PHOENIX — About 12,000,000 people are considered COVID-19 long-haulers and are suffering side effects from the virus, even months later.

A new study shows taking probiotics could be a treatment.

The study, published in a Swedish medicine journal, followed patients with brain fog and muscle soreness from COVID-19. After 14 days on probiotics, they saw improvement with both.

The coronavirus doesn’t have a standardized treatment and probiotics should not be used as a cure-all but, ABC15 Health Insider Dr. Shad Marvasti says probiotics have been proven to help prevent illness.

He says probiotics help with gut health and also helps boost general immunity so it wouldn’t hurt with COVID-19 recovery or even lowering susceptibility to getting the virus in the first place.

“It can only be helpful based on what we already know about probiotics and boosting immunity.” said Dr. Shad. “There’s a number of studies that have shown that kids who take probiotics, especially multiple strains, during cold and flu season actually have lower incidents of colds and flus and decreased numbers of school absentee days.”

He says with any probiotic you take you should include 10 strains of active cultures. You can also eat fermented foods like yogurt, sauerkraut, miso, kim chee and tempeh.