Does Ibuprofen Cause Increased Risk of Coronavirus? DR DAVID FRIEDMAN N.D.,D.C. AUTHOR, SPEAKER, HEALTH EXPERT & RADIO/TV SHOW HOST Dr. David Friedman N.D.,D.C. is the author of the award-winning, #1 national best-selling book Food Sanity, How to Eat in a World of Fads and Fiction. He's a Doctor of Naturopathy, Chiropractic Neurologist, Clinical Nutritionist, Board Certified Alternative Medical Practitioner, and Board Certified in Integrative Medicine. Dr. Friedman is a syndicated television health expert and host of To Your Good Health Radio, which has changed the face of talk radio by incorporating entertainment, shock value, and solutions to everyday health and wellness issues.
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Copyright Dr. David Friedman Warnings that taking ibuprofen can cause COVID-19 to spread have gone viral (pun intended.) In fact, I’m getting dozens of videos and text warnings forwarded to me daily! Is there any truth to this? Actually, this information was based on a legitimate study that has ended up getting flooded with biases and misinformation. On March 11, an article published by The Lan-
cet Respiratory Medicine stated, “Taking ibuprofen could be an aggravating factor for the COVID-19. If you have a fever, take acetaminophen (Tylenol) because ibuprofen stimulates the body to produce an enzyme that allows the virus to more easily invade human cells.” The World Health Organization(WHO) also stated that ibuprofen should be avoided when treating COVID-19 patients, but they later recanted their statement with an updated announcement, "Based on currently available information, WHO does not recommend
against the use of ibuprofen.” The CDC also put out a statement, “Ibuprofen is NOT a concerning factor in treating the virus and shouldn’t be avoided.” In addition, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) published a statement, “There is no scientific evidence linking ibuprofen and worsened COVID-19.” This organization also noted that it had completed a safety review of ibuprofen after survey results suggested that the drug may worsen bacterial infections. EMA officials stated that there exists no evidence
showing an association between ibuprofen
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and COVID-19 prognosis. Many conspiracy theorists are saying all of this recanting of the Lancet paper happened because of deep pocket pressure from multibillion-dollar fortune 500 companies that manufacture ibuprofen, GlaxoSmithKline (makers of Advil) and Johnson & Johnson (makers of Motrin.) Actually, that’s not the case. Just how accurate are the Lancet findings? They were based on the review of just three early sets of COVID-19 cases in China. The authors observed that between 12-30% of these infected patients had high blood pressure and diabetes. The Lancet paper, which investigated whether people with diabetes and hypertension are at an increased risk for COVID-19 infection, explained that human pathogenic coronaviruses bind target cells together using angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Because ACE2 provides a place on cell surfaces for the coronavirus to attach to and replicate, it’s been theorized that higher
rates of ACE2, might be raising the risk of coronavirus infection. Ibuprofen falls into a class of drugs called non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs.) which was believed to cause ACE2 to rise. Here’s where the viral warnings about ibuprofen fall short. There actually wasn’t any PROOF submitted on ibuprofen increasing the severity of COVID-19. We have to be cautious about jumping the gun and associating a phenomena and diseases when something represents
“correlation”
and
not
an
actual
“causation.” In other words, just because two
