Dandelion extract

[forestglip]

I came across someone on Reddit who says dandelion extract is what brought them 95% of the way to recovery from Long COVID.

This is from ten months ago:

Has anyone tried BOTH lactoferrin and dandelion? That combo made a massive difference for me

Long hauling since March 2022 after infection in January 2022. Started as purely psychological symptoms: panic attacks, delusions, psychosis, etc. Then it progressed to include insomnia, fatigue, muscle stiffness, severe depression, memory problems, derealization, and horrible brain fog. Couldn't exercise, couldn't drive to work, basically turned into a cripple on the couch. All the tests that were run on me came back fine, of course.

I tried a stupid amount of supplements and a few meds. To save you time I will only list what helped.

\-Choline supplements starting in December allowed me to start light weightlifting and very careful mountain bike rides.

\-Melatonin helps me actually get to sleep and get some amount of rest. I take 5mg at bedtime and another 3mg if I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep.

\-Low-dose Naltrexone has helped calm my brain just enough to not wake up in a panic at 6am. Instead I wake up around 7:30-8 and cannot sleep beyond that. Still infuriating, but slightly improved.

\-LACTOFERRIN. This made a tremendous difference in my exercise ability. I tapered up to 500mg before every meal for a total of 1500mg per day (and did three weeks of 750mg before each meal). Since taking lactoferring (technically apolactoferrin, Jarrow Formulas from Amazon) I've been able to mountain bike every weekend with greatly-reduced PEM.

My anxiety and delusions still persisted, as did my complete inability to take a nap. I could be so tired that I couldn't keep my eyes open, but my body simply wouldn't go to sleep during the day. Until...

\-One week ago I received Nutricost dandelion root extract, 500mg capsules . I tapered quickly up to two pills before every meal for a total of 3000mg per day. I experienced a few days of worsened insomnia and panic attacks, and then today I woke up peacefully at 9am. The anxiety and delusions are significantly less than they've ever been. And this is the kicker, the thing I've been waiting for to judge my recovery: I TOOK A NAP.

I finally, *finally,* FUCKING FINALLY got a nap for the first time in 16 months. I laid down, had an actual dream, and woke up feeling ACTUALLY REFRESHED.

I know it has been a very short amount of time, but is it a coincidence that just a few days after taking 3000mg/day of dandelion root, my body finally relaxed and did something it has refused to do for 16 months?

As a note, I have also been taking 600mg NAC and 1000mg vitamin C per day, as I hear those help clear up the spike protein once it's been displaced from my cells. Been taking those for months with no improvement on those alone.

Has anyone else tried both dandelion and lactoferrin? From the studies, it seems as though the dandelion is removing spike protein from my cells as expected and lactoferrin is combating the anti-iron action of the spike protein.

I'm typing this post feeling the most normal I've felt in 16 months. Still some minor lingering brain fog, but that's to be expected if I had TBI-type long-COVID.

Here's hoping the improvement continues.

Five months ago:

PSA to anyone taking dandelion

u/Saudis_A_Labias put me onto this important fact: Dandelion root is very high in vitamin A, and mega-dosing it like I have been, I started developing vitamin A toxicity. I simply chalked it up to more long-COVID symptoms before I was warned. Specifically, I started experiencing acne, increased body odor, very dry lips and skin, increased hair shedding, and a feeling of pressure inside my head.

It may also be the reason I’m still struggling with sleep.

I quit taking the dandelion altogether three weeks ago and all the physical symptoms have pretty much gone away. My insomnia is still there, but it does seem to be slowly improving now.

And as long as I keep taking choline and vitamin B, I don’t regress into any of my long-COVID symptoms at all. (If I slack on my choline and vitB I get fatigued and weak again.)

So for those of you mega-dosing the dandelion root, it may be advisable to go in cycles. Three weeks on, two off, something along those lines.

I hope this helps.

Two months ago:

Dandelion root tea isn’t concentrated enough. I had to take 3000-4500mg of root extract daily to cure my PEM and psychosis. Yes I’m using the word cure. I’ve still got lingering issues but those are totally gone.

One month ago:

I mega dosed at 3000-4500mg a day for three months straight. I went through about six weeks where my body started doing weird things and having flu-like symptoms, but my PEM and psychological issues cleared up over that time. I suspect that the persistent viral fragments were being cleared out and causing the random symptoms because I haven’t regressed at all since stopping dandelion.

There are plenty of other damages that the virus causes, so simply removing the remnants isn’t enough. I’ve had to take choline and iron, I’ve had to fix my gut with butyrate, and I’m currently on glycine and NAC to replenish glutathione. I suspect I have screwed up gut bacteria too and need to get that tested.

But I’m now more physically active than I’ve ever been in my life. I lift weights daily and play ice hockey multiple times a week. I used to have a hard time walking up and down stairs and I’d forget things like how to make toast. But I’m chipping away at what I assume are underlying issues (starting with viral remnants) and I’m able to live a life again.

I was surprised to not see much discussion on dandelion extract for LC, ME/CFS, or PEM, apart from this guy, on this forum or elsewhere on the web. Not even many "this didn't work for me"s.

 

[hapl808]

I was surprised to not see much discussion on dandelion extract for LC, ME/CFS, or PEM, apart from this guy, on this forum or elsewhere on the web. Not even many "this didn't work for me"s.

I take it sometimes. Can't tell if it does anything.

 

[Wishful]

Dandelion root coffee (home-made) provided slight benefits for a short time, but then stopped having a noticeable effect.

It's nice to see other people who have cured their PEM. I wonder how many other people managed to do it with something different, and that whatever it was also only provided slight benefits to a few other people.

 

[Mary]

Really interesting - thanks for posting @forestglip !

But I'm puzzled: at 5 months ago, he says he had to stop the dandelion root because of vitamin A toxicity, and recommends cycling it, 3 weeks on and 2 off, something like that.

But at 2 months ago he says:

Dandelion root tea isn’t concentrated enough. I had to take 3000-4500mg of root extract daily to cure my PEM and psychosis. Yes I’m using the word cure. I’ve still got lingering issues but those are totally gone.

And at 1 month ago says:

I mega dosed at 3000-4500mg a day for three months straight. I went through about six weeks where my body started doing weird things and having flu-like symptoms, but my PEM and psychological issues cleared up over that time.

So I'm wondering if the vitamin A toxicity just disappeared? or? how was he able to take a high dose for 3 months straight?

Dandelion root is well known for being beneficial to the liver. I wonder if that had anything to do with the positive effects?

 

[hapl808]

But at 2 months ago he says:

Yeah, I read a bit more closely and it's hard to tell from reports like that. And his initial report seems to be when he'd had a few days of feeling better, which again makes it hard to parse. The POIS forum (post orgasmic illness) usually asks for a full three months of remission or improvement before posting it as a treatment.

In this case, sick for less than two years, so spontaneous recovery is hard to rule out. Reports psychosis and delusions - which seems much more unusual to me for LC. I've heard lots of mood issues, anxiety, panic attacks, etc - but delusions sound more like the onset of schizophrenia, not LC (although seems likely Covid could trigger that, but schizophrenia is very hard to properly track in milder cases).

In addition, their physical symptoms sounded mild overall - they talk about careful weightlifting and cycling. Other than the psychiatric symptoms, it sounds somewhat similar to my very early days when I was doing 20 mins in the gym instead of 1.5 hours - but I got worse over time and sounds like they got better.

Good that they sound physically recovered, though. I've tried most of the stuff they mentioned - all forms of choline, iron, NAC, glycine, dandelion, same lactoferrin, etc. They did take much higher doses of dandelion than I've tried, however.

 

[forestglip]

Really interesting - thanks for posting @forestglip !

But I'm puzzled: at 5 months ago, he says he had to stop the dandelion root because of vitamin A toxicity, and recommends cycling it, 3 weeks on and 2 off, something like that.

But at 2 months ago he says:



And at 1 month ago says:



So I'm wondering if the vitamin A toxicity just disappeared? or? how was he able to take a high dose for 3 months straight?

Dandelion root is well known for being beneficial to the liver. I wonder if that had anything to do with the positive effects?

I assumed the messages at 2 and 1 month ago were long after he stopped taking it, saying what he did previously and how the positive effects remained.

 

[Jyoti]

I've been taking strong dandelion root/leaf tea twice a day for intracranial hypertension and it does a pretty nice job of draining my head. Obviously the phytochemicals can't be so accurately measured in tea as in an extract; I suspect that I am taking a tiny, tiny fraction of what this guy took/is taking.

It hasn't affected my ME at all, but it has decreased pressure inside my skull, a nice alternative to Diamox in terms of diuretics. I am grateful not to have that pain on top of everything else.

However, I am not betting that this is an answer for many of us. Still, good on him for finding the 'cure' for his LC.

 

[LINE]

I don't know if dandelion is antagonistic to the C19 virus but likely has some antiviral properties as do many polyphenols. Dandelion is known to move the liver/gallbladder and with chronic infections, I think it is safe to say that the liver is burdened, so perhaps some help there.