Should You Take Antihistamines for Long COVID Symptoms?

Prevention Magazine interviewed Thomas A. Russo, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, in an article about a study on how antihistamines may help people with Long COVID. Russo says that it’s “difficult to say” whether antihistamines would be helpful when you’re sick with a COVID-19 infection. He points to data that show certain cells that produce histamines, a chemical in the body that produce the symptoms of an allergic reaction, are activated when people are infected with the virus. In theory, then, taking an antihistamine, which works to fight those chemicals could help. Russo says, “I wouldn’t really recommend taking antihistamines in the acute phase of COVID, per se, unless you have sinus infection-like symptoms.” The article also appeared on Yahoo!Life.