TLC Sessions - Living with Long Covid

Dr Bettina Hohberger, an ophthalmologist at Erlangen University with expertise in glaucoma, believes that looking at the eye – an area of the body where the blood vessels are visible – is representative of the rest of the human body.  She has seen that there is a change in blood vessel density in the eye of her patients with Long Covid and believes that this blood vessel density could be part of the key to unlocking and treating Long Covid. Her belief is that Long Covid falls into three subgroups - Autoimmune, Viral Persistence & organ damage from severe acute COVID-19.  She is currently studying the development of diagnostics to identify these subgroups, and has used a targeted autoantibody neutraliser - BC007 - to successfully treat four Long Covid patients to date.  Further trials are taking place soon.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, has methodically applied her expertise to look at samples from patients at the Long Covid clinic at North Western University in Chicago, to try and establish the mechanism driving the disease.  Her personal experience of Long Covid's effects and the role of autoimmunity - she has both Long Covid and rheumatoid arthritis - combined with the wealth of data she has gathered, have led her to believe that Long Covid could be due to viral persistence.  In this fast-paced episode Visvabharathy talks us through her hypothesise, giving us a glimpse into her world of T cell dysfunction and autoimmunity, via the complexities of Long Covid NIH funding, and once again we discuss HIV and what we can learn from the way that virus is treated.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

The Long Covid space has been abuzz with talk of Tollovid - the dietary supplement that is claimed to act, in much the same way as Paxlovid, on inhibiting 3CL protease.  We wanted to get some clear answers on how this supplement works, the potential benefits, and its safety profile.  We spoke to CEO of Todos Medical, Gerald Commissiong, who has brought this product to market, and Dr Dorit Arad, a biochemist and drug developer who has engineered Tollovid from her 28 years working in the field of protease inhibition in viruses. They were both keen to impress that this is a supplement and not a drug - they do not claim to prevent, treat, or cure Long Covid with Tollovid - but they suggest that there is anecdotal evidence that it helps.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 Stephen Griffin, virologist and member of Independent SAGE, talks us through the workings of antivirals - both in acute COVID-19 and in Long Covid.  He explains what antivirals do - suppressing the virus rather than removing it from our systems - and suggests that the use of one course of individual antivirals might not be the holy grail that Long Covid sufferers are hoping.  We talk viral persistence versus autoimmunity, the action of vaccines, and whether monoclonal antibodies could be useful.  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 Alec Schmaier, a cardiology and vascular specialist, has studied the impact that COVID-19 has on the endothelium.  This week we called on his knowledge of the vascular system and coagulation issues to talk us through the potential role of the endothelium in Long Covid.  We wanted to take a step back and look at why clotting might be playing a role in our Long Covid symptoms, and discuss what drives it.  Schmaier offers us that and more in a discussion that includes anticoagulant drugs, the stiffening of arteries and comparisons with endothelial damage in conditions such as sepsis.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 Long Covid it can be hard to keep up with what we should be eating, not eating, supplementing and changing when it comes to providing our bodies with the correct nutrition to optimise recovery.  This week Professor of Dietetics, Mary Hickson, provides us with some down-to-earth advice about how diet affects and is affected by Long Covid, dispels some myths, suggests some strategies to try and points us to the resource she has developed - The Nutrition and COVID-19 recovery knowledge hub -  a ‘one stop shop’ of information to support recovery from COVID-19 through nutritional care.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

Not only do many Long Covid patients suffer from P.O.T.S or P.O.T.S-like symptoms, but there are a number of similarities between the two conditions and their management.  The cross-over of symptoms - from breathlessness, palpitations, and chest discomfort, to fatigue, pain, brain fog, sleep disturbance and orthostatic intolerance - is remarkable.  So, do we all have POTS?  To shine some light on POTS and its diagnosis, we spoke to Dr Satish Raj,  a cardiologist specialising in autonomic dysfunction and Professor at the University of Calgary.  Raj is currently leading a study of Cardiovascular Hemodynamics and Autonomic Dysfunction with Long Covid looking to establish the role of autonomic disorder in Long Haulers.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

Perry Nickelston believes that focusing on the much overlooked lymphatic system could be what we each need to enable our bodies to heal.  In this week’s episode Nickelston, chiropractor and holistic health coach, talks us through the role of the lymphatic system and explains how it could be what is holding us back from recovering from chronic diseases like Long Covid.  By getting the lymph moving and clearing the cellular waste, we can start to reduce inflammation and give our body a clean slate, enabling it to absorb all the oxygen, nutrients, medicines and therapies that we are using. He guides us through his ‘Big Six’ lymphatic reset and explains the role of the vagus nerve in regulating the balance our body requires.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

There may be a treatment from which a third of women with Long Covid could benefit.  It is not a new drug, it is safe, and it has been proven to work anecdotally.  And yet there are no clinical trials looking at HRT as a potential treatment for the largest cohort of Long Covid sufferers.  In our patriarchal medical system many women are not even being asked about their menstrual cycle or hormones in relation to Long Covid, and yet there is clear evidence that our hormones have been impacted.  This week, Dr Sarah Glynne, G.P. and menopause specialist, talks us through her research into Long Covid and the peri-menopause, and the prescribing of HRT as a treatment for Long Covid, which she believes shows tangible results.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

A Professor of Medicine in residence at the University of California, San Francisco, Steven Deeks M.D., is an expert on HIV-associated immune dysfunction. Using his 30 years of experience researching viral illness, Deeks has turned his hand to the study of the long term impacts of COVID-19 on our immune systems.  The parallels that he draws between HIV and Long Covid are startling.  Studying a community cohort for the past two years, Deeks believes that we are beginning to unravel the mechanisms of Long Covid, and there is hope that some of these are treatable.  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