How it went
Did it last?
- 2 of 10 said the benefit wore off (including the 1 who relapsed).
- 1 of 10 needed to keep doing it to stay well.
Read from what people wrote. A story that ends without a follow-up counts as lasting, so treat these as minimums.
| Outcome described | Accounts | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Full recovery | 1 | 10% |
| Near-full | 0 | 0% |
| Substantial | 3 | 30% |
| Partial | 4 | 40% |
| Relapsed | 1 | 10% |
| No benefit | 1 | 10% |
By how ill people were
| Severity at worst | How it went | n | Recovered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moderate | 5 | 20% | |
| Severe | 2 | 0% | |
| Very severe | 1 | 0% |
2 accounts don’t say how ill the person was.
How often it comes up
Posts that mention Nitric-oxide boosters (beetroot, arginine, citrulline), per 1,000 posts each year. Hover a point for the count.
Show as a table
| Year | Posts mentioning it | All posts | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 0 | 184 | 0.0 |
| 2010 | 3 | 682 | 4.4 |
| 2011 | 1 | 704 | 1.4 |
| 2012 | 12 | 1,491 | 8.0 |
| 2013 | 19 | 1,995 | 9.5 |
| 2014 | 25 | 2,707 | 9.2 |
| 2015 | 24 | 2,566 | 9.4 |
| 2016 | 13 | 2,023 | 6.4 |
| 2017 | 15 | 3,381 | 4.4 |
| 2018 | 13 | 2,523 | 5.2 |
| 2019 | 3 | 1,637 | 1.8 |
| 2020 | 14 | 3,318 | 4.2 |
| 2021 | 7 | 2,469 | 2.8 |
| 2022 | 14 | 1,871 | 7.5 |
| 2023 | 6 | 2,362 | 2.5 |
| 2024 | 20 | 2,176 | 9.2 |
| 2025 | 10 | 1,349 | 7.4 |
| 2026 (so far) | 2 | 899 | 2.2 |
Posts in the forum threads and blog comments we archived, 34,337 in all, counted per year. A mention means the post names the treatment, not that the writer took it. These pages all contain a recovery story, so they show what those communities discussed, not everyone with ME/CFS or long COVID. All trends
All 10 accounts
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Blood and circulation
Took a nitric-oxide-producing supplement combining L-citrulline and beetroot powder for dysautonomia with wildly fluctuating blood pressure. Illness duration and severity are not detailed. Says it has stabilized her labile blood pressure and is purported to…
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Long Covid Healing Resources
Followed a 10-point Mayo Clinic-informed protocol: a TruVaga vagus-nerve-stimulation device for 2 minutes three times a day, guanfacine at 0.5mg twice daily (with room to increase to 1mg twice daily), L-arginine 2000mg twice daily, vitamin C 500mg twice…
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Supplementation with L-Arginine + Vitamin C has beneficial effects
L-citrulline powder, 3g per dose with 90mg of vitamin C powder, taken twice daily, was credited by searcher1 with resolving her long COVID symptoms. She had been ill with fatigue, breathing problems, muscle aches and brain fog since September 2022. After…
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l-citrulline boosting energy (and BP!)
Citrulline malate, 3 grams taken two to three times daily, was tried by Hip for ME/CFS. He reported it did not seem to do much for his core ME/CFS symptoms. He did notice an anti-anxiety effect, which he attributed to citrulline's conversion to arginine in…
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l-citrulline boosting energy (and BP!)
L-citrulline, 2 teaspoons twice daily on an empty stomach before reducing to 1 teaspoon daily, was tried by Mary, a longtime ME/CFS patient and forum moderator. It noticeably boosted her energy and daily function for about four days, similar to short-lived…
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3 kings to lift you
From sleeping 22 hours a day and considering suicide about six years into illness, this poster describes a large, years-long stack - pulsed steroids, noopept-based nootropics, experimental NSI-189, and roughly twenty daily supplements - restoring the ability…
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Supplement - Increasing N.O. w/o crashing (arginine, lysine, etc.)
L-arginine, dose and duration unspecified, initially produced a big increase in energy, decreased inflammation and pain, and what the poster called extreme mental focus. This ME/CFS patient, for whom brain fog was one of the most troubling symptoms, then…
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Beet Juice? Anyone using it?
Beet juice was one of four ingredients in a home juicing blend that taniaaust1 credited with helping her symptoms somewhat. She could not isolate beet juice's individual contribution, since the recipe combined it with three other unspecified juiced…
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Beet Juice? Anyone using it?
Beet juice was reported by barbc56 as not having helped at all, though she clarified she does not believe beet juice caused the general worsening she was experiencing around the same time. She had actually tried cooked beets rather than juice itself, and…
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Arginine + Vitamin C for Long Covid
L-arginine at 1.5g twice daily, modeled on a published arginine-plus-vitamin-C protocol, was started by a long COVID patient who had been unable to work as a programmer since about four months after a March 2022 infection, with severe headaches, chest pain,…