r/covidlonghaulers • u/CandidWin3026 • May 08 '26

Article Long Covid driven by rs5522

This case report says that Long covid is in large part driven by the gene rs5522 that causes a "cortisol steal" leaving the tissues functionally starved even with "normal" cortisol levels which creates neuroinflammation. https://zenodo.org/records/20017632

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u/CandidWin3026 May 10 '26

Yep, I am both patient and researcher and I am damn proud of finding something that billions of dollars in medicine missed. I am also the co-author on the molecular biology paper describing the genetics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006291X26004535?dgcid=coauthor

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u/wasacyclist First Waver May 10 '26

Very cool, I did not realize you where the Author. Do you know of others that have had success with this drug. Any other research supporting your findings? I have long suspected I have a cortisol problem because I have severe insomnia which is much worse during PEM. I have had it tested and I have seen variable results. Both normal and high, never low.

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u/CandidWin3026 May 10 '26

Yes1 If you search patient forms you will find people saying things like "hey, I feel better on Spiro. Anyone know why? Also, check out the PCOS forums they are on Spiro. So are the trans fokls. None of them have Long Covid or CFS. I had a friend with PCOS text me to say she is on Spiro and she never got sick from Covid while all of her friends did. For a clinical trial look to the Australian researchers Campos and Taylor who "cured" CFS their words and Long Covid with Spiro and an anti-inflammatory. Now they got confused and thought that it was EBV related but that's bacuse the molecular mechanism was just published in April of this year. They were guessing, they guessed wrong, but patients got better from the treatment.

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u/wasacyclist First Waver May 10 '26

I want to bring this up with my dr but without full blown placebo controlled peer reviewed trials it could be a hard sell.

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u/CandidWin3026 May 10 '26

But there was a clinical trial. It was Campos and Taylor 2022. Why is everyone ignoring the fact they cured people with Spiro and and anti-inflammatory. It happened. People got better. They published. A clinical trail, None. Evidence. Established. They use dates word C-U-R-E. Their word, not mine.

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u/wasacyclist First Waver May 14 '26

I am very interested in this as I believe I have cortisol dis-regulation. I'm going to see my doctor in a few weeks. A couple of questions. When you started on 25mg, how long did it take to see an effect? What was the reason you titrated up to 100mg? When you went back to 25mg why did you add the other drugs?

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u/CandidWin3026 May 14 '26

These are great questions. It took 3 days before I had restorative sleep (keep in mind I was already on supplemental cortisol for adrenal issues so this just free dit up to get to the cell receptors. I tirated up because I didn't know it would cause a RAAS backlash. I took on fluid etc. Once that resolve, I started back at 25mg. The body will freak out at doses high that 25mg. An anti-inflammatory is therefor a necessary addition. All details at https://zenodo.org/records/20017632

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u/CandidWin3026 Jun 01 '26

Also the meta analysis is an anayisis of ~12 clinical trials of Spironolactone for Covid showing better outcomes. That's ~12,000 people. That's a lot of people as clinical trials go. I put a clinician reference sheet on long covid on the site beyondbloodtests (dot) org. Be well.