COVID-19 and Probiotics

COVID-19 has swept the world up in a whirlwind of confusion and panic. As people do their best to remain healthy, governments try to develop reasonable guidelines for public safety, and doctors strive to treat patients the best they can, researchers are determined to find more effective methods of treating those with the virus.

Thanks to the newness of COVD-19 and the subsequent lack of knowledge regarding it, everything from medications proven in the treatment of other illnesses to untested strategies are being evaluated. Ideally, a treatment would be effective, readily available, and cost-effective for use by the general public. As such, doctors remain hopeful that a common, proven method will show signs of usefulness.

A treatment that falls into all three of these categories for numerous other health issues is the use of probiotics.

Probiotics as a Health Supplement

The value of probiotics is well-known in the medical community and in large portions of the general population. They are a safe supplement used for a myriad of benefits and treatments, making them exceptionally popular.

Common advantages of probiotics are numerous, and many of them could translate to effective COVID-19 treatment. For example, probiotics are often used to improve the health of the gut by manipulating gut microbiota. Probiotics also activate mucosal immunity and aid in the suppression of pathogens in the gut.

The Potential Link Between Probiotics and COVID-19

The aforementioned benefits can apply to the effects of COVID-19, as they contribute heavily to combatting the opportunistic pathogen in the gut. The additional benefits of probiotics that could make them a viable treatment for COVID-19 include the reduction of translocation of opportunistic organisms, modulation of the adaptive and innate immune response.

Due to these innate benefits of probiotics and how they could, in theory, be used to effectively combat COVID-19, researchers consider them to be potential candidates for use in cases of COVID-19 that qualify as moderate or severe. As such, testing of this theory has been proposed.

What it Means

While hard research has not yet emerged, the potential of probiotics as a viable treatment for moderate and severe cases of COVID-19 is real, and researchers are excited about the possibilities. Should testing support the theory and prove that probiotics do, in fact, provide measurable benefits when used to treat COVID-19, the findings would be groundbreaking.

Probiotics are readily available, provide numerous health benefits beyond the potential use to treat COVID-19, require no special administration, are exceptionally affordable, and have a proven record of being safe. If their benefits translate to COVID-19 treatment, it could very well be a game-changer for the medical community and the global population.