This post appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.
By Cassidy Stoddart
As we embark on the fifth anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, we can reflect on how the virus has affected everyone differently. Public health professionals stressed the prioritization of vulnerable groups such as those suffering from immunocompromising conditions and the elderly, in clinics and hospitals to ensure the proper allocation of life saving resources. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advised the rest of the population to quarantine and monitor COVID-like symptoms such as aches, chills and fever.
Tracking the development of symptoms every day is critical for your own safety through the utilization of thermometers and pulse oximeters at home. If symptoms persist or worsen it is essential to seek immediate medical care. Some important warning signs include having trouble breathing, skin discoloration, and chest pressure.
Dr. Shaundra Blakemore, a physician in pediatric emergency medicine at Children’s of Alabama, provides her perspective on at-home remedies: “I generally think if it’s [the alternative at-home COVID-19 remedy] something that doesn’t sound harmful, then I’m not going to discourage it. But not all of those remedies listed have data or papers saying that they are effective. Otherwise we would be recommending it to everyone.”
Related: Long COVID: finding solutions to a continuing public health challenge
For those suffering with mild cases, the National Institute of Health (NIH) reported that80 to 85% of COVID-19 cases between June 2020 and July 2021 were considered mild and “at home remedies” were effective to provide symptomatic relief. The CDC recommends over-the- counter medications such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen to alleviate symptoms.
When it comes to treating the underlying viral infection, these alternative at-home remedies lack a scientific basis that they provide causal alleviation of COVID-19. These alternative remedies can be misunderstood as providing comfort and pleasure while experiencing COVID-19 symptoms but Dr. Blakemore iterates that “we [physicians] don’t prescribe anything but supportive measures.”
These seemingly harmless alternative at-home COVID-19 remedies pose a potential danger to interacting with agents in prescription medicine. For severe cases of COVID-19, antiviral medication will be prescribed to prevent the virus from spreading through your body. It is critical to inform your physician of all the remedies, including those approved by the CDC. Dr. Blakemore advises patients, “If you’re doing any sort of herbal remedy, just make sure you tell your doctor, because sometimes too much of anything can be harmful. So we [physicians] want to know exactly what herb families are being used, just to make sure it’s not something that could react with another medication a patient might be on or could ultimately be harmful.”
The Mayo Clinic expands on these recommendations in the at-home COVID-19 protocol by suggesting eating nutritious foods and resting, and to seek advice from your primary care provider if symptoms worsen. However, within this protocol, people sought to investigate and incorporate their own alternative at-home remedies that were not included through the standards established by public health agencies.
The National Institute of Health (NIH) and news outlets have reported a collection of alternative at-home remedies claimed by COVID-19 survivors as treatment options to alleviate symptoms. These recommendations consist of drinking lemon tea, Herbal teas with spices (cinnamon, black pepper, dry ginger), antiviral plant compounds-green tea, dark chocolate, and grapes.
Monitoring your medication intake frequency is equally important when remedying symptoms. Reviewing dosage precautions to prevent the risk of overmedication is critical when being advised by healthcare providers of what medications to take. Specifically with managing the symptoms of headaches and body aches it is advised to take acetaminophen to provide temporary relief.
As frequent ingestion of acetaminophen without advice from your physician can lead to rebound headaches due to your body building a reliance off the medication. Dr. Blakemore expands on the effect of the rebound headache that, “when you do have a headache, and you keep taking it [pain relievers] even if the headache goes away, then there’s a higher risk of starting to have a headache because you’re not taking the medicine at all.”
At the end of the day, it is crucial to become aware of the risks that remedies pose with treating COVID-19 symptoms by ensuring that you are seeking guidance from healthcare providers. As well as seeking advice from your physician on remedies that aren’t mentioned in the protocol for treating COVID-19.
There are constant revisions to the COVID-19 protocol as COVID is here to stay and is likely to shift into a seasonal disease. The best way of treating COVID-19 is through prevention specifically through vaccinations. Dr. Blakemore emphasizes that, “ the best treatment is prevention, and one of the best ways to prevent severe consequences of COVID is to get the vaccine, which is true for COVID. It doesn’t mean it’s a 100% guarantee that you won’t get COVID, but it helps. It gives a higher likelihood that your symptoms won’t be as severe.
