Roughly 7% of Americans have had long COVID, a variety of ongoing health problems experienced after infection and recovery from COVID-19. Symptoms can include fatigue, brain fog, headaches, chest pain, heart palpitations, and more.
There isn’t any proven treatment for the syndrome and the mechanisms that cause it should not fully understood.
Now, a brand new clinical trial from Keck Medicine of USC is investigating if a weight loss program designed to lower inflammation may play a task in easing this often debilitating condition.
Clinical Trial: Long COVID-19 Syndrome Lifestyle Intervention Study. Image Credit: Timolina / Shutterstock
The premise of the trial revolves around recent research indicating that long COVID could also be brought on by a hyper-inflammatory response that becomes activated during COVID-19 because the body fights off the virus but, in some people, doesn’t recede even after the infection has passed. High inflammation levels can result in organ damage and other health problems.
“We’re examining if food selection can quiet the body’s inflammatory response and in doing so, effectively minimize or curtail long COVID symptoms,” said Adupa Rao, MD, an investigator of the clinical trial and medical director of the Keck Medicine Covid Recovery Clinic.
The study will examine the anti-inflammatory effect of a low-carbohydrate weight loss program to lower blood glucose (sugar) levels together with a medical food that raises blood ketone levels. Ketones, including beta-hydroxybutyrate, the lively ketone on this food, are chemicals the body produces to offer energy when the body is low on carbohydrates and sugars. A low-carb weight loss program and ketones have each been related to reduced inflammation.
Researchers plan to enroll 50 long COVID patients treated by Keck Medicine’s Covid Recovery Clinic. Half the individuals will receive a 30-day dietary intervention, and half is not going to. At the top of the month, researchers will determine how patients tolerated the regimen and compare inflammatory markers and long COVID symptoms between the 2 groups of patients.
If patients tolerate the dietary intervention well and improve their health issues, researchers plan to expand the clinical trial to a bigger population.
“Research like ours is significant to expand our understanding of long COVID and ultimately help discover effective treatments to enhance patient’s quality of life,” said the principal investigator of the clinical trial, Nuria Pastor-Soler, MD, Ph.D., who can be an associate professor of medication on the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “The trial results will hopefully move us closer to potential solutions.”
Ken Hallows, MD, PhD, a professor of medication on the Keck School of Medicine, can be a researcher on this study. The clinical trial is funded by the Amy P. Goldman Foundation.