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11.04.2024

The life-saving effect of spirulina in case of serious Covid

At the time of writing this post, SARS-CoV-2 is far away. In most countries the ICs are empty. Yet the virus is mutating like crazy, in a direction that worries alert mutation spotters. Hence our interest in a trial by the Pasteur Institute of Iran, in which almost 190 Covid patients were given one and a half tablespoons of spirulina every day for seven days.

Study
In a publication published in Frontiers in Immunology, the researchers explain how they experimented with 189 patients, all of whom were in hospital with a serious infection with SARS-CoV-2. About half of the patients were in an intensive care unit [ICU].

The researchers gave half of the patients in the ICU group and in the non-ICU group 15 grams of spirulina every day in addition to their regular diet and medication. In powder form that's about one and a half tablespoons.

The other group received standard treatment, no spirulina and no placebo.

Results
None of the spirulina users in the non-ICU group died. Of the non-users in the same patient group, 9 percent died. During the 7-week period, 98 percent of spirulina users in this patient group were able to go home. Among non-users this was only 40 percent.

Click on the tables below for a larger version.

No one in the spirulina group died in the ICU, while 21 percent died in the other group.

Mechanism
The most interesting possible mechanism that the researchers mention is that spirulina activates the innate immune system and Natural Killer cells, including by increasing the release of interferon-gamma.

We will spare you a complex story, but if SARS-CoV-2 returns in a way that will cause problems for much of the world, the innate immune system is the single most important line of defense that healthy people have.

Source:
Front. Immunol., 08 April 2024, Vol 15, 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1332425.

More:
Animal study: spirulina is a virus inhibitor 01.03.2020
Spirulina makes HIV-positive people healthier 23.09.2014
Take spirulina now, and avoid hay fever in the spring 24.02.2012

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Spirulina
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