Im confused as to how you reached the conclusion that probiotics and those supplements speeds up the recovery, if your data points are 1) that took 9 months to recover and 2) that only happened in the last week. Is it that this week's brain fog has already gone away and the only difference you can think of is taking those things? In which case it's really nowhere near enough data points to draw conclusions.
Really, even for stuff like people saying "when I get a cold, I always recover faster if <x>" is almost certainly either a placebo effect, or a random opinion that may or may not align with actual medical reality. Because not only does something like "a cold" or "a flu" or "covid" cover many variants rather than being a single identical type of infection, but even if they somehow knew that every time they had been infected by an identical form of a virus there are still so many variables such as how much of the virus initially breached their body, how much sleep they'd had in the lead up to and post- infection, what they'd been eating around the time, etc etc
Which is why we use studies looking at large numbers of people to figure out what does and doesn't help recovery rather than relying on anecdotes.
And in your case it seems like even less data than someone making a judgement based on potentially dozens of colds over their lifetime, it's just one or two data points?
(Although since probiotics and vitamin supplements won't, in typical doses, cause any harm except to your wallet, there's certainly no harm in taking them after a sickness - and even if there isn't a link between them having a physical impact in speeding up recovery, they could still or course work wonders as placebos too!)
Feeling and performing better after taking an aspirin as opposed to days I did not take it. Effects don't last more than a day.
Clinical trials and online polls convinced me to try homemade probiotics and multivitamins. I can link them once I'm not busy. No idea if they had any effect but might as well include.
Really, even for stuff like people saying "when I get a cold, I always recover faster if <x>" is almost certainly either a placebo effect, or a random opinion that may or may not align with actual medical reality. Because not only does something like "a cold" or "a flu" or "covid" cover many variants rather than being a single identical type of infection, but even if they somehow knew that every time they had been infected by an identical form of a virus there are still so many variables such as how much of the virus initially breached their body, how much sleep they'd had in the lead up to and post- infection, what they'd been eating around the time, etc etc
Which is why we use studies looking at large numbers of people to figure out what does and doesn't help recovery rather than relying on anecdotes.
And in your case it seems like even less data than someone making a judgement based on potentially dozens of colds over their lifetime, it's just one or two data points?
(Although since probiotics and vitamin supplements won't, in typical doses, cause any harm except to your wallet, there's certainly no harm in taking them after a sickness - and even if there isn't a link between them having a physical impact in speeding up recovery, they could still or course work wonders as placebos too!)