While I was on holiday in Wales in August I came down with Covid and tested positive. I had 5 days of fairly unpleasant flu-like symptoms, but not enough to go to hospital. I came back to London and had another 5 days where I was poorly and then tested negative.
Since then I have had a lot of the classic long Covid (LC) symptoms: fatigue, low mood, weird sleep, susceptibility to other illnesses, persistent cough, little energy or endurance (I went swimming and managed one length before I was short of breath). Some dizziness at times.
Pre-Covid I was a fit and healthy person for my age. I have for decades taken significant amounts of vitamins and other nutrients, exercise, don’t smoke, saunas, good diet and intermittent fasting. Mentally I am usually on an equilibrium and not prone to depression: generally positive mental health.
The last few months have been one of the worst periods of my life, although I think that my LC isn’t as bad as some. I’ve had days where I just sit around, too tired and miserable to accomplish much. I conk out, have to lie down for a while. Very irritable and bad tempered.
When I first got Covid I had some BHT (the antioxidant food preservative) and I ordered more. (On the theory that BHT attacks lipid coated viruses). RESULT: Negative. Taking several capsules per day, plus around 8g of Vitamin C per day had no effect.
I’ve been taking 5-HTP, melatonin and Valerian for sleep.
After I went to the doctor all my blood tests were normal and he couldn’t offer me anything useful.
I’ve seen research by Dr Amy Proal which suggests that the virus hides in your tissues and cells, not the bloodstream.
Last Monday I added 2 x Antihistamine tablets per day (divided doses) (10 mg cetirizine), an amino acid tablet, and take GABA at night (I’ve often taken GABA as it improves sleep quality). Also probiotics.
I also saw something that suggested lymphatic drainage helps. This was a massage therapy but seemed very expensive in a private clinic. As I was already doing a bit of dry skin brushing I have instituted that more extensively once per day, aiming to brush towards the lymph nodes to drain any toxins.
I feel much better already, though still a little tired.
I am going to continue this programme for a while. I certainly think the histamines were helping as right after I started taking them I felt better and could do things in the evenings, and my mood improved. That could be a placebo effect…I don’t think so because the all-round-rattiness and hair-trigger temper has much abated.
From what I have observed and read about on social media, Long Covid is a serious problem for quite a lot of people: if 10-20% are affected, that is millions of individuals, suffering difficulties, lost work, damaged relationships and many other consequences.
It is not clear whether either the medical profession, or governments, are aware of the scale of the problem.