Long-Hauler Issues from COVID-19
The symptoms of COVID-19 like loss of taste and smell, body aches and respiratory issues are bad enough, but what if they never went away even after you recovered? In this article, we are discussing low-dose naltrexone (LDN) and how it could be a possible answer to the COVID-related problems you might be facing.
The effects of “Long-COVID”
Some people who got the COVID-19 virus feel like even though they are recovered, it has still never left. Functional medicine specialist Dr. Aaron Hartman speaks more on this fact, “They still have symptoms, they still have shortness of breath, they still have chest pain, they still have body aches.” Hartman describes this condition as “Long-COVID,” a phenomenon where coronavirus symptoms linger on even after recovery. According to the British Medical Journal Podcast episode “Management of post-acute covid-19 in primary care,” roughly 10 percent of those who have been infected experience prolonged illness after recovery and there is limited data on the management of COVID-19 after the first three weeks. Dr. Hartman backs this up when he said, “About 10 percent of people, or about 70 percent of people who are hospitalized, will have symptoms up to six months out. An exposure causing symptoms is actually not new. What’s new is that we now have the SARS-COV-2 virus causing it.”
In clinical practice, we have seen some positive results when fighting these long-term issues that plaque are patients. We have discovered that melatonin, NAC, NAD+ and quercetin may help alleviate and improve outcomes. We also have seen some remarkable turn arounds with low-dose naltrexone (LDN) and there is growing evidence that it may be one of the answers. We have known for years that naltrexone at low doses actually helps regulate your immune system and, in many cases, LDN has helped with countless autoimmune-related issues.
There are several ongoing studies to figure out how to stop lingering COVID symptoms. One study on clinicaltrials.gov began on October 27, 2020, and is looking at the effect LDN and NAD+ has on Long-COVID. As an additional note, for early COVID-19 treatment, Quercetin may be worth considering based off of the clinical study, “Potential Clinical Benefits of Quercetin in the Early Stage of COVID-19: Results of a Second, Pilot, Randomized, Controlled and Open-Label Clinical Trial,” located on PubMed.gov.
Tell me more about low-dose naltrexone (LDN)…
You may be wondering, “How does LDN work and what is the mechanism of action within our body?” The following is a summary put together by the Low-Dose Naltrexone Trust Foundation that was founded in 2004.
“The summary of 10 years of research is that LDN works because, it is an antagonist for the opiate/endorphin receptors.
This causes an increased endorphin release, and
increased endorphins modulate the immune response.
This immune response reduces the speed of unwanted cells growing.
(Naltrexone is an antagonist for at least one, if not more immune cells)Then the LDN antagonizes our body’s toll-like receptors (TLR), thus suppressing the cytokine modulated immune system,
which in then end, reduces inflammation, potentially downregulating the production of bad cells.”
To learn more about low-dose naltrexone please visit https://ldnresearchtrust.org/ and www.ldnscience.org. Also, check out The LDN Book: How a Little-Known Generic Drug: Volume 1 & 2 by Linda Elsegood. Patients can also learn more from this Patient Guide from the LDN Research Trust foundation. Prescribers — use this Dosing Guide for a reference or give us a call.
Where We Come In
Our team at Alpine Apothecary is ready to help you feel better and regain your life! Call us today to learn more about the possibility of using LDN to help with chronic, long-term COVID-19 symptoms. We have worked with numerous practitioners across Utah to help in this realm and are seeing some drastic changes in combating the inflammation that is involved in these long-hauler cases.