Self-care protocol for COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe infections and mortality worldwide. Recently, the number of new confirmed COVID-19 infections in the United States alone surges to more than 20,000 cases daily. Over 60,000 people have died worldwide due to COVID-19. Epidemiological experts from the University of Washington in Seattle predict that by July of this year, as many as 8 million people could be perished as a direct result of COVID-19 in the United States. Due to limited medical resources, most infected patients with mild symptom have to stay home and help themselves to fight the disease. It is urgent to understand how to correctly use commonly available household nutrient supplements as self-care medicines to scientifically fight the disease in order to avoid the disease developed into critical condition. 

Let’s first understand the mechanism why COVID-19 is so devastating to our bodies.

Free radicals such as superoxide, hydroxyl radicals, nitric oxide and peroxynitrite are very active chemical substances that easily react with other molecules. They are very destructive, acting like cannonballs that indiscriminately cause protein deterioration, cell membrane destruction, DNA damage, cell death and organ failure. The pathogenic roles of free radicals in viral infection and lung injury are profound, but overlooked. 

The hyper reactive immune responses were observed, and cytokine storm was reported in both COVID-19 and SARS.  The cytokine storm is define as a high-level of proinflammatory cytokines such as interferon, IL-2, IL-6, IP-10, TGF and TNF alpha, as seen in patients.  These cytokines are proteins that act as signaling molecules to recruit and activate immune cells to the site of inflammation, induce vascular leakage and inflammatory exudation, and most importantly stimulate the generation of free radicals and proteases.

Around 1990, Dr. Takaaki Akaike and Dr. Hiroshi Maeda at the Department of Microbiology, Kumamoto University School of Medicine, Japan found that during the influenza virus infection in lab animals, reactive oxygen radicals (ROS) and nitric oxide free radical storm occurred along with inflammatory cytokines such as interferon gamma.  Simply by applying oxygen radical scavengers SOD (superoxide dismutase) or nitric oxide scavenger L-NMMA, the infected mice were protected from death (see references below).  These results explicitly tell us that free radicals such as reactive oxygen radicals and nitric oxide are the immediate life threatening factors in the virus induced pneumonia. The therapeutic strategy should focus on preventing the damage caused by the over generated free radicals.

There are already many successful stories reported from New York and China about using large dose of Vitamin C by intravenous infusion to save the COVID-19 patients.  A magic combination of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and zinc sulfate claimed to have 100% effect in saving life of COVID-19 patients.  Interestingly, zinc is a crucial element for the function of superoxide scavenger SOD.  Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin both have effects on suppressing the generation of nitric oxide and superoxide.  These three drugs work as antioxidants to fight COVID-19, although they may have other antiviral functions.

If you were infected by the SARS-COV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 but you only have mild symptom, you probably have to stay home to fight the disease by yourself because the hospitals are overwhelmed with severe patients of COVID-19. If you wait and do nothing, your symptom might getting worse into severe condition, which could be too late for doctors to save your life. Some nutrient supplements are scientifically proved to suppress and eliminate free radical damage:

• Vitamin C and Vitamin E are well-known antioxidants and free radical scavengers.  Vitamin C and Vitamin E cannot be synthesized in our body and must be supplemented to our diet.  Studies have shown that oral administration of vitamin C is very safe up to 10,000 mg daily, and Vitamin E is safe up to 1000 mg (2 200 IU) daily.  For COVID-19 patients with mild symptom, daily oral vitamin C 3000 mg and vitamin E 1,000 units as emergent self-care is safe and necessary. Some recovered COIVD-19 patients toke vitamin C up to 6000 mg per day. 

Some people argue the benefits of Vitamin C for COVID-19, because some past studies didn’t show the benefits of Vitamin C to common cold when giving at less than 300 mg per day. Common cold is very different from COVID-19 in severity and pressingness. The free radical storm could be hundred times higher in COVID-19 than in common cold. If people realize the central damage mechanism of free radicals in respiratory virus infection, the use of Vitamin C is then reasonable and necessary. The benefit of Vitamin C is dose dependent. That is why you should take at least 3000 mg per day as emergent care dose.

There are some additional nutritional supplements that have been scientifically proven to suppress and/or scavenge free radicals.  You can combine one or two of them with Vitamin C and Vitamin E, and the dose should refer to the product instruction. These supplements are:

• Curcumin: is the active ingredient (about 3%) in turmeric which is commonly used as cooking spice in curry dishes. Human have been using turmeric for more than 4000 years.  Curcumin has a very strong anti- inflammatory and anti- oxidation properties. 

•            Glycyrrhizic acid (Licorice the root) and Rutin: they having antioxidant properties and protect body from free radical damage

•        Quercetin: is a flavonoid with strong antioxidant and anti-inflammation properties

•            Zinc and Selenium: are important elements that play very important role in anti-oxidative process.

•            Drink a lot of water to help you to get rid of the toxic waste in your body quickly and maintain hydrated!

Should you take hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin at home as part of your self-care protocol?  Absolutely NOT!!!

Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin are prescription drugs and must be administered by a doctor. Large doses of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin have severe cardiac toxicity which may lead to sudden death. 

Important notice: If you have difficulty in breathing, you must contact your doctor immediately!!!

Jun Wu, Ph.D.

April 3, 2020

Disclaimer: This is a personal opinion based on scientific evidences.  Patients should follow their doctor's instruction for disease treatment.

The author thanks Jim Isbell for editing this article.

References:

Akaike, T., M. Ando, T. Oda, T. Doi, S. Ijiri, S. Araki and H. Maeda (1990). "Dependence on O2- generation by xanthine oxidase of pathogenesis of influenza virus infection in mice." J Clin Invest 85(3): 739-745

Akaike, T., Y. Noguchi, S. Ijiri, K. Setoguchi, M. Suga, Y. M. Zheng, B. Dietzschold and H. Maeda (1996). "Pathogenesis of influenza virus-induced pneumonia: involvement of both nitric oxide and oxygen radicals." ProcNatl Acad Sci U S A 93(6):2448-2453

Oda, T., T. Akaike, T. Hamamoto, F. Suzuki, T. Hirano and H. Maeda (1989). "Oxygen radicals in influenza-induced pathogenesis and treatment with pyran polymer-conjugated SOD." Science 244(4907): 974-976.