COVID-19 symptoms linger for months in majority of hospitalized patients, Stanford study finds

2021-07-09 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: chronic viral sequelae, ethics in medicine, gears of the machine, health, SARS-CoV-2 aka COVID-19 aka Coronavirus

re: SARS CoV2 aka COVID-19: Am I Infected?
re: Long Haul COVID

The Stanford article follows below.

Preface

As someone still suffering from fatigue (I’m at best at 15% of my former physical ability) from Long Haul COVID, I can attest that you do NOT have to have been hospitalized to see these issues.

The key ones for me were:

• Anxiety was minimal and lasted for only a few weeks after infection.
• Small airway impairment was substantial during the infection (2+ weeks). Following the infection, reactive lung issues were dealt with using magnesium with outstanding success (prescription inhalers were ineffective) and a wonderful outcome from that is that I have since cured my asthma.
• Gastroenterological problems for first 4 months (severe diarrhea while infected, then months of loose).
• Outbreak of Epstein Barr Virus 8 weeks after infection. One day I summited White Mountain Peak and the next I could barely walk—presumably the onset of the EBV infection and the onset of all the subsequent problems. An MD friend had exactly the same timeline (infection, recovery , resumption, then EBV).
• Gained a pound of body fat per week for 25 weeks. Weight stable now.
• Auto-immune issue with thyroid peroxidase test showing antibody level of 233 for thyroid (cutoff is 60 or so). Six months later the test had declined to 180.
• Body aches with some rheumatic symptoms.
• Major sleep disruption: up to 14 hours and even one 30 hour period last fall, now settled down to 1-3 hours extra needed, plus a nap on many days.
• Brain fog for 7 months after infection. I have the sense that the infection affected my brain in a variety of ways and caused neurological issues.
• Cognitive hits for several months (last summer): diffculty concentrating, motivational problems, memory problems. Fortunately this has mostly gone away, and now it’s more about fatigue ranging from extreme to moderate to mild often going in 4 to 7 day runs. I do what I can when I can.

The potential for post-COVID health challenges like this is a powerful argument in favor of the vaccine. A decision to be vaccinated or not should factor in the risk of lingering issues.

At present, ~15 months after the initial infection

The term Long Haul COVID is not only misleading (it’s not COVID, it’s the damage), but fairly useless. Because the damage and “software reprogramming” of the bodies systems is the problem and no drug is going to fix all the issues or even a single issue. Prescription drugs are bandaids that do not create health, and many are poisons in some way.

Only high quality nutrition and the body’s own healing mechanisms can do bring someone back to health. Nothing else will do.However, there may be assistive factors such as sleep, sunlight, possibly acupuncture that can encourage the body to revert to a happier state.

• Variable sleep needs of up to 10 hours a day. Way better than last year!
• Body aches, stiff back, and some rheumatic symptoms, like finger joints that swell up in hours, then go back to normal in 2 days.
• Impaired work schedule: 2 to 6 hours a day (zero on bad days). An 8 or 10 hour workday is out of the question (fatigue builds up, concentration falters, etc).
• Formerly able to do double centuries for the prior decade and/or hike vigorously all day, a 20 mile ride at 30% lower wattage is now all I can handle on my best day. I rate my physical ability at 10% to 15% in terms of endurance (2% some days) but also at a 30% lower power output.
• When I feel better and try to resume biking at a very low pace, I get slammed after 2-3 days of that. So I am working on a more gradual resumption now.

But with the CDC lacking scientific data on the safety of the vaccine for people with auto-immune issues, I won’t be getting vaccinated, especially since it is all signs point to COVID having been what infected me last April. Only an anti-scientific jackass can argue a vaccine is safe for everyone regardless of health status.

Below, keep in mind that these are observational findings, the weakest kind of science.

COVID-19 symptoms linger for months in majority of hospitalized patients, Stanford study finds

26 May 2021. Emphasis added.

Among the most common lingering symptoms were shortness of breath, fatigue and sleep disorders. In all, 84 different symptoms and clinical signs were reported, including loss of taste and smell, cognitive disorders such as loss of memory and difficulty concentrating, depression, anxiety, chest pain and fevers.

The findings raise concern about an immense public health burden if even a portion of these patients need continuing care, said Steven Goodman, MD, PhD, senior author of the study and a professor of epidemiology and population health and of medicine.

“It’s astonishing how many symptoms are part of what’s now being referred to as long COVID,” Goodman said. He added that the review found wide discrepancies in design and quality of the studies, making it difficult to compare results, but it remained evident that the problem of persistent symptoms is substantial. A recent initiative to study long COVID was launched by the National Institutes of Health, which will be allocating $1.15 billion toward research on the subject.

...

“Early on, we completely ignored the long-term consequences of getting sick with this virus,” Goodman said. “People were being told this was all in their heads. The question now isn’t is this real, but how big is the problem.”

WIND: where is the discussion of how to address the issues, particularly nutrition? The medical community is asleep at the wheel.

You can be sure that the $1.15 billion dollars will do a lot of good to fatten researchers pockets and reputations, but how much it will contribute to helping people... that’s a stretch since the people studying it will be clueless as to how to improve health and will almost certainly be focused on bandaid approaches with expensive single-lever drugs.

See also: Stanford researchers find signs of inflammation in brains of people who died of COVID-19