With COVID came a dramatic increase in chronic fatigue syndrome, which was already common enough. A safe and surprisingly simple natural supplement might help.
A just published study has found that COVID significantly increases the risk of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). While 0.6% of the non-COVID people in the study had CFS, 4.5% of people with COVID did. Remarkably, 89% of the people with post-COVID CFS also had long COVID (Journal of General Internal Medicine. Jan 2025:doi.org/10.1007/s11606-024-09290-9). This study shows that COVID, and especially long COVID, increases the risk of developing CFS.
A second study showed that people with COVID are 59% more likely to develop CFS than people without COVID (Journal of Infection and Public Health. Nov 2024;17(11):102559).
Now a study has suggested that a blend of probiotics and prebiotics might help.
The study gave 26 people with post-COVID CFS either a placebo or a blend of probiotics and prebiotics for 3 months. The probiotic blend consisted of Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, Bifidobacterium lactis and Bifidobacterium longum. The probiotic FOS as well as zinc was added.
While both groups improved in general, physical and mental fatigue, only the probiotic group had significant improvement in post-exercise malaise. This finding is important, since the Journal of General Internal Medicine study found that post-exercise malaise was the most common symptom in post-COVID CFS with 24% of people experiencing it.
The study also found that the probiotics increased creatine by a significant 15.3%. This, too, is a potentially important finding, since people with post-COVID CFS have low tissue creatine concentrations. This is one way the probiotics may improve muscle and brain energy.
This study suggests one safe, simple way of potentially improving some of the key symptoms of post-COVID chronic fatigue syndrome.
Eur J Nutr. 2024 Nov 26;64(1):28.