how to cure covid?

Answer 1

The effects of Covid can linger long after the infection has cleared, with issues such as breathlessness causing problems months beyond the infection. So, is there any post-Covid treatment that can help?

a woman with her hands on her upper chest experiences breathlessness post-Covid

Covid infection: gone but not forgotten

It’s not uncommon for viral infections to produce symptoms that persist. The common cold virus can come and go in a few days, but many of us experience a week or two of persistent coughing and low energy.

The same is true for Covid. Many people find they have symptoms such as chest tightness, breathing trouble and fatigue after a Covid infection has cleared. But for some, these post-Covid symptoms can go on for months. In fact, research by the Chinese University of Hong Kong suggests that post-Covid (or ‘long Covid’) syndrome affects around two million people in Hong Kong, in some cases lasting for two years.

Why do some people get post-Covid syndrome?

The science around long Covid is improving all the time, and researchers are developing a better understanding of those factors that mean some people experience ongoing Covid symptoms.

In one large-scale study in the US, a group of researchers looked at health and physiological data of people who had respiratory infections. Only some of these infections were Covid, others had infections of a different type. While there were a lot of similarities in their data, the Covid sufferers stood out in a couple of ways.

First, their activity levels decreased, and their sleep increased, even before they showed symptoms. Second, there was an increase in their resting heart rate. While this is typical of many infections, it usually settles back to baseline within around four days of an infection clearing. With Covid, it took an average of 79 days, and in 14% of cases, 133 days.

So, what triggers these abnormalities and the other symptoms of post-Covid syndrome? One suggestion is that some people have been found to have ‘stickier’ blood following a Covid infection, which may be leading to tiny clots. In other cases, people’s immune systems remain in a state of overdrive, failing to reset after the infection has cleared. This puts them in a state of constantly raised inflammation. These issues may go a long way to accounting for symptoms such as fatigue and brain fog.