Metformin may protect you from getting COVID

Metformin, a diabetes drug may protect you from COVID

Metformin for COVID: Even if a drug has been on the market for decades, it can still have side effects that we didn’t expect. Viagra was first used to treat high blood pressure. Later, it was found to make men feel more excited. Recently, it was found that a common liver drug can help protect against the coronavirus. Now, it’s possible that another drug that protects against long COVID will soon join them.

Metformin, a diabetes drug may protect you from COVID
Metformin, a diabetes drug may protect you from COVID

Researchers from all over the U.S. published a pre-print on Dec. 24 that said the diabetes drug metformin might cut your chances of getting long COVID by more than 40%. Even though more research needs to be done to confirm the clinical trial results, they could point to a very effective way to stop the painful post-COVID symptoms that affects about 1 in 13 adults in the United States.

The researchers wanted to find out if there were any medicines that might be able to stop COVID symptoms from showing up even after the virus had been removed from the body.

Metformin, ivermectin, and fluvoxamine were the three that the team chose. In studies done in the past, mice and rats were used to test how well the three drugs worked against viruses.

Fluvoxamine is an antidepressant that has shown some promise in treating COVID-19 in people who have already been infected. The FDA even gave it permission to treat people who were not in a hospital as part of its emergency use authorization. While a lot of noise has been made about ivermectin, especially after people bought the drug for their animals, it has been widely shown that it is not effective against COVID.

The new trial took in 1,125 adults with COVID over the age of 30 who were more likely to get COVID and long-term COVID because they were overweight. These adults were then split into six groups. Half of the people got metformin with a placebo or a mix of the other drugs. The other half got a fake drug along with either another fake drug or the other two drugs.

Then, every 30 days for 10 months, the volunteers were asked about their symptoms. At the end of the trial, the researchers found that doctors gave a long COVID diagnosis to about 8.4% of the people who signed up. But 10.6% of the people in the control group were diagnosed with long COVID, while only 6.3% of the people in the metformin group were.

That’s about a 42% drop in symptoms, which suggests that metformin could be a very effective treatment for long COVID.

It’s important to note that these are just the first results from one clinical trial. The authors stressed that more research is needed to prove that the drug works and is safe for long COVID.

Read Also: 5 Foods to avoid to boost immunity

Research is needed into the optimal ways to use metformin for long-term COVID prevention, including whether or not extended release helps those who experience metformin’s side effects right away, and as to whether metformin might be utilized to treat long-term COVID,” the authors conclude.

For now, it gives hope to the millions of people around the world who are more likely to get the coronavirus and have long-lasting COVID symptoms because of it. It also shows that sometimes the best answers are right in front of you.

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FAQ

With diabetes, how do you treat COVID?

1. Check your blood sugar levels often
2. If you need to, increase your insulin doses.
3. Stay hydrated and take small sips of liquids often if you feel sick.
4. Don’t stop taking your insulin, even if you don’t eat much or are sick.
5. Make sure you have drinks with carbs and drinks without carbs, as well as non-perishable food, on hand at home.

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