Biotechnology

Getting COVID-19 with an Autoimmune Disease: My Experience

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Hey all! It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog post. And the reason for that is…after 2.5 years of this pandemic and being fully vaccinated, I finally got COVID-19.

Getting COVID was one of my worst fears during this pandemic. As someone with an autoimmune condition, I wasn’t sure how my body would react to getting the virus. I had read stories, such as this young woman with an autoimmune condition, who had caught COVID and ended up having to get a lung transplant. It’s really scary since some people report that their symptoms are more of a bad flu, while others end up with crippling long COVID symptoms or worse, end up passing away.

It’s been a few weeks since I first tested positive, and I’m on the mend. My main symptoms were a fever, chills, sore throat, dry cough, loss of taste and smell, fatigue, joint pain, muscle soreness and weakness. As you can imagine, it wasn’t a fun recovery!

My only symptom now, a few weeks post-COVID diagnosis, is a lingering dry cough. I have asthma, and although it’s a very mild form of asthma, it definitely flared up when I got COVID.

I wanted to share some of the things that helped me recover from COVID-19 quickly when you have a compromised immune system. Of course, always talk with your doctor before beginning any kind of treatment plan or modifying your health regiment.

1. Anti-viral medication

The first thing that helped me recover from COVID more quickly was getting on anti-viral medication. The medication, called paxlovid, was developed by Pfizer and is composed of two separate medications: nirmatrelvir and ritonavir. The medication is taken orally as six pills swallowed daily – three in the morning, and three at night.

Paxlovid isn’t available to just anyone, however. You have to be at high risk for severe disease if you get COVID-19. As someone with an autoimmune condition and asthma, I definitely fit that category. I was able to get a last-minute telehealth appointment with a family doctor, and he prescribed me paxlovid, as well as some prescription cough medication.

A clinical trial showed that taking paxlovid resulted in an 89% reduction in the risk of hospitalization and death. So, if you get COVID and you’re immunocompromised in some way, I would definitely talk to your doctor to see if you can get a prescription for paxlovid or another anti-viral medication to help you recover faster.

2. Heating/Cooling Pad

Another item that really helped me recover from COVID was a lavender heating and cooling pad. I’ve talked about using a lavender heating pad in the past on this blog for general muscle aches and joint pains, but it was definitely helpful in recovering from the virus as well.

For example, when I was running a low-grade fever, I was able to put the pad in the freezer to turn it into a cooling pad, helping me cool down when I was running hot at night. When I had bad muscle aches and joint pains, I would heat up the pad in the microwave and within a minute, I was able to get some relief.

There are many inexpensive heating pads that you can find online – for example, I found this lavender heating pad from Amazon for only $12.99. You can obviously get an unscented version if you prefer, but I do enjoy the floral aroma.

3. Humidifier

As someone with Sjogren’s syndrome, having a humidifier is always a good bet, since it makes the air feel less dry and helps moisturize your immediate environment. That being said, it also helped me to feel more comfortable when sick with the virus, since COVID gave me a bad dry cough as well, not to mention I had a flare up in many of my Sjogren’s syndrome symptoms, like eye, mouth, and skin dryness.

The humidifier I use is from the brand Crane, but you can find various humidifiers online in different styles and sizes that will fit your space best.

4. Throat Spray

If you’re like me and you experience a bad sore throat and cough when you’re sick with COVID, then I’d recommend looking into an over-the-counter throat spray to help relieve some of the soreness and discomfort. You can get throat sprays with a numbing agent, like phenol or lidocaine, at most major pharmacies. I ended up picking up this cherry-flavored throat spray from CVS, and it definitely helped me get through some of my worse days.

If you’re looking for more of a natural throat spray, you can try an echinacea throat spray such as this one on Amazon for less than $12. Echinacea is a natural compound derived from perennial flowers, and has been used among Native American populations for its healing properties. That being said, echinacea is believed to work by boosting one’s immune system (like Vitamin C), so if you have an autoimmune condition, just be sure to get the go-ahead from your healthcare provider before taking any herb or medication that could increase immune activity.

Those are the items that helped me the most to recover more quickly from COVID-19. Are you someone with an autoimmune disease or other chronic illness who caught the virus? If so, what helped you to recover? Let us know in the comments below!

Is There a Genetic Cause of Lupus?

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Gabriella Piqueras, a 16-year-old Spanish girl living with lupus.
Gabriella Piqueras is a 16-year-old girl living with lupus in Madrid, Spain. Her DNA may be the key to finding a genetic cause for this debilitating autoimmune disease. Image courtesy of El Pais.

Researchers have long pondered whether there is a genetic cause of systemic lupus erythematosus, known as lupus for short. Lupus is a systemic autoimmune disease that occurs when the body’s immune system attacks its own vital organs and tissues, resulting in widespread inflammation and debilitating symptoms. Now, researchers have discovered a genetic mutation in a young patient, whose DNA may be the key to finding a cure for the disease that affects at least 5 million people worldwide.

One Girl’s Case My Help Solve the Mystery

Gabriella Piqueras, a 16-year-old teen from Madrid, is the center of a new research study published in Nature magazine. Ever since Piqueras was five years old, she has suffered from debilitating symptoms, like constant bruising and bleeding beneath her skin. She was admitted to a hospital in Madrid for treatment, where she was diagnosed with lupus as the cause behind her painful symptoms.

Piqueras’ DNA was recently studied by Carola Garcia de Vinuesa, a leading immunologist at the Francis Crick Institute in London. In the study, it was discovered that she had a genetic mutation on her DNA that activates the TLR7 receptor in her cell’s membranes. This receptor activation normally causes immune cells to recognize and attack threatening viruses, but in Piqueras’ case, it causes her immune cells to attack her organs and tissues instead.

Discovering a Genetic Cause for Lupus

After discovering the genetic mutation in the patient’s cells, researchers modified the DNA of mice in a lab at Australian National University in Canberra. As a result, the mice went on to develop lupus. Lead researcher Garcia de Vinuesa commented on the study, saying: “It was already known that this receptor appeared to be activated in lupus patients, but no one knew if it was a cause, a consequence or a side effect of inflammation. Now we can show that it is the cause.”

The discovery of the TLR7 receptor as a genetic cause of lupus is significant. Not only does it show that genetics can lead to development of the disease, it could also explain why 90% of lupus patients are women. Garcia de Vinuesa explains that the instructions for making TLR7 are located on the X chromosome on our DNA. Since women have two X chromosomes on their DNA, and men only have one, women are significantly more likely to develop the disease.

Environmental Factors May Also Play a Role

Maria Galindo, a Madrid-based rheumatologist, states that although the study’s findings are important, it’s also important to consider the environmental causes of lupus as well. She explains that there is “a base of genetic susceptibility that, in the presence of external stimuli, triggers an exaggerated autoimmune reaction.” She concludes, “Everything indicates that the TLR7 pathway is very important, but it is not the only one.”

While more research is required to understand both the environmental and genetic factors behind lupus, this Spanish study sheds light on the chronic autoimmune disease that is often referred to as a ‘cruel mystery’. With more scientific research into lupus, more treatments can be developed to help the 5+ million people living with the disease worldwide. And for patients like Gabriella Piqueras, that could make all the difference.

Update: Everything That’s Worked to Treat my Hidradenitis Suppurativa

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Hey y’all – instead of the usual scholarly article, I’m doing a personal blog post about my journey with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). As I’ve detailed in past blog posts, I’ve been living with this condition for the past 10 years, though I only got officially diagnosed with HS four years ago by my dermatologist.

Since then, I’ve tried a number of different treatments to reduce the symptoms of my Hurley Stage I hidradenitis suppurativa. While many treatments didn’t work, here’s what did (and remember, always consult your doctor before starting a new medication or treatment plan!)

1. Laser Hair Removal

Laser hair removal has been shown to ‘significantly improve’ HS symptoms in patients who participated in a 2011 study where they were treated with intense pulsed light twice a week for four weeks. The belief is that by killing the hair follicle with a laser, this auto-inflammatory condition is less likely to cause boils, abscesses and cysts in follicle-rich areas of the skin, like the underarms and groin.

There are several cons to laser hair removal to consider; the treatments are costly and are rarely covered by health insurance, since laser is not a widely-recognized treatment for HS. It’s also unlikely that someone with Hurley Stage III HS could receive laser treatments, since the laser cannot penetrate scar tissue, and it would be too painful for patients with an advanced stage of the disease.

Despite these drawbacks, I personally have seen a great improvement in my HS symptoms after attending seven sessions every six weeks over the course of one year. I would estimate that I’ve seen an 80% reduction in HS lesions on my skin at around the fourth treatment onwards with the Alexandrite laser (my clinic recommends at least nine treatments to see the best results).

2. Antibiotics

When I was first diagnosed with HS, I was having issues with recurrent, painful boils and cysts in the groin and underarm areas – classic hidradenitis symptoms. Sometimes these lesions would become infected and rupture (TMI, I know!) However, my dermatologist wasn’t a fan of antibiotics, so she didn’t prescribe them to me.

I ended up moving to a different city, and from there, started going to a new dermatology clinic. At the new clinic, I was put on a 90-day course of 100mg of doxycycline, an antibiotic, which my dermatologist explained would bring down the inflammation levels in my skin, and be more preventative in nature compared to the treatments that I had received in the past. After the first 90 days, I noticed a dramatic improvement in my HS, both in terms of the number and severity of the boils I had. Since HS is an auto-inflammatory disease, it made sense that antibiotics worked, but since very few treatments had worked previously, I was pleasantly surprised!

After those first 90 days, I was then put on a lower dosage (50 mg) of doxycycline, since patients aren’t typically given high dosage antibiotics for long-term use. I was worried that my boils would come back with the lower dosage antibiotics, but they have not returned to their previous levels as of yet.

3. Steroid Injections

Prior to going the antibiotics and laser hair removal route, I had been given steroid injections by my dermatologist whenever I had a painful and/or large abscess on my skin. The steroid gets injected directly into the boil underneath the skin, which can be pretty painful, but helped to calm down the inflammation in my skin almost immediately.

I used to get golf ball-sized cysts that had to be injected, and after they were injected, they would deflate to more of a grape-sized cyst, and the pressure against my skin felt like it was relieved. While steroid injections may not be a long-term solution, and more of a ‘reactive’ (rather than proactive) treatment, they definitely helped get me through some of my worse hidradenitis suppurativa disease flare-ups.

4. Topical Solutions

I currently use a number of creams and cleansers – all prescribed to me by my dermatologist – to help me keep the areas affected by HS as clean and exfoliated as possible. Firstly, I shower with Hibiclens, which is used by healthcare professionals to ‘scrub in’ at clinics and hospitals, and helps to keep the affected area sanitary. Although it was prescribed to me by my dermatologist, it’s also available over the counter at many pharmacies.

Secondly, I use Clindamycin, also known as benzoyl peroxide, after my shower. This is a topical antibiotic that helps to prevent infections, which is super helpful if you have HS boils that open up, exposing your skin to a potential bacterial infection.

Thirdly, I use a cream with 15% Resorcinol, which, in a 2010 study, has been shown to improve the pain and duration of HS lesions. I get my cream from a compounding pharmacy called ChemistryRX, though I have seen Resorcinol skincare products for sale online (just with less of the active ingredient in it).

Finally, I use Tretinoin, a Vitamin A derivative, which helps to get rid of all those pesky little blackheads that appear after a skin lesion has begun to heal. I know this is a lot of different skincare products for hidradenitis suppurativa, but those of you who have this skin condition will know that you have to fight this disease with everything you’ve got!

5. Zinc Supplements

I take 50mg of zinc supplements daily. While it hasn’t been definitively proven that there is a link between hidradenitis suppurativa and zinc deficiency, some initial studies have shown promise in the treatment of HS with zinc gluconate. A 2012 study in France, for example, showed that when patients with HS lesions were treated with 90mg of zinc gluconate each day over the course of 3 months, they experienced a significant alteration in the balance of inflammatory markers in their body, as compared to samples collected before the zinc treatment. This imbalance in inflammatory markers may be the underlying cause of hidradenitis suppurativa.

Although I’m not 100% sure that zinc supplementation is working to reduce my HS lesions, I decided that I didn’t have much to lose by taking a daily zinc supplement, a mineral which many of us are deficient in anyway. If you don’t want to swallow a pill to get your zinc, some natural sources of zinc include: meat, shellfish, dairy, eggs, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds.

That’s it for today’s blog post! What has helped you to improve your hidradenitis suppurativa (HS)? Let us know in the comments below!

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