EP 59: COVID-19 Treatment Options
Listen to Dr. Agolli and Dr. Mastrogianakis discuss the latest insights and research into COVID-19.
As an follow-up to this podcast, we thought we’d just look a bit at the current state of Covid-19, and any new insights that have been gleaned,
As of March 21, 2023, there have been 761,071,826 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, including 6,879,677 deaths reported to WHO1. The US, India and Brazil have seen the highest number of confirmed cases2
As of March 1, 2023, a total of 103,499,382 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States1
The number of new COVID-19 cases decreased for the seventh straight week while the death rate also dropped. At this point in the pandemic, life has almost returned to normal. There are still Covid cases, and still some losing their life to Covid. If you have a weakened immune system, have other health challenges, or are elderly in particular, you should still use caution.
One issue which many people may be facing for awhile is “long Covid”. What is long Covid? Long COVID is a term used to describe symptoms that can last for weeks or months after a person has recovered from COVID-191. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative in early 2021 to identify risk factors and causes of Long COVID to help understand how it can be prevented or treated in the future1. The initiative aims to learn why some people have prolonged symptoms (referred to as long COVID) or develop new or returning symptoms after the acute phase of infection from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-192.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), many, but not all, of the symptoms reported in Long COVID include fatigue, post-exertional malaise, chronic musculoskeletal pain, sleep disorders, postural orthostatic tachycardia (POTS), and cognitive issues1. These symptoms can persist for months and can range from mild to incapacitating2. It’s important to note that Long COVID is a new condition and researchers are still learning about it1. Long COVID symptoms have been linked to inflammation2.
Inflammation is long something we have written about, and treated, here at Progressive Medical Center in Atlanta. It is no surprise that researchers are finding that inflammation is linked to long term effects from Covid. We see chronic inflammation as a debilitating condition that can affect your entire body. Symptoms like brain fog, fatigue, inability to exercise, memory problems, achiness, joint issues, and many more are seen in a host of inflammatory conditions. We’ve successfully treated inflammation in a number of patients. There is hope even when it feels like there might not be.