Hacker News Reader

Here is some advice that I am not ashamed to dispense here, not as a medical professional but someone who had long covid symptoms for a period of months and spent a lot of time with long covid specialists and doing research (dispensing with the formalities): If you haven't, go to a cardiologist and have them do a Stress Test (they hook you up and watch you for 10m as you walk uphill on a treadmill and increase intensity), and do a test for POTS.

One POTS symptom would be dizziness, a big blood pressure change and bpm change when going from a lying down position to standing upright. It's something to rule out.

Another something you mentioned suggested exercise intolerance. One way to deal with that is very very slow and steady training of your cardio system and even strength training as well. Going too hard can set you back, but going at the right pace can make you better. [edit]: Some additional information. You pick what you train (running, cycling, some sport, weight lifting, whatever), you do it at the smallest level, and you wait 48-72 hrs to see if you get worse. If you don't get worse, you do it again at slightly more than that pace. If you get worse (I had shortness of breath, insomnia, night sweats, and random chest pounding, but others get debilitating fatigue or other inflammatory symptoms), you back off because it was too much.

Another possibility is anxiety (feeling your heart pumping and almost passing out could be physiologically induced, it could be anxiety-induced, or it could be a feedback cycle between them!).

All the above I learned at a long covid hospital which had specialists (pulmonology, cardiology, etc.) that were up to date on academic medicine. They were pretty dark, some of them, and as they say a man with a hammer sees only nails. But you sound like you seek answers, and hopefully the above gives some bread crumbs of some use.

Thanks a lot, I’m seeing a cardiologist in 2 weeks (couldn’t get an appointment sooner where I live) and will ask them for stress test and post.

One thing I don’t understand though: the day before I got bad again last month, I walked 10km and even ran a few times in the same day with 0 problem. I also use to do weight training before getting sick in 2021, so could it still be exercise intolerance?

As for anxiety, it’s something i only had occasionally before, and lately I’ve been feeling more relaxed as my financial situation improved.

But maybe I’m missing something and this illness makes me 10x more sensitive to anxiety so even what I consider low levels become problematic.

>One thing I don’t understand though: the day before I got bad again last month, I walked 10km and even ran a few times in the same day with 0 problem. I also use to do weight training before getting sick in 2021, so could it still be exercise intolerance?

Exactly! The exercise intolerance manifests 24-72 hrs after (per my Mt Sinai pulmonologist). It was too much.

>But maybe I’m missing something and this illness makes me 10x more sensitive to anxiety so even what I consider low levels become problematic

My personal experience was that anxiety was enormously heightened not just due to my body having some new mysterious disease, but also something physiological.

That said there's a strong feedback loop. Getting better over time (with the above solutions you're looking into) should help with that.

thanks, that makes sense !

Some advice for long covid from Mount Sinai https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=tFQBcu5qlmE

> - since then it got worse and now I can’t walk, take the stairs or even sit upright on a chair for more than a couple minutes, else I risk fainting (and my heart beats like crazy the whole time)

As a super simple thought, if you take an iron supplement do you reckon it might help at all?

Asking because when I occasionally get that, it generally means I'm so low in iron that I need to supplement for a while. (Some history of mild anaemia in the family, but nothing to worry about in itself.)

Note, not thinking it'd be a solution here. More a workaround that might help. :)

I’m experimenting different supplements one by one to see if they have an impact.

Right now trying Lactoferrin for the past 10 days which does seem to improve things a bit. it helps transport iron to the right places + supposedly helps dry up the virus by holding the iron from it (iirc).

I might add iron on top in a few days to see if it helps, thanks! Zinc seems to have some use as well.

Have you tried magnesium? Do you get enough potassium?

I’ve been taking 500mg magnesium caps every night. But potassium I haven’t, what do you think it would help with?

It isn't advised to supplement potassium but you can get a lot from bananas or dates. It can help with a lot of things from muscle relaxation to blood pressure, lower all cause mortality has been associated with daily potassium intake of (iirc) 4.4 or 4.8g+

Also make sure you have a chelated form of magnesium for improved bioavailability, the oxide kinda sucks

good call, i was using old magnesium pills of mediocre quality so will look into it

This sounds similar to what happened to Physics Girl from YouTube, and she has ME/CFS. Consult with your doctor and physiotherapist.

Get well soon!

Thank you! Yeah it seems similar, the mitigation techniques from me/cfs folks definitely helped me.

I didn’t know physics girl but checked it out and wow I feel for her. I managed to thankfully get rid of most fatigue by changing my diet + not moving out of bed so I can still work. When I couldn’t it was the worth feeling. Hope she gets better soon.

Just wondering if you're familiar with Dr. Farid Jalali and his theory Long COVID is a form of or related to Mast Cell Activation Syndrome?

I’m hanging out Reddit long haulers a lot and seen it but haven’t dug deep yet, what’s your takeaway from it?

Have not dug into it in all that much depth either, but Jalali was one of the first and loudest proponents of theories of SARS-CoV-2 being primarily an issue of vascular (as opposed to respiratory) pathologies, and fluvoxamine as a form of treatment which, while not a cure, did wind up being shown to be somewhat effective.

From the little bit I saw it seemed like maybe he was recommending aggressive use of antihistamines. I believe some of it may have been incorporated into the FLCCC IRECOVER protocol.

The other thing that he seemed to believe might work is anticoagulants, but he was concerned that the doses that would need to be taken are potentially hazardous in and of themselves.

thank you! I'm trying different drugs as well as diet changes one after the other to see what makes me feel better. added anti histamines to my list to try next

i'm sorry you're dealing with this and I hope your symptoms improve soon.

Thanks! Looking at the bright side and grateful to be running my own startup from a laptop, so at least I can still work. Many others aren’t as lucky