A $20 gym supplement may help people suffering from LONG COVID, trial suggests

A popular workout-boosting supplement could alleviate fatigue associated with long Covid for the estimated 16 million Americans who suffer from the symptom that lasts long after they have recovered from the virus.

Athletes and weightlifters often take creatine supplements to speed up energy production in their muscles, which improves performance and helps build strength.

However, researchers at the University of Novi Sad in Serbia found that people with long Covid, a condition that encompasses a wide range of lingering symptoms after recovering from Covid, saw relief in their chronic feelings of fatigue when they took a creatine supplement. daily for six months.

An estimated one in 13 adults in the US has long Covid, which includes persistent feelings of exhaustion that disrupt daily life and even a person’s ability to be a parent and go to work. And up to 35 percent of people who report long Covid symptoms are likely to still experience fatigue. six months later.

That creatine, an easily accessible dietary supplement, could be used to treat long Covid symptoms would be a breakthrough for potentially millions of people. It is usually found in red meat and seafood, although not in concentrations as high as those found in supplements.

Doctors from Serbia, Norway and Hungary conducted a trial involving 12 adults who had tested positive for Covid in the previous three months.

All of them had been experiencing persistent fatigue due to long Covid and were randomly assigned to take a placebo supplement or four grams of creatine monohydrate, the same type that can be found in pharmacies and vitamin stores.

Study participants ingested powdered supplements that were mixed with water every day at breakfast for six months and were monitored throughout the process.

The researchers took measurements of the volunteers at the beginning of the study, including tissue creatine levels, fatigue levels, and other long-Covid markets. Those same measurements were taken again at three months and again at six months.

Participants taking creatine reported a significant improvement in their overall fatigue at three months and their improvement in fatigue continued up to six months. Mental fatigue and reduced motivation saw the greatest improvements from baseline to three months and again at six months.

Meanwhile, people who took a placebo saw their general, physical and mental fatigue worsen at both the three- and six-month follow-ups.

The supplements increased creatine levels in skeletal muscles, including the brain, by up to 33 percent. The researchers also noted that the six people who had been taking creatine had a 78 percent reduction in difficulty concentrating. At six months, they had no concentration problems.

Within six months, several of his other long-Covid symptoms improved, including breathing difficulties, body aches, headaches, loss of taste and difficulty concentrating.

The researchers did not conclusively say what gives creatine its long-lasting ability to fight Covid. However, the researchers noted that the compound, which occurs naturally in the body, replenishes supplies of a molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which drives energy production in cells.

The brain also depends on ATP, which could explain its benefits in supporting cognitive function.

To measure creatine’s effect on Covid-related fatigue, the team of doctors began by giving subjects the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory test, which asked them to rate their fatigue on a scale of one to five: one being the who agreed the most and five who agreed the most. being the one who disagrees the most.

The test measures five dimensions of fatigue, including general fatigue, physical fatigue, reduced motivation, reduced activity, and mental fatigue with a list of 20 statements such as “I am rested” and “It takes a lot of effort to concentrate on things.” things”. .

The researchers measured tissue creatine levels using an imaging technique similar to MRI at the start of the trial, three months and six months.

Participants were also made to walk on a treadmill at different speeds so the researchers could measure the amount of time it took them to reach exhaustion. Those who had been taking creatine for six months lasted a little more than a minute longer on the treadmill than those who had been taking a placebo.

The authors wrote: ‘We found that creatine outperforms placebo in improving creatine levels in the brain and skeletal muscle after the intervention in the medium term, and reduces several features of post-COVID fatigue syndrome, including lung pain and body, and lack of concentration.

“Creatine did not produce any significant side effects and could therefore be recommended as a safe and effective intervention to address post-COVID-19 fatigue syndrome.”

Long Covid is a broad diagnosis made up of a constellation of different health problems ranging from fatigue, especially after physical exertion, mental confusion, chest pain, heart palpitations, body aches and depression.

Symptoms can last months or even years after recovering from coronavirus. Some epidemiologists believe that the actual total number of Americans with long Covid is actually much higher given that many people may not realize that what they are experiencing is related to their previous Covid infection.

And because the symptoms could be associated with different health problems, such as heart problems or chronic fatigue syndrome, long Covid can be easily overlooked as a possible diagnosis.

Compounding the difficulty of identifying the cause of the problems, doctors treating a patient complaining of long Covid symptoms are likely to find normal X-rays, blood tests and other laboratory results.

The Serbian study is not the first to examine the possible benefits of creatine for chronic fatigue, although it was not related to Covid or fibromyalgia, a condition that causes pain throughout the body and is often accompanied by fatigue.

But this is the first human study to specifically test the effectiveness and safety of creatine for prolonged Covid-related fatigue.

The study was published in the journal Food science and nutrition.