Doctors at DuPage Medical Group are advising patients of a protocol that won’t prevent them from getting coronavirus, but can decrease their risk of severe COVID-19 in adults who are not pregnant or breastfeeding.
“It’s based on data," said Dr. Mat Philip, a physician with DuPage Medical Group. "There's a lot of data on the benefits of aspirin and vitamin D, in terms of preventing severe COVID, and so we've started rolling it out to our patients."
The therapeutic consideration consists of a regimen of daily supplements. For the general public, the recommendations include taking one baby aspirin, a multivitamin and 1000 IU of vitamin D every day.
“We've tried to keep it as simple as possible because they could be on this for two months or three months,” said Dr. Philip.
If someone in a household gets COVID-19, the other household members are considered high risk and the regimen changes. It still includes a baby aspirin and a multivitamin, but the dose of vitamin D is doubled to 2000 IU, and a dose of 2-5mg of melatonin should also be added at bedtime.
“Every month, there's been more and more data showing the benefit of both of these things,” Dr. Philip said.
Dr. Philip says even people who have been previously diagnosed with coronavirus should consider the therapy, with new variants of the virus being discovered.
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DuPage Medical Group doctors are very clear, though, that this regimen should act as a bridge until the vaccine is readily available, but doesn’t replace the need for the vaccine.
“I don't want anyone listening to think of a prevention protocol boosting our immunity as being a full-on substitute for a vaccine that is extremely effective,” said Dr. Mia Taormina, head of infectious disease at DuPage Medical Group.
Ten months into the pandemic, Debra Sudworth and her family have not gotten coronavirus. When Dr. Philip called her earlier this month and recommended the supplement protocol to prevent a severe coronavirus outcome, Debra and her husband Steve started taking the supplements right away and plan to continue until they can get the vaccine.
“If there is a measure that we can take and do that is as simple as this, that's really not going to do any harm, it's only going to benefit us, then we were just like, absolutely, we're going to do it,” Sudworth said.
Masks and social distancing are still recommended. The prevention protocol is not recommended for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. Patients may want to discuss with their physician before taking aspirin.
