Mom is suffering from Long Covid

[chippermonk]

Maybe I missed it in your post, but how long ago did she have covid?

 

[RareForm]

Ever since my mom caught Covid, she has had a hard time remembering words, using the wrong words and her memory is diminished. I'm really terrified of losing my very articulate Mom to this and she is very frustrated as a writer who depends on writing for a living.

Also keep in mind that my Mom is 68 right now, so some of these symptoms may be impacted by her age. She eats relatively healthily and she does exercise (walking the dog 3-4 times a day) and calisthenics in the AM.

She has been supplementing her diet with Lionsmane, Gingko, MCT oil, Shilajit resin and Ashwagandha.

Can anyone give me suggestions to help with her problems? Are there any dietary supplements that might help? Any and all suggestions I'll look in to. "Illegal" drugs are fine too, but she is not a substance user beyond her 1 beer a night.

Thank you in advance BLers, it's really difficult for me to see my Mom this way. We are quite sure it is not Alzheimers or Dementia and my Mom is very aware of her diminished capability.

I'm so sorry to hear that, my friend. I hope she can find her way back to greater cognitive function.

I know at least one person who swore by cranial electrotherapy stimulation devices.

Is she documenting her symptoms?

 

[tryptakid]

I'm so sorry to hear that, my friend. I hope she can find her way back to greater cognitive function.

I know at least one person who swore by cranial electrotherapy stimulation devices.

Is she documenting her symptoms?

Maybe not totally related, but I did see a discussion recently about how ultrasound seems to have some benefits for people with alzheimer's/dementia - something about the sound causing blood flow improvement and possibly breaking up some of the plaques that have been speculated as part of what impacts cognition. Someone (i forget if it was on BL or Reddit) mentioned that maybe ultrasonic tootbrushes would be mildly effective since you use them daily. It's a different frequency of ultrasound that had been used in the study being discussed, but some folks were saying it doesn't mean it's not worth looking into.

Thought it was interesting.

 

[BK38]

I'm so sorry to hear that, my friend. I hope she can find her way back to greater cognitive function.

I know at least one person who swore by cranial electrotherapy stimulation devices.

Is she documenting her symptoms?

Yes, she's documenting what's going on, as well as things that might potentially help. I'll have to look into electrotherapy devices. Thank you for your kind words.

 

[BK38]

Maybe I missed it in your post, but how long ago did she have covid?

I think it has been 3 years now.

 

[kris66]

Is your mother by chance on any cholesterol lowering medications? The statins especially have a side effect of causing brain fog. I had this from both Crestor and Lipitor and it was scary. I had to stop both and it took awhile to clear up.

 

[BK38]

Is your mother by chance on any cholesterol lowering medications? The statins especially have a side effect of causing brain fog. I had this from both Crestor and Lipitor and it was scary. I had to stop both and it took awhile to clear up.

No, she is taking zero pharmaceuticals that I am aware of.

 

[Electrum1]

They aren't "pharmaceuticals" necessarily, but it still feels like this part needs looking into further

She has been supplementing her diet with Lionsmane, Gingko, MCT oil, Shilajit resin and Ashwagandha.

 

[Electrum1]

Can't post sources here, but maybe some of those aren't from legit labs and are high in heavy metals or something else

 

[iom]

Hello. First of all, Long COVID is a catch-all term for potentially many different things. I prefer to at least distinguish between "post-COVID" and "Long COVID" where the former is stuff that usually clears up in 3-12 months. Symptoms that persist beyond that are better described as Long COVID.

Second, while exercise is almost always a very good way to improve health and recover, a great many people with Long COVID suffer from a condition called post-exertional malaise (PEM). If PEM is involved, then exercise can actually make things worse. For some people, PEM is so bad that excessive exercise can cause long-term or apparently permanent harm. If she is still exercising regularly and not noticing PEM, then it's probably ok for her to do so, but then her Long COVID may not be as stereotypical.

Three, I suffered from Long COVID and what I would describe as mild PEM. If I exerted myself in any number of ways (physical, mental, emotional, sleep loss) my symptoms typically worsened a lot for up to a few days. I believe I successfully self-treated my Long COVID using very low but not microdoses of psychedelics, specifically phenethylamines but tryptamines could probably work too, but this may be risky in that post/long-COVID complications may increase the potential toxicity of psychedelics. They could also trigger PEM.

What I did was titrate up from inactive ("microdoses") to minimally active doses. If you look up a substance in PIHKAL or TIHKAL, a dose range is given, and for me a minimally active dose is around 1/6th of the low end of the range. So something like 2C-B is listed as 12-24 mg, and 2 mg 2C-B is enough for me to fell it, albeit weakly. For safety sake, I recommend cutting that by another factor of 4, which will probably have zero effect and then maybe double it until an effect is noticed. For me while I was still healing, the "trip" was usually not pleasant at all with exaggerated body load, but the day after provided considerable relief from the symptoms and seemingly block enough of the PEM that I could get physically moving again. This benefit persisted for about a week with a minimal dose. In time, I was confident enough to increase my doses and began to experience more pleasant trips and longer remission periods.

I realize in practice, most people can't easily precisely measure minimal doses of their psychedelics. Anything distributed on a blotter or tablet is not especially useful here unless one knows the dose unit to be consistent and very small. LSD in a liquid form could be diluted so that drops contain much less drug. (Note that this diluted preparation may have a shorter shelf-life.) With mushrooms, I recommend drying and powdering them and mixing powder so that the doses are hopefully more uniform. This is because individual mushrooms can vary a lot in strength. Start very small with like 20 mg of powder. I realize this is absurdly small, but I have also encountered absurdly potent mushrooms. For "typical" mushrooms a minimally active dose might be around 150 mg.

All of this is at your own risk of course, but for me, serotonergic psychedelics have been pretty close to a miracle treatment. I suspect that many Long COVID people may be stuck in a vicious inflammatory cycle that serotonin and its substitutes may be able to interrupt. Serotonin and psychedelics also have pro-regenerative effects overall on many tissues including blood vessels and neurons.

 

[Foreigner]

I'm in a group of practitioners who treat long covid regularly. The main starting protocol is nattokinase, bromelain and curumin, according to whatever the doses are on the bottles. Some people say you should do 2-3x that dose, but it's best to start small. These are enzymes and anti-inflammatories that break down the microclots and spike-protein/immune-complex aggregations that define the effects of the disease. When the cardiovascular system is clogged up with these complexes, chronic inflammation and fatigue results. The inflammation is largely in the endothelium of the blood vessels, including those in the brain.

Basically, long covid is residual spike protein complexes lodged in the micro-blood vessels of the body. They need to be broken down enzymatically, over time. Once the blocks are broken down, blood flow, nutrients and oxygen are restored to the area and there is a chance there will be recovery.

 

[MsDiz]

She is doing all those things except perhaps new routes with the dog and no scans. She isn't suffering from writer's block, but she takes longer to write a piece and makes substantially more errors. She just lost her biggest client because she failed to deliver her usually flawless writing in time for a deadline. It is also affecting her verbal side. She can't find the word she wants to use and her brain will chuck up a close but incorrect answer. For example she used the word "debit" instead of "deficit" the other day.

Most of her socializing is remote, though she has a few friends here in town. I will encourage her to hang out with them more. She hasn't had a scan though maybe that is something worth looking in to. I visit her most days too. She is really frustrated with herself which probably doesn't help.

Maybe there's a silver bullet of some kind? 68 really isn't that old as you said. Thanks for your kind and pragmatic response.

Has she seen a Dr? Her word finding ability is diminished? Sounds a bit like aphasia. Are you sure she hasn’t had some type of stroke? not trying to scare you but Covid was well known for causing clotting and strokes.

I would definitely suggest seeing a Dr and getting a CT scan for starters followed by MRI.

As to her supplement regime lions mane is a good one but again, I would wonder about what the root of the cause is.

 

[BK38]

Has she seen a Dr? Her word finding ability is diminished? Sounds a bit like aphasia. Are you sure she hasn’t had some type of stroke? not trying to scare you but Covid was well known for causing clotting and strokes.

I would definitely suggest seeing a Dr and getting a CT scan for starters followed by MRI.

As to her supplement regime lions mane is a good one but again, I would wonder about what the root of the cause is.

No doctor has seen her about it. I will encourage her to get some scans done. Thx for the advice.

 

[MsDiz]

No doctor has seen her about it. I will encourage her to get some scans done. Thx for the advice.

Absolutely she should see her Dr, ensure she mentions that aphasia aspect and her other cognitive decline.

I wouldn’t advise mentioning long covid but I would advise her to say that she did find issues after having Covid.

 

[JackARoe]

^ Always good to see Miss Diz.

Anyway hope BK and all are feeling better. My last bit of advice is one I still try and work on. Life is moments. We never going to get consistent ups or downs. My MIL had severe dementia and up till the end she got moments. She as able to tell me about the situations she was in that she felt an angel was looking over her. Like driving home from work in the middle of the night during a blizzard in farm country Ontario. It was sweet. But that is a different case as she already had dementia.

For those moments, walking the dogs and looking at nature can give moments of feeling good. When they happen milk them. Stretch them. Notice them and make them last longer. I have found milking the good feeling moments extends them before the next oppressing thought happens to make us crash. I still have to work on that myself. But I have extended some moments beyond the moment.