When the Virus Leaves But the Lock Stays: Post-Viral Epigenetic Silencing in Gut Dysfunction and… — section

To be absolutely explicit from the outset: this is not a treatment recommendation. VPA carries serious hepatotoxicity risk, teratogenicity, and multiple drug interactions that make off-label gut use currently unjustifiable without dedicated safety and dosing research. The value here is entirely mechanistic and educational — to challenge the field’s reflex toward antimicrobial and dietary explanations, and to ask whether some of these patients are trapped at the level of gene regulation rather than microbial composition.