Magnesium and Q10 protect against covid

Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "

06.09.2021

We have already reported a number of times that supplements with zinc and of course vitamin D3 protect against covid. Researchers from Clalit Health Services in Israel analyzed the data of thousands of covid patients, and discovered a few more natural substances that may protect against SARS-Cov2. The two most important are Q10 and magnesium.

Magnesium and Q10 protect against covid

Supplements against covid
Just to refresh our knowledge. If you want to use supplements to protect yourself against covid, the first thing you think of is vitamin D and zinc. And when you think of zinc, you may think of a combination with quercetin, which in itself also seems to have an antiviral effect.

Second, you think of vitamin K, and maybe omega-3 fatty acids and selenium.

Are there any other supplements that can protect against covid? That's not exactly what Ariel Israel and his colleagues wanted to know. They were mainly looking for medicines that are already in use and that can reduce the risk of hospitalization after infection with SARS-Cov2.

Study

So the researchers determined drug use in two samples of 6530 and 6953 covid patients who ended up in hospital, respectively, and compared that in one study with the drug use of 32650 average Israelis [study 1] and in the other with that of 13906 covid patients who did not end up in hospital [study 2].

These drugs also included supplements. That is what we focus on in this post.

Results
In study 1, the researchers found remarkably few admitted covid patients who had taken Q10, vitamin D3 [which is the same as cholecalciferol], magnesium and Ginkgo biloba. The protective effect of Q10 was particularly striking.

Click on the tables below for a larger version.

Study 2 also suggested that Q10, magnesium and vitamin D3 protected against covid. In addition, in this study, supplements with vitamin B12 and zinc also seemed to protect the risk of hospitalization due to covid.

Mechanisms
Israel's publication confirms what we already know about vitamin D and zinc. The two big surprises in the study are the protective effect of magnesium and Q10.

The researchers suspect that magnesium supplementation increases the activation of vitamin D in the body. They are less sure about Q10. They speculate that during a SARS-Cov2 infection, the amount of Q10 in the body decreases rapidly and sharply, making cells more vulnerable and SARS-Cov2 causing more damage.

An alternative hypothesis, which we as inveterate whiners like to put forward on this beautiful autumn day, is that most Q10 users in this study also took all kinds of cholesterol-lowering drugs. In a way that we do not yet completely understand, those cholesterol lowers reduce the chance of covid.

Indeed. Maybe not very convincing. Anyway, put it on the list.

Epilogue
An attentive reader sent us a review on the immunological functions of Q10 that provides more insight. [Antioxidants (Basel). 2021 May 11;10(5):759.]

Source:
eLife 2021;10:e68165.

More:
Does quercetin take the sting out of covid? 12.08.2021
Covid patients recover faster with quercetin phytosome supplementation 09.08.2021
Selenium increases chance of survival after infection with coronavirus 10.07.2021

Archives:
Magnesium
Vitamin B
Vitamin D
Vitamins
Zinc
Q10



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