Episode 60: Research-Aid Networks – all about the acid-base

Researcher Vicky van der Togt and virologist Dr Jeremy Rossman have spent the past 2.5 years trying to move the Long Covid research needle both in terms of the science and patient advocacy.

Vicky van der Togt and Dr Jeremy Rossman run Research-Aid Networks, a non-profit organisation that aims to combine research, humanitarian aid and local community, to enhance patient advocacy and within that, Pandemic-Aid Networks, an umbrella organisation connecting Long Covid patients and support groups. They have published several notable papers, including looking at impacts of vaccination and discussion of the dangers of promoting non-evidence-based therapeutics in Long Covid support groups.

In their latest paper they propose that it is an Acid-Base balance dysregulation in the body that leads to many of the persistent symptoms and the spiralling condition that is Long Covid. In their hypothesis, published in Frontiers (summarised here in 9 languages and audio version), they propose this theory along with research and study recommendations to develop the idea further.

Whilst they insist that altered pH levels alone could not be a straightforward biomarker for Long Covid, as the change in homeostasis occurs in a myriad of diseases, there is clear, tested evidence of the disruption in Long Covid patients, and van der Togt and Rossman’s personal recoveries attest that rebalancing the pH results in a resolution of Long Covid symptoms. Whether or not this addresses the underlying cause of Long Covid to ‘cure’ what’s driving the disease is still being investigated but, they argue, it works.