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The French National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) warns against certain food supplements which could alter the body's immune response to Covid-19.
Some food supplements contain plants with anti-inflammatory properties that can act like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen. These plants can disrupt our body's natural defenses against infections such as the new coronavirus, Covid-19. These food supplements could then disrupt the immune and inflammatory response necessary to fight the virus.
Experts have studied the most recent scientific data on "the immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory mechanisms of plants" as well as their ability to interfere with the immune response in the event of infection. This has shown that many plants have counterproductive effects in the defense against Covid-19. This is particularly the case willow, meadowsweet, birch, poplar, goldenrod, polygalas who "contain salicylic acid derivatives (aspirin analogs)". ANSES also warns against "harpagophytum, echinacea, turmeric, cat's claw (also called liana from Peru), plants of the genera Boswellia and Commiphora (known for their gum-oleoresins called respectively "frankincense" and "myrrh")"who have other plant anti-inflammatory drugs.
"We have noticed that a certain number of food supplements contain plants which have anti-inflammatory or immunomodulatory properties. These plants can interfere with natural defenses. This is true in normal times but it is more particularly true in epidemic period ", explained Dr Aymeric Dopter, deputy to the head of the nutritional risks unit of ANSES, on Franceinfo. At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, doctors notably alerted health authorities after observing that the condition of young patients with the disease had deteriorated after taking ibuprofen. The National Academy of Medicine then advised to prefer paracetamol to treat fever.
ANSES then recommends "to people consuming these food supplements with a preventive aim to immediately suspend the consumption of food supplements containing these plants as soon as the first symptoms of Covid-19 appear"As for people consuming these food supplements in the context of chronic inflammatory pathologies, they are strongly invited to "imperatively discuss with their doctor the relevance of continuing or not their consumption".
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by Sarah Chekroun