TLC Sessions - Living with Long Covid

Dr Michael Gonevski has been administering Long Covid sufferers with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) since the condition emerged.   The treatment, generally used for diving related oxygen issues and difficult to heal wounds, is a daily course in which patients breathe 100% oxygen at pressure.  The theory is that the oxygen is diffused into the blood plasma, providing more than ten times the norma...

What if every COVID-19 infection was causing a degradation of our T cells, impairing our ability to fight infection?  Anthony Leonardi studied T cells for his PhD and from the beginning of the pandemic that is what he has observed -  T cell harm triggering autoimmune disfunction.  That is in every COVID-19 infected sample he's studied, not just for those of us already showing the signs of Lon...

This week we speak to Professor Robert Thomas who has used his work as a Consultant Oncologist and Professor of Nutritional Science to develop potential nutritional intervention for Long Covid.  He talks us through the gut microbiome and the power that it has to harm as well as heal.  His Phyto-V study looked at whether the addition of a combination of Probiotics and Polyphenals could impact Long...

This week we talk to the vivacious Dr. Sabina Brennan health psychologist, neuroscientist and author of the book Beating Brain Fog , about the neurological symptoms that leave some of us feeling foggy, but lead to some people being unable to function. When it comes to Long Covid, Brain Fog is an umbrella term that refers to a myriad of symptoms, stemming from various factions of the brain, that ar...

Consultant physician and endocrinologist Dr. Paul Jenkins runs the London Endocrine Centre, and drawing on this expertise and treating patients with post-viral fatigue syndrome he has now established a multi-disciplinary Long Covid Clinic.  In this week's episode Dr Jenkins walks us through the endocrine system and we discuss the way in which hormones are being affected by and are affecting o...

Dr Bruce Patterson believes that he understands the mechanism causing Long Covid, and has treated over 14,000 Long Haulers in the United States - to varying degrees of success.  His recently published paper details how SARS-COV S1 protein - fragmented viral sequence - is seen in the cells of Long Covid patients, driving a prolonged inflammatory response.  In this week's episode Dr Patterson d...

To gently welcome in the New Year we asked Respiratory Physio Robin McNelis to give us a guided breathing exercise to optimise our O2 and CO2 and provide a few moments of calm after what has been a tough couple of weeks here at The Long Covid Sessions.  We were delighted to check back in with Long Hauler Robin and find that he has been managing to rebuild his health with careful monitoring of his...

Francis Vaz is an ENT surgeon who has seen a large increase in referrals due to Long Covid.  In this week's episode he talks us through the symptomatology, drivers and treatments, or at least management, of some of Long Haulers' most common and prominent issues.  From tinnitus to the loss of sense of smell (anosmia) Vaz provides us with advice, resources and explanations for some of what...

Dr Tomer Bronshtein, head of research at Bonus BioGroup, has been developing cellular therapies to treat acute respiratory distress in Covid-19 patients.  In their trials of ‘MesenCure’, which uses mesenchymal cells, the treatment has been shown to dampen the hyper-inflammatory response in the acute phase of the disease as well as promote the healing of injured lung tissue, dramatically improving...

Following on from our interview with Professor Resia Pretorius and her hypothesis of microclots driving the symptoms of Long Covid, we speak to Dr Asad Khan, a Long Hauler who has travelled to Mülheim, Germany, to undergo H.E.L.P. Apheresis in a bid to remove those clots.  Khan talks us through the process in detail, describing how he was able to visibly see these clots in the blood that was drawn...

Mitochondrial dysfunction could be one of the mechanisms driving Long Covid.  But what are mitochondria, what has happened to them in people with Long Covid, and how can we fix them?  This week we talk to Dr Betty Raman, Oxford researcher and MRI specialist who has noticed changes in the organs of Long Covid patients, and Axcella Therapeutics’ CEO Bill Hinshaw about AXA1125 – a potential treatment...

Professor Alex Richter, Clinical Immunologist at the University of Birmingham, looks at post Covid both through patients and microscopes.  Her work into the role of autoantibodies in acute and post-Covid has found very specific patterns.  She believes that Long Covid may be similar to ME / CFS and whilst she admits that we have not made the required progress into the science of those conditions, s...

The Long Covid community is abuzz with talk of microclots. We take it back to the science in this week’s conversation with Resia Pretorius, a distinguished professor of Stellenbosch University who has identified the presence of microclots in the blood of Long Covid sufferers.  But what are microclots, how do we identify whether we have them, and what are the proven treatments for them?  Professor...

What if some of your Long Covid symptoms could be improved by changing your breathing?  In this week’s episode respiratory physiotherapist and Long Covid sufferer, Robin McNelis, explains the science behind some of us being given breathing exercises.  From breathlessness to fatigue and gastrointestinal issues, changes to breathing in the acute phase of COVID-19 could have had a dramatic effect on...

Writer Michael Rosen became seriously ill with  COVID-19 in March 2020.  Rosen discusses how his brush with serious illness has left him with long lasting physical disabilities.  We talk politics, philosophy, and the seeking of comfort through seeded bagels and a sense of communality. #longcovid Living with Long Covid? How was your week? Website - https://www.tlcsessions.net/ Twitter - @SessionsTl...

An extra  bite from The Long Covid Sessions with top tips from our experts.  Dr Katy Munro details the supplements she recommends for migraine sufferers, and most importantly talks about the specifics and dosage.  Interestingly all of these 'nutraseuticals'  had been recommended to us for aiding in Long Covid recovery but we were both taking the wrong quantities. Living with Long Covid?...

Dr Katy Munro is a GP headache specialist at the National Centre for Migraine.  This week she talks us through one of the most prevalent conditions intertwined with Long Covid – migraine.  We discuss this complex neurological disorder and its manifestations in both adults and children.  From mildly annoying to extremely debilitating the fluctuations of a migraine brain mirror that rollercoaster we...

This week’s conversation takes a deep dive into Long Covid gut issues.  Dr Corinna Geiger, a specialist in Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, has seen the number of patients needing her help soar in the wake of Covid-19.  MCAS has been cited as a potential Long Covid driver or symptom for several months now.  She talks about the various possible mechanisms of gut problems in Long Covid, the route to d...

Dr Amy Small is a GP and a Long Covid fighter.  She's fought a personal battle with the disease and it seems like she's won.  She's fighting for support for patients with Long Covid in Scotland where she is a locum doctor in Lothian, having lost her job as a partner in East Lothian due to her illness.  She is a mother, a wife of a Long Covid sufferer, and advocate for those sufferin...

Guy Leschziner is a professor of neurology and sleep medicine, leader of a sleep disorder clinic, sleep author, BBC Radio 4 'Mysteries of Sleep' broadcaster... this man knows a lot about sleep.  He is also part of a Long Covid clinical team.  This week we use the breadth of his expertise to talk through the impact of Long Covid on sleep and the impact of sleep on Long Covid.  He shares h...

Consultant Neurologist Dr. Hadi Manji is part of the team leading a new clinic for neurology patients with ‘Long Covid’ at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN) with funding from the National Brain Appeal. The COVID Neurology Clinic will focus on complaints such as headache, ‘brain fog’, muscle weakness and brain inflammation in patients recovering from the COVID-19 virus. He...

Physiotherapist Darren Brown is  a Long Covid sufferer and founder of Long Covid Physio.  In our conversation this week he lays out the fundamentals of our rehabilitation needs and explains how pacing might be the key to getting a handle on our symptoms.  He takes his experience working in HIV and Oncology rehabilitation and demonstrates how we can apply our knowledge of treating those conditions,...

As the start of the school year approaches, we look at the impact of Long Covid on children and their parents.  We talk to Frances Simpson, one of the founders of Long Covid Kids,  about her 18 month struggle to get medical attention for her own children whilst battling with Long Covid herself, and how she has chosen to be an advocate for children and parents in the UK and beyond.  We also speak t...

Still riding the Coronacoaster, in this week's episode Noreen and Emily manage a brief catch up with each other, talking over their personal situations and observations on some of the things that they've learned over the past weeks:  they share their opinions on drug interventions, give first-hand experience of US awareness and treatment, talk about some of the latest studies, and give t...

UCLH Long Covid Clinic has been described as the gold standard of treatment. Clinical lead and respiratory consultant, Dr Melissa Heightman, talks us through their multi-disciplinary approach, the areas that we need to develop for effective universal treatment and the challenges facing the Long Covid clinics and NHS at large. Living with Long Covid? How was your week? Website - https://www.tlcsess...