{"id":3112,"date":"2021-12-25T00:21:43","date_gmt":"2021-12-24T18:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wisethalamus.com\/?p=3112"},"modified":"2026-09-22T20:21:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T14:51:32","slug":"long-covid-its-scary-but-can-be-tamed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wisethalamus.com\/wise-redesign\/long-covid-its-scary-but-can-be-tamed\/","title":{"rendered":"Long COVID- It’s Scary, But Can Be Tamed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Long Covid- An Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Current statistics emerging from COVID-19 pandemic tends to show that it’s just like any other viral infection. >90% of infected people remain asymptomatic or suffer from extremely mild symptoms. <1% of the infected actually die. And this rate is not higher than what we see with common viral infections such as flu<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But looking at the absolute numbers we feel scared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since this virus spreads rapidly and infects at a lightening fast pace, millions are getting infected globally and number of people dying just looks exceedingly disastrous (1% of a million is 10 times<\/span> more than 1% of a lakh!). Also, due to heightened panic and efforts from government we are able to identify way larger number of people getting infected with COVID-19 as compared to flu. If we do a similar exercise for flu, maybe we will find equally high number of flu cases- it\u2019s just a thought though and we will never know the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have been writing a lot on COVID-19 since quite some time. As a student of immunobiology most of my viewpoints, like above, have been quite optimistic. Having seen and treated so many patients during the second wave of pandemic, I know that my optimism is not blind. If you understand what the virus does to your body biologically, it\u2019s fairly easy to see that management of COVID-19 is not the toughest of all medical problems out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So COVID-19 doesn\u2019t scare me. What really scares me is something that happens much after infection is gone. This is a delayed phenomenon called \u201cLong- Covid\u201d. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long Covid Can Be Dangerous- A True Story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In Aug 2021 the number of patients infected with COVID-19 in India was declining from its peak in May. Raj Verma was a happy man. He thanked God for his good luck. Couple of months back Raj became infected with COVID-19 and things were looking really hopeless. He had to be hospitalized for 2 weeks, and death didn\u2019t seem to be an uncommon phenomenon amongst those infected. But Raj had fought his way to life successfully. He had fully recovered from COVID-19. It was an early Tuesday morning. Raj, for some reason, couldn\u2019t sleep comfortably and woke up tired at around 4:30 am. This was not new for Raj- since past two months he had been having difficulty in getting a good satisfactory night sleep. Raj got up and walked to the kitchen to get a bottle of drinking water from the fridge. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in the left part of his chest. The pain felt as if someone was stabbing a knife on his chest. His left arm felt heavy. And he could now hardly breathe. Soon, he lost his consciousness and fell on the floor like a log of wood.  The smashing sound woke up his family members, who came rushing to help Raj. But it was too late- Raj wasn\u2019t breathing. Nevertheless, ambulance was called. Doctors at the hospital declared myocardial infarction as the cause of death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raj had died due to a massive heart attack. Everybody was surprised hearing this. Raj was just 31 years old<\/strong>. He was slim<\/strong>, and extremely health conscious<\/strong>. He was a non-smoker<\/strong> and didn\u2019t drink alcohol<\/strong>. He would regularly work out in gym<\/strong> and eat healthy<\/strong>. \n\nHow did he die of heart attack?<\/strong><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
(The name \u201cRaj Verma\u201d is not real to respect confidentiality, but it refers to a real person)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
While I personally knew of several such cases where heart attacks would happen in apparently young and healthy people, it was definitely uncommon. Somehow, such occurrences were becoming more and more common during the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a><\/span>. It soon became apparent that the real scare with COVID-19 is not about the infection, but it\u2019s something else, and something we all are ignoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is Long COVID?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Most cases of COVID-19 infection remain asymptomatic. Even if symptoms appear, they are mild and might include little fever, runny nose, headache etc. We expect these symptoms to disappear once the virus is eliminated. As per WHO, the median time from onset to clinical recover<\/a>y for mild cases is approximately 2 weeks and is 3-6 weeks for patients with severe or critical disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, in many, the symptoms continue for several months. Often new distressing symptoms start appearing which are quite troublesome. >50% patients continue experiencing fatigue for more than 2 months<\/a>.  In more than 10% patients, this fatigue continues well beyond 6 months<\/a>. When the symptoms continue for > 1 month, we call it as Long Covid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Long Covid is defined as symptoms persisting for more than 4 weeks after the first suspected acute COVID-19 that cannot be attributed to an alternative diagnosis.<\/strong><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Long Covid has been called by various names<\/a> including long haul COVID-19, post COVID-19 syndrome, chronic COVID-19, post acute COVID-19 etc. The most commonly reported long COVID symptoms include fatigue, headache, attention disorder, hair loss, breathlessness joint pains, sleep disturbance and muscle pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Experts estimate that 30%<\/a> of patients with COVID-19 infection will end up developing Long Covid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Understanding Long Covid- Why it happens?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
To understand why Long COVID happens, you have to imagine our body to be like a wooden mansion with several floors and each floor with several rooms. Each room can be visualized as an organ.<\/span> In this mansion, there is a big fireplace at the basement that supplies heat to all the rooms.<\/span> The heat not only keeps all the rooms warm, but always serves as energy that can be utilized by the appliances in each room to function. The level of flame of the fireplace is normally at Level 1. It can go up to Level 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When COVID-19 invades the \u201croom called lungs\u201d, the defense system of that room starts demanding for more heat so that it can fight the virus. So, the fireplace at the basement starts burning more wood more vigorously so that the required additional head reaches the room under attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Long<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Five scenarios are possible now depending on how efficient the fireplace and its apparatus are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n