Honestly my Hexbear people won't learn much from this, but this is a good resource to beat libs over the head with.

  • Long COVID is an often debilitating illness that occurs in at least 10% of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections.

  • At least 65 million individuals worldwide are estimated to have long COVID,

  • ...[occurs in] 10–12% of vaccinated cases

Yes that's right, 10% of vaccinated cases

  • With significant proportions of individuals with long COVID unable to return to work, the scale of newly disabled individuals is contributing to labour shortages.

  • Six months after breakthrough infection, increased risks were observed for cardiovascular conditions, coagulation and haematological conditions, death, fatigue, neurological conditions and pulmonary conditions

  • A higher prevalence of long Covid has been reported in certain ethnicities, including people with Hispanic or Latino heritage. Socio-economic risk factors include lower income and an inability to adequately rest in the early weeks after developing COVID-19

Rich people don't have to give a fuck about COVID

  • Long COVID impacts children of all ages [with symptoms] 2 to 36 times more likely [with children who had COVID]

  • Studies looking at immune dysregulation in individuals with long COVID who had mild acute COVID-19 have found T cell alterations, including exhausted T cells [and other immune reductions]

  • A long-lasting reduction in vascular density, specifically affecting small capillaries, was found in patients with long COVID compared with controls, 18 months after infection.

  • Cardiac MRI studies revealed cardiac impairment in 78% of 100 individuals who had a prior COVID-19 episode

  • 70% of [long COVID] patients had damage to at least one organ and 29% had multi-organ damage... The organ damage experienced by patients with long COVID appears durable

  • ... fatigue was found in 32% and cognitive impairment was found in 22% of patients with COVID-19 at 12 weeks after infection. Cognitive impairments in long COVID are debilitating, at the same magnitude as intoxication at the :ukkk: drink driving limit or 10 years of cognitive ageing

  • Viral persistence in the penile tissue has been documented, as has an increased risk of erectile dysfunction, likely resulting from endothelial dysfunction. In one study, impairments to sperm count, semen volume, motility, sperm morphology and sperm concentration were reported in individuals

:alex-aware:

  • Several imaging studies that included non-hospitalized individuals with long COVID demonstrated pulmonary abnormalities including in air trapping and lung perfusion

  • Few people with long COVID demonstrate full recovery, with one study finding that 85% of patients who had symptoms 2 months after the initial infection reported symptoms 1 year after symptom onset

There's lots of good links to studies if you need to debate libs

  • aaro [they/them, she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Hey, for anyone suffering from (or anyone who knows someone suffering from) long COVID, there is some evidence that fasting, either intermittent or continuous for at least 5 days, can fully cure many of the symptoms of long COVID. The evidence is kinda fringe but many successful anecdotal reports and a handful of case studies are emerging. The proposed mechanisms of action are depleting the viral reservoir in the gut and/or "rebooting" the metabolism.

    https://www.buchinger-wilhelmi.com/en/long-covid-fasting/

    It's kind of a hail mary but it's one of the only ideas on the table for curing long COVID, sooooo

    Aggregated evidence below:

    Roughly 1 in 3 people in Utah fast from time to time – higher than in other states. This is partly because more than 60% of people in Utah belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and roughly 40% of them fast – typically skipping two meals in a row. Those who fasted, on average, for a day a month over the past 40 years were not less likely to get COVID, but they were less likely to be hospitalized or die from the virus. (source)

    r*ddit post:

    I recently came down with a cold (possibly COVID, but I'm awaiting my test results). It was very mild -- just a day or so of a slight cough and then a few days of congestion and a runny nose. But the weird thing is that this was the first time I lost my sense of smell and taste as a result of an illness. I can still taste whether something is sweet, salty, bitter or sour, but I can't test any flavors or seasonings. I feel no other symptoms at the moment. However, today I fasted for about 20 hours. It wasn't a dry fast since I had a small swig of water while taking some zinc, but I noticed an immediate improvement in my sense of smell. I can now smell coffee, peanut butter, vanilla, peppermint essential oil, detergent and bleach if I hold them all up to my nose, which I couldn't do before. I was worried that this progress was maybe a fluke of hunger (extreme hunger tends to increase our senses), but I ate a cookie and can still smell the above items.(source)

    Study on outcomes of long-term fasters

    Subjects engaging in periodic fasting (n=73, 35.6%) did so for 40.4±20.6 years (max: 81.9 years) prior to COVID-19 diagnosis. The composite outcome [of hospitalization and mortality] occurred in 11.0% of periodic fasters and 28.8% of non-fasters (p=0.013), with HR=0.61 (95% CI 0.42 to 0.90) favouring fasting. Multivariable analyses confirmed this association. Other predictors of hospitalisation/mortality were age, Hispanic ethnicity, prior MI, prior TIA and renal failure, with trends for race, smoking, hyperlipidaemia, coronary disease, diabetes, heart failure and anxiety, but not alcohol use. In secondary analysis, COVID-19 was diagnosed in 14.3% of fasters and 13.0% of non-fasters (p=0.51). (source)

    Nature article

    SARS-CoV-2-induced anorexia triggers systemic metabolic alterations. In a study published in Nature, Karagiannis et al. show that the ketone body β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) improves COVID-19 disease outcomes. Further, BHB metabolically and functionally reprograms CD4+ T cells, highlighting immunometabolic tuning of immunity in COVID-19. (source, this one is more nuanced than I could fit in one excerpt)

    • ides_of_Merch [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      fasting

      austerity neoliberalism smh

      depleting the viral reservoir in the gut and/or “rebooting” the metabolism.

      DO NOT EAT LEST THE ENEMY OF THE BOURGEOISIE WIN

    • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I've been right about literally everything regarding COVID, and months/years before the scientists, so I'll just lathe one out for you here

      Fasting works, because antibiotics worked for me. Both starve bacteria. Also, long-COVID killed my appetite
      2nd layer of lathing: COVID resides in gut bacteria. It attacks gut bacteria and hides in them as a reservoir. That's why it takes years to go away.

      None of these claims are scientifically proven, but neither were my 30 other claims about covid which ended up getting confirmed

      Also, loss of smell is associated with loss of brain function. Loss of smell is a very typical symptom among Europeans, and deductively so is loss of brain function. This is very obvious if you browse long-COVID subreddits. Latinos being more affected by long-COVID in general was also very obvious.

      • TerminalEncounter [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I wouldn't be surprised if it's just that a lot of the North American standard working class diet causes chronic inflammation, and getting your gut to stop inflamming for a week can calm the inflammatory response elsewhere that might be contributing to long covid.

        • bigboopballs [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          a lot of the North American standard working class diet causes chronic inflammation

          which foods do/don't cause chronic inflammation?

          • TerminalEncounter [she/her]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Low glycemic index, cut down on saturated and trans fats, more fruit and veg, cut down on red meat, more fiber, basically the Mediterranean diet.

        • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
          ·
          2 years ago

          There is still some other stuff that's separate from the gut bacteria, but it's more mild. The virus-riddled gut bacteria were 70% responsible for my long-COVID.

          Perhaps it also resides in other non-bacterial places, or perhaps the antibiotic just couldn't kill everything. After the 70% improvement from antibiotics, I saw incremental changes that just came with time. THIS WAS ONLY POSSIBLE BECAUSE I ISOLATED--if you go outside you will just breathe in more COVID and never recover.

          This October 3 years after March 2020 I recovered 120%, and stayed that way for 2 months, then got reinfected

      • machiabelly [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        So what is causing brain impairment in european cases and why are latinos so affected?

        • ButtBidet [he/him]M
          ·
          2 years ago

          I'm guessing it's linked to class, hours worked, and availability of resources. Being poorer is deadly.

          • Frank [he/him, he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Being poorer causes chronic stress and negatively impacts immune system function.

          • machiabelly [she/her]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I saw an article saying that the poorest 1% of men in america have a 72 year life expectancy. Richest 1% have an 89 year life expectancy. Difference in Euro Symptoms is probably down to different strains

    • ButtBidet [he/him]M
      ·
      2 years ago

      All these medical sources are 🤮. Maybe fasting works, but I'm not loving this data.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        "I'm going to put an enormous amount of stress on my body by starving it for a week. This will definitely help me with a syndrome typified by multiple organ system damage, vascular damage, brain damage, and other severe symptoms".

        Doesn't pass the smell test.

        • ButtBidet [he/him]M
          ·
          2 years ago

          Gosh it could be true. I've just learned to be careful of blogs and WebMD. Keeping to high quality medical research keeps us sane and gives us a one up over the libs.

        • aaro [they/them, she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I edited in a source from Nature investigating the mechanism of action a little more closely, give it a peep

          • ButtBidet [he/him]M
            ·
            2 years ago

            Comrade, I apologise in advance for being super pedantic. I appreciate you taking the time to find research on this.

            The BMJ article only compared long COVID with people who did IS vs those who didn't. There was no control group and no random experiment group. Therefore, potentially other variables followed those who did IS. Maybe they exercised more or had better health. Who knows.

            The Nature article just seemed to discuss a possible mechanism for resolving COVID, for which Is could play a role.

            These studies on their own lead to the need to study further the role of IS and long COVID, ideally with a random control trial. Potentially IS helpful. I'm not a medical professional, but I wouldn't advice this DIY treatment personally. But I'm not privy to enough info to specifically advise against it.

      • aaro [they/them, she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I wholeheartedly agree, it's fringe at best, but a minor fast executed safely is not likely to cause harm and the potential upshot is large, plus I've heard of it anecdotally several times. I don't want to promise anyone a cure but the cost/benefit pans out to me sharing the concept

      • aaro [they/them, she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Hey just as a heads up I added two more sources that are of significantly higher quality

    • happybadger [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I recently came down with a cold (possibly COVID, but I’m awaiting my test results). It was very mild – just a day or so of a slight cough and then a few days of congestion and a runny nose. But the weird thing is that this was the first time I lost my sense of smell and taste as a result of an illness. I can still taste whether something is sweet, salty, bitter or sour, but I can’t test any flavors or seasonings.

      Psilocybin works well with the smell/taste recovery. I watched it firsthand in my ex. Everything post-COVID tasted salty to the point that it was inedible, even without any salt or traditionally salty foods. With a relatively low 2g dose she recovered normal senses for the duration. Some get long-term recovery, others for a few weeks or months. I'm not sure if microdosing or larger doses have different levels of impact.

      • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        for me there were two main phases of COVID: the "acute" phase and the "long" phase

        The acute phase can last 1-2 months, with varying symptoms. for me the biggest was deathly fatigue. Vitamin C helped this the most, I took 500 mg

        The "long" phase was milder but still horrible with a still-very-reduced appetite. Antibiotics were what eliminated this for me. Fasting might have done it too, since logically both would kill gut bacteria.

        After the "main" "long" phase, I had a 2 year phase which was "90% recovered" but I still felt off and somewhat tired. This went away with time and isolating myself in my house/backyard. I did not even go to grocery stores, and the one time I did, I got reinfected.

        After this 2 year phase though, I completely recovered, and a number of "healthy" things happened to my body. Scars that I had from BEFORE covid started going away, my hair density increased, energy went through the roof, etc. This lasted for 2 months before I got reinfected again--if I hadn't it's possible it would have lasted forever.

        In my case it was possible to not only COMPLETELY recover from long-COVID, but also to FEEL BETTER than I did before COVID. However, it required living with my parents in a house where my working parent isolated in the bottom half of the house. This is probably not achievable for most people.

        As a result of this, I know that the only true solution for long-COVID is to find other like-minded people who agree with me, and buy land together, and earn a living by selling produce/livestock etc. It legitimately requires a parallel and mostly self-sufficient Amish-type society. Otherwise you will just breathe in COVID your entire life and never get better, and probably also die a much earlier death.

        • bigboopballs [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Scars that I had from BEFORE covid started going away, my hair density increased, energy went through the roof, etc.

          how did these things happen?

        • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          As a result of this, I know that the only true solution for long-COVID is to find other like-minded people who agree with me, and buy land together, and earn a living by selling produce/livestock etc. It legitimately requires a parallel and mostly self-sufficient Amish-type society. Otherwise you will just breathe in COVID your entire life and never get better, and probably also die a much earlier death.

          This is the only solution I really come up with as well; Zero-Covid Communities are gonna have to be a thing in the future, but it's gonna be a wealthy people-Elysium sorta thing.