The lining of out blood vessels is damaged. This does 2 things:

1. This lining is a messenger to our autonomic (automatic) nervous system that controls automatic things like heartbeats, blood pressure, breathing rate, digestion, etc. This damage sends mixed signals and exaggerated signals. and we get all kinds of neurological dysregulation. This is the POTS and dysautonomia.

2. The lining makes microclots to heal its damage. These are too small to see on conventional testing. So blood flows through the larger pipes but not the tiny ones that feed our cells. Think of not a clog but like trying to push chunky soup (blood) through a filter (microclots). Blood cant reach the cells well. Our cells starve for oxygen. They switch metabolism to spare as much oxygen as they can so they don't die. This makes less ATP which is the fuel that keeps our cells (and us alive). Long Haulers are making 1/8th or 1/16th the amount of ATP. So our body has no fuel. This is the mitochondrial disease side.

While this switch in metabolism helps us to live off less oxygen, it makes more toxic byproducts. These cause inflammation. Inflammation means worse blood flow. And the spiral continues downward. With less blood flow, there is less flushing out of these toxins from the cells. So they get sicker. Some die.

This process inside our immune cells sends them from calming mode to attack mode. Making everything worse. We get allergic symptoms from everything, foods, scents, temperature changes. This is the MCAS side.

This process inside our brain makes it think that gravity is the problem (which is a small part). So the brain makes us fall, pass out, lie down to sleep... anything it can do to get us to relieve gravity so that blood can flow back up.

There are parts of the body that are more dependent on oxygen than others. The brain, the heart, the lungs, the bone marrow, the inner ear.... all symptom sites. These cells just don't cope as well as others without oxygen. Brain is doubly affected because it also depends on only glucose for metabolism. It burns sugar. It isn't good at burning fat or protein like other cells will if they have to. So brain fog is often the first and most persistent symptom.

Now if we can just figure out why the blood vessel lining (endothelium) damage occurred to such an extent and how to heal it. The virus does have lots of receptors in the endothelium, so it may be direct viral damage.

So different research parts are looking at how to bust these stubborn little clots, which are resistant to being dissolved by our natural processes, and even our current meds. So they stop scratching the endothelium. So the sutomatic nervous system can chill out. And so our cells can be flushed, fed, and grow back.

It won't let me post citations cuz I'm new. But check out Gez Medinger on Youtube where he interviews Ade Wentzel. And then his microclot series.