Copper and zinc cancel each other out. Too much zinc, take copper (rare, and my practitioner doesn't like this, she instead prefers to manage the copper / zinc balance with zinc only) Too much copper, take zinc. My understanding is that we are, generally zinc deficient, with excesses of copper.
Methylene blue? There are potential issues with serotonin or if you carry a specific gene so I've not tried it yet. Instead I've got artemisia & baicalin on standby.
I had it long back ( somehow found that interesting and used once ) then I read two books by Stephen Harold Buhner ( hope I wrote the name properly ), herbal antiviral and herbal antibiotic (both for resistant strains ), there I read a lot about Rhodiola Roses, since then I have used it quite a lot in the winters , it is also anti SARS cov and to be used in hypoxia !! And neuroprotextive as well as hepatoprotective and adaptogenic herb ,so that one along with Astragalus are two of my favorites among herbs!
yes kind of , but chinese skullcap is much much stronger, like for pneumonia, encephalitis or persistent cough and other brain related diseases and best taken before bed (due to high melatonin content )but this rhodiola ,one can take just before any meal or snacks (1000mg/day is upper limit),100-500mg is usual dose, and it takes care of basic throat issues, little coughs and prevents viral entry (if taken regularly )protects the brain too, So i have kept Chinese skullcap for an emergency and Rhodiola for normal times!
I'm always interested in everyday therapeutics, useful advice thanks,and like you I keep my big guns back for emergencies, such as baicalin, artemisia & berberine.
Absolutely, Artemisia annua! Very strong ,rarely I take .. ( by very strong I mean its anticancer ,ant cov SARS 2 potential, but also its very strong on liver ,people with liver issues Should be very careful.
I stopped my family having long covid by giving them anti-histamines, aspirin, vit C, vit D, quercetin, zinc, iodine throat gargle.
I had the 2017 flu, took me ages to get better. Half a year. I only got better drinking fresh homemade milk kefir, drinking fresh rosemary tea, fresh thyme tea, ginger & lemon tea. Constantly. I later found out that rosemary has blood thinning properties, milk kefir is the best for gut health, thyme tea is the best for respiratory viruses, and the ginger & lemon helped my dizziness.
But I take antihistamines on the regular because of allergies.
another supplement i could suggest that I've been on about 5 years, and i won't be without... for muscle strength... i ran out once and felt notably weaker within a few days... it's kinda pricey... but worth it imho...
imho, it has a really great CoQ10, and PQQ for mitochondrial support... AMAZING stuff... i don't use any of their other products, but got hooked on this in my late 40's... i have a couple friends whom I've shared it with who love it, too...
i take CarnosynSR (brand, extended release) and believe it has been helpful. i can't seem to find the page about detox and brain support that i was looking for, but this is an interesting supp to consider imho...
Interesting amino acid supplement to try. Muscular damage due to autoimmunity or impaired metabolism is becoming quite prevalent so it's worth considering.
i just ordered some luteolin, BrainGain, after reading your post. really appreciate your post!
my fave brain supplement is Cognizin(R) aka citicholine... i only lost my sense of taste and smell a day or two initially, when i was too nauseated to take my Cognizin, which i had been taking since spring '19. i take 500 mg every a.m. and 250 mg at midday. there is a great review article on that one, page 44 has a table of studied uses and results...
p.s. i refused to get/ give the jab... so this is interesting! maiybe you know... i would think citicholine is a different choline derivative than the phosphatidyl-choline form... ? fwiw, I'm far from my days of studying biochemistry and organic chemistry, etc. finished PharmD in '09...
Citicoline: A Candidate for Adjunct Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis
Abstract
In remittingârelapsing multiple sclerosis (RR-MS), relapses are driven by autoreactive immune cells that enter the brain and spinal cord and damage myelin sheaths of axons in white and grey matter, whereas during remissions myelin is repaired by activated oligodendroglial cells. Disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) may either retard/attenuate myelin damage or promote/enhance/speed up myelin repair. Almost all currently approved DMTs inhibit myelin damage and are considerably toxic. Enhancement of myelin repair is considered an unmet medical need of MS patients. Citicoline, known for many years as a nootropic and neuroprotective drug and recently pronounced food supplement, has been found to be significantly efficacious in two complementary rodent models of MS, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and cuprizone-induced myelin toxicity. Moreover, citicoline treatment improves visual evoked potentials (VEPs) in glaucoma patients, which is relevant because VEP monitoring is frequently used as an indicator of remyelination in MS. Although over-the-counter availability of citicoline may impede its formal translation to the clinic of MS, evaluation of its efficacy for supporting remyelination in this disease is strongly indicated.
it is very easy to find... just be sure to get Cognizin (brand), or may be labeled w generic name "citicholine"... i have also used "CDP-choline"... uridine is in the same pathway, so i have added uridine with success, low doses preferred (mine is 25 mg from Cardiovascular Research brand, also tried 85 mg in the past)... may cause headaches if you don't start Cognizin at 250 mg fwiw... but it has been amazing from my experience and anecdotes at the Rx since '19...
i could suggest a few things, that i have tried to help with the brain fog etc, but i can't say that necessarily there is published literature on their use in long covid, so maybe it wouldn't be appropriate here? my list of supps is about 20x my list of Rx meds, so be careful what you ask for... đ would it be helpful to share what i have found helpful here? (sorry if I'm slow responding... good days and bad days...)
This is very much a collaborative process, the pent up demand is huge but useful information scant and most physicians appear ill informed, they have other priorities so please add them here if you like? Thanks.
ok! will share... you seem like an authoritative reviewer of these things, altho i admit i got a little lost around your commentary in some of the personal stories in your post (my difficulty includes processing information, retaining new information thru the "fog") ... do you feel that long covid (post-viral- whatever-i- had- it- wasn't- good illness) is real?
The Guardian and others keep putting out scare stories about LC, but when you do proper journalistic investigations you find they are actually vaccine injured, which is all too real. Either persistent spike protein in ovaries, monocytes, lymph nodes and goodness knows where else or / and due to reverse transcription. Then as they have suppressed immunity they keep getting reinfected, further depleting their CD4+ counts etc. Add in autoimmunity, neurological damage & tumorigenesis and you very quickly end up in a dark place. When you write it down like this you could be describing a course of HIV without ARTs, which is appropriate due to the GAG & gp120 inserts.
oic... this is helpful... in my case i was never jabbed, so it's some kind of illness that has been prolonged for me, likely because i got sick around the holidays, working in retail, and ended up on oral steroids for about 6 weeks, pushing myself thru the "fog" with help from techs, "patient patients," and a floater pharmacist who would take the final 3 hours of my shifts during the week, so i could catch up, working unpaid 1-3 hours a day, depending... i had been at that store for >5 years, so knew a lot of patients, which helped... ran into one the other day at an appt, who recognized me, but i had no recollection of him... and i haven't been able to work since early '21, when they decided to send me home bc i couldn't get a medical exemption for m@$king... ugh
Similarly, an unjabbed close friend got a case of severe Covid (requiring HCQ, IVM, Doxy, lipo-C every 2 hours, nebulized H2O2 multiple times a day, numerous supplements etc. Sequelae post this bout: Ridiculously high resting heartbeat, Super high TSH with very very low free T4/T3, massive exhaustion, inability to think, sleeping all the time, vertigo, tinnitus. Doctor dismisses C19 topic. Just mails a script for Thyroxine. Ignored and embarked instead on a way more nuanced and complicated 'solution'. So far tangible improvement pending verification by repeat testing.
I'm maintaining a neurological support list too. Would recommend full spectrum hemp over CBD isolates if you can get it (or grow it!), but you will know more about this than me.
Cognizin and a few others need reviewing and adding.
Therapeutics for Multiple Sclerosis and Peripheral Neuropathy
i take a CBD product for inflammation support from a brand called Trace Minerals. i think it helps! I'm not as up to date on these things as you may assume, but i have seen full spec mentioned in my readings as beneficial... it's hard to know which to try, and it gets expensive... tysm for sharing...
It already seems like Iâm taking a load of supplements. Which ones should I definitely add? Any I should stop taking? Thank you for this excellent article. Following is my daily prevention supplement cocktail. I havenât been sick since I started it a year ago after a nasty bout with Delta.
Tri-Magnesium
NAC
Krill Oil
D3
Vitamin K-Complex
Choline
Glutathione
Quercetin-Bromelain Complex
Niacin
Black Cumin Seed Oil and Curcumin Elite
Lutein
CoQ10
Zinc
Selenium
Methyl B12 Plus
Vitamin C
Glucosamine+Chondroitin
Collagen Peptides
Melatonin
Low-dose Aspirin if needed, occasionally
Regular exposure to sunshine (I have a pretty decent tan, not too much đ)
in the CE mentioned about collagen, they also discussed antioxidants for anti-aging... (it seems that it would be applicable to any oxidative issue... )
(1) antioxidants taken with dairy (e.g. yogurt) get inactivated (mechanism wasn't discussed)
(2) vitamin C, e.g. in chewable form, that is orange is *not* active... aka L.ascorbic acid... ideal pH is 2.0-3.5 (not sure how it would be verifiable in a tablet... maybe pH strips?)
(3) in general, consider resveratrol, curcumin, and niacinamide...
looks like you're on the right track, here... just fwiw... âĄ
Thanks! đâ¤ď¸ I have been gleaning info from various sources so I really appreciate the âsecond opinionâ. Itâs comforting to know Iâm on the right track.
I use Vital Proteins brand, which is hydrolyzed. Recommended by a physical therapist friend. No sign of acne yet, after several months. The bovine is grass-fed and pasture raised at least. It works great in my morning coffee, as a âcreamerâ.
all i know is when i couldn't breathe, my nails got really brittle and my hair fell out... collagen seems to help...? sorry, I'd have to look up anything else, as i have no clue... đ
in general, if you follow the label or some specific protocol/ list of recommended supps, the most important thing in my experience is to look for a HIGH QUALITY brand. the fairly inexpensive website, consumerlab.com, reviews supps for quality, if you're wondering...
my story about QUALITY:
i have been on glucosamine (notably *not* in combo bc back then i read chondroitin was derived from pig cartilage, not proven as beneficial, back then in early '00 when i started it, data may have changed, but I've been happy with the Schiff brand for over 20 years now, it's glucosamine with MSM now that i take...)
ONE time i couldn't find the Schiff brand and tried a xhina-mart brand, and within 6 weeks my knees were KILLING me... by the time i figured it out, it took my knees 6 months to recover, and i haven't been without it since... fwiw... YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR...
Brands I use include Solaray, Jarrow, Life Extension, Pure Encapsulations, Douglas Labs, Garden of Life, Integrative Therapeutics, Thorne and Carlson. I donât shop at ChinaMart for ANYTHING. Ever. đ
there is some interesting info on melatonin and its dosing, too...
i read that melatonin is needed bc viral illness impairs B6 processing, which is needed to make melatonin etc...
in my experience, a usual dose is from 2-10 mg, depending on source, but even 0.5 mg left me drowsy half the morning... then i came across this 300 micro-gram (mcg) dose (same as 0.3 mg). so... i use a brand called Life Extension, and it works within an hour and i can wake up if i need to... lower dose may be supported by more "scientific" references, but this was one i found to consider... everyone is different...
I started out at 1mg and recently upped it to 1.5mg. I think it takes some trial and error for each person, and it can change over time. Just what Iâve observed over a year, for myself.
i am not clear on why the aspirin, but fwiw... low dose isn't likely to help with inflammation?
fwiw... perhaps, if you have headaches, you may want to look into Longvida, a patented form of curcumin that may help with brain inflammation...
my story: i was using 8-hr tylenol 3x/ day for constant HEADACHES, since end of '20, and i decided my liver may have been contributing to my FATIGUE from having to detox all that... so to get off the tylenol, the Longvida i take is 400 mg/day. I've also seen 500 mg that i ordered once since fall of '21, when i found it, and it was more $, but i think it was the best I've found so far. #NoTylenol ... hope that helps... âĄ
this list looks like a decent regimen imho... it may be difficult to assess technically without knowing how you're responding and the formulations/ dosing you're using...
this is one thing to consider:
if you notice anxiety with the methylated B vitamins, consider possibly alternating or switching to a methyl-free form. i have found it helpful, because theoretically i methylate about 7% (normal is 70-80%), but couldn't tolerate prescribed doses of methylated B12 and folate... recently found this website thru a friend...
I've added your suggestion and info for citicoline to the MS & PN site. Already getting good feedback, are you writing any of your own posts? The interest is huge, including from myself given what's happening.
woohoo!! I'm not writing any posts... i don't think I'm up to it... i have more i could share, but I'm suffering from good days and bad days, still, trying... but maybe someday...
so exciting about the citicholine!!! fwiw... #714451 is the item number of the "maximum" strength cv* brand at their website or in stores... every few weeks they are on sale BOGO free... and you can use their programs to get #30 count as low as $12-15 each bottle... when i first started talking about it at my Rx, we had a difficult time keeping it in stock... it is amazing stuff... i â¤ď¸ it!
notably, you might relate to this trivial detail... my ND actually started me on phosphatidylcholine, but it gave me expensive diarrhea, then i researched and found Cognizin...
anecdotally, i had a 70ish person with memory problems, impairment so she couldn't recall her phone number, got lost driving, etc, and improved in all that taking cv* brand Cognizin(R), and she told me she asked her neurologist if it was OK to keep taking, etc, and the neurologist said absolutely đŻ... it is classified as GRAS... if i hadn't said that yet...
Hey, TCPC, I just ran into a pharmacist/naturopath on Steve Kirsch's Stack. I asked if she has a site (she doesn't have a Substack). Thought she might be interesting for you to connect with. Your tribe, haha. Pharmacists in the hood!
Only ones I can't see are resveratrol and milk thistle (silymarin) & black pepper (piperine) to massively increase bioavailability. Your lutein can replace resveratrol though.
Possibly add in a little CBD too but to be honest C D zinc are a mainstay for most. And keep some echinacea (watch this space), berberine and sweet wormwood A. annua on standby.
I'm on silymarin, resveratrol/quercetin daily as an antiviral due to vaxxed selection of variants that already escaped my immunity once back in April.
Thank you for the recommendations! Itâs a little overwhelming to figure all this out on my own so I really appreciate it. I am unvaxâd and prefer to remain that way, so boosting my natural immunity is my main goal.
i found it! I'm post-viral something since end of '20. i just spent an hour more closely evaluating this relatively massive post-- it is overwhelming. and my brain still isn't working... so... if i think i can add some insight here, I'd be glad to try! n.
no worries! I'm not sure either! after my neuropsych eval in June, it's official I have cognitive inhibition... not sure what else... I'm still on the payroll at a Rx technically, but I'm not sure for how long... it's pretty serious... i have my license still, altho it took about 3 months to get thru 20 hours of CE to renew this year.
What we really need is challenging to achieve, to identify S1 spike protein in the neuron itself or even better electron microscopy of it bound to tubilin. In vitro work demonstrating apoptosis in the absence of cytokines would help.
hmm... I'm not into the lab work on diseases and pharmaceuticals etc. i have my own experience... which was EXTREMELY optimized before i got sick end of '20... i saw an article from Mercola that suggested digestive enzymes, specifically keratinase, on an empty stomach, instead of with a meal, may have the effect of "digesting spike protein," as i recall. i don't have a Mercola subscription, so i can't send a link. i could email a copy, if you let me know where to send it... tysm n.
May I add that if people choose to consume their RESVERATROL via wine, that it makes most sense that the wine (and all wine, frankly) be made from grapes grown via organic or biodynamic farming. Otherwise, your resveratrol has been grown/fermented/bottled in toxic pesticides and herbicides.
(I used to follow an Instagrammer who was a huge fan of methylene blue. It sure pops up as a treatment.)
i was going to get m.b. however it interacts with various liver enzymes and affects psych meds, and my compounding pharmacist indicates she can't order it. drugs.com has a free interaction checker, i believe, up to 4 at a time. i also find some good/ not always agreeable- to- my- way- of- thinking information at consumerlab.com (relatively inexpensive database of supp info and analysis of quality of select supplements)...
well... my "party line" (meaning, when i would talk with patients, getting put on psych drugs at the Rx in the past) is, briefly, we know that there exist, for example, serotonin receptors thruout the body, serotonin is a feel- good chemical, especially prevalent in the gut (feels good to eat, so there are tons in the gut, side effects can be gut related) and the brain... so... i graduated in '09, and that's what we were taught, imho, in a nutshell... boosting serotonin in the brain can help people feel better, etc. Dopamine is another feel- good chemical in the brain... psychosis/ dementia possibly aided by drugs targeting these receptors... and your liver is designed to detoxify everything you take in (foods, supps,drugs, etc).
with that said, in practice, these psych drugs are VERY powerful... in my experience, there must be balance, as in everything in life. tragically, prescribers tend to believe that "if some is good, then more is better," and that is NOT true. pharmacologically. the TRUTH is that higher doses correlates with increased adverse effects in nearly every case, and EVERY pharmaceutical has risks and potential adverse effects....
in my experience, i have seen that judicious use of pHARMa, as i have seen in your posts, Zelda emphasizing HARM, is very helpful in some situations. unfortunately, changing brain chemistry takes time... must be done slowly, started at low doses, monitored frequently, etc., if a drug is to be given at all...
further, i must admit that in my own instance back in early '00's, psych meds saved my brain and possibly my life, as i completed 2 degrees, including my PharmD and a B.S. in health science by '09... so... if we had benevolent motives treating mental illness and used psych drugs carefully, we would use natural remedies first, imho... bottom line is that it's difficult IRL... i hope that helps...
Please ABSOLUTELY do not think I'm attacking you or your personal choices in any way. I am NOT! I DO NOT dismiss anyone's positive experience with, or belief about, any substance, whether natural or synthetic. I do not attack YOU.
What I'm compelled to attack are interest-conflicted systems that promote lies and half-truths. No solid facts exist on dopamine, serotonin, or anything under the category of "mental illness". We've all been sold guesswork and lies under the guise of fact. The 'brain chemistry balance' creators were forced to concede that it was originally 'just' meant as a 'useful metaphor'.
Robert Whitaker's Mad in America (dot com); Peter Breggin, MD; and Kelly Brogan, MD are great resources on hard facts of "mental illness".
The human liver/brain/lungs/skin/glands/heart/bones/blood CANNOT process the toxic synthetics we are made to consume (by pharma, food, air, water, consumer goods). That's why we're all sick.
Our bodies were not designed to withstand our processed, synthetic world. What we're indoctrinated to believe are 'safe limits', 'safe amounts', 'safe drugs' were designed by interest-conflicted organizations.
I'm NOT trying to make YOU "wrong" and me "right". I'm aghast every day I learn more. Plandemic just tipped the scales so these toxic systems might actually collapse. I'll cheer!
fascinating, after all this time... reviewing the comments on this thread, my ND (naturopath) told me in '19 that she suggests people try PROBIOTICS (and etc) for mood issues... and she put me on LITHIUM OROTATE (OTC) (lithium used to be in the water, I've heard?) as a mood stabilizer/help with anxiety, as i had lots of stress in high-pressure job i used to thrive in, altho my coworkers were nearly all "bad energy"... (different lithium salts, e.g., chloride, are Rx-only and require lab monitoring etc.)... too much affects the kidneys...
perhaps i will discuss my experience with these in a new comment sometime...
any feelings about probiotics/prebiotics (seems like there has been some controversy? can't remember) and lithium orotate?
Normally I would put food sources ahead of extracts & tablets, and still eat black grapes & have a glass of Red most days, but the alcohol itself and contaminants undo some of the benefits and the dose is relatively low too for our purposes. Otherwise yes to organics.
Have you seen Dr Mobeen's youtube on Low Dose Naltrexone for Long Haul C19 and inflammatory issues in general??? Would appreciate your thoughts. Thank you
Too cool! Thank you! Am really reading alot about it because the mechanism seems really interesting for so many things. A friend has long and hard to treat Lyme and I am wondering if it could help her. Thank you!
Can't access the twitch link. But I have 2 books related to this: 1) "Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons" by Kris Newby (2020) and 2) Less related but deals with the 'politics of Lyme' : "The Situation of Human Rights Defenders of Lyme and Relapsing Fever Borreliosis" featuring a star-studded cast of LLPs as well as Astrid Stuckelberger of recent WHO/Covid whistleblowing fame as advisor. (2018)
Copper and zinc cancel each other out. Too much zinc, take copper (rare, and my practitioner doesn't like this, she instead prefers to manage the copper / zinc balance with zinc only) Too much copper, take zinc. My understanding is that we are, generally zinc deficient, with excesses of copper.
I supplement with zinc and a smaller amount of copper. As ever you need to balance your minerals. Mg, K, Ca, Mn etc
Yep. I would separate them, though. Not together.
Same with mag & calcium. Keep 'm separate, take less of them, as more "hits" receptors.
i love how skullcap makes me feel. take it at night. wild dreams mood improved and perhaps some effets on LC
Thank you for the feedback.
New Substack pending on autoimmune disorders, with some interesting new therapeutics.
Synergistic pairing of ivermectin and fenbendazole found HIGHLY EFFECTIVE at preventing and treating cancer
https://www.2ndsmartestguyintheworld.com/p/synergistic-pairing-of-ivermectin
Doorlesscarp, do you take MB? recently i became interested in MB and bought 100ml of 1% solution,but did not try yet...
I take MB and it has made a difference with my health and wellbeing. I take it daily and use red light therapy .
well, after the post i started taking in low doses, its good, no issues , only benefits :)
Methylene blue? There are potential issues with serotonin or if you carry a specific gene so I've not tried it yet. Instead I've got artemisia & baicalin on standby.
yes, true i have read about that too.. also that even 1mg.kg might be dangerous...for time being wont try :)
fantastic stuff, i use(read have) many of them, if not all.
There is one herb, named Rhodiola Rosea, which seems to have enormous potential. If you get time please look into it! Thanks
Crassula family, interesting thanks đ
I had it long back ( somehow found that interesting and used once ) then I read two books by Stephen Harold Buhner ( hope I wrote the name properly ), herbal antiviral and herbal antibiotic (both for resistant strains ), there I read a lot about Rhodiola Roses, since then I have used it quite a lot in the winters , it is also anti SARS cov and to be used in hypoxia !! And neuroprotextive as well as hepatoprotective and adaptogenic herb ,so that one along with Astragalus are two of my favorites among herbs!
We need all the neuroprotectives we can get. Sounds very like baicalin.
yes kind of , but chinese skullcap is much much stronger, like for pneumonia, encephalitis or persistent cough and other brain related diseases and best taken before bed (due to high melatonin content )but this rhodiola ,one can take just before any meal or snacks (1000mg/day is upper limit),100-500mg is usual dose, and it takes care of basic throat issues, little coughs and prevents viral entry (if taken regularly )protects the brain too, So i have kept Chinese skullcap for an emergency and Rhodiola for normal times!
I'm always interested in everyday therapeutics, useful advice thanks,and like you I keep my big guns back for emergencies, such as baicalin, artemisia & berberine.
Absolutely, Artemisia annua! Very strong ,rarely I take .. ( by very strong I mean its anticancer ,ant cov SARS 2 potential, but also its very strong on liver ,people with liver issues Should be very careful.
How do you pick which supplements to take...there are so many of them!
I'm unjabbed, and want to know what to take in a healthy state, and then what to take if infected.
Maybe the infection I got in July destroyed my brain because I find all of this information overwhelming....no idea what exactly to take.
I stopped my family having long covid by giving them anti-histamines, aspirin, vit C, vit D, quercetin, zinc, iodine throat gargle.
I had the 2017 flu, took me ages to get better. Half a year. I only got better drinking fresh homemade milk kefir, drinking fresh rosemary tea, fresh thyme tea, ginger & lemon tea. Constantly. I later found out that rosemary has blood thinning properties, milk kefir is the best for gut health, thyme tea is the best for respiratory viruses, and the ginger & lemon helped my dizziness.
But I take antihistamines on the regular because of allergies.
Thank you, fully agreed, I'm drinking a lemon balm tea right now, but not tried thyme & rosemary.
The importance of a healthy gut biome should not be underestimated.
https://doorlesscarp953.substack.com/p/spike-protein-inc-vax-induced-immunodeficiency-d03
another supplement i could suggest that I've been on about 5 years, and i won't be without... for muscle strength... i ran out once and felt notably weaker within a few days... it's kinda pricey... but worth it imho...
https://primalforce.net/product/ultra-accel-2/
imho, it has a really great CoQ10, and PQQ for mitochondrial support... AMAZING stuff... i don't use any of their other products, but got hooked on this in my late 40's... i have a couple friends whom I've shared it with who love it, too...
hope it's helpful! âĄ
(note: i refused to get/ give the jab, my experience is a post-illness sequelae, ongoing since late '20)
I'm wondering if you've ever looked into beta-alanine?
https://www.carnosyn.com/beta-alanine/
i take CarnosynSR (brand, extended release) and believe it has been helpful. i can't seem to find the page about detox and brain support that i was looking for, but this is an interesting supp to consider imho...
https://www.carnosyn.com/carnosyn-science/
Interesting amino acid supplement to try. Muscular damage due to autoimmunity or impaired metabolism is becoming quite prevalent so it's worth considering.
i just ordered some luteolin, BrainGain, after reading your post. really appreciate your post!
my fave brain supplement is Cognizin(R) aka citicholine... i only lost my sense of taste and smell a day or two initially, when i was too nauseated to take my Cognizin, which i had been taking since spring '19. i take 500 mg every a.m. and 250 mg at midday. there is a great review article on that one, page 44 has a table of studied uses and results...
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317167480_Citicoline_pharmacological_and_clinical_review_2016_update
(edited, there are others, but this is my fave)
Thanks, looks really useful.
You certainly wouldn't want to generate autoimmune antibodies to phospholipids. Wait, what?
Antiphospholipid antibodies and risk of post-COVID-19 vaccination thrombophilia: The straw that breaks the camel's back?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8159713/
p.s. i refused to get/ give the jab... so this is interesting! maiybe you know... i would think citicholine is a different choline derivative than the phosphatidyl-choline form... ? fwiw, I'm far from my days of studying biochemistry and organic chemistry, etc. finished PharmD in '09...
I can buy it in the UK too, quite affordable if you need it.
It's looks very useful for MS sufferers too:
Citicoline: A Candidate for Adjunct Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis
Abstract
In remittingârelapsing multiple sclerosis (RR-MS), relapses are driven by autoreactive immune cells that enter the brain and spinal cord and damage myelin sheaths of axons in white and grey matter, whereas during remissions myelin is repaired by activated oligodendroglial cells. Disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) may either retard/attenuate myelin damage or promote/enhance/speed up myelin repair. Almost all currently approved DMTs inhibit myelin damage and are considerably toxic. Enhancement of myelin repair is considered an unmet medical need of MS patients. Citicoline, known for many years as a nootropic and neuroprotective drug and recently pronounced food supplement, has been found to be significantly efficacious in two complementary rodent models of MS, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and cuprizone-induced myelin toxicity. Moreover, citicoline treatment improves visual evoked potentials (VEPs) in glaucoma patients, which is relevant because VEP monitoring is frequently used as an indicator of remyelination in MS. Although over-the-counter availability of citicoline may impede its formal translation to the clinic of MS, evaluation of its efficacy for supporting remyelination in this disease is strongly indicated.
Keywords: citicoline, multiple sclerosis, demyelination, remyelination
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8066453/
it is very easy to find... just be sure to get Cognizin (brand), or may be labeled w generic name "citicholine"... i have also used "CDP-choline"... uridine is in the same pathway, so i have added uridine with success, low doses preferred (mine is 25 mg from Cardiovascular Research brand, also tried 85 mg in the past)... may cause headaches if you don't start Cognizin at 250 mg fwiw... but it has been amazing from my experience and anecdotes at the Rx since '19...
i could suggest a few things, that i have tried to help with the brain fog etc, but i can't say that necessarily there is published literature on their use in long covid, so maybe it wouldn't be appropriate here? my list of supps is about 20x my list of Rx meds, so be careful what you ask for... đ would it be helpful to share what i have found helpful here? (sorry if I'm slow responding... good days and bad days...)
This is very much a collaborative process, the pent up demand is huge but useful information scant and most physicians appear ill informed, they have other priorities so please add them here if you like? Thanks.
ok! will share... you seem like an authoritative reviewer of these things, altho i admit i got a little lost around your commentary in some of the personal stories in your post (my difficulty includes processing information, retaining new information thru the "fog") ... do you feel that long covid (post-viral- whatever-i- had- it- wasn't- good illness) is real?
The Guardian and others keep putting out scare stories about LC, but when you do proper journalistic investigations you find they are actually vaccine injured, which is all too real. Either persistent spike protein in ovaries, monocytes, lymph nodes and goodness knows where else or / and due to reverse transcription. Then as they have suppressed immunity they keep getting reinfected, further depleting their CD4+ counts etc. Add in autoimmunity, neurological damage & tumorigenesis and you very quickly end up in a dark place. When you write it down like this you could be describing a course of HIV without ARTs, which is appropriate due to the GAG & gp120 inserts.
oic... this is helpful... in my case i was never jabbed, so it's some kind of illness that has been prolonged for me, likely because i got sick around the holidays, working in retail, and ended up on oral steroids for about 6 weeks, pushing myself thru the "fog" with help from techs, "patient patients," and a floater pharmacist who would take the final 3 hours of my shifts during the week, so i could catch up, working unpaid 1-3 hours a day, depending... i had been at that store for >5 years, so knew a lot of patients, which helped... ran into one the other day at an appt, who recognized me, but i had no recollection of him... and i haven't been able to work since early '21, when they decided to send me home bc i couldn't get a medical exemption for m@$king... ugh
Similarly, an unjabbed close friend got a case of severe Covid (requiring HCQ, IVM, Doxy, lipo-C every 2 hours, nebulized H2O2 multiple times a day, numerous supplements etc. Sequelae post this bout: Ridiculously high resting heartbeat, Super high TSH with very very low free T4/T3, massive exhaustion, inability to think, sleeping all the time, vertigo, tinnitus. Doctor dismisses C19 topic. Just mails a script for Thyroxine. Ignored and embarked instead on a way more nuanced and complicated 'solution'. So far tangible improvement pending verification by repeat testing.
I'm maintaining a neurological support list too. Would recommend full spectrum hemp over CBD isolates if you can get it (or grow it!), but you will know more about this than me.
Cognizin and a few others need reviewing and adding.
Therapeutics for Multiple Sclerosis and Peripheral Neuropathy
https://doorlesscarp953.substack.com/p/therapeutics-for-long-covid/comment/7795328
i take a CBD product for inflammation support from a brand called Trace Minerals. i think it helps! I'm not as up to date on these things as you may assume, but i have seen full spec mentioned in my readings as beneficial... it's hard to know which to try, and it gets expensive... tysm for sharing...
It already seems like Iâm taking a load of supplements. Which ones should I definitely add? Any I should stop taking? Thank you for this excellent article. Following is my daily prevention supplement cocktail. I havenât been sick since I started it a year ago after a nasty bout with Delta.
Tri-Magnesium
NAC
Krill Oil
D3
Vitamin K-Complex
Choline
Glutathione
Quercetin-Bromelain Complex
Niacin
Black Cumin Seed Oil and Curcumin Elite
Lutein
CoQ10
Zinc
Selenium
Methyl B12 Plus
Vitamin C
Glucosamine+Chondroitin
Collagen Peptides
Melatonin
Low-dose Aspirin if needed, occasionally
Regular exposure to sunshine (I have a pretty decent tan, not too much đ)
in the CE mentioned about collagen, they also discussed antioxidants for anti-aging... (it seems that it would be applicable to any oxidative issue... )
(1) antioxidants taken with dairy (e.g. yogurt) get inactivated (mechanism wasn't discussed)
(2) vitamin C, e.g. in chewable form, that is orange is *not* active... aka L.ascorbic acid... ideal pH is 2.0-3.5 (not sure how it would be verifiable in a tablet... maybe pH strips?)
(3) in general, consider resveratrol, curcumin, and niacinamide...
looks like you're on the right track, here... just fwiw... âĄ
Thanks! đâ¤ď¸ I have been gleaning info from various sources so I really appreciate the âsecond opinionâ. Itâs comforting to know Iâm on the right track.
i was thinking about your collagen, because i made some notes, watching CE about it... here's what i noted:
(1) collagen must be hydrolyzed or it gets lost in stool
(2) leucine (a meat-derived protein, i believe) in collagen products is potentially a cause of ACNE... suggest trying a different brand to remedy...
fwiw... hope this helps! âĄ
I use Vital Proteins brand, which is hydrolyzed. Recommended by a physical therapist friend. No sign of acne yet, after several months. The bovine is grass-fed and pasture raised at least. It works great in my morning coffee, as a âcreamerâ.
excellent! you've got good sources, it seems đ
Collagen has never appeared very strong as a therapeutic, would like to see supportive studies.
Stopping the MMPs & caspases from breaking it down in the first place would appear the more productive pathway.
all i know is when i couldn't breathe, my nails got really brittle and my hair fell out... collagen seems to help...? sorry, I'd have to look up anything else, as i have no clue... đ
hi Aimee. if you are interested, i posted a comment about this product that has CoQ10 in it...
https://primalforce.net/product/ultra-accel-2/
âĄ
in general, if you follow the label or some specific protocol/ list of recommended supps, the most important thing in my experience is to look for a HIGH QUALITY brand. the fairly inexpensive website, consumerlab.com, reviews supps for quality, if you're wondering...
my story about QUALITY:
i have been on glucosamine (notably *not* in combo bc back then i read chondroitin was derived from pig cartilage, not proven as beneficial, back then in early '00 when i started it, data may have changed, but I've been happy with the Schiff brand for over 20 years now, it's glucosamine with MSM now that i take...)
ONE time i couldn't find the Schiff brand and tried a xhina-mart brand, and within 6 weeks my knees were KILLING me... by the time i figured it out, it took my knees 6 months to recover, and i haven't been without it since... fwiw... YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR...
Brands I use include Solaray, Jarrow, Life Extension, Pure Encapsulations, Douglas Labs, Garden of Life, Integrative Therapeutics, Thorne and Carlson. I donât shop at ChinaMart for ANYTHING. Ever. đ
definitely looks like you're going for quality imho... i haven't heard of Carlson...
there is some interesting info on melatonin and its dosing, too...
i read that melatonin is needed bc viral illness impairs B6 processing, which is needed to make melatonin etc...
in my experience, a usual dose is from 2-10 mg, depending on source, but even 0.5 mg left me drowsy half the morning... then i came across this 300 micro-gram (mcg) dose (same as 0.3 mg). so... i use a brand called Life Extension, and it works within an hour and i can wake up if i need to... lower dose may be supported by more "scientific" references, but this was one i found to consider... everyone is different...
https://news.mit.edu/2001/melatonin-1017
I started out at 1mg and recently upped it to 1.5mg. I think it takes some trial and error for each person, and it can change over time. Just what Iâve observed over a year, for myself.
for Choline... you may want to see my post here earlier about citicholine... patented Cognizin, brand name...
i am not clear on why the aspirin, but fwiw... low dose isn't likely to help with inflammation?
fwiw... perhaps, if you have headaches, you may want to look into Longvida, a patented form of curcumin that may help with brain inflammation...
my story: i was using 8-hr tylenol 3x/ day for constant HEADACHES, since end of '20, and i decided my liver may have been contributing to my FATIGUE from having to detox all that... so to get off the tylenol, the Longvida i take is 400 mg/day. I've also seen 500 mg that i ordered once since fall of '21, when i found it, and it was more $, but i think it was the best I've found so far. #NoTylenol ... hope that helps... âĄ
so sorry... i see now that curcumin elite is on your list... (my brain!)
this list looks like a decent regimen imho... it may be difficult to assess technically without knowing how you're responding and the formulations/ dosing you're using...
this is one thing to consider:
if you notice anxiety with the methylated B vitamins, consider possibly alternating or switching to a methyl-free form. i have found it helpful, because theoretically i methylate about 7% (normal is 70-80%), but couldn't tolerate prescribed doses of methylated B12 and folate... recently found this website thru a friend...
https://www.seekinghealth.com/products/b-complex-methyl-free-100-capsules
I've added your suggestion and info for citicoline to the MS & PN site. Already getting good feedback, are you writing any of your own posts? The interest is huge, including from myself given what's happening.
woohoo!! I'm not writing any posts... i don't think I'm up to it... i have more i could share, but I'm suffering from good days and bad days, still, trying... but maybe someday...
so exciting about the citicholine!!! fwiw... #714451 is the item number of the "maximum" strength cv* brand at their website or in stores... every few weeks they are on sale BOGO free... and you can use their programs to get #30 count as low as $12-15 each bottle... when i first started talking about it at my Rx, we had a difficult time keeping it in stock... it is amazing stuff... i â¤ď¸ it!
notably, you might relate to this trivial detail... my ND actually started me on phosphatidylcholine, but it gave me expensive diarrhea, then i researched and found Cognizin...
anecdotally, i had a 70ish person with memory problems, impairment so she couldn't recall her phone number, got lost driving, etc, and improved in all that taking cv* brand Cognizin(R), and she told me she asked her neurologist if it was OK to keep taking, etc, and the neurologist said absolutely đŻ... it is classified as GRAS... if i hadn't said that yet...
Hey, TCPC, I just ran into a pharmacist/naturopath on Steve Kirsch's Stack. I asked if she has a site (she doesn't have a Substack). Thought she might be interesting for you to connect with. Your tribe, haha. Pharmacists in the hood!
oh sweeeeeet... how do i find her?
She just replied:
https://www.rivervalleypartnersinhealth.ca/
She's Theresa McLean here. Real full name. Looks like she's here in Canada in the Maritimes (Nova Scotia).
Thanks for the link, I will check into it!
Excellent advice there thanks, a level of detail that just isn't readily available elsewhere.
Only ones I can't see are resveratrol and milk thistle (silymarin) & black pepper (piperine) to massively increase bioavailability. Your lutein can replace resveratrol though.
Possibly add in a little CBD too but to be honest C D zinc are a mainstay for most. And keep some echinacea (watch this space), berberine and sweet wormwood A. annua on standby.
I'm on silymarin, resveratrol/quercetin daily as an antiviral due to vaxxed selection of variants that already escaped my immunity once back in April.
Fermented food ?
Glycine ?
Thank you for the recommendations! Itâs a little overwhelming to figure all this out on my own so I really appreciate it. I am unvaxâd and prefer to remain that way, so boosting my natural immunity is my main goal.
I'm going to send a brain-foggy ex-pharmacist Substacker here.
i found it! I'm post-viral something since end of '20. i just spent an hour more closely evaluating this relatively massive post-- it is overwhelming. and my brain still isn't working... so... if i think i can add some insight here, I'd be glad to try! n.
(Sorry, Nancy, I didn't know whether to identify you as an ex-pharmacist or a current pharmacist-on-leave. No offense meant.)
no worries! I'm not sure either! after my neuropsych eval in June, it's official I have cognitive inhibition... not sure what else... I'm still on the payroll at a Rx technically, but I'm not sure for how long... it's pretty serious... i have my license still, altho it took about 3 months to get thru 20 hours of CE to renew this year.
I look forward to their input.
What we really need is challenging to achieve, to identify S1 spike protein in the neuron itself or even better electron microscopy of it bound to tubilin. In vitro work demonstrating apoptosis in the absence of cytokines would help.
hmm... I'm not into the lab work on diseases and pharmaceuticals etc. i have my own experience... which was EXTREMELY optimized before i got sick end of '20... i saw an article from Mercola that suggested digestive enzymes, specifically keratinase, on an empty stomach, instead of with a meal, may have the effect of "digesting spike protein," as i recall. i don't have a Mercola subscription, so i can't send a link. i could email a copy, if you let me know where to send it... tysm n.
My first time here. Fantastic information.
May I add that if people choose to consume their RESVERATROL via wine, that it makes most sense that the wine (and all wine, frankly) be made from grapes grown via organic or biodynamic farming. Otherwise, your resveratrol has been grown/fermented/bottled in toxic pesticides and herbicides.
(I used to follow an Instagrammer who was a huge fan of methylene blue. It sure pops up as a treatment.)
i was going to get m.b. however it interacts with various liver enzymes and affects psych meds, and my compounding pharmacist indicates she can't order it. drugs.com has a free interaction checker, i believe, up to 4 at a time. i also find some good/ not always agreeable- to- my- way- of- thinking information at consumerlab.com (relatively inexpensive database of supp info and analysis of quality of select supplements)...
Thanks for the links, duly noted!
IMHO as you know, all available evidence I have seen is negative for psych drugs, on every possible level. And isn't it toxic to the liver...?
Wow, why can't a compounding pharmacist order it...? By all accounts it's a fantastic substance.
well... my "party line" (meaning, when i would talk with patients, getting put on psych drugs at the Rx in the past) is, briefly, we know that there exist, for example, serotonin receptors thruout the body, serotonin is a feel- good chemical, especially prevalent in the gut (feels good to eat, so there are tons in the gut, side effects can be gut related) and the brain... so... i graduated in '09, and that's what we were taught, imho, in a nutshell... boosting serotonin in the brain can help people feel better, etc. Dopamine is another feel- good chemical in the brain... psychosis/ dementia possibly aided by drugs targeting these receptors... and your liver is designed to detoxify everything you take in (foods, supps,drugs, etc).
with that said, in practice, these psych drugs are VERY powerful... in my experience, there must be balance, as in everything in life. tragically, prescribers tend to believe that "if some is good, then more is better," and that is NOT true. pharmacologically. the TRUTH is that higher doses correlates with increased adverse effects in nearly every case, and EVERY pharmaceutical has risks and potential adverse effects....
in my experience, i have seen that judicious use of pHARMa, as i have seen in your posts, Zelda emphasizing HARM, is very helpful in some situations. unfortunately, changing brain chemistry takes time... must be done slowly, started at low doses, monitored frequently, etc., if a drug is to be given at all...
further, i must admit that in my own instance back in early '00's, psych meds saved my brain and possibly my life, as i completed 2 degrees, including my PharmD and a B.S. in health science by '09... so... if we had benevolent motives treating mental illness and used psych drugs carefully, we would use natural remedies first, imho... bottom line is that it's difficult IRL... i hope that helps...
Please ABSOLUTELY do not think I'm attacking you or your personal choices in any way. I am NOT! I DO NOT dismiss anyone's positive experience with, or belief about, any substance, whether natural or synthetic. I do not attack YOU.
What I'm compelled to attack are interest-conflicted systems that promote lies and half-truths. No solid facts exist on dopamine, serotonin, or anything under the category of "mental illness". We've all been sold guesswork and lies under the guise of fact. The 'brain chemistry balance' creators were forced to concede that it was originally 'just' meant as a 'useful metaphor'.
I just lifted this, but I could link all day: https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0030321
Robert Whitaker's Mad in America (dot com); Peter Breggin, MD; and Kelly Brogan, MD are great resources on hard facts of "mental illness".
The human liver/brain/lungs/skin/glands/heart/bones/blood CANNOT process the toxic synthetics we are made to consume (by pharma, food, air, water, consumer goods). That's why we're all sick.
Our bodies were not designed to withstand our processed, synthetic world. What we're indoctrinated to believe are 'safe limits', 'safe amounts', 'safe drugs' were designed by interest-conflicted organizations.
I'm NOT trying to make YOU "wrong" and me "right". I'm aghast every day I learn more. Plandemic just tipped the scales so these toxic systems might actually collapse. I'll cheer!
fascinating, after all this time... reviewing the comments on this thread, my ND (naturopath) told me in '19 that she suggests people try PROBIOTICS (and etc) for mood issues... and she put me on LITHIUM OROTATE (OTC) (lithium used to be in the water, I've heard?) as a mood stabilizer/help with anxiety, as i had lots of stress in high-pressure job i used to thrive in, altho my coworkers were nearly all "bad energy"... (different lithium salts, e.g., chloride, are Rx-only and require lab monitoring etc.)... too much affects the kidneys...
perhaps i will discuss my experience with these in a new comment sometime...
any feelings about probiotics/prebiotics (seems like there has been some controversy? can't remember) and lithium orotate?
excellent points! i feel you're sincerity... it is just what we were taught... bless you and your amazing work... everybody has a story to tell... âĄ
Normally I would put food sources ahead of extracts & tablets, and still eat black grapes & have a glass of Red most days, but the alcohol itself and contaminants undo some of the benefits and the dose is relatively low too for our purposes. Otherwise yes to organics.
There was a study in South Korea about Sea Buckthorn Berries.
Thanks for the heads up, it's all down to it's PACs apparently:
Protective Effect of Proanthocyanidins from Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae Rhamnoides L.) Seed against Visible Light-Induced Retinal Degeneration in Vivo
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4882658/
I grow them and eat the berries with the seeds. About a dozen berries every day from the freezer, along with a number of other berries.
Have you seen Dr Mobeen's youtube on Low Dose Naltrexone for Long Haul C19 and inflammatory issues in general??? Would appreciate your thoughts. Thank you
I hadn't no. Thanks for the heads-up, will look into that further and get back to you.
Too cool! Thank you! Am really reading alot about it because the mechanism seems really interesting for so many things. A friend has long and hard to treat Lyme and I am wondering if it could help her. Thank you!
Here is another article about a treatment for Lyme that I'd never heard of...
https://www.faim.org/silver-nanoparticles-as-a-novel-approach-to-the-treatment-of-chronic-lyme-disease-and-associated
Thanks, and should have antimicrobial efficacy without resistance for other infections too, not just Lyme's associated.
Here is two links to the same website. The lady discusses what she did for her chronic end stage neuro Lyme disease
https://terryherholdt.com/2021/07/18/example-post-3/
https://terryherholdt.com/covid-911/
Excellent link, thanks for posting!
Lyme disease. Funny you mention that, I'm half way through a 4 hour livestream from JC about bio engineered ticks amongst other things.
https://m.twitch.tv/videos/1483976428
Can't access the twitch link. But I have 2 books related to this: 1) "Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons" by Kris Newby (2020) and 2) Less related but deals with the 'politics of Lyme' : "The Situation of Human Rights Defenders of Lyme and Relapsing Fever Borreliosis" featuring a star-studded cast of LLPs as well as Astrid Stuckelberger of recent WHO/Covid whistleblowing fame as advisor. (2018)
Yeah. Sad to say I buy it. Especially after they bioengineered (and RELEASED) mosquitos. Unreal.