Overcoming Long COVID & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (2/7/23) — Day 1 Notes
All notes below are thoughts expressed during the Overcoming Long COVID & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Seminar, day 1, on 2/7/23. Please consult a physician before acting upon any of the information presented below. Notes may be incomplete. Double check anything written here with the video link listed at the bottom. In bold you can find some of the more vital comments. Occasionally, in italics you will find my inner thoughts as I hear what’s said.
Speaker 1: Paul Anderson, ND
- Background: Naturopathic Doctor, researcher.
- RCTs say Intravenous C, used early for COVID, is good.
- Severe COVID not a predictor for Long COVID. Early on it was believed you had a propensity for Long COVID if you were hospitalized. Now that we’ve seen more people with mild initial COVID have long COVID, the data changed.
- Upwards to 50% experience long COVID.
- COVID is the great “unmasker” — you can think you’re healthy and then bam you come out with Long COVID. 2 main reasons. 1. There are a lot of health issues people carry that are sub threshold, even their labs might look ok, but if your immune system gets stressed enough, it “opens the door.” 2. Having a COVID infection can be one event for the immune system, then you are opened up to opportunistic things in your environment (old or new).
- People with Long COVID, outside the very sick hospitalized cases which are different, have a collage of things that set the stage. 1. Ineffective, inappropriate, or under treatment when you have COVID acutely. Under 5 people out of 1,000 ever develop Long COVID with aggressive early treatment according to a data point the doctor mentions. 2. People who have COVID and are getting better, then symptoms come back with avengence, are much more likely to have long COVID. Believes this is due to the COVID allowing your immune system to engage with other infections, and other things, in your system.
- If you don’t get early treatment, but you have that second wave of symptoms, you want to be aggressive in treatment at that point.
- Believes Long COVID problems are a combination of hormonal dysregulation, reactivated infections, sensitivity to toxins in environment (like mycotoxins which can decrease your immunity), severe derangement in microbiome (affects immunity), etc.
- Long COVID is like comparing your immune system to a fire that has embers and just won’t go out, which allows other things in body to become imbalanced. Coupled with the other things mentioned, you’d have a chronic illness immediately.
- Often there is nothing statistically significant found in the labs of Long Haulers (quoting a study). Because of this believes practitioners who don’t deal with chronic illness will start prescribing antidepressants. Long Haulers should find people who already work with the chronically ill so they’re not gaslit.
- If someone who has had COVID is really not better by week 7-9, it’s a good time to do “post viral” care. If that isn’t effective then you will need to do more.
- For anyone with a previous history of chronic illness is treated aggressively immediately by Dr. Anderson.
- Typically gives C, D, K, EGCG, Zinc, Trace Minerals, Quercetin + 1 or 2 high dose IV vitamin C (50 G) + broad spectrum herbs for immune support and antimicrobials coverage, in the least. If you had a history of chronic illness, he would do all the stuff mentioned immediately and add something that helps with immune regulation, antivirals, and antimicrobials by the second wave of symptoms. Similar drugs he uses off label for oncology.
- Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug, but also an immunoregulatory drug, which is why it’s used off label with Cancer patients. It also does a number of other things, including being antiviral and other anti-infective effects.
- Doxycycline can cover opportunistic anti-bacterial infections in the lung, also shown to be antiviral and immunoregulatory.
- Albendazole for similar reasons to Ivermectin, is used off label in oncology.
- Dr. Anderson would give, when necessary, usually 1 or 2 of these drugs.
- Opportunistic infections to worry about are: bacterial lung infections, fungal infections, and HHV family of viruses (EBV). Most people have already been exposed to EBV.
- He’s more concerned with bugs whose doors were opened than COVID, in Long Haulers.
- After bug killing, immune support, then it’s a great time to rebuild good gut flora.
- SIBO is being reported in Long Haulers as well.
- Early treatment should also help with the gut destruction.
- Continues anti-infectives and immune support for at least 2-3 weeks after patients feel better because a lot of the opportunistic infections don’t go away in a short period of time.
- For the people that have been sicker a longer period of time, he looks into toxicity, mold mycotoxins (immune suppressants), residual infections, GI tract ecology, and hormones (affected by cytokines).
- Your hormones adjust to your immune system, but when the immune system doesn’t calm down for a long time, those adjustments can become permanent. There can be insulin sensitivity as well.
- When testing the doctor looks into hormones, thyroid, adrenals, antibodies to anti-adrenal & anti-thyroid, autoimmunity, Lyme Disease, and most likely chronic infections (lung pneumonia bugs: Mycoplasma P and Chlamydia P), etc..
- Candida Auris harder to treat than Candida Albicans.
- Aspergillus is also common for Long Haulers.
- MARCoNS (Multiple Antibiotic Resistant Coagulase Negative Staphylococci) another thing to look at with people who have sinus infection or issues, or fungi. There is also a sinus allergy connection.
- Normally the first place COVID lands is your mouth, throat, and upper respiratory and it settles there. Local immunity gets occupied and an imbalance occurs.
- A lot of connection to chronic inflammatory sinus issues and throwing off your brain and immune system.
- Klebsiella Pneumoniae and parasites also being found in tests.
- Research shows SARS-COV-2 can still be alive in the GI in asymptomatic people. Possibly a long period of time triggering immune dysregulation and allows bad guys to overgrow. A lot of these bugs form biofilm which is a perpetual cycle (these biofilms can be found in any mucous membrane). Bacteria can create biofilms as a protective measure, not all bacteria do. They are safe in the biofilm and multiple. Can be found in teeth. Biofilm (due to a bacteria) with a dysregulated immune system is a bad combo.
- Not a lot of antibiotics break through biofilms very well.
- There are biofilms normally in our bodies, but pathogenic biofilms are larger with various bugs living in them and the longer you’re sick the larger they get. (Perhaps why biofilm busters can make people feel worse at least for a period.)
Speaker 2: Bruce Patterson, MD
- Listening to next …