For researchers, doctors, and the general public, long Covid remains one of the most confusing aspects of the pandemic. According to a survey conducted by the CDC, 6. 9% of Americans reported having long Covid at some point. Globally, it is estimated that 65 million more people could suffer from this debilitating but little-known disease. However, in a study recently published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, scientists report that probiotics could provide some relief.
Currently, there is no remedy for long Covid. There is no control for this. In fact, there isn’t even a smart definition of long Covid. Generally, it is explained as the presence of various fitness disorders that persist or expand for at least one month after a Covid-19 infection. But the diversity of situations is wide. In a report, researchers identified 203 distinct symptoms that affect 10 other organic symptoms in other people with long Covid.
Although the cause of long Covid is unknown, researchers have proposed several conceivable etiologies. Some have speculated that persistent, uneliminated reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 may also be the cause. Others believe that the initial infection would possibly cause some form of autoimmunity. A paper recently published in Nature Medicine provides evidence that cognitive aspects of long Covid could be linked to virus-related blood clots.
Alterations in the gut microbiome may also be the cause. The gut microbiome, the collection of microbes that live in our gastrointestinal tract, obviously contributes to our overall fitness and well-being. And alterations in our internal microbial network are linked to several diseases. Maybe we can move long Covid up the list.
To test this possibility, researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong previously monitored the gut microbiome of people who initially had Covid-19. Six months after their infection, people without long Covid had a gut microbiome similar to that of other people who had not been infected with SARS-CoV-2. Conversely, other people who evolved for a long time with Covid had an altered microbiome. Some bacterial species were overrepresented and others underrepresented. In other words, long Covid correlated with adjustments in the microbiome.
This observation led these researchers to ask a relatively straightforward follow-up question. Can long Covid symptoms be treated by “correcting” the gut microbiome?
To answer this question, they conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Over a six-month period, a further 232 people with long Covid received a probiotic/prebiotic addition twice a day. This aggregate contained several bacterial species that were thought to As a control, a group of 231 other people with long Covid received a placebo. Changes in symptoms were measured through a questionnaire.
People who won probiotic/prebiotic therapy saw innovations in several categories, adding memory loss, fatigue and difficulty concentrating. The authors note that other people in the experimental organization also showed innovations in other areas, but not at statistically significant levels. In addition, metagenomic investigation of participants’ fecal samples revealed that those who received probiotics had greater bacterial diversity and a higher abundance of selected bacterial species.
The results of this study are fascinating. But there are caveats. As the authors point out, the remedy did not produce significant relief from all symptoms. In addition, participants in the experimental and control teams reported improvements. For example, 77% of other people who gained probiotics reported that their overall symptoms of discomfort increased over a six-month period. During the same period, 59% of people who won the placebo also reported improvement. In other words, the remedy increased the point of improvement, but it wasn’t solely responsible. Finally, the authors note that more studies are needed to find out how the probiotic remedy alleviates long Covid symptoms, i. e. , cognition-related symptoms. The mechanism is unclear.
Over the past two decades, interest in the gut microbiome has increased dramatically. And imbalances in our microbial network have been linked to many diseases. Preliminary evidence suggests that probiotics can counteract those imbalances and thus counteract disease. But questions still remain about the healing of probiotics.
With these current studies, we can add long Covid to the lengthy list of disease states associated with changes in the gut microbiome. And we can add long Covid to the list of disease states that potentially could be treated with probiotics. But this isn’t the final answer. More research needs to be done.