I wish that I could have published this many months ago, but at that point Long COVID dominated my life. Like many others whose symptoms have lingered, fatigue, brain fog, hair loss, muscle weakness, and loss of my sense of smell were part of my life.
I became ill with COVID in March 2020. My Long COVID started essentially immediately, ie, I never recovered. Thus, I had had COVID and Long COVID for nearly a year before the vaccines were available to the public in our area. I did get the vaccine in late winter 2021, hoping that it would help to mitigate the symptoms. In my case, it did not seem to help.
Hi, Just saw this so sorry for the delay in responding. There were NO vaccines when I got COVID and developed Long COVID. I got COVID in March 2020 and never recovered. I had already had serious Long COVID symptoms for nearly a year before getting the vaccines.
I became ill with COVID in March 2020. My Long COVID started essentially immediately, ie, I never recovered. Thus, I had had COVID and Long COVID for nearly a year before the vaccines were available to the public in our area. I did get the vaccine in late winter 2021, hoping that it would help to mitigate the symptoms. In my case, it did not seem to help.
Yes, I'm a PhD and I have two bachelor's degrees (one in Education and one in Biology and Chemistry ) and an honorary Doctor of Science degree. I also am a trained and certified trauma therapist.
All my postings here carry an emphasis on early treatments and measures during the fresh infection. They have a bearing on long covid occurrence, its course and eventual recovery. Whichever mechanism and protocols we accept - the one of mitochondria by Dr. Mardi Crane-godreau or an autoimmune condition proposed by Dr. Shankara Chetty of South Africa. Those who took early appropriate treatments and thus managed to evade the second phase of the disease are unlikely to have carried any appreciable residual viral load after the infection. Most classical URT type medications are also additionally anti viral that would prevent any substantial viral load buildup in the viral phase. Even many with other resident conditions ( diabetes, hypertension) of routine nature, would benefit from this intervention. Those who did not undergo a good treatment in the initial days are a susceptible category for the autoimmune phase of the disease ( hospitalisation) and eventually long covid by the failure on early viral load control. The susceptible category would be even more prone. I have explained this in my past post as USA versus India comparison post mid 2021 and within India itself as pre and post mid 2021. Someone must explain why 5 or 8 in 10 in the USA got long covid in the 2020 and 2021 phase of the pandemic. This history is important in designing the recovery process, in either approaches. I would encourage the readers and followers of this sub stack to share their experiences as a means of expanding our knowledge on this subject.
Dr…. thanks for the reference. I couldn’t find the type of information that I have been interested ……how people handled the first days of illness, medications etc. Diets and supplements can be prophylactic as the paper indicates, but difficult to conceive a plan with the question of how far ahead you start. They can be therapeutic in the long term, rebuilding a fire ravaged house. But you must douse the fire when it is on and minimise ravages. This is critical. The rebuilding needs depend on this. Long covid is a kind of rebuilding with all the hardships that appear. But if you are quick and well equipped with the fire, you may not even get into rebuilding. Its importance cannot be gainsaid. All that I can infer is that this part of the world wasn’t quick at the fire. The ravage was heavy.
I appreciate your eagerness to respond as immediately as possible. I fully understand the import of your approach to mitigating long covid effects by diet, life style etc. but there have been other approaches too, typically clinical. It would be of interest to understand how the different approaches match each other. My interest has been primarily the clinical and medicinal details involved and on the course of the primary infection - viral phase and auto immune phase. The clinical treatment part, from the angle of mitochondria repair. As I wrote in my previous post, comparison with other mechanisms and treatments by other experts. What was your experience and approach in the first 2-3 weeks until you tested negative and also how you handled your own patients in that stage ? I am eager to know about those. I don’t expect to see long covid incidence from the omicron phase and all the carry forwards should recover in the next 1-2 years. Long covid should become a short blip in the long annals of medicine and disease.
I wish that you would take the time to read the full extent of my posts. Yes, diet played an important role in reducing a primary source of inflammation in my own experience with Long COVID. While it was a pivotal point in my recovery, It would not have been sufficient to help me recuperate. The protocol that I follow for support of mitochondria includes the same vital nutrients that are needed by mitochondria to function.
In my posts, I also address other sources of inflammation such as stress. Restful sleep, not yet discussed in the posts, is likely also required for full recuperation.
In a chat with Dr. McMillan in April 2021, Dr. Shankara Chetty very clearly explains the opaque lung phenomenon, his reasoning for hypersensitivity pneumotis, the rationale for his choice of drugs etc. He also explains the usefulness of Ivermectin (shunned by the West) at this stage. This chat was a wonderful podcast from Dr. McMillan.
Dr…..you are proposing that mitochondrial damage by the virus is the cause for this illness - is this at the viral phase in the initial days or at the widely referred to the autoimmune phase which appears around 8-9 th day ? When does the damage occur ? Is this process so rapid and deep that the people who largely remained untreated in the viral phase could collapse in hrs as was common in the early months of 2020 ? This was a situation where medicinal intervention was immediately required to save the patients. If viral damage of the mitochondria is the primary cause, what medicines you were proposing/prescribing to quickly start reversing the damage and begin quick healing of the mitochondria ? How is this mechanism different from the macrophages activity/mast cell degranulation/ histamine release cycle proposed by Dr. McMillan for the serious phase of the illness. In 2020, the entire emphasis and conversation was the ‘opaque lungs’ manifesting as sudden drop in saturation around 8th/9th day ? Can this presentation rhyme with the mitochondrial damage ? Dr. Shankara Chetty, a physician from S. Africa who became a close associate of Dr. McMillan since early 2021, is of the opinion that the second phase is actually an allergic response, hypersensitive pneumonia ( some such name). His successful protocol is made up of Montelukast, Levocetrizine, Methyl prednisone and sometimes Promethazine/Azathioprine. He has treated over 14000 patients with this regimen without a single fatality and very little hospitalisation. You can quickly make out that this is the clinical basis that was widely adopted in India in mid 2021 onwards and many other countries. How is this different from how you were handling the sick from mitochondrial recovery angle ? Would be grateful for some explanation.
In May 2021, my then 85 year old brother ( with no comorbidities, except 1 pill of Telmesartan) reported throat issues and tiredness, tested positive and within 48 hrs was on Azithromycin, Montelukast and acebrophyline. As his saturation dropped below 90 ( no breathing issues), on the third day, got himself hospitalised. Just months ahead he had his two shots with 6 week gap. In the hospital, his prescription was continued for 4-5 days, along with a course of Remdisivir which was standard then. He stayed in hospital for three weeks without any discomfort, managing himself. His infection however was severe with a d-dimer of 2500 and that is the reason he was held in the hospital for long. He was put on anti coagulant Dabigatran. He was discharged after 3 weeks after the d-dimer came down to 600. It took about 5-6 months for the d-dimer to get to below 200, with long courses of anti coagulants. On discharge, he was also given a 2-week course Ceftazidime, acebrophyline along with D and Zinc supplements. I am sure, without the quick medicinal intervention upon appearance of viral phase symptoms, he would have risked his life. Delta was at its peak here then, having consumed thousands of lives in the run up. However, the protocol got established very quickly through informal channels throughout this big country. The tide began turning back. I am giving this case study only to highlight the importance of treating the disease immediately on symptoms, even if the precise mechanisms were not known. Symptoms control is also a healing process. Your protocol based on the repair of mitochondria through diet was perfectly in order, as long covid was a lingering condition and needed to be removed slowly. There was no threat to life. In late 2020 and early 2021, under the type of conditions mentioned by you, I too lost half a dozen family members and friends, but no one after mid 2021 and in 2022 in the dozen odd cases of fresh infections in my close circles, as by then early treatment protocols were well set everywhere. As for herpes, I am sure the individual referred by you had her primary infection quickly contained with dedicated anti virals like acyclovir, before addressing her recoupment through diet etc, involving the revival of mitochondria.
I have no doubt that Dr. McMillian provides effective treatments and is highly conscious. The protocol that I discuss and follow is designed to support mitochondrial vitality to foster innate immune protection against viral infections and lingering sequelae. As an immunologist, my intention is and has been, to determine the source of the illness and address it. While only anecdotal, it's been interesting to me that one individual has shared with me that her chronic herpes infections have gone into remission when she began following the protocol.
The waves of serious infections in the early days of the pandemic were unimaginable. People where dying within hours of getting to a hospital. Many did not even reach a hospital. My colleagues who were treating these people were trying many of the older, established treatments. Hundreds of peer reviewed articles were written reporting observations, studies and clinical trials from physicians and scientists around the world. Some of these treatments have been adopted either with recognition of peers or outside of it.
I will repeat my previous comment: damage to mitochondria by the SARS-CoV-2 virus is causal and upstream of virtually all symptoms of Long COVID. Mitochondrial dysfunction is a treatable condition. While the anti-inflammatory treatments that you suggest my treat symptoms, they are not curative. The CAUSES of inflammation need to be recognized and addressed in order to give mitochondria the time and conditions needed to repair and replicate.
I am not from biology, yet with my science background, I could comprehend the mitochondria mechanisms so lucidly explained by you. They fit in with the extended presentations of long covid. I recall how I could understand something about the autoimmune phase of covid when Dr. McMillan explained it on the basis of macrophages activity, mast cell degranulation, histamine cycle etc. That is how one benefits by interacting with scientists like you and him. My emphasis in thinking has always been how the whole thing was eminently manageable, if not totally preventable. Early treatment is the key in any diagnosis and this illness was no different. I fully understand the roles of vit D, LL 37 etc. But the macro picture is the one every one see. These were all there in India in 2020, 2021 and 2022, but why did the covid picture begin to change quickly and irreversibly, to the good, in mid 2021 ? And why was 2021 the worst year in the USA and until in 2023, normalcy didn’t begin to appear there ? Sunlight, Vit D etc are real, but only a small part of the story. Focusing on the early disease was the key. It happened in one place and it continued to be sidelined in another place. I would have written dozens of letters to the NYT, WP and the Atlantic in these two plus years expressing my dismay and distress over this situation. Successful medical experiences are common good for the world, no matter where they emerge from. Why was this reluctance to absorb them here ?
You miss my point in a second way. My perspective is to address the root cause of COVID/Long COVID symptoms. The root cause involves movement of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into the inner membranes of mitochondria, disrupting function both in terms of production of ATP and disrupting mitochondrial innate immune function involving protection against viral infections.
You miss my point. I looked at mortality data from areas downwind of industrial facilities where air quality was dangerously high. Industrial areas within larger entities such as the Bronx in NY City, areas in Northern Italy, in Iraq near to petroleum refineries, etc. There were also higher death rates in many northern areas (north of the 37th parallel) than in areas closer to the equator. Lack of adequate sunlight exposure (frequently occurring in northern regions) frequently leads to vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is the transcription factor that allows the body to make and secrete the antiviral peptide, LL37.
My hypothesis of the damage to LL37 by air pollution has been validated by several laboratories since I published the article. This suggests that a key antiviral secretion was likely not available to protect individuals who lived or worked in highly polluted air areas.
Dr…. The linkage between air pollution and cases/mortality in the initial months of the pandemic (2020 and about first half 2021) is a bit specious. USA, Europe, India and Brazil topped the chart. The first two ( Europe as a whole) with low pollution levels topped the highly air polluted Indian cities. This is on stand alone numbers, but per capita, India was way down because of large population. My assessment is different. In the first 15 months, every country including India followed signals from the West …..wait for the vaccines, ignore early treatments, get caught in the auto immune phase etc. In the first half of 2021, like the West, India was also devastated by the Delta wave, precisely because people ignored familiar treatments for the viral phase and rushed into hospitals very sick. Around mid 2021, the awareness caught on in the medical community that anti histamines and URT medications were the key in arresting the viral phase. It was a massive intervention by private doctors with Azithromycin, Montelukast and Levocetrizine being the trump card. In the second half therefore cases and death toll dropped very quickly and substantially. I have followed this scene in India very closely including dozens of prescriptions from family members and friends. Ever since this protocol became the norm. There was big uptick with Omicron in early 2022 and that too was doused very quickly by early treatments. There was no major hospitalisation with Omicron in 2022 here and out patient treatment was the norm every where. The poor could collect a pack of these medicines for 10 days from government health centres and be done with it. In late 2020 and early 2021, there were concerns about long covid, but later in 2021 and 2022, there weren’t many public references. India had covered about 75% of population with two shots in 2021 and there was a small third shot coverage in early 2022 and slowly vaccination too fizzled out. By mid 2022 here, Omicron was a forgotten thing here, even as USA continued to struggle with 400-500 daily deaths. Please remember that Omicron does not have the deadly anti immune phase and one wonders why this continuing struggle. No one explained it. Through all this, nothing much has changed on the air pollution scene, either in the West or in India. If you had taken some URT related anti histamines in your first viral days, I can guarantee that you wouldn’t have run into long covid. Perhaps in the symptoms you carried in long covid, anti histamines couldn’t help, but in symptoms associated with lungs and breathing, anti histamines would have helped. Please note these classical initial treatments would not allow viral load build up in individuals in family settings. So no spread there and by extension no big spread in society also. Something the repeat vaccinations could not achieve efficiently. No scope for any significant residual viral loads and no scope for long covid also. This early classical treatments from about mid 2021 changed the covid scene here completely. In April 2021, I started listening to Dr. McMillan and Dr. Shankara Chetty and this is type of treatment protocol they too had successfully employed. The West did not take early classical treatment seriously and has suffered considerably in the bargain. Like you identified inflammation in your post covid conditions, in 2020, I too have read about inflammation being a major concern in the auto immune phase. Those two, anyway, are sides of the same coin. Through your long effort to gain control through diet, I wonder if you supplemented that effort with a long course of an appropriate NSAID, naproxen for example. I have known it for over 40 years and in many small temporary situations found it extremely useful.
I became ill with COVID in March 2020. My Long COVID started essentially immediately, ie, I never recovered. Thus, I had had COVID and Long COVID for nearly a year before the vaccines were available to the public in our area. I did get the vaccine in late winter 2021, hoping that it would help to mitigate the symptoms. In my case, it did not seem to help.
Did you take the vaccine? If so, how can you be sure your symptoms are not a vaccine injury?
Hi, Just saw this so sorry for the delay in responding. There were NO vaccines when I got COVID and developed Long COVID. I got COVID in March 2020 and never recovered. I had already had serious Long COVID symptoms for nearly a year before getting the vaccines.
No I did not take the vaccine
I became ill with COVID in March 2020. My Long COVID started essentially immediately, ie, I never recovered. Thus, I had had COVID and Long COVID for nearly a year before the vaccines were available to the public in our area. I did get the vaccine in late winter 2021, hoping that it would help to mitigate the symptoms. In my case, it did not seem to help.
Did not seem to help? You’re lucky to be alive! Stop taking the vaccine.
And you’re a PhD.
Yes, I'm a PhD and I have two bachelor's degrees (one in Education and one in Biology and Chemistry ) and an honorary Doctor of Science degree. I also am a trained and certified trauma therapist.
All my postings here carry an emphasis on early treatments and measures during the fresh infection. They have a bearing on long covid occurrence, its course and eventual recovery. Whichever mechanism and protocols we accept - the one of mitochondria by Dr. Mardi Crane-godreau or an autoimmune condition proposed by Dr. Shankara Chetty of South Africa. Those who took early appropriate treatments and thus managed to evade the second phase of the disease are unlikely to have carried any appreciable residual viral load after the infection. Most classical URT type medications are also additionally anti viral that would prevent any substantial viral load buildup in the viral phase. Even many with other resident conditions ( diabetes, hypertension) of routine nature, would benefit from this intervention. Those who did not undergo a good treatment in the initial days are a susceptible category for the autoimmune phase of the disease ( hospitalisation) and eventually long covid by the failure on early viral load control. The susceptible category would be even more prone. I have explained this in my past post as USA versus India comparison post mid 2021 and within India itself as pre and post mid 2021. Someone must explain why 5 or 8 in 10 in the USA got long covid in the 2020 and 2021 phase of the pandemic. This history is important in designing the recovery process, in either approaches. I would encourage the readers and followers of this sub stack to share their experiences as a means of expanding our knowledge on this subject.
Dr…. thanks for the reference. I couldn’t find the type of information that I have been interested ……how people handled the first days of illness, medications etc. Diets and supplements can be prophylactic as the paper indicates, but difficult to conceive a plan with the question of how far ahead you start. They can be therapeutic in the long term, rebuilding a fire ravaged house. But you must douse the fire when it is on and minimise ravages. This is critical. The rebuilding needs depend on this. Long covid is a kind of rebuilding with all the hardships that appear. But if you are quick and well equipped with the fire, you may not even get into rebuilding. Its importance cannot be gainsaid. All that I can infer is that this part of the world wasn’t quick at the fire. The ravage was heavy.
Perhaps you will find insights from this paper. https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/6/3134
Dietary and Protective Factors to Halt or Mitigate Progression of Autoimmunity, COVID-19 and Its Associated Metabolic Diseases.
I appreciate your eagerness to respond as immediately as possible. I fully understand the import of your approach to mitigating long covid effects by diet, life style etc. but there have been other approaches too, typically clinical. It would be of interest to understand how the different approaches match each other. My interest has been primarily the clinical and medicinal details involved and on the course of the primary infection - viral phase and auto immune phase. The clinical treatment part, from the angle of mitochondria repair. As I wrote in my previous post, comparison with other mechanisms and treatments by other experts. What was your experience and approach in the first 2-3 weeks until you tested negative and also how you handled your own patients in that stage ? I am eager to know about those. I don’t expect to see long covid incidence from the omicron phase and all the carry forwards should recover in the next 1-2 years. Long covid should become a short blip in the long annals of medicine and disease.
Perhaps you will find insights from this paper.
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/6/3134
Dietary and Protective Factors to Halt or Mitigate Progression of Autoimmunity, COVID-19 and Its Associated Metabolic Diseases.
Hello again,
I wish that you would take the time to read the full extent of my posts. Yes, diet played an important role in reducing a primary source of inflammation in my own experience with Long COVID. While it was a pivotal point in my recovery, It would not have been sufficient to help me recuperate. The protocol that I follow for support of mitochondria includes the same vital nutrients that are needed by mitochondria to function.
In my posts, I also address other sources of inflammation such as stress. Restful sleep, not yet discussed in the posts, is likely also required for full recuperation.
In a chat with Dr. McMillan in April 2021, Dr. Shankara Chetty very clearly explains the opaque lung phenomenon, his reasoning for hypersensitivity pneumotis, the rationale for his choice of drugs etc. He also explains the usefulness of Ivermectin (shunned by the West) at this stage. This chat was a wonderful podcast from Dr. McMillan.
Dr…..you are proposing that mitochondrial damage by the virus is the cause for this illness - is this at the viral phase in the initial days or at the widely referred to the autoimmune phase which appears around 8-9 th day ? When does the damage occur ? Is this process so rapid and deep that the people who largely remained untreated in the viral phase could collapse in hrs as was common in the early months of 2020 ? This was a situation where medicinal intervention was immediately required to save the patients. If viral damage of the mitochondria is the primary cause, what medicines you were proposing/prescribing to quickly start reversing the damage and begin quick healing of the mitochondria ? How is this mechanism different from the macrophages activity/mast cell degranulation/ histamine release cycle proposed by Dr. McMillan for the serious phase of the illness. In 2020, the entire emphasis and conversation was the ‘opaque lungs’ manifesting as sudden drop in saturation around 8th/9th day ? Can this presentation rhyme with the mitochondrial damage ? Dr. Shankara Chetty, a physician from S. Africa who became a close associate of Dr. McMillan since early 2021, is of the opinion that the second phase is actually an allergic response, hypersensitive pneumonia ( some such name). His successful protocol is made up of Montelukast, Levocetrizine, Methyl prednisone and sometimes Promethazine/Azathioprine. He has treated over 14000 patients with this regimen without a single fatality and very little hospitalisation. You can quickly make out that this is the clinical basis that was widely adopted in India in mid 2021 onwards and many other countries. How is this different from how you were handling the sick from mitochondrial recovery angle ? Would be grateful for some explanation.
In May 2021, my then 85 year old brother ( with no comorbidities, except 1 pill of Telmesartan) reported throat issues and tiredness, tested positive and within 48 hrs was on Azithromycin, Montelukast and acebrophyline. As his saturation dropped below 90 ( no breathing issues), on the third day, got himself hospitalised. Just months ahead he had his two shots with 6 week gap. In the hospital, his prescription was continued for 4-5 days, along with a course of Remdisivir which was standard then. He stayed in hospital for three weeks without any discomfort, managing himself. His infection however was severe with a d-dimer of 2500 and that is the reason he was held in the hospital for long. He was put on anti coagulant Dabigatran. He was discharged after 3 weeks after the d-dimer came down to 600. It took about 5-6 months for the d-dimer to get to below 200, with long courses of anti coagulants. On discharge, he was also given a 2-week course Ceftazidime, acebrophyline along with D and Zinc supplements. I am sure, without the quick medicinal intervention upon appearance of viral phase symptoms, he would have risked his life. Delta was at its peak here then, having consumed thousands of lives in the run up. However, the protocol got established very quickly through informal channels throughout this big country. The tide began turning back. I am giving this case study only to highlight the importance of treating the disease immediately on symptoms, even if the precise mechanisms were not known. Symptoms control is also a healing process. Your protocol based on the repair of mitochondria through diet was perfectly in order, as long covid was a lingering condition and needed to be removed slowly. There was no threat to life. In late 2020 and early 2021, under the type of conditions mentioned by you, I too lost half a dozen family members and friends, but no one after mid 2021 and in 2022 in the dozen odd cases of fresh infections in my close circles, as by then early treatment protocols were well set everywhere. As for herpes, I am sure the individual referred by you had her primary infection quickly contained with dedicated anti virals like acyclovir, before addressing her recoupment through diet etc, involving the revival of mitochondria.
I have no doubt that Dr. McMillian provides effective treatments and is highly conscious. The protocol that I discuss and follow is designed to support mitochondrial vitality to foster innate immune protection against viral infections and lingering sequelae. As an immunologist, my intention is and has been, to determine the source of the illness and address it. While only anecdotal, it's been interesting to me that one individual has shared with me that her chronic herpes infections have gone into remission when she began following the protocol.
The waves of serious infections in the early days of the pandemic were unimaginable. People where dying within hours of getting to a hospital. Many did not even reach a hospital. My colleagues who were treating these people were trying many of the older, established treatments. Hundreds of peer reviewed articles were written reporting observations, studies and clinical trials from physicians and scientists around the world. Some of these treatments have been adopted either with recognition of peers or outside of it.
I will repeat my previous comment: damage to mitochondria by the SARS-CoV-2 virus is causal and upstream of virtually all symptoms of Long COVID. Mitochondrial dysfunction is a treatable condition. While the anti-inflammatory treatments that you suggest my treat symptoms, they are not curative. The CAUSES of inflammation need to be recognized and addressed in order to give mitochondria the time and conditions needed to repair and replicate.
I am not from biology, yet with my science background, I could comprehend the mitochondria mechanisms so lucidly explained by you. They fit in with the extended presentations of long covid. I recall how I could understand something about the autoimmune phase of covid when Dr. McMillan explained it on the basis of macrophages activity, mast cell degranulation, histamine cycle etc. That is how one benefits by interacting with scientists like you and him. My emphasis in thinking has always been how the whole thing was eminently manageable, if not totally preventable. Early treatment is the key in any diagnosis and this illness was no different. I fully understand the roles of vit D, LL 37 etc. But the macro picture is the one every one see. These were all there in India in 2020, 2021 and 2022, but why did the covid picture begin to change quickly and irreversibly, to the good, in mid 2021 ? And why was 2021 the worst year in the USA and until in 2023, normalcy didn’t begin to appear there ? Sunlight, Vit D etc are real, but only a small part of the story. Focusing on the early disease was the key. It happened in one place and it continued to be sidelined in another place. I would have written dozens of letters to the NYT, WP and the Atlantic in these two plus years expressing my dismay and distress over this situation. Successful medical experiences are common good for the world, no matter where they emerge from. Why was this reluctance to absorb them here ?
You miss my point in a second way. My perspective is to address the root cause of COVID/Long COVID symptoms. The root cause involves movement of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into the inner membranes of mitochondria, disrupting function both in terms of production of ATP and disrupting mitochondrial innate immune function involving protection against viral infections.
You miss my point. I looked at mortality data from areas downwind of industrial facilities where air quality was dangerously high. Industrial areas within larger entities such as the Bronx in NY City, areas in Northern Italy, in Iraq near to petroleum refineries, etc. There were also higher death rates in many northern areas (north of the 37th parallel) than in areas closer to the equator. Lack of adequate sunlight exposure (frequently occurring in northern regions) frequently leads to vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is the transcription factor that allows the body to make and secrete the antiviral peptide, LL37.
My hypothesis of the damage to LL37 by air pollution has been validated by several laboratories since I published the article. This suggests that a key antiviral secretion was likely not available to protect individuals who lived or worked in highly polluted air areas.
Dr…. The linkage between air pollution and cases/mortality in the initial months of the pandemic (2020 and about first half 2021) is a bit specious. USA, Europe, India and Brazil topped the chart. The first two ( Europe as a whole) with low pollution levels topped the highly air polluted Indian cities. This is on stand alone numbers, but per capita, India was way down because of large population. My assessment is different. In the first 15 months, every country including India followed signals from the West …..wait for the vaccines, ignore early treatments, get caught in the auto immune phase etc. In the first half of 2021, like the West, India was also devastated by the Delta wave, precisely because people ignored familiar treatments for the viral phase and rushed into hospitals very sick. Around mid 2021, the awareness caught on in the medical community that anti histamines and URT medications were the key in arresting the viral phase. It was a massive intervention by private doctors with Azithromycin, Montelukast and Levocetrizine being the trump card. In the second half therefore cases and death toll dropped very quickly and substantially. I have followed this scene in India very closely including dozens of prescriptions from family members and friends. Ever since this protocol became the norm. There was big uptick with Omicron in early 2022 and that too was doused very quickly by early treatments. There was no major hospitalisation with Omicron in 2022 here and out patient treatment was the norm every where. The poor could collect a pack of these medicines for 10 days from government health centres and be done with it. In late 2020 and early 2021, there were concerns about long covid, but later in 2021 and 2022, there weren’t many public references. India had covered about 75% of population with two shots in 2021 and there was a small third shot coverage in early 2022 and slowly vaccination too fizzled out. By mid 2022 here, Omicron was a forgotten thing here, even as USA continued to struggle with 400-500 daily deaths. Please remember that Omicron does not have the deadly anti immune phase and one wonders why this continuing struggle. No one explained it. Through all this, nothing much has changed on the air pollution scene, either in the West or in India. If you had taken some URT related anti histamines in your first viral days, I can guarantee that you wouldn’t have run into long covid. Perhaps in the symptoms you carried in long covid, anti histamines couldn’t help, but in symptoms associated with lungs and breathing, anti histamines would have helped. Please note these classical initial treatments would not allow viral load build up in individuals in family settings. So no spread there and by extension no big spread in society also. Something the repeat vaccinations could not achieve efficiently. No scope for any significant residual viral loads and no scope for long covid also. This early classical treatments from about mid 2021 changed the covid scene here completely. In April 2021, I started listening to Dr. McMillan and Dr. Shankara Chetty and this is type of treatment protocol they too had successfully employed. The West did not take early classical treatment seriously and has suffered considerably in the bargain. Like you identified inflammation in your post covid conditions, in 2020, I too have read about inflammation being a major concern in the auto immune phase. Those two, anyway, are sides of the same coin. Through your long effort to gain control through diet, I wonder if you supplemented that effort with a long course of an appropriate NSAID, naproxen for example. I have known it for over 40 years and in many small temporary situations found it extremely useful.