Could the Gut Microbiome Be A Key to Healing COVID Long-Haulers?

[ljimbo423]

Here are a couple of quotes from the article. The whole article is longer than these quotes. The link is at the bottom of this post.

Could Gut Dysbiosis Be the Cause of COVID Long-Haulers Symptoms?

According to some emerging studies, those struggling with long-lasting COVID symptoms have been found to have a distinct and specific gut microbiota signature.8,9

That means that individuals who experience long-term effects after an infection with COVID-19 have an identifiable shift in the balance of their microbiome. In particular, these individuals have been found to have an increase in harmful opportunistic microbes such as:10

• Acidaminococcus
• Alistipes
• Anaerotignum
• Bilophila
• Dynosmobacter
• Parasutterella

Along with a spike in “bad” microbes, these COVID long-haulers have simultaneously been found to have a decrease in beneficial microbes such as:10

• Akkermansia
• Bifidobacterium
• Collinsella
• Coprococcus

This information might just be the key to understanding the long term effects of COVID, and most importantly – what we can do about it. Because if we can identify dysbiosis as an underlying cause of symptoms, then we can begin working on re-balancing the microbiome and healing the gut.

How to Better Balance Gut Bacteria After COVID

So how exactly can you begin balancing your microbiome and healing your gut? By taking a big-picture holistic approach and integrating lifestyle changes, including:

• Probiotics: Incorporating a high-quality daily probiotic is one of the most effective and simple ways to ensure you’re re-introducing beneficial bacteria to your gut. Daily probiotics also provide continued support to these crucial microbes. Another favorite of mine is the new Spore Probiotic with IG!
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• Plenty of gut-supporting nutrients: Your gut relies on certain compounds and nutrients to function properly and heal – particularly when trying to bounce back from dysbiosis. Two of my favorite gut-supporting supplements are collagen to help reinforce the lining of your intestinal tract and Gut Calm or Gut Shield in yummy chocolate to bolster your gut lining while supporting a diverse and thriving microbiome.
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• A gut-friendly diet: Probiotics and gut-supporting nutrients are a waste if your diet doesn’t also support gut health. Focus on quality foods like fresh vegetables and fruits, high-quality proteins, and healthy fats – while also minimizing inflammatory processed foods.
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• A lower overall toxic burden: An accumulation of harmful toxins can wreak havoc on your gut – breaking down your intestinal barrier, promoting dysbiosis, and skyrocketing overall inflammation. Taking steps to reduce your exposure to toxins while simultaneously enhancing your own natural detoxification pathways can help your body focus on healing and rebalancing your gut. Click here to learn more about the exact steps you can take to begin lowering your toxic burden today.
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• Ways to minimize and manage stress: Just like you have a gut-lung axis, you also have a gut-brain axis. Meaning stress, worry, and negative thoughts can put a serious damper on your gut health. While you certainly can’t avoid all stress, taking steps to minimize it while incorporating healthy ways to manage the unavoidable stress can play a pivotal role in helping your gut heal post COVID. Some tried-and-true ways to cope with stress include working out, meditation, connecting with a loved one, or simply spending some time in the great outdoors.
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• Seek out the guidance of a functional and integrative medicine practitioner: At this point, the lingering symptoms seen in COVID long-haulers are complicated, and quite honestly, not very well understood. So if you’re concerned that you or a loved one is struggling with long-lasting COVID symptoms, it’s crucial to get support.

While all of these steps are important to recovering and balancing your gut after COVID, I cannot overemphasize the importance of working with an experienced functional and integrative medicine practitioner.

They will help you identify the root cause of your symptoms and come up with a comprehensive plan to get you on the road to recovery. If you’re new to the functional medicine approach, head over and read my article all about how to choose the right functional medicine doctor for you by clicking right here.

Link to article

 

[BrightCandle]

If it was just gut issues I think we might have found lots of recovery already from probiotics drugs as well as foods. But sadly they only seem to impact the gut itself, rather than a cause its more likely to be a consequence. By all means address it, this eases gut related issues and that is worth it but it doesn't look like the cause of the symptoms.

I do probiotics, Kefir, Kombucha and Kimchi daily and the Kimchi is a variety of fermented foods, have been doing this most of this year. Has helped the constipation but its not curative just a treatment for one symptom.