COVID-19 and gut problems

Created April 2020

Exploring the possible need for a gut-friendly form of Vitamin D for COVID-19 patients

It is well known that people with poor digestive systems often have absorption of Vitamin D

  • Stomach Ache And Diarrhea May Be Among The First Signs Of COVID-19 Coronavirus Forbes March 20, 2020

    • "In the small study of 204 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in the Hubei province of China, researchers noted that nearly 49% of these patients presented to the emergency department with gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea or abdominal pain."

  • Gastrointestinal Symptoms Could Be New Focus for Coronavirus Diagnosis ContagionLive March 9, 2020

    • "Labs in China have been able to isolate the live coronavirus from stool of patients"

  • Coronavirus and Gastrointestinal Disorders US News April 15 - long article

    • " About half of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 have digestive symptoms, according to new research on 206 patients with mild disease, released online March 30 in the American Journal of Gastroenterology. In addition, 53% of the study patients with COVID-19 had a positive coronavirus stool test, raising questions about different ways the virus could be transmitted, other than by respiratory droplets, to other people."

    • "But what we've been learning, in the meantime, is that many of those patients who come to the hospital – in fact over half – have a digestive complaint at the same time as their respiratory complaints. And in many cases, they started with GI symptoms first, before they ever developed a cough or shortness of breath.""

    • "Gastric symptoms from COVID-19 are likely underreported in the U.S. "There's a potentially large group of people who never really seek care," Spiegel says. "They're out in the community with diarrhea and possible fever in three-quarters of the cases, and haven't even been diagnosed with COVID or can't get tested for COVID because they don't have a cough or shortness of breath." Without respiratory symptoms, he says, people don't meet testing criteria from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

  • Gastrointestinal symptoms common in COVID-19 patients, Stanford Medicine study reports Stanford April 16

    • Review of a Standord sudy: "Gastrointestinal symptoms were reported by 31.9% of the patients. The majority of that group described the symptoms as mild. Twenty-two percent said they experienced loss of appetite, 22% had nausea and vomiting, and 12% had diarrhea, the study said.

    • "“No patients had gastrointestinal symptoms prior to the development of respiratory symptoms or as their only manifestation of COVID-19.”

  • COVID-19: 'Digestive symptoms are common' MedNewToday March 20, 2020

    • "When they presented to a hospital, 103 of the 204 people — or 50.5% — were experiencing digestive symptoms. The main digestive symptoms among the study cohort were a lack of appetite, in 81 individuals, and diarrhea, in 35."

  • Mild COVID-19 Often Appears With Only Gastro Symptoms: Study WebMD April 1, 2020

    • "n about one-quarter of patients in the new study, diarrhea and other digestive symptoms were the only symptoms seen in mild COVID-19 cases, and those patients sought medical care later than those with respiratory symptoms."

    • "In the new study, the research team tracked data from 206 patients with mild COVID-19. Nearly one-quarter (48) had digestive symptoms only, 69 displayed both digestive and respiratory symptoms, and 89 had respiratory symptoms only."

  • Some coronavirus patients experience nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea before they get a fever. It could be one of the first signs of COVID-19 Business Insider Feb 5

Tags: Gut Virus