In today's video, I'm going to share some tips for post COVID GI symptoms. So stay tuned. If you're a
returning viewer, welcome back. And if you're new here. Hi there. My name's Amanda Malachesky. I'm a
certified functional nutrition health coach and a digestive and allergy detective. For weekly videos
on how to find your personal diet and supplement plan for our IBS and SIBO symptoms, please
consider subscribing and be sure to hit the bell to be notified when I post a new video every week.
So as a gut health coach, I've been starting to hear from quite a few people who are experiencing
gut symptoms after having their COVID infection. Now, there's still so much that we don't know
about COVID and exactly what's going on there, but I do believe that we can still apply the
same principles and strategies that I teach my IBS and SIBO clients inside my programs
to help you feel better with your post COVID digestive symptoms, because my clients often
also have kind of confusing mystery symptoms without a clear cause. So a quick disclaimer.
This video is not a substitute for qualified medical care with your doctor. So if you have new
or persistent digestive symptoms after your COVID infection, please do go speak with your doctor
to make sure that you're not missing anything really important. All right, let's get started.
So by now we all know that the COVID virus typically infects the respiratory tract,
but we also know that COVID can impact the GI system as well. I've heard from people who have
had only GI symptoms with their COVID case. I've heard from people who have had both respiratory
and GI symptoms, and I've heard from some people who had typical respiratory symptoms during their
COVID case, but then later developed GI symptoms after their respiratory symptoms cleared up.
We know that the COVID virus can be found in the stool, and this is why some communities
in the US have been monitoring sewage to check for the prevalence of COVID in certain places.
And you've probably heard by now that COVID infects the body through something called
ACE2 receptors in the throat and in the nose. But what I didn't know before making this video
is that there are also a significant number of ACE2 receptors in the far end of the small
intestine. In fact, 30% of the cells lining the ileum, the distal part of the small intestine
are ACE2 receptors. All this to say that the COVID virus can definitely affect your intestines,
as well as your respiratory tract, both at the initial onset of infection and or
is a consequence of inflammation during or after your initial infection.
So how should we approach these symptoms from a diet and lifestyle perspective? Well, in general,
I like to approach situations like this by thinking about what is the underlying mechanism
of the symptoms and signs that we're seeing? In other words, what's causing that symptom? Is it
inflammation? Is it a food sensitivity? Is it a nutrient deficiency or a particular infection
or what? So one of the most common post COVID GI symptoms is pain or discomfort. And in general,
pain of any kind generally indicates that there's some kind of inflammation going on
in tissues. So pain in the gut post COVID infection is an indicator that the skin,
the inner skin inside your digestive system is irritated or inflamed. It may be reacting to food
and drinks that you previously tolerated or just reacting to everything. Or it may not really even
have much to do with food or drinks. It might just be irritated because of the presence of the virus.
A symptom like nausea is a little bit more complex and can have lots of underlying causes, but nausea
can be caused by inflammation, it can be caused by vagus nerve problems, motility problems, or
problems with the central nervous system. Diarrhea is typically due to inflammation or irritation in
the gut, or also can be related to nervous system dysregulation. And this can cause fast motility
or things just moving through really quickly. So if you look at all of these symptoms together,
the common underlying denominator for all of these symptoms is inflammation of the gut lining.
We know that viruses can do this, even ordinary cold viruses or stomach viruses,
anyone who's a parent listening knows that when your kid has the stomach flu, sometimes their
digestive system is really irritated for even up to a month after they got sick. So depending on
what new digestive symptoms came up for you during your COVID infection, you'll want to
think about it through the lens of what does this symptom indicate about the potential mechanism
of the symptoms? And then you want to try and choose options to address that particular cause
rather than just sort of a general supplement or diet or change that's based on something random.
You may not have exactly clear answers here, but you kind of want to just try and get a ballpark
idea of what is the potential underlying mechanism of this symptom and what am I
going to choose to address that? So I'm curious to hear from you after hearing that, what do you
think is the underlying mechanism of your post COVID GI symptoms? Let me know in the comments.
So as you might have guessed, I think personally that generalized inflammation of the GI tract is
probably the primary underlying mechanism of most of the post COVID digestive symptoms. And although
there's a few medications that can help with this, I suspect that if you're watching my video,
you're probably one of those people that would rather not use those medications,
which is totally fair. So there are quite a few natural options that we can think about
applying to this situation, but we do have to keep in mind that because COVID is so new,
there really isn't a ton of research or specific data that can tell us exactly what's
best going to help manage these symptoms. We're kind of in the dark at the moment,
as we're trying to understand how the virus works and how these after effects function.
But we do know about some supplements that in other contexts can have anti-inflammatory
properties on the GI system. And so that's where I think we should focus our attention.
So one of the simplest and best things that you can do if you haven't already is to do some simple
diet cleanup. As far as I know, there's no evidence based post COVID gut diet but there are
some particular foods that are likely to be causing inflammation for your gastrointestinal
tract. And the three most common inflammatory examples are gluten, dairy and sugar. So if you
haven't already tried a gluten-free diet or removing dairy, or certainly avoiding sugar,
which can be very irritating and inflammatory, these would be a great place to start.
Now I know a lot of you going through this are feeling very nauseated and nothing at all
sounds good. So if you're having trouble getting anything into your gut, don't worry about this
piece. I don't want you to avoid eating because you don't think you should be eating something
that might be inflammatory, but if you're feeling somewhat flexible, I suggest choosing
gluten-free alternatives to regular wheat foods, trying out a low or no dairy diet, and also
avoiding sugary and processed junk foods. This is just going to lower the overall inflammatory
burden on your gut. In some cases, high histamine foods may also be a mediator, but I wouldn't go
into that rabbit hole until you've addressed these very basic things. I've made several videos
about the histamine piece so I will link one of those to get you started down below this video.
Now, what I have seen helpful to focus on in terms of post COVID GI
supportive foods is to focus on gut healing, nutrient rich foods that are appealing to
you. This might include things like bone broth, jello, or gelatin, collagen powder, pureed soups,
and certainly sticking to cooked or easy to digest food. Now, if you're having trouble eating at all,
something like a short three day gut reset diet, using something like Dr. Ruscio's Elemental Heal
could be also very helpful or a three day bone broth fast. It's just a simple diet that removes
all the hard work of digesting for your gut so it can kind of rest. I will leave a link for Dr.
Ruscio's Elemental Heal below this video so you can check that out if that's interesting to you.
And I would recommend using the whey free option. Now, moving on to supplements. Supplements with
the most evidence for being anti-inflammatory for GI conditions are actually probiotics. And
I suspect that probiotic supplementation could be a powerful anti-inflammatory agent to counter the
negative impacts of COVID infection in your gut. Now I've also discussed probiotics extensively in
other videos so I'll leave a link for my probiotic strategy video below this video for you to check
out after the end of this one. But essentially the strategy is to work in one each of the three main
types of probiotics simultaneously, and this collectively can rehab your gut microbiome to
reduce inflammation and crowd out bad bugs and negative impacts from things
like COVID. I'll also leave a link to my three preferred probiotic products for
this option down below this video as well. Other supplements that are traditionally
used to help soothe and heal the gut lining include things like Interleaf aloe juice,
deglycyrrhizinated licorice, which is shortened to DGL. These are usually chewable tablets,
and the herbs slippery elm and marshmallow powder. You can get these as a powder, either at an herb
store or maybe your local health food store, or at last resort, you can order from Amazon.
And another wonderful option of course, is L-glutamine. L-glutamine is the natural
amino acid that your gut lining produces to help heal and seal the gut. So this is
something that could potentially be beneficial for your gut lining. A really great supplement
that combines a lot of these things together is something called GI Revive by Designs For Health.
And if you're interested in checking that out, I will leave a link for that
below this video. You can click on that link and go find that over on Amazon.
Now, another approach to ongoing inflammation and cell damage is to focus on the use of antioxidant
nutrients to help with tissue repair. And in a lot of cases, this can also help with things like
viral infections. So there's a ton of evidence in the literature for the use of vitamin C
as a very helpful agent for combating COVID 19 infection. And vitamin C is one of the very best
antioxidant nutrients out there. But we also know that a lot of vitamin C can trigger diarrhea and
stomach cramps, which might be something that you're experiencing as part of your post COVID
symptom package. So to avoid that, something like liposomal vitamin C can be very helpful. It allows
you to absorb the vitamin C through the skin of your mouth instead of in your gut. And this can
help reduce some of those side effects and you can get a higher dose without the side effects.
Other potential antioxidants include things like alpha-lipoic acid, otherwise known as ALA,
vitamin A and vitamin E. And do keep in mind that vitamin A and E are fat soluble vitamins,
so you can overdose on them. So please do consult with your doctor or naturopath or
other health provider to talk about specific dosages that are appropriate for you.
Now, this isn't an invitation to go all in on all these supplements and to view this as a protocol.
This is not that at all, because what's going to be right for you is going to be different from
what's right for the next person. And probably some of these won't work for you. And some of them
will. So what's really going to serve you best is to pick one of these things and to test drive it
extensively for yourself to see how your body reacts to that item. If you choose one
and it doesn't work out, then you can move on to another one. Or if it works really great for you,
then you know that that supplement or food approach is really helpful for you to manage
your symptoms right now. This way, you'll get a clear signal about what's helping and what's not,
and this is really essential information for you moving forward with your gut symptoms.
It's really common for your gut lining to be sensitive for a while after any kind of
viral infection, COVID or not. So it's going to take some time to heal and there may be relapses
along the way. Really the best thing you can do is do your best to identify what helps you the
most and do more of that. And to also identify what makes things worse and avoid those things.
And just keep in mind that recovery for some of you may be a journey, but by working this piece
by piece thing where you're applying the things that work, you can and will get better over time.
And here's something else to keep in mind. I know that a lot of you watching are likely
really not interested in taking any medication. And I totally understand this because I am one of
those people. But if you are having severe unremittent symptoms that especially are
preventing you from eating and getting adequate nutrition, there's no shame in working with your
doctor to manage your symptoms temporarily with medications, just so that you make sure that you
don't become severely malnourished. I typically help people with bloating, constipation, and
diarrhea who are frustrated or confused with their gut healing diets and supplement protocols go
from food anxiety, endless questions, and second guessing to a confident plan for calm digestion.
So if your post COVID belly is leaving you confused about your diet or supplement protocols,
I really want to encourage you to download my free guide, called The Roadmap To Gut Recovery.
Inside this guide, I share the same exact strategy that I teach my students inside
my Calm Digestion Method Program, to help them find their personalized plan for calm digestion.
You can download that copy of that guide by going to confluencenutrition.com/roadmap.
And I will leave a link for that below this video so it's easy to grab. All right,
let me know if this video is helpful by clicking like, or leaving me a comment and don't forget
to subscribe if you haven't already, and maybe send this video to someone else who could use it.
And if you'd like to hear more about the probiotic strategy that I mentioned,
you can go ahead and watch this video here. I'll leave that for you. All right, take care.