How to Recover from Long COVID

Managing symptoms vs Recovery

When I see long COVID clients for the first time I’m often dismayed by how unhelpful standard medical approaches have been for them. It reinforces a feature many have observed about medicine; it’s frequently brilliant at acute care but less dazzling when dealing with chronic disease. 

The key to recovery

Holistic medicine on the other hand is often very good at treating chronic health issues, the reason being it works with the body’s in-built ability to heal itself. There is no single treatment for long Covid but there are many treatments that improve immune system and nervous system function thereby enabling the body to recover. 

Viral infections always have a beginning, a middle and an end. What happens with long COVID is people get stuck in a protracted ‘middle phase’ with symptoms that become chronic rather than progressing in the normal way to a full recovery. 

The key to recovery from long COVID is to restore the body’s ability to heal itself.

Balance

Holistic medicine always looks at the whole picture and its primary goal is to return the body to balance. Observing the body and mind through a lens of ‘restoring balance’ allows for different insights and, in particular, identifying what organ systems need support. 

Find the imbalances that are impeding the body’s ability to recover, correct them and you set the body on a path to a natural and complete recovery. The theory is simple, and in some cases the treatment and healing process is straightforward but not always. Sometimes, depending on the pre-existing conditions that existed prior to getting the original Covid infection, healing is more complex, and progress can be slower but either way you never lose the ability to heal yourself. 

Key areas to support

Whilst every person presenting with long COVID is unique, there are some common themes that invariably need to be addressed.

Liver Health

Every client I’ve seen with long COVID has substantial disruption to optimal liver function which acts as the major handbrake on the body’s ability to recover. All viruses impact the liver, but COVID appears particularly impactful. So, restoring healthy liver function is crucial first step to recovery. 

From a holistic viewpoint the liver has a key role in resolving chronic inflammation as well as in nervous system regulation and immune system optimisation which underpins why it is so important. 

Acupuncture and/or herbal medicine are two of the best ways I know to ‘kick start’ better liver function. 

Nervous system

We know the vast majority of long covid sufferers have nervous system dysregulation resulting in symptoms like dizziness, rapid heartbeat, sweating, variable blood pressure and so on. More broadly though, nervous system dysfunction is seen in extreme exhaustion and brain fog, similar to the patterns seen in chronic fatigue syndrome, a key indication that the nervous system is unable to ‘switch off’ and access states of rest. If you can’t rest you can’t recover, so restoring quality of sleep and being able to drop into deep relaxation are essential building blocks of recovery. 

There are numerous approaches to restoring nervous system functioning, some require effort e.g. yoga, Tai Chai, meditation, gentle exercise which can mean they are not accessible until you start to feel better, to get the ball rolling you need something such as, herbal medicine, gentle massage, acupuncture, kinesiology, sound therapy, reiki, tapping/eft and so on. 

Inflammation

If you restore optimal liver function and repair the nervous system you have gone a long way to supporting the body to resolve chronic inflammation. However, for many, additional support is needed primary in the form of improving gut health. This can include strategies to repair gut permeability, replacing inflammatory foods with healing foods and using prebiotics, probiotics and other nutritional supplements. 

For this important work, find a trusted gut health expert which could come in the form of a naturopath, integrative GP or nutritionist. 

You’re not broken

When it comes to recovering from long COVID, the take home message is this: your body is designed to heal itself, sometimes it just needs a bit of help to get back on track. If what you have been doing hasn’t been helping then I would encourage you to consider a different, more holistic approach.

If you’re not sure where to start, please reach out to us as we’d love to help in any way we can.