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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
I’ve been taking 5-HTP, melatonin and Valerian for sleep.<\/p>\n
After I went to the doctor all my blood tests were normal and he couldn’t offer me anything useful.<\/p>\n
I’ve seen research by Dr Amy Proal which suggests that the virus hides in your tissues and cells, not the bloodstream.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
I feel much better already, though still a little tired.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It is not clear whether either the medical profession, or governments, are aware of the scale of the problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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