The Right Tests For Long Covid
It is estimated that millions of people worldwide are suffering from Long Covid, or PASC (post-acute sequelae of Sars-CoV-2 infection) as it is now known. There are now over 200 symptoms associated with Long Covid and sufferers are experiencing them for months and years. Brain fog, anxiety and chronic fatigue are among the most common. Long Covid has woken the NHS up to the fact that chronic infections can exist. Chronic infectious conditions like those triggering ME and Chronic Fatigue have often been wrongly dismissed as psychiatric illnesses, ‘it’s all in your mind, dear, just take an antidepressant and try some graded exercise!’ So, if Long Covid can no longer be dismissed in this way, it has done some good. However, is the NHS equipped to deal with it? More to the point, does it have the right lab tests to identify Long Covid or the right tools to address it?
Know Your Virus
The NHS disease paradigm of symptom suppression with drugs is not traditionally well suited to chronic conditions. This is because if you don’t identify and treat the root causes of the condition, as opposed to suppressing symptoms alone, it will keep coming back no matter what treatments are given. Identifying the root causes of Long Covid demands knowledge of what Long Covid is. The most important things to know about this virus are the following:
Covid behaves like a retrovirus. Before Covid, the most widely known retrovirus was HIV. The problem with retroviruses is that they knock the immune system down. This allows old sleeping infections to come alive again and start creating unpleasant symptoms. Your Long Covid may be your old glandular fever (Epstein Barr Virus) or Coxsackievirus come back to life. It may also be still active Sars-CoV-2.
Like a number of viruses, Covid is a hit-and-stay virus. This means that once you get it, it doesn’t leave your body but if the immune system does its job effectively, it will go to sleep and not cause any symptoms. Examples of hit-and-stay viruses are chicken pox (reactivates as shingles when the immune system is down), glandular fever (Epstein Barr Virus) and Coxsackievirus ( member of the polio virus family).
As viruses need to be silenced for life, your immune health is your most important defence against chronic illness. This cannot be ignored or brushed under the carpet.
If you were doing better before Covid, and now you are not, assume that Covid is part of the problem and deal with this accordingly.
Lab Tests for Covid
As there are over 200 symptoms now associated with Long Covid, doing the right lab tests takes the guesswork out of what is needed on a recovery plan. A major problem seen with new patients in the clinic is that standard lab tests often come back as ‘normal’ and the person is told that there is nothing wrong. The really unlucky folks have also been prescribed an antidepressant. The situation is that standard labs are no longer adequate to pinpoint what is going on with Long Covid. You need more sophisticated lab tests. The majority of these are not available on the NHS and need to be accessed privately.
Below are some of the key lab tests I order for people with suspected Long Covid:
CD3-/CD57+/CD56+/CD45+Cells+ cells - this is a breakdown of key immune cell function.
Sars-Cov-2 ELISA IgG/IgA Antibodies - this is my preferred test to see if the Covid virus is currently active.
RANTES - I use this test for two reasons: to see if there is retroviral activation and to give an indication of hidden dental/jawbone infections (which can prevent recovery from Long Covid).
Reactivated co-infections with Covid - These can include: Epstein Barr Virus, Coxsackievirus, Strep, Cytomegalovirus, Lyme, Bartonella and others. The choice depends on symptoms and the patient’s case history.
Spike-protein tests - to see if the Spike protein produced by Covid is still doing damage.
Key metabolic tests - these depend on the patient’s case history, previous lab results and symptoms. Can include - full thyroid panel, salivary adrenal stress profile, urine Krytopyrroles (losing large amounts of key nutrients), copper-iron balance, autoimmune markers, stool tests and more, depending on need.
Building An Immune Roadmap
The information from the above lab tests allows me to build an immune roadmap and tells me the key actions that need to be done. These include:
Which parts of the immune system need to be supported or modulated.
Which infections are active and need to be silenced.
Which immune overloads/metabolic factors need to be addressed to help the person recover.
Which lifestyle factors will best support recovery - diet, creating the right home environment for recovery, dental revision, detoxification as required.
If your health has not been the same since Covid, no matter how mildly you got it, please get in touch with the Good Health Clinic on goodhealthclinic@outlook.com to request a free 30 minute Enquiry Call or book an appointment.
Please note that an Enquiry call is not a consultation but an exploratory call to see if this is a clinical approach you wish to pursue.
To your very good health,
Suzanne Jeffery (Nutritional Medicine Consultant)
M.A.(Oxon), BSc.(NMed), PGCE, MNNA, CNHC
The Good Health Clinic at The Business Centre, 2, Cattedown Road, Plymouth PL4 0EG
Tel no: 07836 552936/ Answer phone: 01752 774755
Disclaimer:
All advice given out by Suzanne Jeffery and the Good Health Clinic is for general guidance and informational purposes only. All advice relating to other health professionals’ advice is for general guidance and information purposes only. Readers are encouraged to confirm the information provided with other sources. Patients and consumers should review the information carefully with their professional health care provider. The information is not intended to replace medical advice offered by other practitioners and physicians. Suzanne Jeffery and the Good Health Clinic will not be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, exemplary or other damages arising therefrom.