Long Covid?

Hey There! I can relate to some of the things you have mentioned. COVID can really exacerbate a lot of previous health issues. I had COVID in 2022 & 2023. I went to a COVID Recovery Clinic and was diagnosed with Long COVID after my asthma, joint pain, headaches & acid reflux worsened. I had brain fog and extreme fatigue.... these two got better, but are still ongoing. I now have chronic asthma and more prone to asthmatic bronchitis and pneumonia which I never had until COVID.

Is there an Integrative Medicine Doctor in your area that practices eastern medicine? They can be very beneficial in treating Long COVID and taking supplements versus medication.

I am praying for you this morning as I know how tiring all of this can be. Please keep me updated on your progress. Blessings & Prayers.....

I am impressed by your growing awareness that some of the medications being tried for your post-COVID issues may themselves contribute to your impaired health status.

I was already seeing a pain/rehab doctor when I developed long COVID, and because she was expanding her practice to include functional medicine at the time, she offered to try to treat my new syndrome (upper respiratory) in her new capacity. I pondered this, because I was unsure whether she was well trained in the integrative aspects of functional medicine, and so I deferred a decision for a while.

I also already knew, at that time, that all 5 of the medications that I had been relying on for anywhere from 1.5 to 20 years had the potential to cause or worsen the respiratory problems that followed my COVID infection, and so I when I read the list of medications my rehab doctor was considering for me, as a new functional medicine patient, I knew that not proceeding with her at this time was a good decision. Several of the medications she had in mind did turn out to carry the risk of causing chronic upper (and lower) respiratory problems, and so I changed course, and began to work, with my primary care doctorś approval, on finding a purely nutraceutical set of solutions. The tricky part is that not all of my medications can easily be replaced by others that carry no respiratory risks, and so decisions on whether I will actually be able to depend on nutritional therapies as a full replacement for my various medications are still pending. But I have already discontinued 3 of the 5 meds that might have been making my post-COVID syndrome worse (with my PCPś knowledge and approval), and the therapy I have settled on (B1 repletion and supplementation) has some decent potential to enable me to drop the last 2 of my meds, if all goes well. I am blessed to have a very wise and cautious primary care internist making sure that I move carefully and pause to evaluate progress closely.

I like the idea of your considering an Integrative Medicine specialist, but over a period of about 40 years, I have had very mixed experiences with clinicians in this area. Some have abandoned science-based medicine altogether, and actually use, for example, pendulums to diagnose disorders. (I have a friend whose integrative physician, an M.D. Board-certified in internal medicine, uses ¨muscle testing¨ alone for diagnostics, and who has decided that my friend has Lyme Disease, all without ordering any blood work to confirm this. The result that my friend is now taking patent combination homeopathic and herbal products that any layperson could select on Amazon, e.g., just on the basis of spurious claims made on these products´ labels.)

There are some integrative clinicians who care deeply about evidence-basing in medicine, though, and these are the ones to look for. Dr. Derrick Lonsdale was one of them. He initially conducted a massive amount of very serious, peer-review-published research while he was at the Cleveland Clinic, and for some decades before his recent passing, he operated a private functional medicine (which he described as orthomolecular) practice in which he emphasized B1/thiamine therapy. His body of work is astonishing, and none of it comes from what some would call ¨New Age¨ thinking. It is all about hard core scientific analysis of thiamineś role in all the metabolic pathways that govern the operation of our various body systems.

I am quite sure that Dr. Lonsdale, btw, did not, as a routine matter, ask his patients to suspend their medications while they were under his care with B1 therapy, because he understood that recovering metabolic-level health via thiamine supplementation takes time, during which process the lungs, heart, and other organs may need steady suppressive or stimulating support. So if you are seeking out a functional medicine specialist, another important feature to look for is that practitionerś willingness to work alongside the physicians who may, of necessity, need to keep some of your more traditional treatments going for some period or even indefinitely.

Thank you for your extensive commentary on functional medicine and its practitioners. This is valuable information for us!

Thank you for prayers.

Just one example of my comment about meds ::::
In checking a drug recently prescribed for me it plainly said
“Can cause pulmonary fibrosis or make it worse”. !!!
I have pulmonary fibrosis already diagnosed almost two years ago. I’m fighting now to stop further damage to my lungs, why would I take a drug known to do that?

I am so glad that something useful may be sometimes be derived from my comments. We are all trying valiantly to find our respective routes to recovery, and so I try to tread cautiously, aware that what proves helpful for one of us may be of no use to others. But I do like to chime in pretty frankly about the pitfalls I have encountered, hopeful that this may help others to foresee or avoid these. Pitfalls don´t have to be setbacks, moreover. Once we surmount them, we get back on track as much wiser patients.

Your reply (to my comment) is a pleasure to read — so insightful, and beautifully written!

Did you have Mono or some other Epstein Barr illness in your youth? There may be a connection between Long Covid and Epstein Barr.

Hi, my 7 year old son is one week post Covid. Since then he has started breaking out in random sweats and feeling hot. Today he was short of breath and extremely sweaty. Is this something post Covid related? He has had Covid in the past but none of these symptoms developed. Thank you for your input.

My oh my, yes sir. I have had Covid I think 5-6 times. 3 diagnosed. First before they were giving vaccinated and it turned into pneumonia (5/2020). The next was 2/2021. This one was really bad on my lungs. I was only on Nexium and a Sleep aid prior and only 52. After second Covid, I couldn’t walk 15 feet without profusely sweating and couldn’t breathe. My joints and muscles so sore all the time. Fatigue like a snail. I was dancing and always on the go prior. My blood pressure sent me to hospital 224/130. Stroke levels. More meds. I kept being told 30 days long haulers, then 90 max. Then add the vaccine ( not sure I should have had it or not!). And more issues. Each Covid I got typically gave me a new life long illness and medication to add to my ever growing list. I now have 18 medications, two knees that are filled with arthritis and bone on bone with cysts and torn meniscus. Two arthritic hips and a degenerative spine with arthritis and cysts. The swelling is now full body. I’ve gained over 120 lbs and can barely walk. I’m now 56. I finally got a real answer from my Cardiologist that said, Drs don’t know enough about long Covid yet. They just keep giving prescriptions trying to help the symptoms, not curing the cause. He thinks I may have Cushings Syndrome now as well. Unsure but sending me to an Endocrinologist (top guy at a school he knows). Hopefully we will find something. I’m so tired. Close to giving up. I’m too young and was really pretty healthy prior. Sad feeling. He said he is going to go through my meds and see what we can get rid of. Hope so. My nightstand looks like a pharmacy.