Key Takeaways
1. Gut health is crucial for developing and maintaining a strong immune system.
2. A diet rich in healthy fats and proteins can help repair gut lining.
3. Leaky gut syndrome can lead to autoimmune diseases if not addressed properly.
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Video: Having a Healthy Gut, Diet Are Key Factors for Long COVID Management
Author(s):
Gowri Reddy Rocco, MD, MS, reveals that repairing gut health through targeted nutrition is essential for combating long COVID and preventing autoimmune complications.
In an interview with Pharmacy Times®, Gowri Reddy Rocco, MD, MS, founder of Optimum Wellness & Longevity, delved into the critical gut-immune connection for patients with persistent COVID-19 symptoms, emphasizing the paramount importance of gut health in immune and neurological system function. Rocco recommended a dietary approach focused on consuming healthy fats, omega-3s, high protein, and organic foods while eliminating simple carbohydrates and processed sugars to restore gut lining integrity and prevent potential autoimmune complications.
Pharmacy Times: Where do you see the limitations of a focus on immune-targeted therapies for long COVID treatment, and how can pharmacists support a more integrative treatment model?
Gowri Reddy Rocco, MD, MS: The thing about pharmacists is that you guys are very helpful in teaching patients and clients about drug interactions, right? The best thing you guys can encourage is patients not to just take a drug for healing but to actually improve how they eat. Nutrition is number 1; moving and sleeping are all critical. Now, there are some immune-targeted therapies that I would recommend. One is metformin, right off the bat, because it helps people have improved insulin resistance, which improves your immune system. It helps the gut repair. Metformin is something that's underused a lot. People think about it for just using it for type 2 diabetes; actually, no, it's an anti-aging tool that we can use to improve the immune system. So that's one. What's also underused is low-dose naltrexone. Low-dose naltrexone is excellent for 6 months to a year after long-haul COVID, long COVID, because it helps suppress the immune system from overreacting. I like dexamethasone, which is, acutely, when someone gets sick, they should be treated within like 3 to 5 days. Steroids also help with that. Also, immunoglobulin, intravenous immunoglobulin—I think you guys use that a lot in compounding pharmacies. I love it. I think it's a great tool to naturally boost up the immune system and help gut repair. Omega-3 fatty acids are huge. They're so big because you have post-sequelae neurological symptoms, depression. You see that a lot after long-haul COVID. Omega-3, and then methylene blue. I'm a big fan of methylene blue, and it's excellent. It's a derivative of hydroxychloroquine, so it helps so much for recovery, not just for mental clarity, but also for the immune system and cardiovascular recovery. Those are some of the things that I feel like we could definitely look into in the pharmaceutical arena.
Pharmacy Times: How have food-based and functional medicine protocols led to measurable improvements in your long COVID patients?
Gowri Reddy Rocco, MD, MS: I know I keep saying this, Luke, but I'm a huge proponent of clean eating, which means whole foods, eating lots of vegetables, lots of good fats, protein, and low simple sugars, so that's high fats and low sugars. Next, take supplements like vitamin KTG3, vitamin C, N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), turmeric, B-complex, and quercetin. Those are just so big because sometimes you don't get the nutritional value in their soil and minerals; it's not enough in our foods. It's important to supplement. I would highly recommend taking those supplements. I mean, supplements are food because we still have to consume them. And I would stay away from alcohol. Alcohol is poison. We don't talk about this enough, but alcohol suppresses the immune system. It's a downer. Caffeine tends to have the opposite effect. It tends to motivate people and have them moving. Of course, what you add to your caffeine is significant, and nicotine seems to be another, [but] I haven't researched it enough. I don't use it in my practice, but a lot of my patients say that nicotine is another drug that they use to help them motivate. But I recommend caffeine because I think caffeine has been proven, and it's safer. I do love green tea extract. Green tea, matcha tea, is so underused. I think in certain countries, we see low insulin resistance and infective rates, and it's because they detox naturally with matcha or green tea.
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