In the hospitalized COVID-19 patients I have helped comanage, I find four drugs that may be considered as game-changers. These are hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin, tolicizumab and high-dose melatonin.Hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin deals with the virus directly, while tolicizumab and high-dose melatonin neutralize the damaging effects of the virus on the body. They’re like the houses in Batanes. The massive houses in Batanes don’t prevent the storm, but they make sure the people inside the house are able to survive the strongest storms that regularly hit the island.
Tocilizumab and high-dose melatonin do the same. They’re not viricidal so they can’t kill the virus, but they protect all the organs of the body especially the lungs from the lethal effects of COVID-19.I’m enthusiastic about high-dose melatonin because I consider myself a life-long student of its multiple benefits on the body, aside from its sleep-enhancing effect. I’ve been taking it every night for the last 24 years now, though I don’t really have a sleeping problem.High-dose melatonin
The Manila Doctors Hospital is the first in the world to try high-dose melatonin (36 mg to 72 mg/day in four divided doses) for high-risk COVID-19 patients. Several of the patients we gave high-dose melatonin to already had adult respiratory distress syndrome. By God’s grace, they all survived.
One of the young cardiologists we’re mentoring texted me the good news about her father, a prominent physician in one of the teaching universities in the country, who has just been discharged after battling COVID-19.
He was already about to be intubated and hooked to a breathing machine because all drugs given him didn’t seem to work and his pneumonia was getting worse. After three days on high-dose melatonin, he turned around, and nine days later, he was sent home.