Prescription and Over-the-Counter Treatments for Post-COVID Syndrome
Long List of Possibilities with Early Data Published
By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
Over three years into the pandemic with nearly the entire country having become sick with SARS-CoV-2, a virus engineered to invade the body, there are millions suffering with long-hauler syndrome. Approximately half of patients admitted to the ICU with COVID-19 will have post-COVID syndrome which is now understood to be due to persistence of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein within cells, tissues, and organs. Those vaccinated have been additionally loaded with Spike, so may have even a worse course with prolonged symptoms including fatigue, lethargy, brain fog, muscle loss, skin and hair changes, sleeplessness, and effort intolerance. The magnitude of the problem has driven an all-encompassing search for management strategies to resolve the syndrome(s).
Hope is on the horizon with a preprint paper published by Halma et al summarizing the prescription drug and over-the-counter candidates for therapy. In my practice, I stylize the approach based on the patient and how recent the COVID-19 infection was in their history. If there are lingering signs of infection, then a course of full dose ivermectin can be considered. Aspirin is reasonable given increased rates of heart attack and stroke after the illness. I have found the colchicine appears to have an important role in pleurodynia or chest wall discomfort. Additionally it is used with corticosteroids in vaccine-induced myopericarditis. Low-dose naltrexone has been reported to ameliorate fatigue and inanition. Metformin has supportive data and would be appropriate in pre-diabetes and those with diabetes mellitus.
From the OTC list, I have found nattokinase, the Japanese product derived from natto (a traditional Japanese food made from whole soybeans that have been fermented with Bacillus subtilis var. natto.) to be the most compelling and scientifically supported approach to clear Spike protein out of the body via proteolytic degradation. A host of cellular protective, anti-oxidant approaches are listed with vitamin C and NAC being readily available and widely used.
Patients should push their doctors to refer them to clinical trials, and when that is not feasible, then empiric therapy can be pursued. It is important to realize that in the absence of completed large randomized placebo controlled randomized trials, which are easily 5 or more years away in the future, no therapeutic claims can be made. In the meantime we must be perceptive as patients and open-minded as clinicians to come up with reasonable approaches that can be used to help those sick now with post-COVID syndromes.
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While I applaud your efforts to treat sick patients, I believe that using pharmaceuticals feeds the beast that helped create the COVID-19 crisis in the first place. We as a country, and indeed, the entire global population, needs to move away from using pharmaceuticals and towards natural and healing interventions. As an integrative medical practitioner, I can attest that pharmaceuticals are extremely helpful and necessary only about 5% of the time at most. This is mostly during emergency situations. For chronic illness, pharmaceuticals are costly, ineffective at resolving the illness, generate additional health problems through side effects, and do the job of mitigating symptoms with highly variable success. To end the pharmocracy that has helped to sicken or kill millions of people, we need to stop using their products. A wealth of scientific literature supports the use of non-pharmaceutical products. Big pharma has done their best to suppress and malign these products, but as one who has been using them for 23 years, I can attest to the fact they are safer and more effective than pharmaceutical products in the treatment of chronic illness. The same applies to non-emergent acute illnesses, but in the area of life-threatening emergencies, pharmaceuticals and high tech med still excels.
Dear Dr. McCullough,
My husband, son and I plus THOUSANDS of others are ETERNALLY GRATEFUL to you for your COURAGE and IMMENSE SACRIFICES in speaking TRUTH, providing EARLY treatment and now continuing to treat/help COVID-19 patients!
ALMIGHTY GOD led me to you and the other medical FREEDOM Fighters early in this nightmare. I listen, read and watch as much of the info that you provide as possible. I purchased two copies of your book.
ALMIGHTY GOD has been and continues to use YOU as His MIGHTY vessel in INNUMERABLE and IMMEASURABLE ways.
Based upon what you and the other Freedom Fighters have taught me during the past three years, when COVID-19 struck my husband and six others (including myself) we were already equipped with a COVID-19 Doctor that provided EARLY treatment and continuous treatment throughout our illness. We all seemed to have the "wicked bad" Delta variant which turned into pneumonia for five of us. Our COURAGEOUS, SACRIFICIAL COVID-19 Doctor provided for our every need AT HOME from beginning to end...via text.
My husband and I believe that without the knowledge that You and the other medical Freedom Fighters provided, we would have ended up in the hospital on their HORRIBLE corporate protocols (Remdesivir, ventilator) and died...leaving our child an orphan).
PLEASE understand that you are helping save lives daily! May ALMIGHTY GOD continue to provide you His RICHEST BLESSINGS!