Curcumin-piperine co-supplementation could significantly reduce weakness in COVID-19 patients – RCT

06-Jul-2022 - Last updated on 06-Jul-2022 at 02:17 GMT

Curcumin-piperine co-supplementation in COVID-19 outpatients could significantly reduce weakness. ©Getty Images

Curcumin-piperine co-supplementation could significantly reduce weakness in outpatients with COVID-19, but does not influence other factors such as biochemical and clinical indices.

The findings were highlighted in an RCT titled “The efficacy of curcumin-piperine co-supplementation on clinical symptoms, duration, severity, and inflammatory factors in COVID-19 outpatients: a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial” published in BioMed Central.

“In animal models, curcumin supplementation was shown to modulate inflammatory response and reduce respiratory distress. Curcumin could bind to SARS-CoV-2 proteins and, thus, may have potential antiviral effects.

“The proven anti-inflammatory activity of curcumin could prevent cytokine storms, and the molecule may also be effective in alleviating the coagulation abnormalities observed in COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, curcumin’s immunomodulatory, anti-microbial, antiviral properties, and beneficial effects of curcumin on pneumonia are evidenced,” said the researchers.

Hence, this RCT aimed to evaluate the effect of curcumin-piperine co-supplementation on clinical symptoms, duration, severity, and inflammatory factors in outpatients with COVID-19.

A total of 46 patients aged 18 to 65 years and afflicted with COVID-19 were recruited from the Motamed health centre, affiliated with the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran, from November 2020 to April 2021.

Subjects were randomly allocated to consume two capsules of curcumin-piperine or a placebo over 14 days. Each curcumin capsule contains 500mg curcumin with 5mg piperine.

Findings

The most significant outcome was that 10 patients (83.3%) in the curcumin group and five patients (38.5%) in the placebo group recovered from weakness. This improvement was significantly greater in the curcumin group than in the placebo group.

Otherwise, recovery for symptoms like dry cough, sputum cough, sore throat, muscular pain, headaches and dyspnea showed no significant difference between the two groups.

However, these findings contradicted results from recent studies, which showed most clinical symptoms like muscle fatigue, cough and chills were significantly reduced. The team postulated that it could be due to the type and dosage.

Nonetheless, the study demonstrated a significant reduction in weakness and tiredness in patients supplemented with curcumin, suggesting its immense benefits when facing long COVID-19 disease.

Excessive tiredness has been a major complaint by COVID-19 patients and often remains for a long time, possibly causing disability, poor quality of life, pain, memory impairment and sleep abnormalities. Currently, no medication supports fatigue and tiredness observed in COVID-19 patients.

In conclusion, the study showed that curcumin-piperine co-supplementation in COVID-19 outpatients could significantly reduce weakness, but not other indices.

“More clinical trials with a larger sample size and higher doses and duration will be needed in the future to ascertain the use of curcumin as an adjunct therapy in COVID-19 patients,” said the researchers.

Source: BioMed Central

“The efficacy of curcumin-piperine co-supplementation on clinical symptoms, duration, severity, and inflammatory factors in COVID-19 outpatients: a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial”

DOI: 10.1186/s13063-022-06375-w

Authors: Gholamreza Askari et al.