The Keck Medicine of USC is launching a clinical trial to explore whether a low-carbohydrate diet designed to reduce inflammation can alleviate Long-COVID symptoms. The premise of this study is that a long-term inflammatory response may be at the core of the cause of long-term COPD.
Researchers hope to measure the diet's effectiveness in controlling the condition in a study of 50 patients, half of whom will receive a special dietary intervention. If successful, this research could pave the way for wider trials and new treatments for Long-COVID.
Keck Medical Center of USC has launched a clinical trial to explore whether a dietary approach aimed at reducing inflammation could alleviate the currently untreatable condition.
About 7% of Americans have long COVID, a set of persistent health problems that develop after contracting and recovering from COVID-19. Symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, headaches, chest pain, heart palpitations and more. Currently, there is no effective treatment for this syndrome, and its pathogenic mechanism is not fully understood.
Adupa Rao, MD, is an investigator on the Long-COVID clinical trial and medical director of the Covid Recovery Clinic at Keck Medical Center. Image source: Ricardo Carrasco III
New clinical trial on diet
Now, a new clinical trial is underway at the Keck Medical Center of USC to study whether a diet designed to lower inflammation could play a role in easing this often debilitating disease.
The trial follows recent research suggesting that long COVID may be caused by a high inflammatory response, which is activated during COVID-19 as the body fights off the virus, but which in some people does not subside even after the infection has passed. High levels of inflammation in the body can lead to organ damage and other health problems.
"We are studying whether food choices can calm the body's inflammatory response and thereby effectively reduce or curb long-term COVID symptoms," said clinical trial investigator Adupa Rao, MD, medical director of the Covid Recovery Clinic at Keck Medical Center.
Research details and methods
The study will examine the anti-inflammatory effects of a low-carbohydrate diet on lowering blood sugar levels, combined with a medical food that increases blood ketone levels. Ketones, including the active ketone body in this food, beta-hydroxybutyrate, are chemicals the body produces to provide energy when carbohydrates and sugars are insufficient. Both low-carb diets and ketones have been linked to reducing inflammation in the body.
Nuria Pastor-Soler, MD, is the principal investigator of the Long-COVID clinical trial and an associate professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Image source: Ricardo Carrasco III
The researchers plan to recruit 50 Long-COVID patients who are being treated at the Keck School of Medicine's Covid Recovery Clinic. Half of the group will receive a 30-day dietary intervention, and the other half will receive no intervention. After one month, researchers will determine how well the patients tolerated the treatment regimen and compare inflammation markers and Long-COVID symptoms between the two groups.
Potential extensions and implications
If patients tolerate the nutritional intervention well and improve their health problems, the researchers plan to expand the clinical trial to a larger population.
"Studies like ours are critical to expanding our understanding of COVID-19 and ultimately helping to identify effective treatments to improve patients' quality of life," said Nuria Pastor-Soler, MD, associate professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the clinical trial's principal investigator. "The results of this trial will hopefully bring us closer to potential solutions."
Ken Hallows, MD, professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine, is also a researcher on the study. This clinical trial is funded by the Amy P. Goldman Foundation.