A new JAMA piece purports to suggest better outcomes in COVID positive patients, albeit with a study design not intended to actually measure Long COVID.
I appreciate this. I saw Vinay Prasad review this study, and he's been critical of long covid.
I personally know a lot of people who've have vague but significant symptoms for the past maybe 15 years. There's so many toxins in our environment and food, then you get an illness on top of that, and add on electromagnetic energy and there's a lot unhealthy forces acting on the body. I went through this for about 5 years. I have some sympathy for people with these symptoms, and don't like to see them disregarded outright. And I do also wonder how many long covid cases are really vaccine harm.
So my thoughts on Long COVID is that there is likely to be an overstatement to its prevalence, and so my comments aren't a critique of those ideas. And like you stated there's plenty of explanations for Long COVID or the symptoms given our general unhealthy nature as a population. It's why America did pretty poorly with COVID and yet it's still a bit of a social stigma to emphasize the point that obesity is not healthy.
The main issues are the comments that Long COVID doesn't exist, and stated rather adamantly that I'm more critical of, especially if the studies used provide no actual evidence to make such a refutation. I've seen this quite often where the methodology has some serious issues but a statement is made that "this study clearly shows Long COVID doesn't exist!" and I have to be critical of such assertions.
Both extremes are likely wrong. Of course long covid exits, just like long flu, long fever and long any-illness exists. Every time you have a serious illness, you can have lasting damage.
On the other hand, the best predictor according to at least two studies for getting long covid is having had or having a mental illness like anxiety and depression. (The fact woman are more likely is hence likely also a red herring, as woman are simply more prone to having these specific metal illnesses.)
That and the fact the same shenanigans who were pushing lockdowns, vaccines and masks are pushing long covid, indicates most of it is likely hysteria. Long covid is a means of allowing fear and measures to keep being pushed. "It may be mild and not kill you, but you may get long covid."
What is the real question is whether there is a specific 'long' illness related to covid. I mean, on the one hand, if you got damaged by heavy fever or lung cells dying, it doesn't matter whether it was RSV, flu, covid or some bacteria that caused it. Because we had not been exposed to covid, we were more prone to having heavy fevers etc. Just like a child's first exposure to RSV and flu is often more severe than its second, third, etc until you reach older age and they become dangerous again.
That matters, as now everybody has had it, one would expect severe symptoms to become more rare, and hence long covid also more rare than today. I also wouldn't name these long covid as these are not covid specific. Don't get me wrong, the afflictions are real, but just not covid specific.
But on the other hand, if there are specific types of damages done by covid itself, these forms of long covid would prevail and also warrant the term long covid, as they'd not occur or be less common with other illnesses.
The only type of damage in this category I believe we so far saw is loss of smell. We know that is specific to covid due to it causing inflammation of certain tissue used for smell. And we know that some people don't regain smell until weeks after recovery. So, it seems inflammation may last longer or perhaps does semi-permanent damage. And hence, then it may also be possible for some people the damage in this tissue is permanent.
This study however is a dud indeed. I know lots of people for whom getting covid was a great relief. They finally released themselves of their burden and started living again. And even I admit, I had an "OK, good that's it" moment when I got it and recovered. So I can imagine you have a fake boost. That said, of long covid was as common and bad as the hysteria media claims, it would have shown up there too. So, I think while the study did not prove long covid does not exists, it is not super common.
I appreciate that Igor! I was going to actually comment that after looking at the study there were a lot of issues with how things were measured, especially figuring out who would be considered to have had Long COVID so based on that alone we can't make any comment to the actual utility of this study.
I am one those skeptical of long-covid explanations. But I don't discount the possibility of immune system disregulation post severe-illess; including viral infections - largely via microbiome imbalances resulting from said infections.
I am of the opinion that much of the documented "long covid" cases can be traced to issues within the GI system: Primarily a mix of floral imbalances and inflammation, where both serve to potentiate each other in a terrible positive feedback loop.
So the more inflammation, the more vulnerable the GI becomes to flora imbalance - and the more imbalanced the microbiome becomes, the more the bacteria (and other organisms) can over-colonize GI tissues... thus inducing worsening inflammation via this over-colonizatoon (basically not simply colonization, but infection at this point).
And thus the cycle perpetuates itself, as all positive feedback loops do.
In more detail:
The harmful bacteria [or simply an overpopulated type(s) of bacteria, that took advantage of the immune system disregulaton & inflammation that occured during the active COVID onfdction, to become the dominant GI colonizer(s)] are inducing inflammation, and that inflammation further enables the bacteria to colonize GI tissues that they normally would not; or colonize tissue to an extent they could not have achieved before this positive feedback loop all induced by COVID... but this not unique to Covid-19.
The other inducer of this is clearly the mRNA based "vaccines".
Then clinical system result of this is wode-spread inflammation as a result of so called "leaky gut" and from the waste/byproducts of the microbiome, that are normally contained within a healthy GI tract, also permeating the GI barrier, causing further inflation.
It is my opinion that an "anti inflammatory diet", probiotic & enzyme supplementation, and periods of fasting, are all necessary to treat "long covid". We also know the GI track can serve as a reservoir of vital material, so these treatments could further help if that is a true contributing factor.
I think there's a lot to the microbiome issue, and in fact there's some possible evidence to suggest that our lack of parasites may contribute to our allergies due to a lack of having that immunoregulatory mechanism.
That being said, the damaged microbiome can likely contribute to the issues and prevalence of Long COVID which may otherwise not manifest in a healthy population. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that Long COVID doesn't exist, and as I continue to argue the field was disincentivized from looking into this issue since many of these symptoms of chronic fatigue manifested in women and therefore were quickly dismissed as manic episodes or hysteria.
So it's likely a GI issue can lead to a greater risk of Long COVID, but that also doesn't mean that Long COVID isn't an actual phenomenon.
I appreciate this. I saw Vinay Prasad review this study, and he's been critical of long covid.
I personally know a lot of people who've have vague but significant symptoms for the past maybe 15 years. There's so many toxins in our environment and food, then you get an illness on top of that, and add on electromagnetic energy and there's a lot unhealthy forces acting on the body. I went through this for about 5 years. I have some sympathy for people with these symptoms, and don't like to see them disregarded outright. And I do also wonder how many long covid cases are really vaccine harm.
So my thoughts on Long COVID is that there is likely to be an overstatement to its prevalence, and so my comments aren't a critique of those ideas. And like you stated there's plenty of explanations for Long COVID or the symptoms given our general unhealthy nature as a population. It's why America did pretty poorly with COVID and yet it's still a bit of a social stigma to emphasize the point that obesity is not healthy.
The main issues are the comments that Long COVID doesn't exist, and stated rather adamantly that I'm more critical of, especially if the studies used provide no actual evidence to make such a refutation. I've seen this quite often where the methodology has some serious issues but a statement is made that "this study clearly shows Long COVID doesn't exist!" and I have to be critical of such assertions.
Both extremes are likely wrong. Of course long covid exits, just like long flu, long fever and long any-illness exists. Every time you have a serious illness, you can have lasting damage.
On the other hand, the best predictor according to at least two studies for getting long covid is having had or having a mental illness like anxiety and depression. (The fact woman are more likely is hence likely also a red herring, as woman are simply more prone to having these specific metal illnesses.)
That and the fact the same shenanigans who were pushing lockdowns, vaccines and masks are pushing long covid, indicates most of it is likely hysteria. Long covid is a means of allowing fear and measures to keep being pushed. "It may be mild and not kill you, but you may get long covid."
What is the real question is whether there is a specific 'long' illness related to covid. I mean, on the one hand, if you got damaged by heavy fever or lung cells dying, it doesn't matter whether it was RSV, flu, covid or some bacteria that caused it. Because we had not been exposed to covid, we were more prone to having heavy fevers etc. Just like a child's first exposure to RSV and flu is often more severe than its second, third, etc until you reach older age and they become dangerous again.
That matters, as now everybody has had it, one would expect severe symptoms to become more rare, and hence long covid also more rare than today. I also wouldn't name these long covid as these are not covid specific. Don't get me wrong, the afflictions are real, but just not covid specific.
But on the other hand, if there are specific types of damages done by covid itself, these forms of long covid would prevail and also warrant the term long covid, as they'd not occur or be less common with other illnesses.
The only type of damage in this category I believe we so far saw is loss of smell. We know that is specific to covid due to it causing inflammation of certain tissue used for smell. And we know that some people don't regain smell until weeks after recovery. So, it seems inflammation may last longer or perhaps does semi-permanent damage. And hence, then it may also be possible for some people the damage in this tissue is permanent.
This study however is a dud indeed. I know lots of people for whom getting covid was a great relief. They finally released themselves of their burden and started living again. And even I admit, I had an "OK, good that's it" moment when I got it and recovered. So I can imagine you have a fake boost. That said, of long covid was as common and bad as the hysteria media claims, it would have shown up there too. So, I think while the study did not prove long covid does not exists, it is not super common.
I linked to your post
I appreciate that Igor! I was going to actually comment that after looking at the study there were a lot of issues with how things were measured, especially figuring out who would be considered to have had Long COVID so based on that alone we can't make any comment to the actual utility of this study.
This springs to mind...'How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin?'
I am one those skeptical of long-covid explanations. But I don't discount the possibility of immune system disregulation post severe-illess; including viral infections - largely via microbiome imbalances resulting from said infections.
I am of the opinion that much of the documented "long covid" cases can be traced to issues within the GI system: Primarily a mix of floral imbalances and inflammation, where both serve to potentiate each other in a terrible positive feedback loop.
So the more inflammation, the more vulnerable the GI becomes to flora imbalance - and the more imbalanced the microbiome becomes, the more the bacteria (and other organisms) can over-colonize GI tissues... thus inducing worsening inflammation via this over-colonizatoon (basically not simply colonization, but infection at this point).
And thus the cycle perpetuates itself, as all positive feedback loops do.
In more detail:
The harmful bacteria [or simply an overpopulated type(s) of bacteria, that took advantage of the immune system disregulaton & inflammation that occured during the active COVID onfdction, to become the dominant GI colonizer(s)] are inducing inflammation, and that inflammation further enables the bacteria to colonize GI tissues that they normally would not; or colonize tissue to an extent they could not have achieved before this positive feedback loop all induced by COVID... but this not unique to Covid-19.
The other inducer of this is clearly the mRNA based "vaccines".
Then clinical system result of this is wode-spread inflammation as a result of so called "leaky gut" and from the waste/byproducts of the microbiome, that are normally contained within a healthy GI tract, also permeating the GI barrier, causing further inflation.
It is my opinion that an "anti inflammatory diet", probiotic & enzyme supplementation, and periods of fasting, are all necessary to treat "long covid". We also know the GI track can serve as a reservoir of vital material, so these treatments could further help if that is a true contributing factor.
I think there's a lot to the microbiome issue, and in fact there's some possible evidence to suggest that our lack of parasites may contribute to our allergies due to a lack of having that immunoregulatory mechanism.
That being said, the damaged microbiome can likely contribute to the issues and prevalence of Long COVID which may otherwise not manifest in a healthy population. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that Long COVID doesn't exist, and as I continue to argue the field was disincentivized from looking into this issue since many of these symptoms of chronic fatigue manifested in women and therefore were quickly dismissed as manic episodes or hysteria.
So it's likely a GI issue can lead to a greater risk of Long COVID, but that also doesn't mean that Long COVID isn't an actual phenomenon.