The Potential Of Thiamine To Help Treat COVID-19

JeffLubell

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I have just begun my exploration of Ray Peat's writings and would greatly appreciate input from forum members on some ideas I have put together on the potential of high-dose thiamine to be used as adjunctive therapy for COVID-19. My hypothesis is that by stimulating the production of carbon dioxide through the inhibition of carbonic anhydrase isoenzymes thiamine could help to counter the effects of reduced blood oxygen levels by increasing minute ventilation and increasing aerobic respiration. This could help more patients to cope with COVID-19 at home, reducing the burden on hospitals. This could be particularly useful in developing countries that have few ventilators and shortages of supplemental oxygen. It could also be useful in the U.S. in the fall when the coincident emergence of COVID-19 and flu are expected to increase pressure on hospitals.

As a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, high-dose thiamine should also have a diuretic effect which could be helpful in addressing edema. Finally, thiamine plays an important role in strengthening the body's ability to fight disease and can be deficient in those with serious illness.

The working paper is here:
Operation Thiamine -- Reducing the Need for Hospitalization of Patients with COVID-19

When I shared this working paper through Twitter, several people responded by suggesting I review Ray Peat's article on Altitude and Mortality, which I found interesting and helpful. I have incorporated a brief discussion of the potential of carbonic anhydrase inhibitors to promote aerobic metabolism in the latest version of the working paper.

I have since reviewed several additional articles by Ray Peat and plan to spend more time reading additional articles as I work to strengthen outcomes for my daughter with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and several related conditions. In fact, she was the reason I discovered high-dose thiamine in the first place, as we have been using it for about two months now to treat the neurological complications of EDS with good success so far. A discussion on the Ray Peat forum was helpful for understanding the potential carbonic anhydrase inhibitory properties of thiamine, so thank you!

It goes without saying that I cannot provide medical advice and the ideas discussed in the paper are just hypotheses. I am not a doctor or a medical professional. I would be very interested in feedback on the working paper as well as connections to researchers who may be willing to conduct research into this hypothesis if it is indeed promising. If these ideas are worth testing, it would be useful to do so quickly given the severity of the illness.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!
 

Peater

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I have just begun my exploration of Ray Peat's writings and would greatly appreciate input from forum members on some ideas I have put together on the potential of high-dose thiamine to be used as adjunctive therapy for COVID-19. My hypothesis is that by stimulating the production of carbon dioxide through the inhibition of carbonic anhydrase isoenzymes thiamine could help to counter the effects of reduced blood oxygen levels by increasing minute ventilation and increasing aerobic respiration. This could help more patients to cope with COVID-19 at home, reducing the burden on hospitals. This could be particularly useful in developing countries that have few ventilators and shortages of supplemental oxygen. It could also be useful in the U.S. in the fall when the coincident emergence of COVID-19 and flu are expected to increase pressure on hospitals.

As a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, high-dose thiamine should also have a diuretic effect which could be helpful in addressing edema. Finally, thiamine plays an important role in strengthening the body's ability to fight disease and can be deficient in those with serious illness.

The working paper is here:
Operation Thiamine -- Reducing the Need for Hospitalization of Patients with COVID-19

When I shared this working paper through Twitter, several people responded by suggesting I review Ray Peat's article on Altitude and Mortality, which I found interesting and helpful. I have incorporated a brief discussion of the potential of carbonic anhydrase inhibitors to promote aerobic metabolism in the latest version of the working paper.

I have since reviewed several additional articles by Ray Peat and plan to spend more time reading additional articles as I work to strengthen outcomes for my daughter with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and several related conditions. In fact, she was the reason I discovered high-dose thiamine in the first place, as we have been using it for about two months now to treat the neurological complications of EDS with good success so far. A discussion on the Ray Peat forum was helpful for understanding the potential carbonic anhydrase inhibitory properties of thiamine, so thank you!

It goes without saying that I cannot provide medical advice and the ideas discussed in the paper are just hypotheses. I am not a doctor or a medical professional. I would be very interested in feedback on the working paper as well as connections to researchers who may be willing to conduct research into this hypothesis if it is indeed promising. If these ideas are worth testing, it would be useful to do so quickly given the severity of the illness.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

You might like this site and be able to contact Dr Lonsdale, he has a huge collection of work regarding thiamine

https://www.hormonesmatter.com/search/thiamine
 

charlie

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JeffLubell

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Thank you for your responses, @charlie and @Peater. I had not seen the Frontline protocol; very interesting! I will have to add it a reference to it in my working paper.

The Hormones Matters website has a lot of excellent material on it about thiamine and other matters, including this recent piece by Dr. Lonsdale that touches on COVID-19: It All Comes Down to Energy - Hormones Matter

The Hormones Matters piece that @charlie references above is actually an article that I wrote, adapted from the working paper I shared on this forum. My article is here: Could High-Dose Thiamine Reduce Mortality from COVID-19? - Hormones Matter

I have corresponded with Dr. Lonsdale and very much appreciate his extensive experience with thiamine. His perspective is generally that thiamine is important for maintaining strong bodily defenses, to ward off the virus, and that many critically ill individuals become thiamine deficient, for a variety of reasons.

To me, these are useful additional reasons to consider thiamine for COVID-19, but the core of my argument is actually that thiamine produces carbon dioxide by inhibiting carbonic anhydrase isoenzymes which helps to increase the depth of respiration and facilitate aerobic metabolism. I'm hopeful that using thiamine early on in the course of the disease could help to reduce the chances that people end up having to be hospitalized. But of course, I'm not a doctor and cannot provide medical advice. So this is just a hypothesis that needs to be tested.
 
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From the end of March through the beginning of May (on and off), I had a strange respiratory infection. Initially, it caused lung pain, soaring pulse and blood pressure, runny nose, post-nasal drip, and shortness of breath. After the first couple of days, high doses of B1 and D, together with cyproheptadine and methylene blue beat the infection into submission, and it only briefly returned a few times when I lowered the B1 doses.

No idea whether I had CV, but I'd definitely encourage people suffering from respiratory infections to consider B1.
 
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JeffLubell

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I have a follow-up question. A very helpful commentator on one of my twitter posts sent me the attached article on Oxidative Metabolism from FunctionalPS.com. It appears to be based on Ray Peat's writings, and I recognize some of the concepts from Peat's article on Altitude and Mortality. The attached article talks about a feedback loop in which your body has insufficient carbon dioxide, so doesn't release oxygen for aerobic respiration, which leads to the production of lactic acid, which further decreases CO2 levels, and leads to a negative feedback loop that can be dangerous. I'd appreciate citations, both from Ray Peat's writings, and elsewhere, that help clarify and support this proposition, as I think it could have application with COVID-19 and appears to be relevant to why thiamine may help my daughter, who has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

I have seen some discussion in the research literature for the related argument that increases in CO2 inhibit the production of lactate during hypoxia, presumably by shifting the body from anaerobic to aerobic metabolism. (http://www.biomed.cas.cz/physiolres/pdf/2002/51_335.pdf) What I'm looking for in particular is evidence / discussion for the feedback loop in which increase lactate further reduces CO2.

Thanks for any help with this!
 

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JeffLubell

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From the end of March through the beginning of May (on and off), I had a strange respiratory infection. Initially, it caused lung pain, soaring pulse and blood pressure, runny nose, post-nasal drip, and shortness of breath. After the first couple of days, high doses of B1 and D, together with cyproheptadine and methylene blue beat the infection into submission, and it only briefly returned a few times when I lowered the B1 doses.

No idea whether I had CV, but I'd definitely encourage people suffering from respiratory infections to consider B1.

Glad to hear you are feeling better. Thanks for sharing your experience!
 

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