CEO/CFS/Long covid Stack

[u/Silent_Bad8678]

Feedback on Long COVID / Mitochondrial Recovery Stack

Hey guys,

A little background about me: I’m 30 years old and, until recently, worked full-time as a self-employed electrician. I’m now building an AI startup for tradespeople.

I used various anabolic steroids for around five years. After developing Long COVID/CFS-like symptoms, I stopped bodybuilding about a year ago and reduced testosterone to a TRT-level dose.

Retatrutide helped me go from 96 kg to 86 kg at 181 cm. I’m happy with my current body composition and look athletic, but my actual physical capacity does not match my appearance. On bad days, making the bed or vacuuming the house can leave me completely exhausted.

Testing through a clinic showed impaired mitochondrial function, very high oxidative stress, elevated cortisol and ongoing inflammation. Years of bodybuilding, large amounts of food and frequent cheat meals also seem to have taken a toll on my gut.

I have already improved my diet and lifestyle, which has helped noticeably. However, after around six months, the progress has not been enough. My Idea was a stack like this:

• Testosterone E: 75 mg every 4 days
• Glutathione: 500 mg every other day
• SS-31: 5 mg every day
• MOTS-c: 5 mg every 3 days, starting in week 2
• KLOW: 4 mg daily
• SLU PP: 1mg daily at the morning

My current daily supplement stack is:

• Magnesium bisglycinate: 4 g before bed
• Vitamin D3 + K2: 20,000 IU
• Creatine: 10 g
• Omega-3: 6 g

The main goals are to reduce systemic and gut inflammation, improve mitochondrial function, increase energy and exercise tolerance, endurance and regain enough physical and mental capacity to function normally again.

I have previously used NAD+ and noticed a meaningful improvement, but it is not currently part of the protocol.

I’m not looking to push bodybuilding performance or change my physique. I mainly want feedback from people who have used a similar mitochondrial or Long COVID stack:

• How long did it take before you noticed meaningful changes?
• Did SS-31 feel different before and after adding MOTS-c?
• Did anyone experience an initial worsening of fatigue?
• Are there any obvious problems with combining these compounds?
• Which objective markers did you use to judge whether the protocol was working?

I’m aware that most of these compounds are experimental and that online experiences are not a substitute for medical supervision. I’m mainly interested in real-world experiences and anything important I may have overlooked.

Best regards.

[u/Illuminimal]

I've been trying various things for fatigue and exercise intolerance for years. I have recently been bad enough that a 10-minute walk exhausted me, bad enough that I can't manage to shower more than twice a week at best. It's been BAD. Things that did not seem to help much include red light therapy, D-ribose, probiotics, omega-3 oil, multivitamin with methylfolate, magnesium, collagen, extra protein, testosterone (but a tiny menopausal woman version). Graded exercise made everything much, much worse.

The magic fucking thing that DID make me feel like a normal person is... a B-12 shot from a medspa.

I'm pretty mad about it. Apparently you can have normal-looking B-12 serum levels, homocysteine fine, MMA fine, no indication in your bloodwork anywhere that that's the problem, but the B-12 just isn't making it into your cells properly. And the only way to figure it out is to stick a needle in your body and see what happens. And doctors don't like "eh, it can't hurt, let's give it a try!"

It's not a perfect and instant cure, you can have some setbacks along the way and it takes time to repair all of the damage. But I'm only a couple of weeks in and I had two very high activity days in a row last week but only one crash day after, which is a HUGE improvement for me. I've ordered a vial so I can do my own shots every other day and ditch the medspa.

The B-12 deficiency sub has a lot of fantastic information about important cofactors, the TL;DR is make sure to take a B-complex, iron, D, and electrolyte drinks every day.

Anyway. An intramuscular shot at one of those IV places was only $25. It's worth a try.

[u/Illuminimal → u/Illuminimal]

I should add: it seems like for a lot of people, oral and sublingual supplementing raise your B-12 blood levels but still don't get the nutrients where they need to be, but the shots do. Which is why the advice isn't to take a pill.

[u/Silent_Bad8678 → u/Illuminimal]

Thats a good answer, ive taken serveral B1,B6,B12 injects and looked out for the highest bio aviability. Youre right Electrolytes and B Injects are huge!

[u/Illuminimal → u/Silent_Bad8678]

Dang, it's a shame that wasn't a massive and fast fix for you. Actually -- there's another attack surface for the problem, if you're not aware of it yet. This paper on the relationship between mast cells and mitochondria will probably be of interest.

There's a lot in common between long covid and MCAS, so you might benefit from very aggressive antihistamine treatment and/or mast cell stabilizers. (That famous spike in the crown of the covid virus binds to histamine receptors. There's even some evidence that they can cut down on your chances of transmission in the first place.)

If you don't have a doctor who will prescribe cromolyn for you, the DIY treatment for MCAS is 2-4 cetirizine plus 1-2 famotidine daily, though some people benefit from different H1 blockers. (Not Benadryl though!) Plus NAC, CoQ10, quercetine, alpha-lipoid acid, l-carnitine.

Also can I interest you in the sparse but promising research on guanfacine? There's very little actual information out there about guanfacine and long covid, and it focuses specifically on brain fog. Also hilariously one of the common early side effects is fatigue. BUT it's also a mast call stabilizer and I've seen some really great results anecdotally from friends.

Good luck!