Our aim with this article was to collect and organise a list of the best supplements to help treat Long COVID. To do so we reviewed thousands of scientific papers and also collated opinions and feedback from patients and healthcare professionals, to establish what works, practically speaking.

Thus, this article is a result of both new and old scientific research and actual practical use feedback from patients with Long COVID.

Whilst there is currently no one single supplement ingredient that is scientifically proven to treat and recover from Long COVID, we found that there ARE combinations of several supplements that DO work well together. 

The benefit of these types of supplements is that they can work well in complement to other medications your healthcare professional may prescribe.

We also regularly update this content with feedback from researchers, healthcare professionals and members of the public. If you do try any of these suggestions, or if you have a suggestion for something that has worked for you, please remember to let us know with the form below.

Herbal supplements use in Germany

In Germany, diverse healthcare professionals such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists are able to prescribe herbal medicine supplements as part of the nationwide health care system. In a published study, it was found that more than half of the responding general practitioners (GPs) were found to recommend herbal medicine in their day-to-day practice. German doctors can obtain a postgraduate qualification for “naturopathy” which includes herbal medicine, and one study found that 51% of Germans preferred their doctor to have this training and another found that 70% or more Germans use herbal medicines.

Herbal supplements use in the UK

In contrast, in 1948 when the NHS was created in Britain, the dominance of modern drug therapy was so overwhelming that natural treatments were considered superfluous - and not included. Hence since then GP’s, doctors and other medical professionals are generally not formally trained in this area. Whilst there was some discussion of a change to this in 2005, to date nothing significant has occurred and nowadays typically most British consumers will do their own research (online from websites or social media or with friends) to make their own decision. The demand is increasing and in 2018 it was found around 59 percent of British consumers take one or more supplements. 

Conclusion

It is clear that in the UK the NHS has not embraced supplement use to help treat medical conditions. There have been attempts to change this but none have been successful so far. 

However supplements seem to be understood and prescribed by German doctors, nurses, pharmacists as part of their health care system. This would indicate that supplements can be used to treat medical conditions. 

Additionally, in the UK the majority of people do also believe that supplements can help their health (59%) and they make these purchases with a more informal information sharing approach with friends, social media websites and online research (and ideally with GP, doctor, physician or healthcare professional guidance).

A supplement ingredient was considered for inclusion if it had published scientific research to back it up, including cell-line, animal and human clinical trials. We did not include theoretical science. 

As many in the scientific community know, the ultimate proof of efficacy is a randomised placebo controlled human trial. However, Long COVID is a relatively new condition and there are currently very few studies that fit into this category.  

Hence, we balanced new clinical research with practical use (anecdotal) feedback from patients, which was collated from the tens of thousands of people with Long COVID on various online support groups who have found some supplements have worked for them. Additionally, we were fortunate to have feedback from leading functional integrative and nutritional therapists who are treating patients daily.