SARS Covid-19 may be one of the most studied viruses in history. As we move into our 4th year of this virus in 2024 it is becoming clear a large percentage of people have not regained their vitality post infection. Initially it is just a waiting game– It’s normal to feel sick during the acute phase! The subacute phase also something just isn’t quite right, this is roughly 5 weeks to 12 weeks. Often people go to their doctor at this point and they are told that it could be normal, it could be long covid, but we won’t know until 24 weeks~. If a person develops a new symptom any new symptom during their COVID-19 infection and it persists (fatigue is a common example) 6 months after the infection that meets the diagnostic criteria of Long Covid. And what is the intervention of Long Covid at 24 weeks? Medical intervention will appropriately treat the symptom that has stuck around with the appropriate medicine. There are prescription drugs that treat anxiety, depression, hypertension, acid reflux, constipation, neuropathy, migraines, mast cell issues etc. And they may be very helpful as one aspect of breaking the loops but the loops of long COVID are self-perpetuating physiological loops that may require much more to break the cycle to restore homeostasis.
The most exciting aspect of using history, exam, forms, and labs to understand where you are on these loops is two fold:
1. If we shore up the issues we find on these loops before you get COVID there a probability the course of the disease will be less severe.
2. If we identify where you are in these loops on the subacute phase and deal with them immediately at this phase we take away the waiting game. the goal is to address the problem immediately at 5 weeks instead of waiting until 24 weeks to do something. A person can intervene– address the underlying vicious cycles before there is permanent tissue damage that may not be easily recoverable at 24 weeks.
