EVERYTHING I Wish I Knew About Long Covid. (NOBODY Tells You This)

If you're dealing with the complexities of Long Covid, you're not alone. In this video, I share insights from my 4-year journey, discussing common struggles and solutions. From understanding symptoms to tried-and-tested treatments, I cover it all to make your journey more manageable. I highly encourage you to watch now.
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REMINDER: The information provided in this video is for educational and informational purposes only, and should not be construed as medical advice. Make sure to do your own research and consult with trusted healthcare professionals before making any decisions about what may be right for you.
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Timestamps:
1:59 Difference between Acute COVID and Long COVID
7:34 Helpful Tips (antihistamines; electrolytes; and electrolytes)
14:22 Exercise
#polyvagaltheory #LongCovid #Covid

[@capnkirk5528]

Long Covid since March 2020 which means I got the full treatment (medical denial, gaslighting, etc). Recovered last summer enough that I was back to taking five mile walks - and then crashed terribly in early September. And yet - I still learned something from this video.

[@sallyriggs465]

So glad to hear it was helpful! 🤗

[@GungaLaGunga]

thank you. My anecdotal experience matches your comment. I would train very gently for a couple months, gentle walking and hiking, with ongoing ups and downs of feeling better then worse week to week, but then hard crash again over a period of several months. No trigger I can find for my hard crashes. I wonder if I am getting re-infected again and don't know it. and then i go back to zero and start all over.

[@EvinFox]

I can attest to the role of exercise. Every time I go for long walks (1.5 miles) I don't recover well.

[@dawnowens2345]

18 months with long covid. Exercise helped me. I am now about 95% recovered from the profound fatigue and muscle wasting. Horrible. Go slow and rebuild.

[@sallyriggs465]

So happy to hear you had that experience and I would just need to add a word of caution - the research and the science does show that exercise will make us worse… looks like you were lucky!

[@briechilli4496]

When you say exercise helped, what exercise did you do and what were your symptoms please ?

[@dawnowens2345]

@briechilli4496 at first I couldn't even walk more than 2 minutes. I was running 5 miles at a time when I got sick. My lungs were awful for months. So I began a little light floor yoga and stretching. Then slowly more standing yoga and walking. This took me a year don't get me wrong. Then increased my walking distance slowly. It was torture. Light weights. Now 18 months later I am able to run 2 miles without fatigue and work out with heavy weights without fatigue. There was a point about 8 months in that I feared I would never be well again. The fatigue did not totally leave me until just recently. I am unvaccinated.

[@sallyriggs465]

@@dawnowens2345 so happy for you Dawn! 🤗 and like I said I can’t ever endorse this approach based on the science. I would hate for someone to see your post, try the same and make themselves really ill.

[@briechilli4496]

Thanks so much for your replying and i am so happy for you. May i ask what symptoms did you have apart from your lungs ? I am also unvaccinated.

[@sadnagoso-yn6iz]

Thank you so much for helping us. God bless you.🙏🏾

[@sallyriggs465]

You are more than welcome!

[@MinouMinet]

Dr. Sally, thank you for this video so much. Are you aware of LC groups that are not athletes (you mentioned that), so we can all connect? LC since delta variant, Sept of 2020, had original Covid prior March, but recovered. The second infection took me down. I have been on Naltrexone, worked up from .5 mg to 3mg and is right for me. I tried up to 4.5, but had so many side effects, including fainting. That resulted in ER and concussion with terrible contusions as well. There was zero warning and fell from a height, so those on this RX, do increase it very slowly and being mindful of any side effects, is so important and really appreciate your stressing all these points. I also appreciate your very sober warnings to not pushing it and not allowing the “lazy” accusations to affect one’s own disciplines to get better. A big question to Sally or anyone on here with wisdom to offer: How do you cope with the frustrating lack of education and reality of others and the life changes we have to make, in hopes of a recovery? I need a bubble around me, as so many people are sick and happy to spread their disease. Creates isolation!

[@sallyriggs465]

I have my own fb group specifically for people with LC. Link is in the bio. In terms of how I cope with other peoples ignorance - it is not my job to educate others, I have done a lot of work shedding toxic relationships and no longer surround myself with people who are not supportive. I’ve also done a ton of work on grief. It’s all in my book/course.

[@nataliiazhukova9624]

Sally, thanks a lot one more time for your video! Yes, almost each phrase resonates me. And yes, I totally confirm, antihistamines H1 H2 blockers improve the quality of life at long COVID symptoms, LDN had dramatically positive effect on my condition. I started from 0.5, uh, it wasn't pleasant, I couldn't increase dosage till 1 mg because of side effects. So I dessolved even 0.5 mg in water and increased my dosage with step 0.1 mg every week. Now I'm on 6 mg per day, it's maximum. It has really good effect if this medication fits. Best wishes for you and energy :)

[@sallyriggs465]

Thanks for sharing this - super helpful info tapering LDN up slowly. So glad these meds are helping you!

[@itat1100]

What is LDN an acronym for??

[@sallyriggs465]

@@itat1100 low dose naltrexone (regular dose naltrexone has a very different use!)

[@nataliiazhukova9624]

@@itat1100 ah, yes, I had to write the whole name. It's low dose of naltrexon. Hier is more information about this, for example, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3962576/

[@paintedhorse1965]

Wow............Praise the Lord I found this. Now I know why I am spent on days I walk 4-6 miles. So happy you did this, thank you for the information.

[@sallyriggs465]

Absolutely more than welcome!! 🤗

[@paintedhorse1965]

@@sallyriggs465 May I ask a question? When one has so much muscle loss, is it possible to regain it back, have you seen? I've gotten to the point where my ability to climb stairs has been difficult. I've been an active woman for all my 58 years, always have had great calf and bicep muscles. Sadly, my biceps are almost gone :( I was just curious if you've seen anything on this? Thank you kindly.

[@CoderCoder-px4bd]

Thanks for clarifying the difference between long covid and an acute infection. I’ve had horrible back pain since 2022, which would’ve been omicron and delta!? All this time I thought it was long COVID, but now it seems I still have the acute infection or some inflammation from it. It’s getting better but still at two years I still feel it and I still can’t do the physical activities I used to do.

[@sallyriggs465]

More than welcome!

[@kerrybartow-konnoly984]

I’ve been dealing with this for 3 years! I just found out about long covid. I feel like i have every symptom

[@sallyriggs465]

So sorry that you are just hearing now. Makes me so mad that people are not being informed but so glad you found this channel - so much helpful info for your recovery here!

[@kerrybartow-konnoly984]

Thank you so much! All of 2023 I went to mental health counseling, , source psychiatrist, try different meds, I tried acupuncture, and a few different other modalities and nothing worked. I am so glad I found this channel and thank you so much for putting this out! I really thought I was going crazy or something and every doctor I went to could not find anything wrong. I was healthy before I got Covid when it first came out in 2020

[@edjack5on]

Hi, Dr Sally; we all appreciate your support, thank you. These tips would have saved me months of bedbound moments. I'd also be interested in further drugs and medications you've tried and what might have supported you. As a Dr providing psychological support for long hauliers, you are aware of not only the biological consequences of what you are trying but also the emotional ones, which I find to be a great overview. For example, I crash every time I try B supplements, which I believe to be because of their influence on the nervous system compared to other vitamins and minerals.

[@sallyriggs465]

I do have a number of videos in which I discuss the treatments I have done. This is not an exhaustive list but here are a few: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJPLi2B8epJ4fpYsi=Wd0t0E4z-ddL_Qhz kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2Wvo2eia7ehba8si=enr_a23dLf3czz_Z

[@astridkuhn385]

Thank you so much for your videos, your empathy and support. Could you go into more details about what you exactly mean by exercise? Specifically would you think that slow walking, yoga, exercising on the floor for short periods would be ok?

[@astridkuhn385]

More explanation: Covid in July 2023, very slowly improving,doing better in October, perhaps 75%, started to push myself and crashed end of October. So far not been able to get to my prior crash level.

[@sallyriggs465]

Do you crash after you do this things? If so it’s not okay. Resting is resting. Doing nothing. You can keep trying to do “just a little bit” many do - and all those people, me included, continue to get worse and find a new lower baseline they didn’t know existed.

[@gaja3331]

Hello dr. Riggs, do you describe this and other long covid protocols/treatments in your book?

[@sallyriggs465]

My book is not the one that describes long covid protocols/treaments - that would be the long covid handbook (which I reference in the book and was also featured in). My book is the one that goes hand in hand with that “so you’ve tried all the treatment protocols and you’re still not getting anywhere cos your vagus nerve is damaged and you haven’t been able to calm your nervous system…”

[@luxsjiujitsuchannel3576]

Like you I got sick in March in NYC but my symptoms didn’t start until Sept of 2020. I actually felt fantastic for a couple of months in between and was doing cardio and feeling great. Could that still be long covid?

[@sallyriggs465]

💯- aside from fatigue (which may also have been due to working 20 hour days as a psychologist in a pandemic and packing up my entire life and moving across town, also during a pandemic, my real long covid symptoms didn’t start until May/June

[@luxsjiujitsuchannel3576]

@@sallyriggs465thank you! I wasn’t sure if it was Long Covid or mold (I moved into a water damaged apartment in Sept) but it sounds like LC isn’t out of the question at all. Thank you for your content! The nervous system stuff is really helping me with this mystery illness

[@luxsjiujitsuchannel3576]

I made myself way worse doing cardio 😢 But strength training seems ok for me because I’m resting for long periods between sets and not really getting my heart rate up. Is there any research to back this? Or is exercise with long covid just bad for you overall? Wondering if I should stop the strength training all together or if some is ok…

[@sallyriggs465]

The research that we have is looking at aerobic exercise. Anecdotally people do seem able to tolerate strength work if done correctly (but you can always push yourself too much with anything, even emptying the dishwasher, which technically isn’t “exercise”…) however the thing worth keeping in mind is that you need energy to move up the polyvagal ladder so if you’re wasting that energy on other things you won’t be able to calm your nervous system

[@luxsjiujitsuchannel3576]

@@sallyriggs465thank you!! I will keep this in mind when doing anything stimulating.

[@ebcrypto1672]

I have had a rough 18 months dealing with severe anxiety which I'm just now finding out might be long covid. One of the things I have realized is I can't do strenuous workouts anymore (like I've done for years). If I do anything that affects the nervous system its like I relapse the next day and it lasts for a few days to a week.

[@luxsjiujitsuchannel3576]

@@ebcrypto1672yes me too 😢 Really hoping nervous system retraining can get me out of this. I miss doing hard work outs so much.

[@anymoose6685]

One might ask their doctor about low dose aspirin also, especially in the first year, when the risk of clotting events seems to be elevated. The benefit might outweigh risk for some.

[@sallyriggs465]

Absolutely! Thanks for sharing!

[@user-nd6ol1uq8j]

Do you have any experience with using EMDR and bilateral stimulation as aid for long COVID?

[@sallyriggs465]

I am not trained in EMDR so I do not.

[@GerryLagios-lf5jt]

It’s been three months for me and the breathlessness is terrible and headaches everyday , I am one where I got the acute COVID but never got better , and now my ocd came back which was gone for almost 3 years and it’s it’s overwhelming trying to deal with both and I don’t know where to start to get better? Any advice?

[@sallyriggs465]

The OCD is back because you are in fight or flight and that triggers anxiety. Watch all my other videos about how to learn, befriend and calm your nervous system! 🤗

[@ebcrypto1672]

I feel you. I was good for 15 years and now anxiety is back with intrusive thoughts. And I'm just finding out it might be long covid after suffering for 18 months

[@jvvallie]

When do you know when its time to get back to exercise?

[@sallyriggs465]

When you can safely do all the other things you want to in your day and not crash ie when you have the energy to spare

[@ml4048]

does anyone have a UK electrolyte recomendation?

[@sallyriggs465]

Liquid IV is pretty popular in the UK I think (my body doesn’t love it…) you can also buy Utah sea minerals which I do recommend. As an ultra runner I used Tailwind for a long time which you can also get in UK

[@sonnja7855]

What are the possible side effects of low dose naltrexone? I started at 0,5g and slowly increased to 2,5g over two months but do not notice anything at all, neither good nor bad

[@sallyriggs465]

You may need to go higher. I believe the max is 4mg or 4.5mg depending on your physician (I’ve heard both). Glad you are not having side effects - increasing that fast to 2.5 many people would get insomnia and/or GI issues. Typically 0.5mg every couple months (or slower) is recommended. I’m only on 3.5 and that took me couple years to get to (and I’m doing great so no need to go higher)

[@lizbull4263]

Is there a specific treatment for cough pls? Antibiotics aren’t working.

[@sallyriggs465]

@@lizbull4263 you would wanna talk to your PCP about that. I am not a physician.

[@EvinFox]

How does Brain Retraining fit in with the PV theory?

[@sallyriggs465]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIeao2mihqyUa80si=dyuIAKCqBBXGkLCS

[@EvinFox]

Okay. I'm going to sign up for your program!@@sallyriggs465

[@madanilamine8622]

16:18 Please be sure about your informations, the athletes u mentioned are fully recovered, and the came back to there sports

[@sallyriggs465]

Oh that’s very strange I did actually have first hand experience of several of them in a Facebook group I’m in and that’s not the message that they have share publicly. You think they’re recovered in private and only telling people they are not…? I certainly wouldn’t knowing share false information…

[@sallyriggs465]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJfLpJx4htRjrNEsi=5KN0M5P8LCoF0mw1

[@pc24681]

I noticed that we don’t hear about Covid on tv like we use to in the past. Most people are not wearing face mask anymore and schools are not requiring it anymore! Maybe Covid is fading away I hope 🙏🏽

[@sallyriggs465]

Feb 7th 2024 waste water data shows 1.3 million infections per day, 2.8% of the U.S. population or 1 in 36 are actively infectious. We passed the peak of this survey about 2 weeks ago and then immediately rebounded so cases are currently on the rise again… definitely not fading away…

[@pc24681]

@@sallyriggs465 Wow! Looks like we all have to learn to live with Covid unfortunately! I also noticed that Covid can strike all year round while the Flu only hits during the winter months! Very two different viruses! I am one of the lucky people that never experienced Covid because I don’t be in close contact with lots of people daily and I stay away from crowded places! I have been able to avoid Covid for 4 years! Hope that you are doing well 🙏🏽❤️

[@yee3771]

Dr thought I had long covid but I have mono🤷🏻‍♀️

[@sallyriggs465]

So sorry to hear that. Sadly mono has a classic post viral syndrome too. I had mono my first year of college and had a 6 months post viral fatigue too.

[@danziemke4429]

Look at lowering your histamine levels through diet

[@sallyriggs465]

That’s definitely something you can do. It’s incredibly complicated though and takes a LOT of effort which if you have LC maybe you don’t have the spoons for. I tried it and barely ate anything for months. That definitely didn’t help my recovery. Then I started DOA and mast cell stabilizers and felt much better. So low histamine diet isn’t for everything. If it’s too much effort don’t beat yourself up.

[@danziemke4429]

@sallyriggs465 agreed about the effort, what would you say helped you the most overall with anxiety and insomnia? Doa supplement ordered a few days ago. Thank you much for your compassion

[@michaelshoemaker8440]

Tinnitus?

[@sallyriggs465]

Forgive me is there a question?

[@max-cs9ko]

Long covid is really complicated, but i can't understand why long covid developed only in some people while majority of people never faced it

[@sallyriggs465]

If anyone had the answer to that question they’d deserve a lot more than a million dollars… But some wonderful teams are working on it…

[@19grand]

​@@sallyriggs465it's a relief to hear there are good people putting work into research.

[@briechilli4496]

It could be the state of ones nervous system and level of trauma prior to infection. With so many variations to symptoms it must be the nervous system

[@capnkirk5528]

A small sampling seems to show a correlation between LC and the "evil triad" of MCAS, POTS, and hEDS. You CAN LIVE your WHOLE life with the evil triad and not realize it - I was diagnosed "in absentia" by a geneticist who was treating my daughter. Conversation between the geneticist, my ex, and my daughter about family medical history ended with the geneticist (with incomplete information) saying that EDS didn't just suddenly appear, and she was 99% certain that my daughter inherited it from me. When I investigated, it was incredibly clear not only that I HAD EDS, but so did my dad (died in his 50's). It's genetic and very often not diagnosed because, especially when mild it is not terribly disabling. I've never bothered to get the diagnosis made official because - at my age, why bother. But following the stories of a LOT of people with LC the parallels are very strong.

[@douggrant3431]

So let me guess you’re better now ??

[@sallyriggs465]

I am currently 97% recovered. The final 3 is a still a work in progress

[@samanthapurcell3125]

Trying hydrogen water now

[@PeaceIsYeshua]

@Samantha, Hydrogen water is supposed to be amazing and for the mitochondria I think? My parents just got a hydrogen water machine as well as tablets. I noticed a boost in my brain fog the first time I took the tablets. I’ve only remembered to try them a couple of more times but didn’t notice as much of a boost. What type are you doing? I hope it’s helping you. Was it mentioned in this video? I may have missed it.

[@samanthapurcell3125]

@@PeaceIsYeshua no I have long covid , unvaccinated, 19 months , it literally killing me , have no strength, I will try anything to get better

[@PeaceIsYeshua]

@@samanthapurcell3125 Bless your heart, I’m soo sorry. Have you tried nicotine patches or augmented NAC? Or Nattokinase? I’ve heard great things about all three.

[@samanthapurcell3125]

@@PeaceIsYeshua yes I have Thankyou

[@PeaceIsYeshua]

@@samanthapurcell3125 I’m so sorry. :( Have you done any of the nervous system training yet? I’m really thinking of trying Sally’s program.

[@samanthapurcell3125]

Ddimer4873, long covid 19 months, un vaccinated, type 1 diabetic , exhausted with life

[@sallyriggs465]

So sorry to hear that 🤗

[@MinouMinet]

Completely understandable, you have a lot of company with the same feelings. It’s terribly difficult, but not as alone as it feels.

[@jessicajall3309]

You may want to try balancing your blood sugar levels. A great and easy book on this topic is: the glucose Revolution by Jessie inchauspe. She describes some cases where people with diabetes healed themselves by only balancing the blood sugar. I have long covid and i also started a vegan, sugarfree diet and am working with an ayurvedic doctor. It is a journey, because the body needs time to heal. Dont expect quick results, but I am sure you will slowly start feeling better if you are persistent with this. PS: ayurvedic herbs that helped me very well are for instance ashwanganda and triphala. They lower inflammation in the body over time.

[@sallyriggs465]

@@jessicajall3309 it’s actually pretty common for people with Long Covid to develop diabetes or pre diabetes. The spike protein messes with metabolism. So it may not be that simple for us. Many are seeing good effect with metformin or Jiardiance or other diabetes medications.