This article had been published inKaiser Health News.
This surprising side effect appears months after Covid
The day, Elizabeth Dawson was diagnosed withCOVID-19 [Feminine In October, she woke up as if she had a bad hangover. Four months later, she tested negative for the virus, but her symptoms have only aggravated.
Dawson is part of what is called "waves and waves" of "long-haul"Cloakid patients who are sick after having negatively reebiting for the virus. A large percentage suffers from syndromes that few doctors understand or treat. In fact, a wait of a year to see a specialist of these syndromes was common even before Patient ranks are inflated by post-Covid newcomers. For some, the consequences are changing life.
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Before autumn, Dawson, 44, a Portland dermatologist, Oregon, has regularly understood between 25 and 30 patients a day, cared for his 3-year-old daughter and ran long.
Today, his heart tells when she tries to stand up. She has serious headaches, constant nausea and cerebral fog so extreme that, she said, she "looks like I'm dementia". His fatigue is serious: "It's as if all energy had been sucked up to my soul and my bones." She can not stand more than 10 minutes without feeling stunned.
Thanks to his own research, Dawson acknowledged that she had typical symptoms of tachycardia syndrome of postural orthostatic or pots. It is an autonomous nervous system disorder, which controls involuntary functions such as heart rate, blood pressure and vein contractions that help blood flow. It is a serious condition - not just feel expanded suddenly, which affects many patients who have been locked in the bed for a long time with diseases like Covid that their nervous system readjusts increased activity. The pots sometimes overlap with self-immune problems, which involve the immune system attacking healthy cells. Before Covid, about 3 million Americans had pots.
Many potential patients report that it took years to even find a diagnosis. With its own diagnosis suspected by hand, Dawson quickly discovered that there was no specialist in autonomous disorders in Portland - in fact, there are only 75 autonomous doctors certified by the Board of Directors of the United States. United.
However, other doctors have studied and treat similar pots and syndromes. Non-profit organization Dysautonomia InternationalProvides a list a handful of clinics and about 150 American doctors who have been recommended by patients and have agreed to be onthe list.
In January, Dawson called a neurologist in a Portland medical center where his father had worked and received an appointment for September. She then called Stanford University Medical Center in California and again received an appointment nine months later.
Using contacts in the medical community, Dawson had an appointment with the Portland neurologist in a week and was diagnosed with chronic pots and fatigue syndrome (CFS). The two syndromes have overlapping symptoms, often comprising severe fatigue.
Dr. Peter Rowe of Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, an important researcher who treated pots and patients with PFS for 25 years, said each doctor with pots expertise notes long belt patients with pots and all patients Long-cavidants he saw with CFS also had pots. It expects the lack of medical treatment to worsen.
"Decades of negligence of the pots and CFS have defeated us in a miserably," said Rowe, one of the authors ofA recent article on CFS triggered by Covid.
The prevalence of the pots has been documented in an international survey of 3,762 long-covidation patients, researchers leaders to conclude that all patients with a rapid heart rate, dizziness, cerebral fog or fatigue " Should be riddled for pots ".
A "meaningful infusion of health care resources and a significant additional research investment" will be needed to resolve the case of increasing workload, declared the US autonomous society in a recentdeclaration.
Lauren Stiles, who foundedInternational Dysautonomy In 2012, after being diagnosed with pots, these patients suffered decades who fear "the growth of people who need to test and treat, but the lack of growth of qualified physicians in autonomous nervous system disorders" .
On the other hand, she hopes that the growing awareness of doctors will have at least a rapidly diagnosed dysualonomy, rather than years later.
Congress has allocated $ 1.5 billion to national health institutes over the next four years to study post-covid conditions. Applications for proposals have already been published.
"It is hoped that this miserable experience with Covid will be valuable," said Dr. David Goldstein, head of the NIH Autonomous Medicine Section.
A unique opportunity for advancement, he said, exists because researchers can study a great sample of people who got the same virus at about the same time, yet some recovered and some do not have it made.
Long-term symptoms are common. AStudy of the University of Washington Posted in February in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Open found that 27% of COVID survivors aged 18 to 39 have persistent symptoms of three to nine months after negatively tested for Covid. The percentage was slightly higher for middle-aged patients and 43% for 65 and up patients.
The most common complaint: persistent fatigue. AStudy of the Mayo ClinicPosted last month found that 80% of long-standing lengths complained about fatigue and nearly half of the "brain fog". The less common symptoms are inflamed from cardiac muscles, lung function abnormalities and acused kidney problems.
Larger studies remain to be conducted. However, "even if only a tiny percentage of millions that contracted COVID suffers from long-term consequences," said Rowe, "we are talking about a huge influx of patients and we do not have the clinical capacity to take care of them . "
The symptoms of autonomous malfunction are in patients with lightweight, moderate or severe covid symptoms.
Yet even today, some doctors are discount conditions such as pots and CFS, both much more common in women than in men. With no biomarker, these syndromes are sometimes considered psychological.
The experience of Jaclyn Cinnamon patient pots, 31, is typical. She became ill at the college 13 years ago. The Resident of Illinois, now on the Advisory Council of Dysautonomia International Patients, has seen dozens of doctors looking for an explanation of his race, severe fatigue, frequent vomiting, fever and Other symptoms. For years, without results, she saw specialists from infectious disease, cardiology, allergies, rheumatoid arthritis, endocrinology and alternative medicine - and a psychiatrist, because some doctors made it clear that I was just a hysterical woman. "
It took three years to be diagnosed with pots. The test is simple: the patients are situated for five minutes and have their blood pressure and their cardiac frequency taken. They are then standing or inclined at 70-80 degrees and their vital signs are resumed. The heart rate of those with pots will increase by at least 30 beats per minute and often up to 120 beats per minute within 10 minutes. The symptoms of pots and CFS range from light to debilitating.
The doctor who diagnosed Cinnamon told him that he did not have the expertise to treat the pots. Nine years after the beginning of the disease, she finally received a treatment that relieved her symptoms. Although there are no medicines approved by the federal government for pots or CFS, experienced physicians use a variety of drugs, includingflurocortisone, commonly prescribed for Addison's disease, which can improve symptoms. Some patients are also helped by specialized physical therapy that first involves a therapist assistant with exercises while the patient is lying down, then on the use of machines that do not require standing, such as rowing machines and bicycles complete exercise. Some recover with time; Some do not do it.
Dawson said she could not imagine the "darkness" experienced by patients who lack access to a network of health professionals. An endocrinologist at retirement urged him to verify his adrenal function. Dawson discovered that his glands barely produced cortisol, an essential hormone for vital body functions.
Medical progress, she added, is the best hope for everyone.
Stiles, including the organization funds research and provides patient physicians and resources, is optimistic.
"Never in history has only all major medical centers in the world are studying the same disease at the same time with such an emergency and such collaboration," she said. "I hope we will understand the Covid and Post-Covid syndrome in record time."And pass through the healthiest life,Do not take this supplement, which can increase your risk of cancer.