Long COVID
Long COVID occurs when a patient continues to experience symptoms for weeks or months beyond their COVID-19 infection. According to the CDC, these “long COVID” symptoms can occur regardless of whether your illness is mild or severe. Additionally, the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation (NIHCM) has found that 23% of COVID patients experienced symptoms, and 19% of asymptomatic patients experienced long COVID. The symptoms that these patients have reported are wide-ranging. However, the NIHCM Foundation states that the five most common symptoms reported are fatigue and malaise, pain, breathing difficulties, hyperlipidemia (extra fats/lipids in your blood), and hypertension.
The team of practitioners at BioReset® Medical has a significant amount of experience they can draw from when addressing the symptoms of long COVID. For years they have been managing the treatment of patients suffering from autoimmune diseases and complex illnesses, where the specific symptoms of each patient can vary widely. Through BioReset Medical’s practice of taking the necessary amount of time to understand what a patient is experiencing, as well as ensuring that they have a comprehensive understanding of the patient’s complete picture, our practitioners can then create a plan that utilizes minimally invasive modalities to help alleviate a patient’s symptoms.
Additionally, BioReset Medical’s educational arm, BioReset® University, offers a number of courses for practitioners in functional medicine. With the increasing numbers of patients experiencing long COVID symptoms, BioReset Medical has begun sharing its knowledge in how to treat patients with complex illnesses. Though our understanding of long COVID is continuing to grow, we have started the work of figuring out how best to address these patients’ symptoms. If you are a functional medicine doctor and are interested in learning about therapies and protocols for patients experiencing long COVID symptoms from their COVID-19 infection, visit us at BioReset University for practitioner-specific information and education.
Lastly, long COVID is a general term for a number of different symptoms and ailments that people experience post-infection. At BioReset Medical, we treat patients based on their specific, unique symptoms.
According to the CDC, following their COVID-19 infection, some people can experience continuing or even new symptoms. This may go on for weeks or months. People have reported a broad range of symptoms as well. Some of these symptoms include: fatigue, headache, joint pain, fever, dizziness when they stand, changes in their sense of taste or smell, mood changes, rashes, changes in their menstrual cycle, diarrhea, cough, chest or stomach pain, difficulty thinking, and shortness of breath.
The CDC has also noted that some people who experienced a severe COVID-19 infection then went on to experience multiorgan issues or autoimmune conditions that lasted long after their COVID-19 infection. When a person is experiencing multi-organ issues, it can encompass some or all of the organs in their body (i.e. the brain, the lungs, the heart, the skin, etc). If a person experiences autoimmune issues, this means that their immune system is incorrectly attacking healthy cells, causing damage to the area being attacked.
As with any new illness, there is still much to be learned about long COVID. This is a rapidly growing field and BioReset Medical will continue to listen to our patients who suffer from this illness as well as stay abreast of the ongoing research.