I wish that I could have published this many months ago, but at that point Long COVID dominated my life. Like many others whose symptoms have lingered, fatigue, brain fog, hair loss, muscle weakness, and loss of my sense of smell were part of my life. To top it off, debilitating digestive tract issues, including diarrhea, lasted for months.
Trained in immunology and endocrinology, I am a scientist who struggled with Long COVID for more than two years before finding clues that led to my recovery. The journey of healing began with changes to my diet. It was enough to open a small window, relieving my most extreme fatigue. As the fatigue and brain fog began to lift, I was able to dig deeper.
Above is a diagram that lays out the interacting elements that I now realize were contributing to my experience with Long COVID. Their interactions have been key to understanding and resolving my symptoms. Each of them is complex. Despite my years of experience and background knowledge, it has taken months of exploration, digging into my own scientific expertise and the work of other scientists to grasp this perspective. And to be clear, the exploration continues.
Long COVID is affecting the lives of millions of people worldwide and has become both a personal and societal problem. As such, I believe that scientists, health care providers, business leaders and policy makers may find insights from this work that will influence their perspectives and decisions. Ultimately, my hope is that this body of work will help those who are struggling to find relief from the ongoing symptoms of this illness, to restore hope and health. I invite you to follow along and share this blog with others.
I became ill with COVID in March 2020. My Long COVID started essentially immediately, ie, I never recovered. Thus, I had had COVID and Long COVID for nearly a year before the vaccines were available to the public in our area. I did get the vaccine in late winter 2021, hoping that it would help to mitigate the symptoms. In my case, it did not seem to help.
Did you take the vaccine? If so, how can you be sure your symptoms are not a vaccine injury?