Alicante-made probiotic helps Covid recovery

probiotic helps Covid recovery

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Company based at Alicante University claims their probiotic helps Covid recovery

There are many factors that can affect how badly someone suffers from Covid-19 once it has been contracted. Numerous studies have made links to aspects such as age and genetics as things that can play their role in how long someone has symptoms of the illness. Now there is growing evidence that gut microbiota also plays a role. 

An Alicante-based startup named Bioithas, located at the University of Alicante’s science park has developed a probiotic that researchers claim can significantly reduce the time that Covid patients have digestive symptoms, such as diarrhoea, abdominal pain or irritable bowel syndrome.  

Probiotics are foods or supplements that contain live microorganisms that are created within certain levels to maintain the intestinal microbiota. This is a group of bacteria that are important for the overall health of the body. It also boosts the immune system, which is the reason that researchers of Bioithas deduced their probiotic helps Covid recovery “by helping to maintain the intestinal microbiota, the virus would be eliminated more quickly.”

They set out on a study in the summer of 2020 to demonstrate their hypothesis by monitoring a group of 45 coronavirus patients in Alicante province. The patients were receiving care in their homes from the Home Hospitalisation Units. The patients were split into two groups, with one group being given the probiotic for a month. 

“After 30 days we observed that in the group of patients taking the product, the symptoms had disappeared in all but one of them,” said Vincente Navarro, head of Bioithas. He added that half of the people in the control group had digestive issues a month later. 

“It has been proven that the virus is eliminated in the faeces, even up to three weeks after the patient has been infected, and this study has shown that patients who take this probiotic recover earlier than those who do not, and a speedier recovery means a faster release of hospital beds,” stressed the specialist in infectious diseases and head of this service at the Hospital del Vinalopó in Elche.


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Written by

Claire Gordon

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