COVID-19: The Inflammation link and the role of nutrition in potential mitigation

This 2020 review discusses a few anti-inflammatory treatments that are being investigated to try to mitigate the cytokine storm seen in severe COVID-19 cases (cytokine storm = life-threatening systemic inflammatory syndrome involving high levels of circulating cytokines and immune-cell hyperactivation). Zabetakis et al. look at nutritional status and the role of diet and lifestyle since these factors affect patient outcomes in other severe infections and are suspected to have a function in COVID-19. In fact, the presence of poor nutritional status and pre-existing noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes mellitus, chronic lung diseases, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and obesity are said to be significant risk factors for catching a severe COVID-19 infection. Since systemic inflammation is a feature in all of the aforementioned diseases, it may influence patient outcomes against COVID-19. This review explores the potential importance of nutrition in COVID-19 infection and identifies food groups and key nutrients that could play a factor in determining the outcomes of respiratory infections. [NPIDs: COVID, coronavirus, pandemic, immunity, the immune system, COVID-19, cytokine, non-communicable disease, diabetes, lung disease, cardiovascular disease, respiratory infections]

Year: 2020

Reference: Zabetakis, I., Lordan, R., Norton, C., & Tsoupras, A. (2020). COVID-19: The Inflammation Link and the Role of Nutrition in Potential Mitigation. Nutrients, 12(5), 1466. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12051466

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