How to accelerate recovery from long-Covid?

Whether or not you can accelerate recovery from long-Covid would depend very much on the individual.

The medical term for long-Covid is post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) and it is usually applied to those who are still suffering symptoms 12 weeks after initial infection. But some people are still experiencing symptom 2 years on.

It isn’t really surprising that long-COVID is occurring. Any viral infection can lead to chronic symptoms such as we see in myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and other syndromes.

What are the symptoms of long-Covid?

The symptoms of long-covid include fatigue, muscle weakness, insomnia, brain fog, palpitations, chronic rhinitis, breathlessness, sore throat, headaches and many more.  Since you are unique, your symptoms could be completely different!

Understanding what is causing your symptoms may help you to accelerate recovery from long-Covid

The virus may inflict damage directly or indirectly by dysrupting your immune system or by immune over activation. Over activation of the immune system can result in a cytokine storm or in too much inflammation. In either case it can lead to reactivation of other pathogens, to damage to different organs or it could trigger an autoimmune condition. Most of us have viruses that are lying dormant within us. These include the numerous enteroviruses and the herpes virus family which includes shingles, chicken pox and Epstein Barr Virus (EBS). Research indicates that you can also retain reservoirs of the virus in the body for months which can cause you to experience symptoms.

What is the connection between long-COVID, chronic fatigue syndrome and ME?

Many patients with CFS or ME developped their symptoms following a viral infection, hence the similarity with long-COVID.  Reservoirs of an enterovirus, which is similar to a coronavirus, have been found in tissue samples of ME/CFS patients at much higher levels than what was found in healthy controls. Your adaptive immune system can suppress a viral infection which may then lie dormant. But if you then catch another viral infection, the original infection can take advantage of the distraction. This can result in a reactivation of the original infection affecting different parts of your body. This may be why you have new symptoms.

Does that mean I’d still be infectious?

It isn’t yet clear how contagious these viral reservoirs are but you are unlikely to pass the infection onto others. This could be why those who are said to be really healthy and have been shown to harbour a wide range of persistent viruses without manifesting any symptoms may find themselves affected by C-19 more than they might have thought they would be.

Does having sever C-19 increase risk of long-COVID?

It would be easy to assume that!  But in fact you don’t need to have had sever covid symptoms to develop long-COVID. If you have had very mild, or even no covid symptoms, you can develop long-covid. Acute cases of C-19 typically involve fatigue, respiratory symptoms, fever and gut issues. However, symptoms can be neurological such as brain fog, inability to concentrate, insomnia, dizziness. A study of C-19 patients who were observed for up to 9 months found that some 30% reported persistent symptoms. Although having looked at that study paper, funding conflict may have inflated that figure as it seems very high!

How likely are you to go on to suffer from long-COVID?

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that between 3 and 12% of people who catch Covid will still have symptoms after 12 weeks.  I suspect the real figure is somewhere in the region of one in five.

Why is the range of symptoms so diverse?

Simply because these symptoms are not necessarily caused by the coronavirus itself.  What might be causing symptoms could be the activity of pathogens that were dormant and have been reactivated. It may be that when things are going well these pathogens are kept ‘in check’ by a robust immune system. Your body is under pressure when your diet isn’t what it should be, you’re sleeping badly, you’re stressed and have a high EMFs exposure. That is when the pathogens start to put more of a strain on the immune system which makes you more susceptive to C-19 tipping your system over the edge. When we are stressed, our immune system is weakened, and our microbiome is impacted. Our gut bacteria can easily be thrown out of balance and what was once perfectly benign can become pathogenic.

Is there a test to see if I have long-C19 or ME/CFS?

Many of the symptoms that long-covid patients present cross over with the symptoms of ME/CFS. Due to the prevalence of long-covid, there is a resurgence of interest in developing a greater understanding of ME/CFS.   This has lead to a desire to understand how we can best support patients recovering from these chronic conditions. Currently, there is no test to differentiate between CFS/ME or long-covid. However, that may now change.

The individuality of symptom presentation means that different therapeutic approaches are required to support and accelerate recovery.  To find out what the NHS says about long-Covid go to https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/long-term-effects-of-coronavirus-long-covid/

An excellent research paper looking at the similarity between long Covid, ME and chronic fatigue is available here: Long COVID and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) – A Systemic Review and Comparison of Clinical Presentation and Symptomatology