Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor and this is not medical advice. I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences, and this post is educational in nature. It is meant to share research and not to provide health care or a substitute for seeking health care. Please discuss this with your doctor before taking any action on it.
This is the lab work I used for myself to ensure I recovered from COVID in a healthy way. Later this week I will write about my experience with COVID and share my results.
According to this preprint from July (preprints are not yet peer-reviewed), the following markers were important indicators of post-COVID inflammatory symptoms:
CRP above 0.3 mg/dL (for men)
Neutrophil count above 3.1 (women) or 3.4 (men) x 103/mcL
Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio above 1.86 (for women)
Fibrinogen above 421 mg/dL (for either sex)
These can be measured with high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, fibrinogen activity, and a complete blood count (CBC).
This next preprint is from severe cases, and while I did not have a severe case, I thought it was wise to use it as a “just in case” basis for precautionary bloodwork. They found that a broad set of autoimmunity markers rose during severe cases, but those that persisted into the recovery phase were anti-nuclear antigen (ANA) and anti-carbamylated protein.
This preprint found that among the pro-clotting autoimmunity targets that occur in severe cases are antibodies to cardiolipin, phosphatidylserine, and prothrombin.
I chose to combine these papers to get Labcorp's anti-carbamylated protein and reflexive ANA, which, if positive, measures 12 autoantibodies that include cardiolipin. I did not bother testing antibodies to phosphatidylserine or prothrombin, figuring that the anti-carbamylated protein and reflexive ANA would be sufficient on the autoimmunity front.
This paper published in Nature reported that D-dimer, a byproduct of clotting, was among the most commonly elevated markers, while NT-proBNP, a prohormone responding to heart pressure, C-reactive protein, ferritin, pro-calcitonin, and IL-6 were less commonly elevated.
Personally, since I have an existing predisposition to iron overload, and since IL-6, neutrophils, and lymphocytes are important markers of COVID prognosis while ill, I selected ferritin, D-dimer and IL-6 to add to the complete blood count and other post-COVID markers identified above.
The mix I chose for myself to look for a healthy recovery, then, was this:
Plasma IL-6
Fibrinogen activity
Anti-CarP Ab
D-Dimer
CBC With Differential/Platelet
C-Reactive Protein
ANA Profile 12
Ferritin
If you know of research suggesting other markers should be added to this list, please leave a comment with your explanation and a link to the research, and I will consider adding it to this list.
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