Pepcid takes on Coronavirus , believe it or not

[parkie13]

mol.im/a/8259377

Patients recovered after taking megadoses of Pepcid. Not Prilosec.

[pdpatient]

Good catch, parkie. Here is another link:

Popular heartburn medicine being studied as treatment for coronavirus - ABC News - abcn.ws/2yOVhMx via @ABC

[rescuema]

"In a review of 6,212 medical records, with many patients on ventilators, the doctors in China found that only 14 percent of the elderly people using famotidine died while 27 percent of elderly people on omeprazole passed away. Scientists suspect that in COVID-19, famotidine binds to the papainlike protease, an enzyme which helps viruses replicate in the body and stops them replicating."

The problem is that they all actually ended up on ventilators, so I wouldn't hold my breath on their test result given the slight variance in the statistical finding, especially not on the theory of Pepcid preventing the virus replication - then why did they end up on a ventilator?

On the other hand, guess what I found -

"Zinc absorption decreased after omeprazole administration (141 [34] mg/dL/h) compared with pre-omeprazole values (245 [35]; p < 0.01)."

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/125...

Proton Pump Inhibitors Interfere With Zinc Absorption and Zinc Body Stores

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

So, as usual, up the zinc and avoid PPI (reduces Zinc).

If you can't do without PPI, take Pepcid over Prilosec, or even better go with Betaine HCL with pepcin instead.

[MarionP in reply to rescuema]

Think this truly useful. Maybe in general try to get by on lower dose if possible and maybe "vacations." Any practices that might help reduce GERD so as to reduce need for PPI.

Very good catch on this one, good indeed! Especially good to have the background one on ppi Farrell Morgan to go with.

[Hidden in reply to rescuema]

My doctor switched me to famotidine when ranitidine was taken off the market. Technically speaking, famotidine (Pepcid) is not a proton pump inhibitor (PPI), it’s an H2 agonist. There are plenty of good reasons to stay away from PPI’s, and you’ve just highlighted another! 🙂

[rescuema in reply to Hidden]

Yup, calcium deficiency is among one of many- may contribute to electrolytes imbalances and twitches and spasms.