SAN ANTONIO — Many of those that came down with COVID more than a year ago are still suffering from long COVID symptoms.
Long COVID is defined as COVID-19 symptoms that have lasted for more than six months after a person has been diagnosed with COVID. Dr. Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, the Chair of Rehabilitation Medicine at UT Health San Antonio and the director of their post-COVID recovery clinic told us, "There's a lot of different causes for what's causing these long COVID symptom symptoms. So some patients, you know, we're learning more and more about it."
With a virus that is constantly changing nailing down what is causing those symptoms to linger is extremely difficult. Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez added, "Everyone is presenting a little bit different, and there's probably a combination of mechanisms that affects each person differently." Dr. Mark Sherwood, a naturopathic doctor, also said. "The reduction of overall bodily systemic inflammation is going to be key key key to getting these symptoms to resolve over time."
Some of the most common symptoms are fatigue, shortness of breath, chest and joint pain, depression, loss or change of taste and smell. So about that taste and smell, Dr. Sherwood told us, "We've taken a little bit of those 20 mg zinc lozenges, and we told people to work on just sucking on one of those or two of those per day. Number two, we've told them to take one drop of a 5000 IU vitamin A. Losing the taste of smell comes back a little more rapidly doing that ."
University of Michigan researchers looked at 40 long COVID studies from 17 countries around the world, and found that more than 40 percent, or about 100 million people suffer from long COVID symptoms. Many studies are ongoing to address this, but no solutions as of yet. Dr. Sherwood added, "I think at some point we'll see a switch on how they're corrected and how long it takes to correct them."
UT Health San Antonio is conducting the "Recovery Trial" where they are looking for volunteers who are suffering from long COVID. To see if you qualify call 210-567-5262.