highlight
- •
Adding Ayurveda to COVID-19 with diabetes improves symptoms and inflammatory markers.
- •
The additional group saw improvement in cough, fatigue, and sore throat within 14 days.
- •
Ayurveda addition group had better reduction of IL-6 accumulation within 7 days.
- •
This study noted mild clinical adverse events.
- •
Additional Ayurveda has shown no toxicity to the blood, kidneys, or liver.
abstract
introduction
We evaluated the effectiveness of a customized Ayurvedic intervention add-on compared to standard care in hospitalized patients with mild to moderate coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with pre-existing type 2 diabetes. (SOC) improves symptoms, avoids the need for ICU admission and ventilator support, and also inhibits interleukin-6 (IL-6), and C-reactive protein (CRP) for more than 15 days.
method
This quasi-experimental study included 24 participants in each group, aged 18 to 75 years, who were diagnosed with COVID-19 infection by RT-PCR and met inclusion/exclusion criteria. Subjects were assigned to SOC and Ayurveda (Group 1) or SOC only (Group 2) for 15 days according to their voluntary choice. The Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test, multivariate analysis of variance and within-groups repeated-measures analysis of variance, and Cochran’s Her Q test were used for analysis.
result
Among the 13 symptoms, cough (P = 0.04), overall weakness (P = 0.02), sore throat (P = 0.02) were statistically significant differences between groups, with Group I (Add-On) improving more than Group II (SOC). IL-6 decreased rapidly by day 7 in group 1 (P = 0.006) Group 2 caught up by day 15 (P = 0.001). CRP improvement was slower than IL-6. Time to maximum change was not statistically different for IL-6 and CRP between the two groups at day 15. There was no difference in random blood glucose levels and adverse events in the Ayurveda plus SOC group.
conclusion
In this pseudo-experiment, cough, weakness, and sore throat improved more with the add-on Ayurveda than with SOC. Add-on Ayurveda reduces IL-6 concentrations more rapidly. Clinical and laboratory adverse events suggest no additional toxicity with the addition of Ayurvedic treatment. This study supports the need for randomized, double-blind trials.
keyword
inflammatory cytokines
Interleukin-6
complementary medicine
innate immunity
ayurveda
© 2023 Author. Published by Elsevier.
