Posted on 02/10/2022 11:47:07 AM PST by Red Badger
Promising news for people with long COVID may have arrived in a new case report, as two people report that their symptoms were almost completely relieved by taking common over-the-counter antihistamines. Authors of the new paper express that while the evidence thus far is anecdotal and based on a very small sample size, it’s a worthy avenue of investigation considering that – for most people – antihistamines are safe to take on a daily basis.
“Patients tell us they wish more than anything that they could work and do the most basic activities they used to before they got sick with long COVID,” said corresponding author and University of California, Irvine associate professor of nursing, Melissa Pinto, in a statement. “They are desperately searching for something to help them get back on their feet.”
That search led Pinto and colleagues to the cases of two women, details of which they describe in a paper published in The Journal for Nurse Practitioners. Both women were otherwise healthy and ended up taking the antihistamine diphenhydramine, sometimes branded as Benadryl or Nytol, as something of a happy accident.
In the first case, the woman had triggered an existing lactose intolerance by eating cheese so took the antihistamine to manage the subsequent symptoms. The second had run out of her usual allergy medication so switched.
In both instances, the women found daily doses of the antihistamine led to significantly improved quality of life. Their cognition, exercise tolerance, and pain severity – all of which had worsened after SARS-CoV-2 infection – were improved and rashes and lesions associated with long COVID (which has around 203 possible symptoms) went away.
Each woman reports they’ve regained 90 and 95 percent of their pre-illness function under the diphenhydramine antihistamine regime. Their promising outcome potentially demonstrates that this readily available medication could have a big impact on those who feel they have lost much of their quality of life to long COVID.
“Currently, there is no cure for [long COVID], only symptom management,” said Pinto. “A number of options are being tried, with antihistamines being one of them.”
While the women represent a small sample size, with similar characteristics including age, sex, and ethnicity, Pinto maintains that the promise of an afforable medication easing long COVID symptoms is worth further investigation.
“The possibility that an easy-to-access, over-the-counter medication could ease some of the [long COVID] symptoms should offer hope to the estimated 54 million people worldwide who have been in distress for months or even years,” she continued. "The next steps for this research into antihistamine treatment are to conduct broad-based trials in order to evaluate efficacy and to develop dosage schedules for clinical practice guidelines.”
I took Benadryl during my Wuhmacron episode (overall mild, just a few days), but a rash persisted. My doc finally prescribed hydroxyzine, which has slowly cleared it up.
He should have had me on hydroxyzine from the gitgo. See: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7713548/
rashes and lesions associated with long COVID
//
I’ve been getting these on both fore arms , over a certain blood vessel, since I had Covid in 2019.
Asked my doc about them.
(I Was worried it was skin cancer.)
Was told
” that’s nothing , It’s normal.”
.
My last shred of trust in the medical profession just disappeared.
is there an OTC version for the kind you are willing to take?
I read somewhere use both diphenhydramine and lactoferrin together in tandem to battle Covid.
_____________________________________________________________
Used those two with many other alternative methods for my “Christmas with Covid”. I’m 66, coof lasted about 2 weeks from the I-don’t-feel-right stage to FINALLY stage. 2 days were scary with fever, O2 from 98% to 94%, heavy chest feeling, and no smell/taste. Similar findings of useful common items(NAC, melatonin, aspirin, etc) and 2 days later or at the end of the article “WE DON”T SUGGEST COMMON PLEBS TRY THIS AT HOME” and/or FDA/CDC come out screaming against the found item(s) the next day on “media”.
One of many...
https://scitechdaily.com/two-common-over-the-counter-compounds-reduce-covid-19-virus-replication-by-99-in-early-testing/
Bummer. I can’t take Benadryl. Well, I’ll just depend on the Lord, anyway.
Bummer. I can’t take Benadryl. Well, I’ll just depend on the Lord, anyway.
So he had a positive covid test. That is worthless information without more details. Did he have any symptoms? Lot of false positives. If he had symptoms were they severe?
My wife and I have been zombies for a week and a half
In spite of drinking lots and lots of water she became dehydrated via electrolyte shortages and passed out in the hallway. She tried to dent our hardwood floor with her face.
She might very well have died had I not been able to get an ambulance in there quickly. I’ve never seen anything like it, scared the holy crap out of me. I thought she had a stroke.
The doctor told me that despite the voluminous amounts of water she was drinking, without adding serious electrolytes she became severely dehydrated, which is extremely dangerous. So that may be what happened to him.
Interesting side note, my family doctor told me that the one profile that is the most prone to severe dehydration is skinny white women.
The fatal stage of covid is the cytokine storm. Antihistamines have been shown to disrupt the feedback-cycle that results in cytokine storm. There are studies on Pubmed showing antihistamines work effectively against a variety of diseases that kill via cytokine storm, even ebola! And several recent* case studies show it being used successfully against covid-19.
* “Recent” being defined as within the last 2 years, since covid hasn’t been around long enough to have had long-term studies done.
I will. Keeping all info from people who have had it and how they coped, etc.
For antihistamines? Sure, cetirizine, fexofenadine, loratadine. Various brand names. Costco has them cheap even for non-members online.
what happened to your wife is why many take gatorade while having Covid
Take it with milk
Anecdotally, the combo is fast and effective
Sure worked for my daughter’s omicron
Some people buy ferritin for the combo treatment…but hot chocolate worked great for us
I think I bought a bottle of 400 for about $3.
Hey, Pete Butt-gag...
Take a later antihistamine instead such as cetirizine — a physically larger molecule that doesn’t usually pass the blood-brain barrier — and see if it works for the long-covid mitigation.
I have no position on the issue, I was quoting two physicians (both of whom I regard as very knowledgeable) who have divergent opinions regarding Benadryl & dementia. I occasionally take it for its somnolent effects (not for long-covid), which later classes of antihistamines unfortunately have not had on me...although I have not tried Zyrtec specifically, so that may be worth a shot.
Type I and Type II antihistamines have been on the FLCCC I-Recover protocol for at least 8 months, if not longer.
No, Zyrtec shouldn’t give sleep-promoting effects unless you took a very large dose, in which case it is thought the flood of molecules can overwhelm the barrier and enter the brain circulation.
Melatonin, CBD, l-arginine and l-theanine are my preferred before-bedtime sleep-promoting substances. The middle two, in my experience, actually improve the quality of sleep more so than inducing sleep. YMMV
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