LONG COVID: Symptoms, Root Causes, and Support Options

Dr. Stengler: In this video, you're going to learn about long COVID, also known as long-haulers — the problems it causes, why your doctor should not ignore it, and what you can do about it to recover. I'm going to walk you through the treatments I use to help patients safely and effectively with long COVID.

I'm Dr. Mark Stengler, and I've researched and written 20 books on nutritional and functional medicine, and I've been in practice for over 30 years now. In recent years, I've helped many patients with health problems related to long COVID. Many people struggle with this condition. Long COVID is defined as a wide range of new, returning, or ongoing health problems people experience four or more weeks after being infected with COVID-19. As most of us have had this condition, there's a certain percentage who continue to have ongoing symptoms ever since. It can happen to anyone who's had COVID-19, even if their initial illness was mild.

The problem I've seen with many doctors is that they fail to acknowledge that a patient's health problems are long-COVID related. Many of my patients have told me their doctors simply dismissed the possibility that their new health issues were connected to the virus. This is a strange oversight, because when new health problems begin within a certain time frame after having COVID, it must always be considered to be long-COVID related.

The symptoms of long COVID are diverse and can impact multiple systems in the body, which is what makes it so hard for many doctors to understand. According to the Mayo Clinic, as many as 200 symptoms have been linked to the condition. Some of the most commonly reported include debilitating fatigue, shortness of breath, cognitive issues such as brain fog (which can cause problems with memory and concentration), heart palpitations and chest pain, joint or muscle pain, and sleep disturbances.

The exact cause is still being investigated, but leading theories point to the persistence of the virus's spike protein in the body, causing chronic inflammation and autoimmune responses. COVID can also awaken dormant infections like the Epstein-Barr virus, which causes similar symptoms of fatigue and brain fog. The impact is significant. A US Department of Health and Human Services report found that 23.5% of US healthcare workers with long COVID said their work was significantly and negatively affected. Hopefully, studies like this will motivate more doctors to take this condition seriously.

Patients with long COVID are generally very frustrated with the therapies offered by conventional medicine. The conventional approach is often just symptomatic — use an inhaler if you have shortness of breath, or get bed rest if you're experiencing fatigue. In my opinion, holistic therapies are much more effective at relieving symptoms and the underlying imbalances of long COVID. Examples we use in our clinic, and other integrative doctors use, include IV nutrient therapy — using things like B vitamins, magnesium, and NAD, which are very effective. IV ozone is very effective in bringing energy levels back. There are many nutritional supplements that can help; ones we commonly use are magnesium, mushroom extracts for the immune system and brain function, and quercetin and turmeric for their anti-inflammatory and antiviral effects. We also use medications integratively to reduce the spike protein, and medications to regulate the immune system, such as low-dose naltrexone, which can be very helpful for patients with more serious symptoms.

Long COVID can be very serious, but there are many integrative therapies that are effective. I see it all the time with my patients, and doctors around the country are using these integrative therapies — nutrition, supplements, IV therapies, and some of the more integrative pharmaceuticals — very effectively to help people not only eliminate symptoms but regulate their immune system and help them for the long run, so they're not always reliant on therapies to feel better. I hope you liked this video. If so, subscribe and watch for future videos on long COVID and many other conditions. Thanks for watching.

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