What I've Learned About Long COVID

from exclusively helping Long Haulers in my private practice

Every human being I encounter is unique and different. The truth is, there is no one strategy that has been effective for every single person, and the more exposure I get in this field of work, the more times I am clomped over the head with a giant “you don’t know anything about anything” club. I am perpetually going back to the drawing board, relentless in my pursuit of understanding the root, and feel I have barely thawed the tip of the gargantuan iceberg that is Long COVID. 

That being said, there are some patterns that have emerged, and here is a little compilation for you to mull over, especially if I never get the honor of working with you personally. 

Most people are malnourished

Malnourishment comes in many different shapes and sizes. You can be malnourished and overweight, you can be malnourished and underweight, you can be malnourished and be smack dab in the center of a “healthy body weight”. Body weight is really a poor indicator of overall nutrition status.

The trickiest part is that some nutrients are energy nutrients, meaning energy producing, and others are micronutrients. 

Both energy nutrients (carbs, fat and protein) and micronutrients are ESSENTIAL, but it will probably only be obvious when energy nutrients are missing, since they literally are what we derive ATP from. We feel hungry or exhausted when they go missing.

Micronutrients are a bit more stealth. You can go missing for YEARS without you knowing. But that doesn’t make non-energy nutrients any less essential. Getting ALL essential nutrients is the basis of a functional cell.

It is very hard to overcome a chronically inflammatory condition like Long COVID while being malnourished. In fact, I would call it impossible. I can help you get this part right.

But if you don’t have the funds to work together, for the love of everything good in this world please at the bare minimum see where you are at with the Cronometer, a free app that can help you understand why each nutrient is essential for your health and whether or not you are getting it.

Thinking supplements= nutrition is like building a house made out of legos.

Allergies suck and they tend to originate in the gut as well as in your genetic code

Someone asked me the other day if I have seen a full reversal of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome in my practice. I was like um…well… considering you can literally be predisposed to this condition BEFORE YOU ARE EVEN BORN, I cannot claim to unanimously reverse MCAS (I would probably be a billionaire if that were the case). 

I have however seen people build up their resilience and tolerance. My methods differ from human to human but it goes something like this:

You make a list of safe foods. I make sure you are getting enough nutrition using those safe foods to start. Then, I make a list of all the safe food’s cousins. 

We slowly integrate foods that build up your gut barrier (fiber and pigmented foods) as we stick with the safe foods, and their cousins, and then slowly–we build out your food portfolio.

There’s no way around loving on your nervous system throughout the process. That piece is essential.

I have patients who use epi pens on the regular, and I haven’t necessarily seen these people be able to go eat exactly the foods that set them off, or walk into an incense shop and come out wanting to run a marathon, however many are able to function at a level that they were not functioning before. 

You can rest yourself to death

One activity that has come up again and again in my practice is defining rest. If the word “rest” only makes you think of going potato mode on the couch with all senses cut off to the outside world, you might be experiencing “Only Partially Defining Rest” and are therefore at risk of resting to death.

There are 7 different forms of rest, and all of them matter. Picking one, and only one version of rest will never fully rejuvenate you at best, and at worst throw you deeper into your despair. 

The people that I have seen recover the most do not confuse pacing with inactivity. They know the only way through is building up physical resiliency, and that includes movement, no matter where the starting point is.

Rest can be lying on your couch. It can also be climbing a mountain and feeling awe-inspired. It can also be walking around the block and noticing your neighbor’s rose garden. It can also be moving mindfully while on your bed. It can also be mixing paint to discover different shades. It can also be moving with music. It can also be breathwork. It can also be laughing hysterically with your best friend at your dog trying to play with an ant on your porch. (This is of course a non-exhaustive list)

All forms of rest are essential to healing from long COVID, not just potato-mode rest (even though that works sometimes too).

Don’t do elimination diets- think of them as temporary replacement diets instead

True food sensitivities are admittedly rarely a root cause, although it can happen. For example, certain folks really do feel better once they take gluten out of the equation.

However, what does that mean to you? Does taking gluten away for you mean no carbohydrates? 

Carbohydrates are your brain’s absolute most favorite form of energy. Taking your brain’s favorite food away can be quite harmful. Not to mention that many forms of carbs are not just carbs, but also carry with them essential benefits like fiber, iron, B vitamins, etc.

Again, I can help you with this!

But if you are dabbling on your own with food experiments, I would urge you to replace whatever you took away with an item in that same category.

For example, not replacing gluten products with salad. 

Instead, perhaps you explore your gluten sensitivity by replacing it with brown rice, sweet potato, buckwheat, oats, etc.

If you take away “trigger foods” to the point where now your overall nutrition status suffers, you have not really moved towards a healing state. It’s important we don’t become worse off with our healing protocols. 

You have to pick up your immune system by the shirt collar and say “who’s your daddy”

It is natural to be devastated by Long COVID. It’s so not fair that it happened to you. 

It’s confusing, terrifying, mysterious, and basically takes everything you have ever known about yourself and sets it on fire. 

That being said. If you do not have the vision of yourself as a healed person, your body certainly will not.

There is compelling evidence of Long COVID being rooted in autoimmunity. Whether you were predisposed to autoimmunity, or it got triggered from your body working so damn hard to eradicate the virus, it seems like the body is becoming injured by its own prolonged display of the inflammatory cascade.

Autoimmunity, in a nutshell, is you against your Self.

No, it isn’t your fault. Like MCAS, it could be in your genetic code. 

But that being said, we have to double down- actually quadruple down- on diffusing the situation in every possible way. No one’s going to do this for us.

This means every thought you have, which carries with it a chemical, must become anti inflammatory. 

How are we acting like our own worst enemies? Do we have clarity? Do we know our habits? Do we know why? How many tabs are open? Where is your mind?

How often are you watering your soul?

This means centering anti- inflammatory foods, and even considering the food that your food was eating. It’s not only drinking water but cleaning the moldy spout your water came out of. 

It’s not only going outside, but not continuing to think about your boss once you step outside.

We have to emphatically say “NO” to inflammation one thousand times, in every possible way. This means recognizing exactly how we allow the open wound to fester- and even worse- to grow.

You have to be kind of anal, but also you should totally have fun too

Try not to roll your eyes. I know it’s annoying to hear this. But we have to strike a balance because after all we only have one life to live and I would rather be at the Beyonce concert with ringing ears and a splitting headache than be at home with ringing ears and a splitting headache you know what I mean?

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I’m sure the second I send this out I’m going to think of more things to say. So why don’t we just have a conversation? You can apply here https://2lyv8w2w9hn.typeform.com/to/A7k6u30q

Make sure you keep an eye on my platform as I have some new exciting offerings to help you reclaim your life after COVID in the new year. Stay tuned!