Scientists have been musing about the possibility of the SSRI fluvoxamine (Luvox) to treat Covid-19 since last year, and if you want the full skinny on why, I wrote about it earlier this year.
Basically, fluvoxamine (and many other SSRI’s) seem good at reducing important inflammatory markers that go nuts when Covid goes nuts and produces the infamous ctyokine storm.
One of the most important, offending markers is interleukin-6, and fluvoxamine seems particularly good at suppressing IL-6.
That’s only part of the mechanism, but a crucial part, and for the past year, I’ve googled IL-6 for just about every medicine, supplement, and food I imbibe.
And yeah, turns out Luvox is the standout among SSRI’s (although other antidepressants also do a good job at reducing inflammation).
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In a massive, randomized clinical trial performed with thousands of patients over the last six months, McMaster University tested eight different treatments for COVID-19 against a control group to explore what’s effective.
Out of tall eight treatments, one medication stood out-fluvoxamine. This is an antidepressant that the Food and Drug Administration has already to be “safe to use and cheap to produce as a generic drug.”
These new findings follow some promising results in small-scale trials published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2020. In those smaller studies, scientists discovered that fluvoxamine was strikingly good at decreasing hospitalization for COVID-19 patients, although small-scale trials can at times turn up spurious positive results. Therefore, those findings were evidently tempered by many caveats.
The study, titled “TOGETHER study” is quite larger, involving over 3,000 patients across the entire research, with 800 participants belonging to the fluvoxamine group, and backs the promising outcomes from those past studies.
Patients who received fluvoxamine within a few days from getting tested positive for COVID-19 were found to be 31 percent less likely to end up on a ventilator.
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End quote.
Now I’ve written a lot about how reluctant American Christians are these days to trust pharmaceutical companies.
The distrust is a sad, but real phenomenon, considering that these companies are populated by wonderful people, trying to cure diseases and make our lives better.
But, if you’re still distrustful, to hopefully put your mind at ease, this isn’t a “money-making” pharma opportunity, because fluvoxamine is a generic drug now.
And generics aren’t big money-makers.
That being said, always talk to your doctor before starting anything.
Luvox is a first-line medicinal treatment for OCD, so naturally I’ve tried it, and I had a poor reaction to it.
But it’s considered a very good, tolerable drug, and wouldn’t it be remarkable if it really were this effective against Covid?
Here’s a really good, thorough read on how fluvoxamine emerged as such a potentially potent treatment for Covid.
P.S. Elevated Il-6 has been implicated in numerous autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, due to its signal of chronic inflammation. It’s also been implicated in the development of Alzheimer’s and other bete-noires of the body.
Drugs can help treat elevated Il-6, and lifestyle choices affect it, as well.
Here’s a particularly good explainer of IL-6, including some good ways to reduce levels, based on great studies.
Key things: Get a good sleep, nutrient dense diet, get enough Vitamin D, take care of your teeth, exercise moderately, maintain normal body weight (no obesity or anorexia), reduce stress, and get enough Omega3’s.
