ADDRESSING LONG HAUL SYMPTOMS WITH INTEGRATIVE NATUROPATHIC CARE

By: Dr. Jennifer Stagg 

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Over the last couple of years, obviously with the amount of Covid-19 infection that we've seen in the United States, all practitioners can expect to see patients Long Covid. My experience with Long Covid for most of the patients who are dealing with it, the majority of them are having more so like neurological symptoms. More are having BRAIN FOG, some have cognitive issues at times, some issues with memory and others claim to have mood changes. I can identify depression and anxiety from Long Covid - but may have had preexisting or mental health diagnoses but Covid made it much worse afterwards. Or for people who never had any problems before, we can see a new presentation of depression or anxiety or chronic fatigue. And then there's more focused cases like lung issues, extended chronic coughs, loss of smell and taste. 

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND OXIDATIVE STRESS CAPACITY
A lot of it seems to be really tied into the nervous system. So, uh, from the continuing education I've done and looking at the data and the research, my approach to treatment is really trying to stabilize the oxidative stress pathway. It seems like for the most part it comes down to an oxidative stress problem.

 For people who have Long Covid, it actually has been documented that there are oxidative stress capacity. The antioxidant response element, to be specific is depleted. They'll have lower levels of a compound called NRF2, which is that master regulator of your endogenous antioxidant system. Also a lot of these patients have low glutathione levels. So one of the first things that we started doing, and I continue to include my protocol has morphed over these last couple of years, but GLUTATHIONE is one of the core supplements that I use for patients with Long Covid and I've seen that really turn people around really quickly. I managed to turn around people with BRAIN FOG, or LOSS OF TASTE (with smell intact) in six weeks. Glutathione is a fast acting and powerful antioxidant. It's going to deplete those reactive oxygen species- those free radicals.

Meanwhile, to assess why someone gets infected or is having Long Haul, supplements and dietary ingredients incorporated in their treatment that are enhancing their ability to control oxidative stress. At its core, if you have low NRF2, a lot of those patients are either not eating a good diet to begin with so they don't have a lot of antioxidants. Also, you can intervene with some of the other more classic antioxidants, like curcumin, quercetin, green tea extract (like A G C G). A lot of those are really helpful when it comes to treating Long Covid.

Epstein Bar virus is something that I will test for in Long Covid patients. There are quite a few papers that came out about reactivation of Long Covid and many patients of the Epstein bar virus can get reactivated from high levels of oxidative stress. But if you actually detect a reactivated Epstein bar virus which you can do from simple lab testing, then I would use antivirals and use things like MONOLAURIN to help that virus to go latent again. 

DR. JENNIFER STAGG is the medical director of Whole Health Wellness Center (CT). She is also the author of The Bitter Prescription and Unzip Your Genes and is routinely featured as an expert guest in the media on the topic of nutrigenomics and integrative medicine. Her areas of clinical expertise include mental health, weight loss resistance and nutrition, digestive health, metabolic and endocrine disorders, and nutrigenomics. (learn more about Dr. Stagg @ her professional website)

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Research report from Springer Nature 

  

/    Shared by: Dr. Sonia Villapol (Creative Commons)

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A multinational Delphi consensus to end the COVID-19 public health threat

Today, almost 3 years after SARS-CoV-2 was first identified and more than 1.5 years after the first vaccines became available, pandemic fatigue5 threatens to undercut our vigilance and the effectiveness of our responses to ongoing and new pandemic-related challenges. As of September 2022, more than 620 million cases of COVID-19 and over 6.5 million deaths have been reported, although mortality estimates range as high as 20 million. The healthcare for millions more people has been delayed, often as a result of overwhelmed health systems. Highly transmissible variants continue to spread globally, while surveillance for variants of concern remains largely inadequate. Reinfection risks are not fully understood. Low vaccination rates may compound the risk from waning immunity. Long COVID has emerged as a serious chronic condition that represents a considerable burden of disease and still lacks adequate understanding and appropriate preventive or curative solutions. In addition to its direct health consequences, COVID-19 has disrupted economic activity, social interactions and political processes, affected civil liberties and interrupted education at all levels. Although many governments and individuals no longer have the same level of concern as earlier in the pandemic, many public health leaders, including members of this panel, continue to regard COVID-19 as a persistent and dangerous health threat

Despite notable scientific and medical advances, broader political, socioeconomic and behavioral factors continue to undercut the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we convened, as part of this Delphi study, a diverse, multidisciplinary panel of 386 academic, health, non-governmental organization, government and other experts in COVID-19 response from 112 countries and territories to recommend specific actions to end this persistent global threat to public health. The panel developed a set of 41 consensus statements and 57 recommendations to governments, health systems, industry and other key stakeholders across six domains: communication; health systems; vaccination; prevention; treatment and care; and inequities. (see complete report)

"I SHOW NO SYMPTOMS... AM I CONTAGIOUS?" According to a 2020 report from our first Infection Prevention advisor (Megan Meller of Gundersen Health), There has been a lot of news coverage about how COVID-19 is spread. Someone who is asymptomatic has the infection but no symptoms and will not develop them later. Someone who is pre-symptomatic has the infection but don't have any symptoms yet. Both groups can spread the infection. COVID-19 spreads easily and we believe that's because it spreads by those who don't know they're infected. We suspect that individuals who are pre-symptomatic are infectious for two to three days before having symptoms. (see complete article: "WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ASYMPTOMATIC AND PRE-SYMPTOMATIC?" @ GundersenHealth.org)

"5 Negative Antigen Tests Do Not Match  How OFF I Feel..."

In August of 2021, David (last name withheld) got hit with the Delta Variant, knocking him completely off his feet! With flu-like symptoms, he saw stars for most of his recuperation period while taste and smell were completely shut down. For 1 week, David quarantined in his office - armed with every super-food, every kind of soup and immune booster his support team could find.  Being fully vaccinated only meant he had a better chance of NOT DYING, but as the world was only a year into the data collection, there was still so much left to understand about the recuperation period as well as its long standing effects. 

Now it's fall of 2022. Life goes on and regular rapid  (home) testing says David was negative every time. Having studied the medical news reports, the idea of lingering symptoms is in the back of everyone's- especially those who got hit at least once with the virus.  But HOW or WHERE in the body is it?  To over-think this does not make one a hypochondriac- only someone surrendered to the realities of our times, meaning 'if it doesn't kill you, the viral load may have the tendency to linger, causing  potential organ damage, failure or dysfunction.

MEMORY LOSS: They say that you shouldn't worry about getting dementia or alzheimer's- once you have it, you won't know it. Well this is not completely true. We can attribute forgetting a name here and there as a natural, normal age-related wear down. But forgetting EVERY name is not the same.  It's as if someone stole or deleted specific data from your brain, and when it's time to withdraw those names to compose a sentence, all there is is an empty shelf where that name was expected to be.  The simplest proper nouns that David once quickly referenced and freely spoken about all his life- including names of product brands, movie and song titles, artists- even celebrities are now GONE- or perhaps buried in the back yard somewhere! * 

If "it is (in fact) what it is",  David expressed his disbelief that the CDC or the WHO are pressing to come up with Long Haul therapies. "There's still so much to go with perfecting the vaccination to control the global surge. We can choose to fight the erosion in our brain with mind optimizers, exercises, better sleep and every protocol to improve brain performance.  But this very insidious aftermath of the virus that buried itself into my brain is now aging me, starting with my memory, my processing speed and if the data (possibly next) my cognitive functions."

* Special thanks to Dr. Sonia Villapol for the use of the enclosed diagram on the Long Term Effects of Covid-19

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12/7/2022- What is NEUROPLASTICITY? This is defined as the ability of the nervous system to change its activity in response to intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli by reorganizing its structure, functions, or connections after injuries, such as a stroke or traumatic brain injury (TBI). The word Neuroplasticity ignites a feeling of hope. For clinicians and therapists working with patients with all types of brain injuries, understanding neuroplasticity is crucial. Because neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change and adapt in response to new learning and new experiences, it can change both a clinician's choice of therapeutic techniques as well as the duration of the patient’s therapeutic program.  (See complete report by Marilyn Abrahamson)

10/25/2022- HEALING, STRESS AND THE PARASYMPATHETIC SYSTEM:  Analyzing STRESS & ANXIETY from a holistic point of view means identifying the body’s interconnected systems (ie. circulatory, cardiovascular, nervous, lymphatic, endocrine etc.) and its many touch points for stimulation.   This analysis should also offer a comprehensive breakdown of the body's HEALING capacity- which includes our hormones, digestive system, immune system, brain, heart-- all the way down to our cells and mitochondria.   Stress is part of life, and comes in many forms including physical, emotional, mental and environmental. Foods we eat, unhealthy relationships, difficulties at work, toxins in our environment, even poor posture or lack of sunshine can all create stress on our bodies. (See complete report by: Dr. Roberta Kline)

9/14/2022 - ADDRESSING BURNOUT: RECHARGING FOR CAREGIVERS: During the Covid-19 surge, interviews with emergency medical professionals showed dramatic cases of ICU and ER responders exposed to major signs of advanced fatigue and risk of burnout.  This significantly raised major risks to their work performance where lives are to be affected, including theirs.  Over time, double and triple shifts resulted in "a different type of pandemic" on a national scale- where this level of exhaustion and overwhelm.  (See full report by Dr. Leslie Valle & Dave Dachinger)

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