packages, these figures are often listed.

The first 4 months I was dieting I was trying to go no higher than 20 gr of carbs and occasionally 25 gr. Now I have stabilized around 130lb and probably consume around 35 to 45 gr of carbs. I don’t count calories. I enjoy an occasional holiday dinner, dining out, or a pot luck party, and eat all I want of the things good for me, and small tastes of rice, potatoes, and the bread with the meal. I dip my lobster pieces in melted butter with delight. On those days I eat very little until I arrive at the event, and very little again for the following one or two days. When I had my annual physical in late Jan. my lab results were the best they have been in almost a decade. I do take lots of supplements, but my only medication is for thyroid, $5 for a 3 month supply of pills. Cheers and good luck.


30 posted on 03/12/2024 10:42:13 PM PDT by gleeaikin ( Question authority.)
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To: gleeaikin; Myrddin; ConservativeMind; Qiviut

Many years back when I was still able to eat pretty much what I wanted, I went on a wheat free diet.

I ate rice, popcorn, and oats without counting carbs and the weight STILL fell off.

For me, wheat was the culprit. Potatoes also give me trouble but by far, wheat is the worst.

And no, I do not have celiac. Been tested for it about 5 different ways and all come back negative. It does not give me common celiac symptoms. But it does cause in me, weight gain.


31 posted on 03/12/2024 11:02:04 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus…)
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To: metmom

Interesting observation. Many years ago would have likely been white bread. Have you ever tried some of the recent whole grain breads, especially those made with “ancient grains” like spelt? Cheers


32 posted on 03/13/2024 1:58:29 AM PDT by gleeaikin ( Question authority.)
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To: gleeaikin

Yes, but it was long ago, and since then I have not been able to do it with my food sensitivities.


33 posted on 03/13/2024 2:38:23 AM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus…)
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To: gleeaikin
I use My Fitness Pal to track weight and food intake. It has food databases built-in to tack the macro nutrients.
34 posted on 03/13/2024 6:28:35 AM PDT by Myrddin
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To: gleeaikin
The 93 gr of protein daily is the minimum necessary to support my lean muscle mass. I'm still pushing around my 850 lb Harley Fat Bob. The 1250 calorie target works for my desk job pushing a mouse around M-F. The cancer that I survived in 1985 left me with low testosterone (271). That has made building and maintaining muscle mass a difficult task.

More later. I have some critical software updates to make today. Tomorrow is going to be somewhat unproductive with a colonoscopy/endoscopy starting at 7:30 AM. Hopefully the docs find the gastric bleed and find a way to fix it.

35 posted on 03/13/2024 8:00:48 AM PDT by Myrddin
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To: gleeaikin; ConservativeMind
I had the colonscopy and endoscopy yesterday. The endoscopy found a healing ulcer in my duodenum just beyond the stomach. Discontinuing ibuprofen, turmeric, serrapeptase, nattakinase and serrapeptase and use of a proton pump inhibitor allowed the bleeder to heal. Adding a heme-based iron supplement has turned around my iron deficiency anemia. RBC, hemoglobin and ferretin are all recovering to normal ranges. The colonoscopy found 7 polyps. All removed. Waiting for histology reports. Monday morning brings a surgical consult to arrange gallbladder removal. The new gremlin is a juxtapleural pulmonary node. CT ordered to investigate with a lung scan. Deferred maintenance is getting expensive.
36 posted on 03/15/2024 7:56:03 AM PDT by Myrddin
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To: gleeaikin; ConservativeMind
Histology results: all polyps were pre-cancerous. Schedule another colonoscopy in 3 years. Samples from the stomach lining show no H. pylori. Samples from duodenum show no celiac sprue. Overall, a good report. The anemia is resolving. Removing the gallbladder should make the itching over my liver, lower legs and shoulders go away. Removal date TBD.
37 posted on 03/15/2024 8:11:24 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: Myrddin

I am really glad you had such a good set of outcomes, Myrddin. You’ve done well.

I can say I’ve read a study that showed curcumin can be instrumental in reversing polyps, but that was performed in people who genetically get a lot of polyps. Still, it made a fair amount of them regress back to normal or not start up, at all.

I strongly encourage you to try the Jarrow Bile Acid Factors. Within five months, it completely resolved all the sludge this relative had. It may have resolved sooner, but nothing was checked between those occasions. If choosing to use them, be cautious as you learn how much you need for fat you are eating.

Again, congrats on the positive changes and I trust you will do what is best from your choices.


38 posted on 03/15/2024 9:17:59 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: ConservativeMind

COVID-19 is an allergic reaction to SARS-2-CoV protein spikes, whether existing on the virus or induced by “vaccine.”

Allergic reactions (”AR”), such as the small AR/inflamation that a person usually does not notice nor see, are vulnerable to irritants.

So, we observe many different responses to the virus and to the shots; and there are often misdiagnosis of “pneumonia” when actually pneumonitis.

IMH-not-a-doctor-O


39 posted on 03/15/2024 9:52:54 PM PDT by linMcHlp
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To: ConservativeMind
I didn't realize that my daily Qnol Turmeric was impacting my iron absorption. Turmeric has a wide variety of benefits, but it can sequester the iron in your colon reducing the amount absorbed. Paired with the bleeding ulcer likely prompted by 800 mg of ibuprofen at bedtime for 30 years, I was losing ground.

I have a good ox bile in capsules. The problem is I can't swallow them. I have to open the capsules, dump the contents in my mouth and wash it down. Ox bile has a very foul taste. I'm not looking forward to that being my "sentence" for the balance of my lifetime. That said, I'm taking TUDCA twice daily to attempt to dissolve the existing stones and sludge. There is sufficient blockage to elicit itching and swelling of my liver and itching in lower limbs and shoulders. I would really like to resolve that soon.

Back to the topic of the thread, it is possible to reverse iron deficiency anemia by arresting the cause of the blood loss, eliminating intake the subverts iron absorption and getting a good heme-based iron supplement. It is also important to consume your iron intake away from calcium as they compete for the same input channels.

Thanks for the Jarrow Bile Acid Factors recommendation. I'll order a bottle on my next pass in Amazon. Jarrow is a pretty high quality supplier.

40 posted on 03/16/2024 7:00:45 PM PDT by Myrddin
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