Spironolactone for viruses - personal experience gathering

[MartinK]

Hey, I did 5 weeks with Spironolactone 25 mg as Dr. do Campo recommended. No side effects, blood work OK, diuretic effect unobserved. But, looks like this drug not work for me. I stopped it on Tuesday. Hope it will work for someone else! I would be happy!

 

[Marylib]

I've been taking a half dose for a week and go full dose tomorrow. The diuretic effect seems to have stopped. Or at least I don't notice it after a week. I kind of like it, but we'll see how it goes. I have to send some blood work to my GP who seems to think I am new at this kind of thing. It seems a bit stimulating. I stopped my mestinon while I'm trying it. Do you mean testosterone @godlovesatrier? I can't remember your gender, but at my age, I don't really care about my libido anymore. I mean, it's great to have one, but I prefer being able to think and get out of bed. I'm sure the spirolactone is not helping my POTS, but...you can't have everything. Maybe it will keep more hair on my head. That's one of its off-label uses. Anti-androgen-hair loss-remedy.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Thanks for the update Mary. I'm a man just so you know, so yeah lowering t levels isn't so good for me, causes too many problems, not just sex drive, mood and other things too.

 

[Marylib]

Yeah, I get it. Hormones are a big deal @godlovesatrier. I'm continually telling my GP I feel better on hormone replacement therapy and she says "But you have a uterus! It could get endometrial cancer!" And I say - three words; Quality of Life. She still doesn't get it. Makes me want to wring her neck.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Yeah. I'd have tried tagamet too but that's really bad for men. Seemingly ok for women to use it. Goldstein used to see improvements with some of his ME patients when they took that stuff.

Exactly Goldstein was the same! If the patient is already bedbound and suicidal then what does it matter?! They just want to be alive.

So what symptom improvements have you seen? Are you able to list them?

Thanks

 

[Marylib]

@godlovesatrier I stopped the trial for now because I'm hoping to get my saline infusions going, as well as hormone replacement, etc. I felt a slight increase in energy -maybe it's the antiviral action. I keep track of the things I do respond well to - so it's on the plus column at the moment. The saline infusions would offset any fluid loss, though, as I said, the diuretic effect didn't last more than two weeks.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Great to hear. Maybe it had a small effect? Always hard to tell when the effects are so gradual.

 

[Marylib]

Will start the spirinolactone again soon - since I did like it once the increased urination went away on its own. As usual, my problem is being mobile and well enough to get to the lab to have the blood drawn for the tests my GP wants every 2 weeks. I've promised her I won't overdose on potassium rich foods. In the meantime, there was at one point some interest in this drug as a treatment or maybe prophylaxis for severe consequences of SARS CoV 2. Seems it competes with the virus when it tries to latch onto the ACE2 receptors. There are a few references here and there, like this one:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7363620/

 

[Caribjdc]

I am a 49 yr old male and was on Spironolactone for approx 16 months under the protocol trialled by Dr Do Campo in Queensland Australis - 25mg / day. I came off it in October 2022 after noticing I was starting to grow some additional breast tissue under my left nipple. This was obviously disconcerting initially as I had not made the connection with Spirolactone and possible breast tissue growth cited in the literature and side effects. It took over 14 months to appear and as it was only on one side, it did concern me. After 6 weeks off Spironolactone it had gone completely. The thing is I was doing really well ME/CFS symptom wise on Spironolactone and remained very good with minimal brain fog and fatigue for probably two months after coming off it. But started to notice the brain fog, irritability and emotional elasticity fraying plus the familiar low-grade fatigue setting in again. So have decided to restart Spironolactone again and will try 3 months on and maybe a month off and see how I go. For me, I believe my symptoms of ME/CFS are related to reactivated EBV as the spironolactone has definitely helped alleviate my chronic fatigue symptoms very significantly. Quality of life is the goal right? So need to find the balance of lack of ME/CFS symptoms with minimising any side effects on testosterone and breast tissue growth.

 

[Hip]

The thing is I was doing really well ME/CFS symptom wise on Spironolactone and remained very good with minimal brain fog and fatigue for probably two months after coming off it.

This is very interesting. If I were an EBV ME/CFS patient, I would certainly like to try spironolactone. Unfortunately my ME/CFS is linked to coxsackievirus B.

Can I ask, when you started spironolactone 25 mg daily, how long did it take for the full benefits to manifest? Was it a matter of days or weeks, or are we talking some months?

And on the the 5-point ME/CFS scale of: very severe, severe, moderate, mild, remission , where would say you were before spironolactone treatment? And where did you end up on this scale after the benefits of spironolactone kicked in?

 

[VintageME]

This is very interesting. If I were an EBV ME/CFS patient, I would certainly like to try spironolactone. Unfortunately, my ME/CFS is linked to coxsackievirus B.

My concern with spironolactone is that it is an aldosterone antagonist. So it could worsen POTS / dysautonomia because it's going to reduce blood volume and sodium retention.

I was diagnosed with CVB4 recently (contracted it two months ago). I was basically roadkill for several weeks. After increasing my dose of luteolin and PEA (palmitoylethanolamide) and adding a little raw cacao powder I was able to bounce back. My new cytokine panel is normal and we're waiting on the updated neutralizing antibody titer.

This was in reference to CVB3 but I think it must have the same effect on CVB4. I'm taking 100 mg luteolin and 400 mg PEA.

Luteolin Inhibits CVB3 Replication Through Inhibiting Inflammation (peer-reviewed journal)

 

[cheeseater]

Spironolactone is a potassium sparing (mild) diuretic that is often used in combination with something like diltiazem for high blood pressure, when "heart failure" is also present. Sometimes a good nephrologist will use spironolactone as part of a high blood pressure regimen, to avoid the use of potassium horse pills (which ore usually needed with regular use of other diuretics).

 

[Forummember9922]

I am a 49 yr old male and was on Spironolactone for approx 16 months under the protocol trialled by Dr Do Campo in Queensland Australis - 25mg / day. I came off it in October 2022 after noticing I was starting to grow some additional breast tissue under my left nipple. This was obviously disconcerting initially as I had not made the connection with Spirolactone and possible breast tissue growth cited in the literature and side effects. It took over 14 months to appear and as it was only on one side, it did concern me. After 6 weeks off Spironolactone it had gone completely. The thing is I was doing really well ME/CFS symptom wise on Spironolactone and remained very good with minimal brain fog and fatigue for probably two months after coming off it. But started to notice the brain fog, irritability and emotional elasticity fraying plus the familiar low-grade fatigue setting in again. So have decided to restart Spironolactone again and will try 3 months on and maybe a month off and see how I go. For me, I believe my symptoms of ME/CFS are related to reactivated EBV as the spironolactone has definitely helped alleviate my chronic fatigue symptoms very significantly. Quality of life is the goal right? So need to find the balance of lack of ME/CFS symptoms with minimising any side effects on testosterone and breast tissue growth.

May I trouble you to provide an update on your experience resuming Spironolactone?

 

[Caribjdc]

May I trouble you to provide an update on your experience resuming Spironolactone?

I'm taking one 25mg tablet every 2 days now and still find that my fatigue and brain fog symptoms are greatly reduced. No evidence of breast tissue growth thus far at this lower dose. So feel I have found a suitable balance for now. CFS symptoms can still occur 24-48hrs post exertion if I overdo the intensity of exercise, but do my best to remain under the threshold of initiating that response.