What is a long COVID treatment?
Long COVID treatment refers to several procedures designed to relieve lasting symptoms of COVID-19, like fatigue, cognitive impairment, or musculoskeletal pain.
COVID-19 is an acute illness, but the infection can have lasting effects on your body. Long COVID treatment provides a safe, effective, and noninvasive way to improve your quality of life.
Who can benefit from long COVID treatment?
You might be a candidate for long COVID treatment if you’ve been diagnosed with COVID-19 and you continue to experience symptoms more than three months after your first positive COVID test. That’s particularly true if you experience any of the following symptoms:
- A chronic cough
- Shortness of breath
- Muscle pain
- Joint pain
- Fatigue
- Abdominal pain
You might also benefit from long COVID treatment if you experience gastrointestinal symptoms like nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea.
What happens during a long COVID treatment appointment?
If you catch COVID-19 and your symptoms don’t improve after several months, your primary care physician might refer you to Dr. Gadh. That’s especially true if your symptoms affect your ability to work or participate in other activities that you enjoy.
A long COVID treatment appointment begins with a discussion of your symptoms, including when they first started, if they respond to at-home treatments, and if they’re worse during certain activities, like when you exercise. Next, Dr. Gadh reviews your medical records as well as the notes from your primary care physician and makes treatment recommendations.
What does long COVID treatment involve?
Dr. Gadh treats long COVID using low-dose lithium carbonate. Lithium carbonate is a drug originally developed to treat bipolar disorder, but studies show that it also has a positive effect on the recovery of COVID-19.
Specifically, lithium carbonate increases the body’s immune response by lowering or preventing inflammation. In clinical trials for severely ill COVID patients, lithium carbonate resulted in a reduced number of days in the hospital and a reduced risk of death.
Lithium carbonate doesn’t just treat COVID in the short term. Dr. Gadh and a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found that it has benefits for long COVID as well. In fact, as lithium carbonate builds up in your body, it helps strengthen and support your immune system.
How does lithium carbonate help fight COVID-19?
Lithium carbonate helps the body combat long COVID in several ways:
It’s antiviral
Lithium carbonate is an antiviral, meaning it fights against viruses and inhibits their growth. If you have long COVID, you might not be contagious, but microscopic viral particles may still exist in your body. Lithium carbonate can help your immune system eliminate them.
It has an immunomodulatory effect
Lithium carbonate offers immunoprotective effects. It changes the way that signaling pathways in your brain function, reducing the risk of neurological effects like brain fog, forgetfulness, and fatigue.
Who is a candidate for long COVID treatment?
Only a qualified psychiatrist like Dr. Gadh can determine if you can benefit from COVID treatment. You might be a candidate if you’ve caught COVID-19 more than three months ago but still experience symptoms that affect your quality of life, like a cough, fatigue, body aches, or loss of taste and smell.
“As a published and practiced expert in COVID treatment, I recommend low dose lithium in conjunction with tailored adjustments in treatment and prevention. Lithium is a natural anti-inflammatory element that also enhances T-Cell health to better attack viruses.”
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2022.850583/full
To explore the benefits of long COVID treatment, make an appointment at the practice of Sudhir Gadh, MD, by calling the office or booking online today.
