Functional Role of Dietary Intervention to Improve the Outcome of COVID-19: A Hypothesis of Work (original) (raw)

Do Diet and Dietary Supplements Mitigate Clinical Outcomes in COVID-19?

Nutrients

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused a pandemic and upheaval that health authorities and citizens around the globe are still grappling with to this day. While public health measures, vaccine development, and new therapeutics have made great strides in understanding and managing the pandemic, there has been an increasing focus on the potential roles of diet and supplementation in disease prevention and adjuvant treatment. In the literature, the impact of nutrition on other respiratory illnesses, including the common cold, pneumonia, and influenza, has been widely demonstrated in both animal and human models. However, there is much less research on the impact related to COVID-19. The present study discusses the potential uses of diets, vitamins, and supplements, including the Mediterranean diet, glutathione, zinc, and traditional Chinese medicine, in the prevention of infection and severe illness. The evidence demonstrating the efficacy of diet supplementation on infecti...

COVID-19: The Inflammation Link and the Role of Nutrition in Potential Mitigation

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has engulfed the world, affecting more than 180 countries. As a result, there has been considerable economic distress globally and a significant loss of life. Sadly, the vulnerable and immunocompromised in our societies seem to be more susceptible to severe COVID-19 complications. Global public health bodies and governments have ignited strategies and issued advisories on various handwashing and hygiene guidelines, social distancing strategies, and, in the most extreme cases, some countries have adopted "stay in place" or lockdown protocols to prevent COVID-19 spread. Notably, there are several significant risk factors for severe COVID-19 infection. These include the presence of poor nutritional status and pre-existing noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes mellitus, chronic lung diseases, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), obesity, and various other diseases that render the patient immunocompromised. These diseases are characterized by systemic inflammation, which may be a common feature of these NCDs, affecting patient outcomes against COVID-19. In this review, we discuss some of the anti-inflammatory therapies that are currently under investigation intended to dampen the cytokine storm of severe COVID-19 infections. Furthermore, nutritional status and the role of diet and lifestyle is considered, as it is known to affect patient outcomes in other severe infections and may play a role in COVID-19 infection. This review speculates the importance of nutrition as a mitigation strategy to support immune function amid the COVID-19 pandemic, identifying food groups and key nutrients of importance that may affect the outcomes of respiratory infections.

Multidisciplinary therapeutic potentials of dietary nutrients in combating COVID-19 pandemic

International journal of applied chemical and biological sciences, 2021

A novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has rapidly spread from a regular seafood market in Wuhan, China to more than 200 countries, globally infecting millions of people with a dangerous pneumonia like fatal conditions. Depending upon the immunity of individual, the severity of infection and its viral load, symptoms varied from mild to severe leading to Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and sepsis. Thus, in order to combat the symptoms and reduce the death rate it was accepted globally to use pre-used anti-viral, anti-malaria, antiinflammatory and various immune-boosters drugs. The drugs are undergoing clinical trials to increase its safety efficiency simultaneously suppressing viral infection. Along with drugs, the micronutrients like vitamin C, vitamin D and Zinc are also used as immune-boosters in combination with drugs to increase the efficiency rate and reduce the side effects. Following review, describes the clinical trials currently undergoing and importance of micro-and macro nutrients to overcome hyper-inflammation and cytokine storm generated by SARS-CoV-2.

Hospital diet for COVID-19, an acute respiratory infectious disease: An evidence-based Protocol of a Clinical Trial

Caspian Journal of Internal Medicine, 2020

Background: COVID-19 caused a global pandemic problem. No confident management is introduced for it yet. This study aimed to propose a dietary protocol for hospitalized patients with the diagnosis of acute respiratory infectious disease caused by COVID-19 based on Persian Medicine. Methods: This study was conducted in three phases. In the first phase, any diseases that could be matched with the clinical features of infection with COVID-19 were searched in selected PM references. In the second phase, medicinal herbs and foods that were available and could be used in the hospital diet were extracted and summarized. In the third phase, the new documentation of these pharmaceutical and food items was conducted. Results: The signs and symptoms of infectious respiratory disease caused by COVID-19 can be categorized in the field of Zato al-rieh that can mainly be matched with pneumonia. Based on the described criteria, some nutrients and medicinal materia medica have been introduced for acute respiratory infection including Cydonia oblonga,

Food and COVID-19: Preventive/Co-therapeutic Strategies Explored by Current Clinical Trials and in Silico Studies

Foods

Foods, food ingredients, and their balanced consumption are recognized to have an important role in achieving or maintaining a state of wellbeing by acting as carriers of functional components and bioactive molecules. However, the potential contribution of foods to consumers’ health has so far only been partially exploited. The rapidly evolving scenario of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is stimulating profound reflection on the relationships between food and the etiological agent, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Here, the status of knowledge regarding food as a possible defense/co-therapeutic strategy against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is considered through the discussion of two main current lines of research. One line of research relates to the role of micronutrients, food components, and diets in the strengthening of the immune system through clinical trials; formulations could be developed as immune system enhancers or as co-adj...

Effect of an Immune-Boosting, Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Food Supplement in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: A Prospective Randomized Pilot Study

Nutrients

Background: COVID-19 disease is a serious global health problem. Few treatments have been shown to reduce mortality and accelerate time to recovery. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential effect of a food supplement (probiotics, prebiotics, vitamin D, zinc and selenium) in patients admitted with COVID-19. Methods: A prospective randomized non-blinded clinical trial was conducted in a sample of 162 hospitalized patients diagnosed with COVID-19 recruited over eight months. All patients received standard treatment, but the intervention group (n = 67) was given one food supplement stick daily during their admission. After collecting the study variables, a statistical analysis was performed comparing the intervention and control groups and a multivariate analysis controlling for variables that could act as confounding factors. Results: ROC curve analysis with an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.840 (p < 0.001; 95%CI: 0.741–0.939) of the food supplement administration...

The Role of Diet and Supplements in the Prevention and Progression of COVID-19: Current Knowledge and Open Issues

Preventive Nutrition and Food Science

A healthy diet and dietary supplements have gained attention as potential co-adjuvants in managing and preventing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This paper critically reviews the current evidence regarding the impact of diet and supplements on the prevention and progression of COVID-19. According to available data, a healthy diet and normal weight are considered protective factors. Regarding dietary supplementation, the most robust results from human studies are for vitamin C, which appears to decrease inflammatory markers and suppress cytokine storm. A small, randomized trial showed that a high dose of vitamin D significantly reduced the need for intensive care unit treatment of patients requiring hospitalization for COVID-19. According to retrospective human studies, there is limited evidence for vitamin E and selenium supplements. Animal studies have investigated the effects of green tea and curcumin. Xanthohumol and probiotics, interesting for their antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and immunoregulatory properties, need formal clinical study. In summary, there is promising evidence supporting the role of diet and supplements as co-adjuvants in the treatment of COVID-19. Further studies and properly designed clinical trials are necessary to draw more robust conclusions; however, it is not unreasonable to take a pragmatic approach and promote the use of appropriate diet and supplements to counter the effects of COVID-19, ideally with a mechanism to assess outcomes.

COVID-19: Role of Nutrition and Supplementation

Nutrients

At the end of 2019, a new coronavirus (COVID-19) appeared on the world scene, which mainly affects the respiratory system, causing pneumonia and multi-organ failure, and, although it starts with common symptoms such as shortness of breath and fever, in about 2–3% of cases it leads to death. Unfortunately, to date, no specific treatments have been found for the cure of this virus and, therefore, it is advisable to implement all possible strategies in order to prevent infection. In this context, it is important to better define the role of all behaviors, in particular nutrition, in order to establish whether these can both prevent infection and improve the outcome of the disease in patients with COVID-19. In the literature, it is widely shown that states of malnutrition, overweight, and obesity negatively affect the immune system, leading to viral infections, and several studies have shown that nutritional interventions can act as immunostimulators, helping to prevent viral infections...

Nutritional perspectives for the prevention and mitigation of COVID-19

Nutrition Reviews, 2020

Worldwide, there is an array of clinical trials under way to evaluate treatment options against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Concurrently, several nutritional therapies and alternative supportive treatments are also being used and tested to reduce the mortality associated with acute respiratory distress in patients with COVID-19. In the context of COVID-19, improved nutrition that includes micronutrient supplementation to augment the immune system has been recognized as a viable approach to both prevent and alleviate the severity of the infection. The potential role of micronutrients as immune-boosting agents is particularly relevant for low- and middle-income countries, which already have an existing high burden of undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. A systematic literature review was performed to identify nutritional interventions that might prevent or aid in the recovery from COVID-19. The PubMed, S...