Ivermectin Report

[I Shrugged]

I'm taking Ivermectin.

A week ago today, out of the blue I had a LOT of post nasal (down the throat) sinus drainage and my throat was getting sore and swollen feeling. Now that I think about it, I had noticed some of that drainage in the two days prior, but figured it was allergies. But last Wednesday it was big time.
Thursday I was worse. I had a tele-med appointment with my NP (nurse practitioner for those not in the US). Covid has been going around our community, so I thought I had it. I tested negative on an at home test, but it was early, and I didn't have any nasal activity to speak of, lack of which can fool the test. Anyway I went over situation with the NP. She said that this was exactly what the current strain looks like, so let's assume I have it.

Then she asked if I would take Ivermectin. I wasn't totally shocked because A) this is Texas, and B) she is into supplements and "functional medicine", ie treatments beyond the normal RX meds. I asked her about her experience with it. She said she has had excellent results with her Covid patients. And we discussed the side effect profile. As an aside, a few weeks ago, one of the guys here locally mentioned that he had taken it for Covid. He seemed very happy with it, but again, this is Texas, and ivermectin can be political if you let it.

Over the course of the pandemic, not trusting basically anything because of all the agendas, I had already looked into ivermectin. I had satisfied myself that it has a very safe side effect profile and is quite safe overall. So I figured at worst, it just might not work. I have seen some respected overseas doctors reporting good results, so then again, it just might work.

I had to get it from an independent compounding pharmacy. The big chains refuse to fill it for Covid prescriptions. And it was expensive. I shoulda ordered some from India when I had the idea several months ago. I received it on Friday but I didn't take it. It just felt like I had a bad cold, and I wanted to see. I had another negative at home test.

On Monday I emailed her a status report, told her my symptoms and that I had not taken the med. She said my symptoms are still what she sees with this variant. She told me to take the med for at least 2 days and see how it goes. Was this one of those "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" situations? I took it Monday and by mid day I was noticeably better. Prior to that I had been in a rut of no improvement. OK, maybe this is just a fluke.

Woke up yesterday feeling better but still with that "waking up with a cold" feeling where it takes a few minutes to find out how you're really doing. Took the med with breakfast and by mid morning I was feeling even better than the day before. By evening I felt very good. I went out for a nice long walk.

Woke up today with that feeling again, but not too bad. Took it at breakfast again, and now it's mid day and I'm feeling real good. I have to tell you, even if it was just a cold, I never get over a cold this easily.

So yeah, it's just an anecdote. But I am frankly very impressed with this stuff. OTOH, if you stop hearing from me, you can assume it killed me.

[I Shrugged]

To add, I didn't make very clear that each day, until I've taken it, I have felt some degree of crappy. Better each day but still crappy. Then by mid morning, after it must have kicked in, I'm feeling a helluva lot better. Three straight days like that.

[I Shrugged]

It seems clear that Ivermectin is quite safe when taken at reasonable dosages. The question has always been whether it's effective against Covid. Most studies I've seen have shown that it is not, but I'm quite open to contrary evidence.

I saw this study a couple months ago:

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2115869

Is contrary evidence allowed in the US? It's probably only found on what Vinny likes to call extreme right wing sites.

Case in point. I knew there is something called Front Line Doctors which published their protocol for how much to take, etc. I googled that name to find the site. First thing up is Wikipedia with the first line promoted, which says, "Front Line Doctors is a right wing political organization."

[flyingpylon]

Concerning early treatment options like ivermectin, everyone just has to decide to do what's right for them. Read as many studies (and critiques of those studies) as you can stomach, but realize that there can be a lot of factors that can skew the results such as: dosage, combination with other treatments, initiation and duration of protocol, age and health status of study participants, and all sorts of other things. Whether the skewing is done intentionally or not is up for debate.

Ivermectin is very safe at recommended dosages and there's no shortage of testimonials from both doctors and patients that it has helped people recover from COVID when used as part of an early treatment protocol.

[I Shrugged]

The first hit I got on Frontline Doctors was news that the founder had been sentenced to prison for his role in the capitol riot.

After reading a couple more articles, I think I'd start with other sources.

https://time.com/6092368/americas-front ... formation/

Probably one of the biggest issues I personally have with ivermectin, is that is it generally promoted by a bunch of obvious cranks. That doesn't mean it can't be useful against Covid, but it's not a great sign.

And the motivation is as old as it gets: Money. There's a lot of money being made in misinformation.

But it’s being used in many other countries without this political component. That’s an important point. Here, a person is pre-judging it based on the politics.

[I Shrugged]

Yeah, I remember seeing that Japan was doing some studies on ivermectin, but I haven't seen the results yet. It'll be interesting to see what they come up with.

And by the way, I forgot to say: Glad you're feeling better!

The more I look at stuff, the more I see politically-motivated interpretations. Whatever, it has helped me, albeit just on symptoms and general comfort. I probably was in no danger of ending up in a hospital, though. Not unless it had taken a radical turn for the worse, which never seemed likely. If I find a good affordable source from India, and they are out there, I'll buy a supply for the future.

Thanks for the well wishes. I have the lingering scratchy throat and malaise that is typical of this variant, at least according to those I know around here who have had it. Mostly I'm just annoyed and bored.

It really is everywhere in this community, and no one seems to be suffering much more than bad cold symptoms, mild fever, and headaches. It really seems like what we all hoped it would evolve into. Let's hope there is not Long Covid from this variant.