TLC Sessions - Living with Long Covid

Researcher Vicky van der Togt and virologist Dr Jeremy Rossman have spent the past 2.5 years trying to help Long Covid patients and research via their organisation Research-Aid Networks.   Their latest paper, published in Frontiers, hypothesises that it is an acid-base disruption that drives the symptomatology of Long Covid.  In this week's episode we discuss the impacts of dysregulated pH, how you can rebalance it and the results that they have observed.  Further research in this field has the potential to help with both Long Covid and a wide range of other diseases.Living with Long Covid? How was your week?Website - https://www.tlcsessions.net/Twitter - @SessionsTlc https://twitter.com/sessionstlcInsta - @tlcsessions https://www.instagram.com/tlcsessions

Dr Wes Ely, a pulmonary and critical care doctor, has built a remarkable resource for Long Covid sufferers within the Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction and Survivorship Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, of which he is co-director.  A professor, using his knowledge of his clinical knowledge and his extensive research into debilitating brain disease, he has developed care strategies and support for large numbers of Long Covid patients and helped many more with his writing on social and in the mainstream media, trying to raise awareness, understanding and compassion for sufferers.Living with Long Covid? How was your week?Website - https://www.tlcsessions.net/Twitter - @SessionsTlc https://twitter.com/sessionstlcInsta - @tlcsessions https://www.instagram.com/tlcsessions

Molecular Virologist, Bhupesh Prusty, promised to reveal more when we last spoke, four weeks ago.  Here he presents what he believes to be a biomarker for Long Covid, explaining the mechanism, its similarity to ME/CFS, what his research and findings have proven, and how we might take this research forward to develop further understanding and treatment strategies.Living with Long Covid? How was your week?Website - https://www.tlcsessions.net/Twitter - @SessionsTlc https://twitter.com/sessionstlcInsta - @tlcsessions https://www.instagram.com/tlcsessions

Lavanya Visvabharathy, a T cell immunologist at Northwestern University, Chicago, has led extensive studies into Long Covid, but we learned that some of those studies, despite their merit and rigour, were proving hard to publish in top tier medical journals.  In this week's episode we lift the lid on the process of scientific publishing, talking through the challenges that Visvabharathy has faced trying to publish Long Covid research, the peer review process and the political landscape of the scientific research world.  Her latest paper, despite almost a two year delay, is published this week in Frontiers in Immunology.Living with Long Covid? How was your week?Website - https://www.tlcsessions.net/Twitter - @SessionsTlc https://twitter.com/sessionstlcInsta - @tlcsessions https://www.instagram.com/tlcsessions

Dr Jim Jackson, research professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre, does not believe that Long Covid is all in your mind, but he has found that treating the brain, as if it has a brain injury, can help Long Covid recovery.  In this week’s episode Dr Jackson explains his clinical experience of the neurological impact of Long Covid from brain fog to anxiety, PTSD to OCD.  He discusses the power of cognitive rehabilitation (which should be viewed as physiotherapy for the brain) and tells us about his book “Clearing the Fog: A practical guide to surviving and thriving with Long Covid”.  And he talks us through the power of talking to others within the community: his support groups have been a hugely impactful for sufferers enabling them to learn from each other, learn how to advocate for themselves, and give them hope. Living with Long Covid? How was your week?Website - https://www.tlcsessions.net/Twitter - @SessionsTlc https://twitter.com/sessionstlcInsta - @tlcsessions https://www.instagram.com/tlcsessions

Dr Raouf (Ron) Gharbo has spent many years treating those with brain injury and autonomic disorders using Heart Rate Variability (HRV) metrics.  Physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist, and Director of Autonomic Rehabilitation at VMU Health, Dr Gharbo this week explains the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, the metrics he uses to diagnose conditions - with Long Covid now being one of his primary focuses - and the power of sleep and breathing in regaining function and control of our health.Living with Long Covid? How was your week?Website - https://www.tlcsessions.net/Twitter - @SessionsTlc https://twitter.com/sessionstlcInsta - @tlcsessions https://www.instagram.com/tlcsessions

Dr Bhupesh Prusty believes that he has found 'the switch'.  A molecular virologist from the University of Würzburg, Germany, he has turned his work looking at ME/CFS to look at Long Covid, and believes that viral reactivation in both diseases could hold the key.  It’s this viral reactivation that, rather than causing a detectable elevation of something in our blood, is causing a depletion in our bodies.  This could be the biomarker we’ve been seeking and he believes that redressing the balance of this depletion could rid us of Long Covid.Living with Long Covid? How was your week?Website - https://www.tlcsessions.net/Twitter - @SessionsTlc https://twitter.com/sessionstlcInsta - @tlcsessions https://www.instagram.com/tlcsessions

In this week's episode we receive no-nonsense, practical advice from Prof. Jack Lambert, a consultant in infectious diseases at the Mater Hospital in Dublin. He has been monitoring long term recovery following COVID-19 since he saw the first patients in Ireland in March 2020.  He has used his knowledge of chronic conditions caused by other infectious diseases - Lyme disease, Ebola, HIV, Hepatitis C - to develop a protocol to treat Long Covid patients.  Using LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone) in combination with NAC and anti-inflammatory supplements, alongside breathing exercises, he believes in a carefully tailored approach that has been successful with many patients, giving us hope that perhaps the damage is reversible.Living with Long Covid? How was your week?Website - https://www.tlcsessions.net/Twitter - @SessionsTlc https://twitter.com/sessionstlcInsta - @tlcsessions https://www.instagram.com/tlcsessions

If you’re looking for an overview of all of the research into Long Covid, this Nature review, undertaken by Patient Led Research Collaborative (PLRC) under the guidance of the cardiologist Dr Eric Topol, is a great place to start.  A collation of the findings from almost 300 biomedical research papers on Long Covid, it sets out the major findings, mechanisms and recommendations that have been researched to date.In this week’s episode we had the pleasure of speaking to Lisa McCorkell and Hannah Davis, two of the co-founders of PLRC and co-authors of this extensive review, to discuss their work, the latest research into Long Covid, and their view of the future for the chronic condition. Living with Long Covid? How was your week?Website - https://www.tlcsessions.net/Twitter - @SessionsTlc https://twitter.com/sessionstlcInsta - @tlcsessions https://www.instagram.com/tlcsessions

Akiko Iwasaki, a Professor of Immunobiology and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale University, with a particular interest in mucosal infection, is making gains in Long Covid research. Her work with Dr David Putrino (interviewed in Episode 47) revealed several findings that move us closer to identifying a bio-marker; her work with Michele Monje of Stanford University looked at the chief mechanisms that may be driving the neurological features of Long Covid; now, in collaboration with Harlan Krumholz, they are leading a study into the efficacy and safety of Paxlovid in Long Covid.And her Yale LISTEN study to understand Long Covid, post-vaccine adverse events and the corresponding immune responses is recruiting now.Distilling some of her remarkable knowledge into a very digestible form, you do not want to miss this episode.Living with Long Covid? How was your week?Website - https://www.tlcsessions.net/Twitter - @SessionsTlc https://twitter.com/sessionstlcInsta - @tlcsessions https://www.instagram.com/tlcsessions