Earlier this year, a friend of mine's family of 7 members living in one house contracted Covid-19, and all seven household members died. I would have told them about melatonin, but they live out of state, and I did not become aware of the situation until they had died.
More recently, another friend of mine and his family, as well as their grandson, contracted Covid-19. My friend's son and son were currently living with his dad because he was having his entire house remodeled. My friend's wife and daughter are also living in this house, so there are 5 altogether.
I had, of course, mentioned melatonin to them. It was back when I had thought that 80 mg of melatonin per night was the appropriate dose for everyone based on the information that Dr. Neel had released at the time. Later I found out that the appropriate dose for Covid-19 was at least 1 mg per kilogram of body weight, so the amount is dependent on your weight, again based on Dr. Neel's findings with his Covid-19 patients' responses to high dose melatonin.
In any case, my friend's son was working with a skeleton crew at work with masks. A lady at his work contracted Covid-19, and he got it from her and took it home to the other 4 members of the household, and they all got Covid-19. My friend's son thought he was just catching a cold or the flu and didn't mention it to anyone. But then the lady from his work died of Covid-19, and he realized that he likely had Covid-19 also and went to the hospital, and they immediately checked him in because he was having difficulty breathing. The other 4 members of the household soon realized that they were likely infected and went and got tested for Covid. In the meantime, they were not eligible to be accepted into the hospital.
During this time, I had not heard from them, but another friend texted me to let me know what was going on, and once I got that news, I called my friend, and his wife answered, and I asked how they were doing. She was pretty casual about the situation and said the doctor said that her son would probably be released from the hospital in about 5 days, and she was very happy about that.
I asked her if they were taking melatonin to help deal with the virus, and she said they were, but that her son had only taken a total of 60 mg over the past week before going into the hospital, which is roughly equivalent to nothing. I told her that the latest dosing recommendation by Dr. Neel was 1 mg per kilogram of body weight, and she was surprised to hear it and said that she was not taking nearly enough. On the other hand, her daughter was taking that dosage, and her husband was taking just under that dosing level, but she was only taking about half of the correct dose. She said her husband and her daughter were doing pretty good, as was their 12-year-old grandson, who was also doing well at his correct amount. She said she was feeling exhausted and weak and was starting to have a little difficulty breathing.
I asked her if there was any way that she could get melatonin to her son in the hospital, and she said no, they wouldn't let her in to see him. I asked her to ask her son to ask the doctor if he would give him HDM. He texted her back, saying that when he asked the doctor about melatonin, the doctor told him not to worry because they were already giving him some. I told his mom to have her son ask the doctor how much melatonin they were giving him and if it wasn't at least one mg per kg, to ask the doctor if he would boost the dose up to reach that level. It turned out they were only giving him 5 or 10 mg of melatonin to help with sleep. My friend's son asked if they would boost his dose up if he would sign a waiver to protect the doctor and the hospital against a lawsuit, and the doctor said no.
A day later, my friend's wife called me crying because the hospital had just told them that their son had taken a turn for the worse, and it was now touch and go. She said that the doctor told her that her son now required 85 to 90% oxygen support, and it was looking like they would have to place him on a ventilator if he did not improve very soon. I asked her again about the possibility of getting melatonin to her son, and she said it was impossible. I reminded her to bring her own melatonin dose up to the correct amount. I asked her how her husband, daughter, and grandson were doing, and she said they all seemed to be doing pretty well, but she was feeling pretty bad. I told her to keep me posted and take melatonin with her if she had to go to the hospital, and she said she would.
The next day I got a text from her daughter telling me that her mom was in the hospital with double pneumonia! I asked her if her mom was able to take melatonin with her to the hospital, and she said yes. I asked the daughter how she was doing, and she told me she had started taking melatonin as soon as she began to feel symptoms since she already knew her brother had it and had exposed her. Her test later confirmed that she was positive for Covid-19, but she told me it was like she had a very mild flu, and she felt like she was over the virus, but just feeling tired as she usually did after the regular flu. She said her brother's son was similar to her, as was her dad, with all three presenting with mild flu-like symptoms, but in less than a week is almost back to normal except for the tired feeling.
My friend called me the same day and was very concerned about his son because the doctor had just told him that his son now required 75% oxygen. If he did not improve from this point quickly, his son would have serious health issues for the rest of his life, and that was assuming that he survived. He told my friend that if he does survive, he will require oxygen for the rest of his life, and he may have significant health issues and possible heart issues.
I texted my friend's wife in the hospital the next day, and she confirmed that she had brought melatonin to the hospital with her and was taking the correct dose on her own. She was released from the hospital 3 days later and recuperating at home now. A few days later, the hospital released her son as they said he only required 15 % oxygen assistance and said he could recover at home. As soon as he got home, he started on the correct dose of melatonin, and he said that he would stay on it for many months to try to assist the healing process.
I'm glad to know that they all made it past covid-19 safely, but the wife and son are going to have a significant amount of recovery time and healing to do.
My thinking on melatonin as relates to Covid-19 is unchanged. I keep it on hand, and my family and I will start at 1 mg per kg/day at the first sign of Covid-19 and even before being tested as the results took days for my friends to get them back to find out that they all tested positive for Covid-19. Suppose no improvement is seen the following day after initiating melatonin. In that case, I will consider increasing my dose by a small margin given the excellent safety profile of melatonin at higher dosing, as Dr. Neel is using.
Again, I am not recommending Dr. Neel's protocol, just reporting it and how it affected my friend's family.
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