Naglaa Gamil Shehab1,2 
,
Sareh Dortaj3,
Mariam Othman3,
Esraa Mostafa3,
Parisa Rezvani3,
Fatimah Alshawi3,
Lilyan Al Ahmad3
For correspondence:- Naglaa Shehab Email: naglaa@dpc.edu Tel:+971555811716
Accepted: 5 February 2022 Published: 28 February 2021
Citation: Shehab NG, Dortaj S, Othman M, Mostafa E, Rezvani P, Alshawi F, et al. Immune-boosting effect of natural remedies and supplements on progress of, and recovery from COVID-19 infection. Trop J Pharm Res 2022; 21(2):313-322 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v21i2.14
© 2022 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Purpose: To investigate the effect of natural remedies and supplements on the progress of and recovery from COVID-19 infection, and the role of safety precautions in controlling the spread of its causative pathogen.
Methods: A questionnaire was designed and electronically distributed among previously infected individuals across countries. The survey included questions about the participants’ demographic information, medical history, how they were infected, symptoms they have experienced, where they were isolated, the degree of precautions taken against the virus, and their consumption of natural remedies or supplements before and during the infection period.
Results: The results showed that natural remedies and supplements are widely consumed among COVID-19 patients both before and during infection, either as a single remedy or in combination with other remedies. As the age of the participants increased, the incidence of their hospitalization increased. Significant results were observed when comparing the severity of infection with the number of natural remedies and supplements taken before (P 0.000) and during the infection (P 0.003).
Conclusion: Increasing the intake of natural remedies and/or supplements before and during COVID-19 infection lowers the severity of the infection. Vitamin C, honey, and citrus fruits such as orange and lemon were the major remedies consumed before and during infection. A large number of the participants that experienced severe COVID-19 conditions, did not consume any natural remedies or supplements.
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