We can’t seem to get away from coronavirus in the news at the
moment and for some people who contract it they may struggle to get
away from the symptoms too. It is apparent that more people are
suffering from the longer term effects of covid, ‘long covid’,
and are in need of advice and support to know how to help their
bodies recover and return to normal. Approximately 10% of people
experience prolonged illness after covid and there is very little
research on the longer term impact and effect of it but in
observational studies approximately one in ten people who test
positive remain unwell beyond 3 weeks with recovery delayed beyond 12
weeks for a smaller number.
Long-covid appears to be systemic by which I mean it can give you ongoing issues
in almost any part of the body. The most common symptoms appear to be
cough, fever and fatigue alongside a host of others including
breathlessness, mood swings, brain fog, muscle pains, anxiety,
palpitations, gastrointestinal upset, skin rashes to name a few. With
many people not having been tested and some of those tested receiving
a false negative, a positive covid test result is not a prerequisite
for long covid and neither is having had a hospital admission.
If you haven’t had covid, even if you’ve had the vaccination,
improving diet and exercise are as ever key tools to improve your
health and boost your immune system. Public Health England guidelines
recommend aiming for 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per
week and should include 2 sessions of strength training per week.
That equates to approximately 20 minutes a day but this doesn't need
to be done in one go. It can be daunting and difficult to achieve but
something is better than nothing. There are a host of exercise
professionals including physiotherapists, physiologists and personal
trainers out there to help you if you don’t know where to start. My
advice would be to gradually build up, do something you enjoy and
don’t worry about form, research has shown that technique is not as
important as we once thought.
If you have already contracted covid and you suffer with persistent
breathlessness then you could try some techniques such as pacing,
breathing out through pursed lips, extending your breath out or
positions of ease to relieve these symptoms. Daily pulse oximetry
where you measure your oxygen levels may be useful but there are
mixed views on this with some clinicians having concerns about
whether the tool is used properly and whether people are correctly
able to interpret the results. Ensure you know how to use and
interpret one before considering it.
Exercise tolerance is very specific to each individual and this is one of the
rare occasions you may find a physiotherapist encouraging rest. You
should have a discussion with your healthcare professional to ensure
it is safe to begin exercising after covid, pushing through is not
always the right thing. Any exercise should be paced and increased
only gradually as tolerated. Listen to your body’s response and
avoid overdoing it. The British Medical Journal are advising to only
start exercising after 7 days being free of symptoms and gradually
building up over a period of weeks. Other self management tips would
be to ensure you are getting enough sleep, eating well, drinking
plenty of water, not smoking and limiting alcohol and caffeine
intake. These may seem obvious but little changes can make a big
difference to your physical and mental health.
If you are finding that you are having persistent symptoms after
contracting covid do get in touch with your healthcare professional
for quality advice. In the meantime you can find some useful
resources here: https://www.yourcovidrecovery.nhs.uk
As yet there is not a huge amount of research on long covid due to the
duration of the pandemic as well as most of the focus being on
critical and acute care. But research, as ever, continues and as the
picture broadens over time we can hope and expect that our
understanding of long covid will continue to improve. If you would
like to get involved in research around long covid there are a
variety of avenues, perhaps the simplest of which is to download the
ZOE COVID symptom study app and/or joining this facebook support
group “Covid 19 - Patient Recovery & Rehab Forum”.
