Is Long Covid curable?
Expert warns of sometimes risky methods
Created: 05/10/2022, 05:20
By: Janine Napirca
A neurologist at the University Clinic in Essen warns of expensive Long Covid treatments.
Patients are often not healed afterwards, only poorer.
Some methods are also not without risk.
Munich – Many people complain of numerous symptoms such as tiredness or ringing in the ears after contracting Covid-19 due to the corona virus.
Do you feel tired or can't motivate yourself to do anything?
The coronavirus has been known to lead to Long Covid in some.
But what is Long Covid actually?
As defined by
Infectionsschutz.de
, Long Covid is a "collective term for long-term health consequences that can occur after an acute illness with COVID-19".
These are therefore symptoms that either persist or appear more than four weeks after the Covid disease.
In order to get well again, those affected often leave no stone unturned.
A Spiegel.de
interview with the neurologist at the Essen University Hospital, Christoph Kleinschnitz, shows
that some treatment methods to cure Long Covid have to be paid for out of pocket and are not only very expensive, but can also often be dangerous .
Here you can find out what you can do if you suffer from Long Covid and what you should better avoid.
Cure Long Covid: In most cases, there are no organic causes of discomfort
In order to cure Long Covid, it is necessary to get to the bottom of the causes.
According to the expert, for example, inflammatory messengers are determined, neurological tests are carried out or the nervous system is electrically measured.
Ultrasound, lung function tests, magnetic resonance imaging and cerebrospinal fluid examination can also help to track down the causes of Long Covid and thus cure Long Covid disease.
In around 90 percent of the cases, however, the neurologist was unable to identify any organic causes of long Covid disease in his examinations, while multiple sclerosis, migraines or meningitis - independent of corona - were sometimes discovered.
Why do people get Long Covid?
Psychosomatic reasons are often the cause
In an interview, the expert reports that the causes of Long Covid are often of a psychosomatic nature.
With the help of standardized tests, he examines the mental state of those affected.
On the one hand, the short-term memory and the long-term memory are tested, on the other hand, the attention span of the patients.
According to the interview, previous psychiatric illnesses such as depression, anxiety disorders or post-traumatic stress disorders are risk factors that favor Long Covid.
Beware of healing methods: Long Covid treatments are expensive and sometimes even dangerous
However, many of those affected do not want to admit that their Long Covid symptoms are not organic but have a psychosomatic origin.
As a result, they spend vast sums of money on treatments to cure Long Covid.
They usually have to pay for these themselves, such as special examinations of the lungs, measuring the volume of the brain or blood flow in the eye or determining antibodies in the blood.
The neurologist also explains that blood washing is currently a popular method to cure Long Covid.
Apart from the fact that it has not been proven to what extent the procedure is intended to help cure Long Covid, the expert warns of side effects such as circulatory disorders, bleeding or even heart attack and stroke.
Do you suffer from fatigue after a Covid disease?
Some people get carried away with expensive and questionable Long Covid treatments.
© Maskot/Imago
Some doctors also want to treat long Covid with pressure chambers, such as those used for carbon monoxide poisoning.
However, Kleinschnitz points out that the benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in long Covid have not been proven.
In addition, the treatments are expensive and the eardrum can be ruptured or epileptic seizures can occur.
So what can be done about Long Covid?
– Healing through self-healing
While pain and fatigue are treated with medication, the expert suggests specific physical activity programs.
Psychotherapies can also help to cure Long Covid.
The self-healing rate is very high in Long Covid, as the interview shows.
Above all, time plays a very important role - after six months or at the latest after a year, most patients from Long Covid are cured.
(jn)