Thumbnail Photo by Misael Moreno on Unsplash
Hi everyone,
A couple of notes before diving into the news from the week
First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has subscribed to the Substack so far. I definitely did not expect such a positive response. I would greatly appreciate it if we could spread the newsletter to other Long Covid communities online as I am not apart of many currently.
As mentioned last week, I would be creating a feedback form. The link is here. It will be included at the bottom of all these posts. This form will also be used for people who want to submit articles/papers for future inclusion in the newsletter.
Media
Could Long Covid Help Treat Other Chronic Illnesses?
Note: Podcast
TL;DR: Really insightful podcast from the Freakonomics MD Podcast. It gives insight into ME/CFS from patients, researchers, and those from the NIH. Also learned why ME/CFS has historically received little funding. It notes that Long Covid may help research into these illnesses.
Two years later, why don’t we know more about long COVID?
TL;DR: Opinion piece from the Hill. The author laments on the lack of progress into Long Covid. ‘Here we are, 30 months into the pandemic without even one valid 12-month follow-up study from the U.S.’
Germany: Long COVID a problem for labor market, health minister says
TL;DR: ‘Figures published on Wednesday by one of Germany's health insurance organizations showed that, of those diagnosed with the virus in 2020, almost 1% took sick leave 2021 due to long COVID.’ The health minister was quoted as saying ‘"We do not have anywhere near the capacity to look after the many cases".’
New research provides insight into Long COVID and ME
TL:DR: Researchers proposed a hypothesis for Long Covid :
‘following an initial viral infection or stressor event, the subsequent systemic pathology moves to the brain via neurovascular pathways or through a dysfunctional blood-brain barrier. This results in chronic neuroinflammation, leading to a sustained illness with chronic relapse recovery cycles… healing does not occur because a signal continuously cycles from the brain to the body, causing the patient to relapse.’
Research
Multi-omics provide evidence for an anti-inflammatory immune signature and metabolic alterations in patients with Long COVID Syndrome – an exploratory study
Side Note: This was a lengthy, and technical piece (I may not have grasped all of it, but found it very interesting.)
TL;DR: Researchers compared blood samples from three groups: recovered individuals with an asymptomatic covid infection, people who were vaccinated but never exposed covid & Covid Long Haulers. The researchers found several anti-inflammatory molecules were more predominant in the LC patients. Cytokine levels were low in LC patients. Surprisingly, chronic inflammation seemed be low in the LC group. Supplementary, there appears to be metabolic alterations in LC patients with more omega-3 fatty acids.
Long covid patients travel abroad for expensive and experimental “blood washing”
TL:DR: Exploratory piece into Apheresis as a treatment for Long Covid (odd they replaced Apheresis, an actual medical term, with ‘blood washing’). Report looks into Long Covid patients traveling abroad to seek Apheresis as a possible treatment for long covid. The doctors behind Aphereiss admit that the results for Long Covid Patients have been mixed. Researchers from England are skeptical because lack of evidence backing the treatments.
Safety and efficacy of low dose naltrexone in a long covid cohort; an interventional pre-post study
TL;DR: Safety Study aimed to evaluated the effect of LDN on a small subset of Long Covid patients. Results were promising, however this was not a RCT (no control arm) so more research would need to be done.
Long-COVID in immunocompromised children
TL:DR: Interesting piece. Compared the Long Covid outcomes of Immunocompetent children v. Immunocompromised children. To my surprise ‘immunocompetent children were more significantly affected by long-COVID than those immunocompromised.’ ‘Children who were immunocompetent reported more often symptoms of fatigue, reduced exercise tolerance, and difficulty concentrating.’
Social Media
Graphic summarizing Long Covid Research
Please see here if you have any feedback you would like to provide.
Thank you for all the work you’re doing it’s always “appreciated”.
Question: If found article that MIGHT be UDEFUL to YOU- Can it be sent to you? If so, email please? Think I have one today!??
Rookie here! Not sure of all the ropes yet. Am learning. Thanks.
As someone with brain fog, I cannot thank you enough for the TLDR summaries. Seriously, thank you.