Anyone have "long covid" or other weird fatigue/symptoms unrelated to covid?

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sh00ter

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PART-1

Unconfirmed Lyme-spectrum disease, autoimmune disease, chronic or unexplained fatigue, never recovered after a flu or other viral illness such as mono, never recovered after a major life event of stress or injury, etc.? (in some cases, low-T & thyroid issues may be related).

I don't mean "yeah we all get older, deal with it", I mean something that has really affect your life and doctors couldn't help much and/or said nothing was wrong with you. Maybe your family/friends even thought you were a hypochondriac or had anxiety, etc. but that wasn't really the issue.

I'm not selling anything, but I believe I found the culprit for what I experienced, and is something that can apparently be involved in many health-related issues. I wanted to hear stories of people who've also been through such things, what they did, what helped, and those that were never resolved.

God just put it on my heart today that if I posted about this, maybe it could help someone. It can be frustrating to have physical illness of any kind, and discussing with your buddies (even on the forum) may help in some way, especially if someone had a similar issue and they share what helped them.

If we get some discussions, I'll provide more detail. But y'all may all just be horses and not have had any weird health issues, so I wanted to see if a conversation started first.

Disclaimer:
I'm not a medical expert; it is your responsibility to do your own research and make your own decisions. Nothing anyone including me posts in this thread should be taken as medical advice. This thread is about physical health issues. I've never experienced any mental health issues and therefore have no info on that, but anyone who has should seek qualified help if necessary.
 
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Glock 'em down

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I'm in the recovery stage of covid and pneumonia, and my energy level is still in the basement. Just as weak as a kitten. Especially my legs. It hurts just to walk across the floor. Stairs? Ha! Forget it. My dr seems to think I might have congestive heart failure.
 

okierider

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I have always been pretty active, but have definitely been running low on energy about 3-5 pm every day. Not used to that and when I had a checkup all was good except slightly elevated blood pressure . Even with that Doc said no meds needed at this point.
I had put on a few extra pounds and have been working on that with watching portions and laying off the peanut butter cups:nono2:. :cool:
 

sh00ter

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I'm in the recovery stage of covid and pneumonia, and my energy level is still in the basement. Just as weak as a kitten. Especially my legs. It hurts just to walk across the floor. Stairs? Ha! Forget it. My dr seems to think I might have congestive heart failure.

Man sorry to hear that, I have read that covid can cause lots of inflammation in the body and perhaps it can last even after the virus is eliminated from the body. If it were me, I would want to try something to bring down inflammation as well as bring oxygen to my heart. Two things that you may want to research are curcumin and also hawthorne berry extract, and CoQ10 (ubiquinol form)respectively.

On curcumin (comes from turmeric), most of it is unabsorbable garbage. There are various patented kinds that are proven to absorb much better such as BCM-95 or C3 to name a few. It has helped me immensely with pain and back problems, and my inflammatory blood work including cardiac markers are good while taking it. Also, no more gout for years w/out meds! Sam's club sells a brand that has the C3 for a reasonable price.

If you do wind up confirming heart failure, get every book written by cardiologist Dr. Stephen Sinatra. I am not going to cover the supps in detail he recommends, but I recall D-ribose, acetyl-l-carnitine, and a high dose of CoQ10.

If it were me I would also try and eliminate inflammatory foods such as white flour, sugar, crappy oils, etc. Some people even drink an ounce or two of extra-virgin olive oil every day so also research the benefits of that. I was a no sleep, beer & pizza guy for much of my life but necessity is the mother of ingenuity...we all have to adapt some. Even a placebo can work if you believe in it...I have learned the body responds to your thoughts & attitude as well.

PART-2

Also, since we have our first response, I'm going to mention a potential culprit for fatigue after a stressful event including a viral illness. ~90% plus of the adult population carries the Epstein Barr virus (EBV) in their body for life. It causes mono (which makes you very tired & weak), but even people who never had mono can have picked up the virus during their lifetime. When your immune system faces another challenge, this virus (and others in the same family) can come out of dormancy and result in a chronic infection of EBV. In many cases of people being weak and fatigued for months after another illness, it is the opportunistic EBV that is the root cause.

Research this virus and you will see how nasty it really is. It is implicated as a potential cause of Lyme disease (yes Lyme is real but some people think they have it and it may be EBV causing their issues), all sorts of other health problems including up to even lymphoma. So most of us carry this, and in some people they don't have any issue because they live a healthy life and/or have good genes, or whatever. But then they get older and their immune system goes down and EBV can also activate just because of that. In younger people, it is probably more from lifestyle and stress. Having covid would be very stressful and challenge the body to the max in some people. This sets up the perfect opportunity for EBV (or others) to reactivate if even at a low-level and people just never fully recover. Some doctors see it a lot after a bad flu and refer to it as post-viral fatigue syndrome, but it is also theorized to be a factor in chronic fatigue syndrome (also known as ME). There are a LOT of chronic and serious diseases that are linked to EBV including autoimmune diseases that present in the months after some life stress or trauma (whether physical or emotional).

I could probably write a book about this by now, but there is one thing that I personally believe helped me the most. If it were me, related to the heart and pain, I would look into the things mentioned so far. But if the fatigue and/or weird neuro symptoms persisted (some people also get that), then there are many other things I can mention, but really two specific things that helped the most that I will save for another reply to keep things interesting. Either someone will ask what they are, or I will do a part 3 when some one shares an issue that is the best fit.

Prayers brother!
 
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sh00ter

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I have always been pretty active, but have definitely been running low on energy about 3-5 pm every day. Not used to that and when I had a checkup all was good except slightly elevated blood pressure . Even with that Doc said no meds needed at this point.
I had put on a few extra pounds and have been working on that with watching portions and laying off the peanut butter cups:nono2:. :cool:

Well of course if it were me I'd get my testosterone & thyroid checked. But one thing that comes to mind you may want to research is Ashwganda. I shy away from google as they filter a lot of alternative info (not just conservative news LOL). Try some research on adaptogens but specifically that one as it is very well known and if you get the right kind, it may improve hormones that are slightly out of whack. Lotta folks report energy, but I like to take it in the evening as it can help with sleep. Some brands recommend taken twice per day but right now I do once and it does what I need. The two patented kinds to look into are KSM-66 and Sensoril. The first seems to be better for energy and hormone correction and the second seems to be better for helping folks with nerves, sleep, anxiety, etc. Do your own research, also look into "adrenal fatigue" and also look into "andropause".

Sam's also carries a brand that contains the KSM-66 for a reasonable price and it contains ginger too which is anti-inflammatory so that's the one I like right now but I've taken other brands that were good. Just watch out with any supplement that is not name-brand...some come from China and contain contaminants. When in doubt and if supplements are new to you, a good across the board brand for the price point is NOW Foods.

Some things that may help blood pressure are a concentrated fish oil, beets/beet extract, and especially grape seed extract. There are specific supplements that are formulated for this issue. Also, drink more water and less crap and eat less sodium....you'd be surprised how just that alone can help. If you need any specifics on brands I like, just reply...I am making these posts too long LOL.

I'm not some sanctimonious tree-hugger that wants to tell you how great I am like the organic food movement people were about a decade ago. I was an anti-heathy zealot before, and I still do just enough to get by now. But I have learned a lot and want to share information people may have never heard, instead of just horde it. I have been thinking about this since I joined OSA and have not done it because past corpus of members were pretty unkind to anything outside the mainstream establishment. Now the roles have flipped and it is the Democrats that want to ban you from buying vitamin C and such, so I figured it was safe to help now LOL.

NOTE: some supplements can interact with drugs such as blood thinners so again, please do your own full-spectrum research and/or consult you doctor based on your own specific situation. However, I think many supplements achieve what is called a GRAS rating from the FDA which means generally recognized as safe.
 
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AKguy1985

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When I had it, I had it for about six weeks, the exhaustion feeling and not having any energy. I still went to work and did my job. This was before covid was a thing. I started getting sick December 8th 2019 and felt bad til third week of January 2020. I'm 99% sure that's what I had. It almost felt like pnemonia but it wasn't.
 

sh00ter

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When I had it, I had it for about six weeks, the exhaustion feeling and not having any energy. I still went to work and did my job. This was before covid was a thing. I started getting sick December 8th 2019 and felt bad til third week of January 2020. I'm 99% sure that's what I had. It almost felt like pnemonia but it wasn't.

Lotta people I've talked to think it was here in the fall/winter of 2019 too. My wife had something similar in December of 2019 that was a a negative flu test and fever came & went. We later suspected that could have been it. Her blood type is one of the least likely to experience serious disease from covid which could explain why it wasn't too bad. My daughter got it later in 2020 and even sneezed right in my face the day before she tested positive and I never got it thankfully.

Glad you got over it completely. If you are A+, B+ or AB+ some studies suggest those blood types the most likely to catch it and experience worse or lasting symptoms.
 
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raeken45

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I was exhausted for about 2 weeks after having it. I have also had ringing in my ears (tinnitus) since getting it in January. I hope it goes away but have read that it can be a long term side effect.
 

sh00ter

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I was exhausted for about 2 weeks after having it. I have also had ringing in my ears (tinnitus) since getting it in January. I hope it goes away but have read that it can be a long term side effect.

I've heard that too. Tinnitus is common after many viral infections and some say (ironically enough) it can be caused by EBV. No matter the cause, look into pycnogenol, ginko biloba, and taurine respectively for ringing in the ears and periodic hearing loss (taurine also purportedly helps prevents heart disease and helps sleep if taken before bed!). I have had it myself and it has improved dramatically using these supplements. My doctor also told me that the virus can damage the inner ear permanently and then sodium in the diet becomes an issue. I have also shaved off some of that (not to the point of a low sodium diet yet) per his advice. Mine was so bad I woke up and couldn't hear well out of one ear and it came and went for days until I went lower sodium and added the pycnogenol. I hope it lasts!

Grape seed is a potentially cheaper alternative to pycnogenol as they both contain OPC's, but there was an actual study done with pycnogenol that showed improved blood flow to the inner ear and improved symptoms in the study participants. There are obvious other potential benefits other than tinnitus to all of the things I mentioned so just ask if you want further elaboration.
 
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Okie4570

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Lotta people I've talked to think it was here in the fall/winter of 2019 too. My wife had something similar in December of 2019 that was a a negative flu test and fever came & went. We later suspected that could have been it. Her blood type is one of the least likely to experience serious disease from covid which could explain why it wasn't too bad. My daughter got it later in 2020 and even sneezed right in my face the day before she tested positive and I never got it thankfully.

Glad you got over it completely. If you are A+, B+ or AB+ some studies suggest those blood types the most likely to catch it and experience worse or lasting symptoms.

Interesting on the blood type theories and just in general who does and doesn't get it and the severity of symptoms, if any symptoms at all. I'm AB+, 47yo, type 1 diabetic of 27 years, regularly donate platelets and I never knew I had it until my antibody test in December came back positive when donating platelets. Took another one to confirm. My wife O+, has been on nearly every floor of the hospital daily since this began last year, never tested positive for antibodies or swab.
 

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