I've discovered a probiotic that seems to reduce the infection rate and severity of SARS-CoV-2, as well as other diseases. I'm going to link multiple studies in this thread. Parents of young children especially, you'll want to pay attention to this:
The probiotic in question is streptococcus salivarius k12, which is available in lozenge form.
First up is this study from Italy, which shows ZERO children out of 33 in the experimental group testing positive for Covid, in comparison with 24 out of 46 in the control group.
The experimental group also had much lower rates of respiratory infection in general over the 90 days that this study was performed. More statistics available here (click on HTML for full study): minervamedica.it
"In a randomized and controlled study, the adjuvant use of S. salivarius K12, an oral probiotic endowed with a well-known capability to colonize the oral environment, improved the blood parameters and reduced the death rate in COVID-19 patients."
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
The total percentage of hospitalized patients who died after receiving the normal standard of care (control group) in the above study was 8%. The number of patients who died after receiving normal standard of care plus S. salivarius K12 was 3%.
K12 patients also showed improvement in blood ferritin numbers and need for oxygen supplementation in comparison with the control group.
A good summary of different studies of probiotics can be found here as well: sciencedirect.com
I'll highlight some of the results (not all of these are K12):
"Disease recovery (remission) was more rapid in the probiotics group (p < 0.0001)"
I'll highlight some of the results (not all of these are K12):
"Disease recovery (remission) was more rapid in the probiotics group (p < 0.0001)"
"In patients who had diarrhea, it was resolved earlier in the treatment group versus the control group (p < 0.049)"
"Reduced time to clinical improvement in treatment group (p = 0.022)"
"Reduced time to clinical improvement in treatment group (p = 0.022)"
"Reduced hospital stay length in treatment group (p = 0.009)"
"Shorter time to viral RNA clearance in throat swabs of treatment group (p < 0.001)"
"Shorter time to viral RNA clearance in throat swabs of treatment group (p < 0.001)"
Indeed, 91/100 COVID-19 patients that received a probiotic (Bacillus coagulans, Bacillus subtilis, and Bacillus clausii) reported less physical and mental fatigue versus 15/100 placebo patients by day 14 of treatment (p < 0.001).
Molecular docking studies have also indicated the potential of pediocin PA-1, salivaricin P, and salivaricin B to bind with the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor-binding domain, thereby inhibiting viral entry into host cells
biorxiv.org
"Data presented here propose that bacteria supplementation, in particular with S. Salivarius K12, may enhance the titers of ... antibodies at the mucosal surfaces, prophylactically or therapeutically, or even in the context of vaccination."
"Data presented here propose that bacteria supplementation, in particular with S. Salivarius K12, may enhance the titers of ... antibodies at the mucosal surfaces, prophylactically or therapeutically, or even in the context of vaccination."
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
"At 1 month, the abundance of otopathogens in nasopharynx was lower in K12 group compared with that in control children (34% vs. 55%, P = 0.037)."
"At 1 month, the abundance of otopathogens in nasopharynx was lower in K12 group compared with that in control children (34% vs. 55%, P = 0.037)."
frontiersin.org
"By comparison with the control group, the frontline medical staff in the probiotic group experienced a significantly lower number of days experiencing respiratory tract infection (RTi) symptoms (78%, p < 0.005)."
"By comparison with the control group, the frontline medical staff in the probiotic group experienced a significantly lower number of days experiencing respiratory tract infection (RTi) symptoms (78%, p < 0.005)."
In fact, 23 days (0.23 days/person) of experiencing RTi symptoms were observed in the probiotic group whereas a total of 100 days (1.05 days/person) was observed in the control group.
Meanwhile, treatment with oropharyngeal probiotic resulted in a significantly shorter (by 38%, p < 0.05) average duration of infection episodes (2.88 days/episode) compared with the control group (4.67 days/episode).
Due to the reduction in total episodes, sick days, and duration of each episodes, the subjects treated with probiotic had significantly less days absent from work by 95.5% (p < 0.005)
As shown in Figure 1, the Kaplan–Meier curve of probability not having any episodes of respiratory tract infections decreased gradually from 1 on the first day of this trial.
"Notably, the cumulative incidence of respiratory tract infection stopped increasing on day 10 in the probiotic group.
This implicates that frontline medical staff in the probiotic group experienced sustained protection from respiratory tract infections after a certain time of oropharyngeal probiotic administration resulting in an extremely lower incidence rate of respiratory tract infections…
…comparing with control group (p = 0.013)."
I'm going to close this very lengthy thread out by saying that K12 is easily available and it reduces the number of illnesses, including in children. If you have small children that you are trying your best to protect, please consider adding oral probiotics to your safety regimen
Another relevant study, not specifically about K12 but about probiotic bacterial strains
Important addendum:
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