Oral Bacteriotherapy Reduces the Occurrence of Chronic Fatigue in COVID-19 Patients, 2022, Santinelli et al

Long COVID refers to patients with symptoms as fatigue, “brain fog,” pain, suggesting the chronic involvement of the central nervous system (CNS) in COVID-19. The supplementation with probiotic (OB) would have a positive effect on metabolic homeostasis, negatively impacting the occurrence of symptoms related to the CNS after hospital discharge. On a total of 58 patients hospitalized for COVID-19, 24 (41.4%) received OB during hospitalization (OB+) while 34 (58.6%) taken only the standard treatment (OB–). Serum metabolomic profiling of patients has been performed at both hospital acceptance (T0) and discharge (T1). Six months after discharge, fatigue perceived by participants was assessed by administrating the Fatigue Assessment Scale. 70.7% of participants reported fatigue while 29.3% were negative for such condition. The OB+ group showed a significantly lower proportion of subjects reporting fatigue than the OB– one (p < 0.01). Furthermore, OB+ subjects were characterized by significantly increased concentrations of serum Arginine, Asparagine, Lactate opposite to lower levels of 3-Hydroxyisobutirate than those not treated with probiotics. Our results strongly suggest that in COVID-19, the administration of probiotics during hospitalization may prevent the development of chronic fatigue by impacting key metabolites involved in the utilization of glucose as well as in energy pathways.

Open access, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.756177/full

 

Uh...sounds highly improbable.

 

There have been a couple papers indicating that respiratory infection (in mice) alters the gut microbiome.

2018 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5816042/
2020 https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mBio.03236-19

The more recent paper found that this alteration was actually caused by the decrease in food consumption by the mice as a result of the infection.

The earlier paper had found that the new composition of at least one component of the microbiome was was a matter of chance.

In the more recent paper, increasing the appetite of the mice reversed [or perhaps prevented?] these changes.

I realize it would be a long shot, but it would be strange if an alteration in the gut microbiome following an infection had something to do with the development of ME/CFS or Long Covid. It would be even stranger if that alteration were caused by something as simple as a loss of appetite during infection.

 

Over the course of my illness the British diet and the availability of foodstuffs has changed dramatically but it has had no effect on how I have been. In fact I am much worse now, though that is probably due to age and the consequences of serious disease rather than diet.

I ate more vegetables yesterday than I could have afforded for a week in 1975.

 

I thought that the best probiotics had to be "live".

Covid, which would (as far as I know) usually be accompanied by a fever, would probably kill off any "good" bacteria swallowed by the patient.