How do I deal with long COVID?
Today we're going to be talking about long COVID.
Now most people who get COVID-19 will recover from it. However, there are a group of people who will go on to have certain symptoms and we put this into the term long COVID. Now these symptoms come can be headaches, brain frog, they may feel fatigued, they may feel they have muscular aches and these symptoms are longstanding and ongoing since they contracted coronavirus.
Now how can we help this? So there are long COVID clinics which are running in the NHS to help these individuals with their symptoms. However, there are definitely lifestyle changes that we can do and we can make to help ourselves. So often I get asked this question, how can I help these symptoms? Let's start with, for example, fatigue. Now, if you're feeling fatigued during the day, it's impacting your sleep pattern, for example, really important to have a fixed routine.
You go to bed at a certain time, you practice sleep hygiene so you wind down before bed, you're putting your devices away, you're putting everything away and you're sleeping nicely through the night because you're not thinking about your blue light or whatever else is going on with your phone.
Now during the day, having that level of activity is really important. Even if you're being fatigued some graded exercise is really important to firstly make your body feel slightly energised during the day, but also to wind yourself down make you feel tired in time for bedtime. The exercise can also help with muscular pains and aches so graded gentle therapy to keep your muscles moving.
Really, really important to help with those muscular aches. Headaches another very common symptom of long COVID. You can ensure that you're having lots of fluids of the day. You're very hydrated to ensure the headaches are not going to be as severe. Of course, you may still have a little background headache, but it may not prevent you from getting on with your day to day work.
If you're more hydrated and if you're feeling better in yourself. Then we talk about brain fog. Again. A really common symptom of long COVID is just feeling a little bit out of sorts. Really important things about how we can boost our mental ability to make us feel more awake. So again, thinking about your diet. What are you consuming? Really important to consider things like portions of oily, fish, antioxidants, your leafy vegetables, all the things that are going to give you those good minerals. And you can also consider taking a mineral supplement as well if needed.
So yeah, there are definitely things that we can do to help ourselves if we're getting long COVID symptoms. But the most important thing to remember is alongside lifestyle. You probably will need the support and help of a healthcare professional. So do speak to your GP and do ask if you can refer to a long COVID clinic because that is definitely available on the NHS.
Now most people who get COVID-19 will recover from it. However, there are a group of people who will go on to have certain symptoms and we put this into the term long COVID. Now these symptoms come can be headaches, brain frog, they may feel fatigued, they may feel they have muscular aches and these symptoms are longstanding and ongoing since they contracted coronavirus.
Now how can we help this? So there are long COVID clinics which are running in the NHS to help these individuals with their symptoms. However, there are definitely lifestyle changes that we can do and we can make to help ourselves. So often I get asked this question, how can I help these symptoms? Let's start with, for example, fatigue. Now, if you're feeling fatigued during the day, it's impacting your sleep pattern, for example, really important to have a fixed routine.
You go to bed at a certain time, you practice sleep hygiene so you wind down before bed, you're putting your devices away, you're putting everything away and you're sleeping nicely through the night because you're not thinking about your blue light or whatever else is going on with your phone.
Now during the day, having that level of activity is really important. Even if you're being fatigued some graded exercise is really important to firstly make your body feel slightly energised during the day, but also to wind yourself down make you feel tired in time for bedtime. The exercise can also help with muscular pains and aches so graded gentle therapy to keep your muscles moving.
Really, really important to help with those muscular aches. Headaches another very common symptom of long COVID. You can ensure that you're having lots of fluids of the day. You're very hydrated to ensure the headaches are not going to be as severe. Of course, you may still have a little background headache, but it may not prevent you from getting on with your day to day work.
If you're more hydrated and if you're feeling better in yourself. Then we talk about brain fog. Again. A really common symptom of long COVID is just feeling a little bit out of sorts. Really important things about how we can boost our mental ability to make us feel more awake. So again, thinking about your diet. What are you consuming? Really important to consider things like portions of oily, fish, antioxidants, your leafy vegetables, all the things that are going to give you those good minerals. And you can also consider taking a mineral supplement as well if needed.
So yeah, there are definitely things that we can do to help ourselves if we're getting long COVID symptoms. But the most important thing to remember is alongside lifestyle. You probably will need the support and help of a healthcare professional. So do speak to your GP and do ask if you can refer to a long COVID clinic because that is definitely available on the NHS.
Dr Raj Arora
GP and Aesthetics Expert
