Let's Talk Wellness Now

Dr. Deb talks about what can be done for Long haulers care. What viruses are being reactivated and how the body is being supported. 

Do not miss these highlights:

00:31 What is COVID Long Haulers

01:37 What a Long Hauler symptoms look like

03:12 What do we do about COVID Long Hauler condition

04:31 Some of the things that we do  at Serenity Health Care for COVID Long Hauler

05:14 The symptoms of COVID Long Haulers that might be a symptom of other chronic infections 

06:03 Couple of things to do if you’re somebody that’s struggling with COVID Long Haulers

Resources Mentioned

Whether you are recovering from an illness or just looking to maintain your current overall health, schedule a consult with us at Serenity Health Care  by calling  (262)522-8640 or visit https://www.serenityhealthcarecenter.com 

Transcription of Episode #156:

0:02
Welcome to Let’s Talk Wellness Now, I’m your host, Dr. Deb. This is where we talk about everything wellness, and learn to defy aging and live our lives on our own terms.

0:15
Hi, welcome back to Let’s Talk Wellness Now, I’m your podcast host, Dr. Deb. Today I want to talk to you about COVID long haul syndrome or COVID-19, long haulers, long haulers, whatever we’re wanting to label it right now. So what is COVID Long haulers anyway? What does that term actually mean to us? Well, first and foremost, it means somebody had been sick with COVID and most of the time, they were sicker than just a two day illness. They were sick for 7, 10, 14 days, had a fairly good case of COVID. You know, fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, nasal congestion, cold and flu-like symptoms, basically. And one of the telltale signs about COVID is the extreme fatigue that people get from it. What we know today is that anyone who’s sick with COVID, beyond seven days is starting to enter into that long haulers realm. At that seven-day mark, if they are not recovering from their symptoms, the spike protein continues to circulate and create inflammation in the body. And potentially you will be one of those people with COVID long haulers. Not always but a good majority of people will suffer from that.

1:37
So what a long haul or symptoms actually look like? Well, for many people, it’s still that ongoing chronic fatigue, it can be crushing in nature, it can be every day, or it could just be randomly like maybe one or two days a month you just have such severe fatigue, you can’t get out of bed, can’t get off the couch. That is usually one of the biggest signs for us. Headaches are another really big problem for people with long haulers muscle pain, joint pain. Third is brain fog. A lot of people complaining of problems with focus, concentration, short term memory, word-finding things like that are really a problem for people with long haulers. And then we can have a whole smattering of other symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest tightness, we call it air hunger, oftentimes, we’re seeing a lot of gastrointestinal problems, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, diarrhea, bloating, pain. We’re also seeing people being triggered with weird skin rashes, or lesions. And then they’re also developing a problem with sensitivity to smell. Maybe chemicals are bothering them, they’re sensitive to smelling things that nobody else smells. For many of these people, they may have not gotten their taste or smell back yet. And for others, they just smell really bizarre things that kind of come and go. These are all signs that you could have a COVID long hauler condition.

3:12
Now, what do we do about COVID, long hauler condition? Well, first and foremost, we want to evaluate the body and see where the inflammation is coming from. And then we need to start calming the inflammation down. So we need to start implementing treatment beyond just vitamin D, vitamin C, and zinc. Those things are great but in a long hauler situation, they’re just not enough to get the infection under control. So we can use multiple herbs, we can use supplements, we can use medication, there are different tests that we can do, we can look at GI function, look at food sensitivities, chemical sensitivities, body overload pretty much is what we’re looking for. If you think of your body as a big rain barrel, over time, the more things you’re exposed to that rain barrel just gets fuller and fuller and fuller. And as it does that, the last thing that comes in just kind of pushes the rain barrel over the edge and the water spills out. Well, our bodies are a lot like that. The more exposures we have over time, the fuller our barrel gets, and then it’s like the last straw. So for a lot of people COVID is just the last straw you’ve been exposed to so many things, haven’t had them under control or didn’t know you had them and now it’s causing a multitude of problems for you. So at Serenity Health Care, some of the things that we do are IV therapy for ozone, we do IV nutrition, we do have some way of testing to visibly see the inflammation in the body. It’s called a thermography. We can do blood testing to evaluate cytokines. Oftentimes COVID is triggering something called mast cell activation syndrome, which in general is this high histamine response that occurs in the body And so we need to use medications like Utadavan or antihistamines and Pepcid, to reduce the histamine overload in the body, we’re also seeing post COVID trigger something called POTS, postural hypotension. So people will get a lot of lightheadedness or dizziness, or when they stand up too quickly, they’re gonna they feel like they’re going to blackout. These are all symptoms of COVID long haulers but they’re also symptoms of other chronic infections that could have been laying dormant in your body for a long time.

5:31
We see different herpes viruses being triggered cold sores, shingles, herpes outbreaks, Epstein Barr is being triggered. cytomegalovirus is are being triggered, so multiple other viruses are being turned on by COVID as well. And so looking at a variety of different supplements that people can use to lower that inflammation, lower that viral load, build the immune system without overstimulating is really important when you’re suffering from COVID long haulers. So I would encourage you, if you’re somebody that’s struggling with COVID, long haulers to do a couple of things. First, be patient with yourself. Give yourself grace, let yourself rest when it needs it. Stop pushing forward, stop pushing so hard. Don’t go do that 40-minute workout when you really don’t feel like it. Just rest, rejuvenate, eat a healthy diet. But in that same token, as you’re trying to eat the healthy diet, try to do a low histamine diet. Foods that have lower histamines in them will not kick up the histamine in your body. So it helps to reduce that inflammatory load. Stay away from foods that are inflammatory so a lot of people have problems with the nightshade family, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, things like that. And they will create more inflammation and more pain in the body. Stay away from white refined sugars, alcohol, white, refined carbohydrates, things like that. Try to get most of your food if you can, from whole food unprocessed things. This will really be helpful for you as you’re trying to move along quicker from some from long haulers illness, and then get with a doctor that’s really educated about long haulers understands a protocol knows how to manipulate the protocol can do testing and offer you a variety of medical management services to get you back to where you want to be quicker and more effectively so you can feel the best you can feel as quickly as possible. So if you’re having problems with COVID, long haulers, please reach out to my clinic, Serenity Health Care Center, talk to my team. We’re happy to help you. We could work with you and your other practitioners to help navigate this situation and get you healthy, stronger, faster.

7:55
Hey, it has been really great sharing this time with you guys on the let’s talk wellness now podcast. If this episode has helped you or you feel as though this episode would help someone else we’d love for you to leave us a review. Share this podcast and if you don’t want to miss the most exciting episodes we have coming. We’d love for you to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or Google Play. Until next time, live every day to the fullest.