I’m talking about COVID-19, finally
Hello Friends,
Today we finish season 4 of HEAL with a BANG!
I finally got up the courage to open up and share what I have learned this year about Covid-19. In my profession there has been big talk about censorship and what you can and cannot say and its kept me, well, silent.
NOT ANY MORE :)
Keep reading for a bunch of my favorite articles and resources of how this year has impacting all of us - illness or no.
FYI: In the podcast that goes live TODAY, Kenda interviews me and we discuss Post-Covid conditions, long-COVID syndrome, and whether or not YOU should get the vaccine. (Spoiler alert: I am vaccinated AND there are real reasons not to be.) This episode is available now where ever you listen to podcasts and on my website.
How had COVID affected you?
I have the whole gambit of people affected by the pandemic in my practice":
People who got significantly ill but were never hospitalized
People who were thankfully mildly ill with no complications
People who have had long COVID (illness lasting more than 3 weeks)
People who had COVID, got better, then got worse and have been dealing with post-Syndrome for months to over a year after infection
Recently, I am starting to see post-vaccine related illnesses (so far high blood pressure)
And people who were vaccinated and still getting a COVID variant infection (so far impactful but more mild illness)
And then there are those of us, like me, who never had COVID but have experienced a rash of other ‘effects’ this year. From significant brain fog, to short term memory loss, to a general feeling of ‘Blah’ some of us have questioned, “Did I get COVID and not know it?”.
Almost every single one of my clients have complained of mental impacts, feeling sluggish, unmotivated, questioning the meaning of their life. I am here to tell you IT’S NOT JUST YOU.
(Read NYT article There is a name for the Blah you are feeling: Its called Languishing.)
“We’re all walking around with some mild cognitive impairment,” said Mike Yassa, a neuroscientist at UC Irvine…Living through a pandemic—even for those who are doing so in relative comfort—“is exposing people to microdoses of unpredictable stress all the time,”…”
“…The share of Americans reporting symptoms of anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, or both roughly quadrupled from June 2019 to December 2020, according to a Census Bureau study released late last year. What’s more, we simply don’t know the long-term effects of collective, sustained grief. Longitudinal studies of survivors of Chernobyl, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina show elevated rates of mental-health problems, in some cases lasting for more than a decade.”
Quoted from Late-Stage Pandemic Is Messing With Your Brain)
For those who did have COVID and are experiencing depression or anxiety, The Lancet Psychiatry published a study of more than 230,000 electronic health records and found that 6-months post COVID infection 1 in 3 people were dealing with mental health impacts after resolution. This is not just what we call post-COVID or long-COVID. This can be in fully ‘resolved cases’ where people find themselves dealing with heightened or new levels of anxiety, depression and neurologic sequelae.
A common myth is that long-COVID or Post-COVID syndrome only results from severe acute illness, an issue from the fact that most studies of COVID impacts are only in people who have been hospitalized, severely cutting us off form good scientific data on the way COVID has impacted most of us. The fact is there are thousands of people who had a mild case to begin with but have dealt with significant health issues, blurred vision, ringing in the ears, smell changes, Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), sudden and significant lasting hypertension, and the more expected shortness of breath, cough and abdominal issues.
(Read NYT They Had Mild COVID. Then Their Serious Symptoms Kicked In.)
This is not a new conversation, but it has not yet gotten the voice or traction it deserves. In August 2020 I read an article in The Atlantic Magazine stating, “Without understanding the lingering illness that some patients experience, we can’t understand the pandemic.”
(read Long Haulers Are Redefining COVID-19).
This week’s podcast on HEAL is my attempt at brining voice and understanding to the immunology, science and heart of what we are dealing with now that the pandemic seams ‘nearly over’ and we enter into a new normal. Just to seal the deal on ruffling feathers I get into my opinions on the vaccine and vaccine safety. (Spoiler alert: I am vaccinated AND there are real reasons not to be.)
This episode is available now where ever you listen to podcasts and on my website.
In case you missed it…
Last episode, Dr. Valena Wright, oncology surgeon specializing in women’s cancer, shares her stand for prevention. In a world where cancer seems out of control, she shares her own story of losing one sister and nearly another to cancer and what she’s doing to prevent this heartbreak from impacting other families. Listen now where ever you listen to podcasts or right on my website.