What helps Long Covid? Any success stories please?

[Greedybilly]

Diagnosed a couple if months ago. Am managing to work 2 days ( but spend the other 5 recovering)
Am pacing myself, eating well , taking vitamins, accupunture ( which I think helps?). Anyone got anything that worked for them? It's grinding me down now just so exhausted .x

Have a look at Eliot Overtons work. You might find just what you need there. Acupuncture is brilliant too, specially if they can provide tonic herbs for you!

Can l just say be careful? LC can make you ultra sensitive.

Acupuncture made me worse twice. Both fully trained and members of professional body,
Chinese medicine made me worse
Reiki made me worse
Homeopathy made me worse
Vagal nerve stimulators made me worse.

Hello. What is LC?

Im sorry you have suffered so much, I’ve had ME and PVF too and long Covid!!

it sounds as though you experience symptom flare from interventions. Tbh I wouldn’t let that deter me from finding solutions.

LC is long Covid!

Yeah they all made me flare up, as did any vitamins.

I’m letting nature do it now! Some of the flares were awful.

Oops! Silly me! LC!

I had to start with opening vitamin capsules and just taking a tiny amount. You might have drifted into MCAS, I did. It complicates everything.

I've seen long COVID protocols online, purported to be from Drs and nurses. It appears to be various herbs and supplements, things like ivermectin (worm pills) and hydroxychloroquine (an old anti malarial drug repurposed for autoimmune conditions). Not sure if these are in conspiracy theory territory or if they can actually help. I'm on prescribed hqc and it helps with extreme fatigue for an autoimmune condition I have. I'd say get all your vitamin and mineral levels checked by your GP and privately for the ones the NHS don't test for.

@Persephokneewill have a look. Thanks. Am having accupunture which (dare i say) is helping i think.

May not be relevant to your type of LC here's my story.

DH had intermittent long COVID. The first bought was nine weeks of being bed bound, breathless, foggy, weak and exhausted. Every time he caught a cold it was like is immune system seized up and sent him crashing again for 2-5 weeks at a time. In the 18months after his first COVID infection (after 2 vaccinations btw) he was bed bound for 20 weeks. He was hospitalised twice as the GP was so concerned.

I was struggling of course, we had two very young children, was working and holding my breath everytime anyone got a sniffle in case it set it all off again, I was getting recurrent boughts of tonsillitis (I think from stress). So I was desperate for a solution and research research researched.

At that point in time there wasn't much research yet but there was some and I put together a list of everything that showed promise. Vitamin d, one of the B vitamins, zinc, pro and pre-biotics, fermented food.
Then went about gathering all this stuff to stuff it into DH.

I was in Sainsbury's one day looking for more stuff (kimchi and kefir) and happened to look at the probiotic yoghurt section and lo and behold, the aptimel 'immune support' had nearly all of the stuff on my list. DH started taking one a day and.....just...stopped getting ill.

Now I'm a rational person, I always considered those yogurts quackery. It's of course possible this is a big coincidence and he just got better on his own. Maybe he was just low in one of these compounds and we were unaware and now his levels have stabilised, I don't know, but I do tell this story just in case it helps someone. (Other brands available I'm sure).

@Cerialkillerthankyou for your story. Glad hubby is well again! Very inspiring actually as I'm exploring sorting out my stomach micobes - ate a tonne of kefir today and made some kimchi. Can't do any harm and everything is worth a go at this point.xxx

On the subject of pacing, can I just mention that (for me, anyway) watching tv is a high energy thing to do! You think you are pacing/resting by lying on the sofa watching tv - but actually, the sound, movement, colours, cognitive brain function needed to follow the dialogue or what is going on makes it really exhausting a lot of the time.

It stunned me when my specialist pointed this out to me, but I realised that they were right - lying there watching tv/youtube is NOT resting. For me it takes quite a lot of 'spoons'.

Agree! My family found it a challenge with me because when I finally felt I could cope with TV, I couldn’t cope with anything remotely abrasive let alone violent. I was confined to Escape to the Country territory for ages!

I get any of the Holland and Barrett ones that have live bacteria in.

I am not yet fully recovered but much improved, I needed to take a real look at my whole system, gut health especially, and ended up seeing an Ayurvedic practitioner which I found very helpful. I also see NHS consultants for vestibular issues and those exercises are also helping. A large part if it is as others have said, never overdoing it, resting more than you think and accepting a new normal for an indefinite period of time. I probably needed to slow my life down.

Oh, one thing I forgot, after many blood tests it was discovered that I was low in folic acid, supplements had a really positive effect. I have heard of other people discovering the same.

Symptoms of low folic acid are similar to low iron.

Feeling so positive yesterday - feel horrible today tho. Hate this illness.

I caught Covid in January 2021 and Long Covid hit afterwards. Dr referred me to the Long Covid clinic (useless) but the Long Covid support unit was great in making me feel less isolated. I'm much better than I was (at one point, the dr took one look at me and sent me to A and E), but if I try to go back to normal, I have a crash. Gardening for an hour or a 5,000 step walk knocks me back. I look normal, but I'm not. Very frustrating, but I'm learning to be patient...

@Tryonemoretimeyes same i am trying and failing to be patient! V frustrating. X

Big hugs, @Greedybilly . I hope that you improve soon!

I thought I might be well enough to go to Naples with my husband and teenage granddaughter for a short sightseeing trip. Nope. Completely flat on my back each morning and last night was too ill to undress for bed so slept in my clothes until I woke in the early hours. It's a trifling annoying for me but a pain for my uncomplaining and very brilliant husband. Thankfully he's taken our granddaughter to see the sights and they're having a lovely time while I crash on the bed.

@Tryonemoretime how frustrating! I'm due on a similar trip next week - kind of presuming I will spend a lot of time reading my book and not joining in much. Rubbish but what can you do?
Hope you eek a bit of fun out if Naples.x

@Greedybilly I do hope that you have a lovely time away and that you have a good book to read when you need to rest! Learning patience isn't fun, but necessary, isn't it? God bless - and don't push yourself too hard!