Ever since COVID first started it has been a learning experience for everyone from those inflicted with it to those trying to help in health care. 

It has presented many different types of symptoms with both long term and short-term problems and affects to our bodies and especially our nervous systems.  One thing that we have seen consistently is a collection of symptoms and problems that is best described with the term/diagnosis of dysautonomia or POTS.  What this means is that it seems to affect the control of the cardiovascular system. There is some debate about how much it effects heart tissue, although I think the growing evidence of myocarditis and cardiac inflammation is becoming unignorable, but the effect on the brain and nervous system control of the heart has been evident since the beginning.  The terms or diagnosis of dysautonomia or POTS when put simply, is basically a problem with how your autonomic nervous system controls things like heartbeat, breath, and blood pressure.  When this system breaks down you can have a whole host of symptoms from dizziness when standing, shortness of breath, heart palpitations and flutter feelings, fatigue, brain fog and even anxiety and depression as well as many others. 

The long-term effects of the virus seem to affect the autonomic nervous system, and specifically a nerve known as the vagus nerve, the most.  You may have heard about the vagus nerve before, it isn’t the nerve that plays slots in “Vegas” but it is pronounced the same.  It is the main part of your system responsible for being able to rest, digest and regenerate your body and brain.  So, you could imagine the health ramifications if this nerve no longer functioned properly and loses the ability to rest, digest and regenerate.

This all sounds like a lot, however we are starting catch up to this issue from the health care side of things.  New technologies are being developed to better test for this and modalities are available to treat this condition as well.  In our office, we have had great success with treating the autonomic effects of long COVID with some interesting modalities. One of those is something that we call RPSS or repetitive peripheral somatosensory stimulation.  We use the electric modality and actually “zap” your tongue with it.  Most people think that I am kidding when I ask them to stick their tongue out so that I can zap it, but it is very relaxing to the system.  To show the effect that it has on their relaxation response we often put a heart monitor on them to show how “zapping their tongue” can lower their heart rate by about 5-10 beats per minute and before your head starts to ask the question, no it doesn’t hurt!  It is actually a very gentle stimulation and, if you have ever done this in the past, feels a lot like touching a 9-volt battery to your tongue to see if it still has juice.  This technology, although it seems weird is very effective at treating and rehabbing the autonomic nervous system and decreasing the effects of dysautonomia and POTS when used properly.

Another one of the modalities that is getting researched more and more and that we have seen great results with, in the office is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. This modality is intended to allow your body to take in and utilize more oxygen.  Oxygen is important for a lot of processes in the body but one of the biggest things it can do for long COVID is to decrease the inflammation around the heart and within the autonomic nervous system, plus it great for energy production and the fatigue too.

So, if you are having what you think are long term COVID effects reach out to us or someone in your area that may have access to some of these modalities and start feeling better.  Never accept, what some are starting to think is just their new normal.

Read more about Never Accepting Your New Normal in Dr. Mike’s book.