Immune System
Long COVID: Let There Be Light!
UV radiation and nitric oxide play a crucial role in long COVID recovery. How arginine and vitamin C may support the body's healing.
Immune System
UV radiation and nitric oxide play a crucial role in long COVID recovery. How arginine and vitamin C may support the body's healing.
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Unfortunately, there are still relatively few studies on long COVID that address the question: What can we do through lifestyle if we feel affected? We don't want to get into what some people think about long COVID or what long COVID actually is at this point.
An answer to the last-mentioned question would be important to find starting points. More on that shortly.
Spring is slowly but surely on its way. Finally, finally the UV intensity is reaching levels where vitamin D synthesis in the skin becomes possible again. Great! Solar radiation is, unfortunately, one of many topics that has somewhat fallen into disrepute over recent years. The warning is simple: don't get too much sun!
When it comes to Corona, more intense UV radiation apparently helps. Nearly two years ago, we came across research on this topic. The study summarized its findings clearly:
So nearly two years ago it was clear that UV light, sun, and thus summer, very likely protect against Corona. This was presented clearly and concisely in the study. No wonder—we know of seasonal effects with many other pathogens, and more intense solar radiation in summer is certainly one reason for this.
Physicists at University College London, regarded as one of the most prestigious universities in the world, did some calculations—probably while eating lunch at their desks—and found a very strong anti-correlation between daily UV intensity and COVID-19 infections between May 11, 2020, and March 10, 2021, in the UK.
The correlation coefficient here was −0.934, corresponding to a strong inverse correlation and suggesting a causal involvement. The authors, in this paper still circulated as a preprint at the time, expressed their suspicion that UV light reduces infectivity "by strengthening human immunity through increased vitamin D and nitric oxide levels or by suppressing the virus itself."
Nitric oxide levels—chemically: NO, a gas. What many don't know: In summer, with higher UV exposure, we release significantly more NO in our blood vessels. NO earned a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1998 because it is so important for the human body, especially for energy metabolism, immune function, and vascular function.
Let's recall:
This is precisely where higher levels of NO in the body would make a difference. But nitric oxide is also used directly by the immune system. The main reason is that it can generate very powerful oxidants that simply destroy bacteria and viruses. In general, NO has antiviral effects, for example, "by inhibiting viral replication at an early stage and activating innate immune pathways for broader antiviral functions."
The good news: Sunlight isn't necessarily required for this. We could be well supplied with NO even in winter. The body constantly converts the amino acid arginine into NO and, in this way, typically keeps vascular, immune, and metabolic function working well. This is where current long COVID studies come in. It is here that researchers have found a critical starting point compared to healthy control subjects who were never infected with Corona.
Results suggest that arginine metabolism, and thus NO metabolism, is disrupted in long COVID patients. And this can apparently be mitigated through targeted arginine and vitamin C supplementation. This is discussed extensively in the scientific literature.
Perhaps interesting for you.
