Long covid symptoms can severely affect someone’s life. It can prevent someone from returning to work and earn an income. Home life can be disrupted. It can prevent someone from thinking and concentrating. It’s still early in the understanding of long Covid symptoms. Scientists have categorized common long Covid symptoms and are studying some possible treatments. The treatment options depend on the cause and require doctor evaluation.
| Symptom | Cause | Testing | Possible treatment |
| Extreme fatigue | SARS-Cov-2 virus hiding in body resulting in continuous immune response. | Detect spike protein in bloodstream and stool | Vaccine booster, Paxlovid |
| Brain fog cognitive impairment – can’t remember what a person had just read. Difficult to find words during conversation | Microclots reducing blood flow to brain cytokines and microglia (brain immune cells) causing inflammation Blood vessels not opening/closing property and supply blood where needed. | ||
| Gastrointestinal – diarrhea, stomach ache, constipation | Covid virus targets lung but small intestine lining has same receptors. inflammation | ||
| fatigue, shortness of breath | Heart muscle inflammation – myocarditis from initial infection. | Electrocardiogram, echocardiogram | personalized strength building |
| dizziness when standing, spike in heart rate without activity | postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome ( POTS) impacts involuntary nervous system: heart rate, blood pressure | diagnosis by doctor | personalized treatment by doctor, hydration, diet, physical therapy |
| Exhaustion from minimal physical activity low energy – Someone who can run miles before infection can barely walk 6 minutes without rest | Cells are not extracting energy properly Mitochondrial dysfunction | A phase 2a trial showed Axcella Therapeutics AXA1125 multi amino acids showed improvement mental and physical score using Chalder Fatigue Questionnaire (CFQ-11)and 6 minute exercise | |
| Non restorative sleep – not feeling refreshed after sleep. |
References
Am J Physiol Cell Physiol. 2020 Aug 1; Decoding SARS-CoV-2 hijacking of host mitochondria in COVID-19 pathogenesis Keshav K. Sing, Gyaneshwer Chaubey, Jake Y. Chen, and Prashanth Suravajhala https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7381712/