#10 - MindBites - The Truth About Long Covid And Why Its Ruining Lives

Welcome back to MindBytes, our high value short form episodes where Joe and I will pack as much information for you guys to take back into your day to day lives. The topic we're going to discuss today is about long COVID. Joe, can you define what long COVID is?

I can. Indeed so long COVID is described as described, patients experiencing COVID-19 symptoms 12 weeks after testing positive. This can last for years and many have suffered from long COVID for a residual pandemic, so it's basically longer period of time suffering from the normal pandemic Did you ever have COVID.

I did. I've had it twice. So once in the very, very beginning, when so actually it's funny it was before the loss of taste and smell was announced as being an actual symptom of COVID. So I remember eating a meal at the very beginning of it, before my birthday actually and I couldn't taste what I was eating. It was really, really unusual. And then we're about two weeks there now. That was a symptom, and then once about two months ago. Oh yeah, yeah.

On top of that, some of the other symptoms are like physical symptoms, so like muscle pains, gut problems, chest pains, extreme tiredness, but the more important ones obviously for this podcast are the psychological ones. So mood disorders like it can spike depression. Your anxiety also has a big spike on PTSD. You can get brain fog from it, so brain fog is described as an inability to concentrate, your memory problem and also there's difficulties in paying attention. And a study from Imperial that was in 2022 found that long COVID patients suffered a loss of about six IQ points with memory loss and cognitive deficits. And a further study that was conducted by King's College described the brain fog effect as being comparable to aging 10 years, which is mad. That's mad.

That's crazy.

And the last one as well is insomnia. So I think a lot of people who had COVID struggled sleeping, so we disrupted sleep patterns which can in themselves lead to further issues of anxiety depression, especially if you're getting out of your routine. We're obviously massive on our routine. Sleep is huge for me, so I can't picture the problems of that. Having long COVID. I wasn't someone that I really got COVID, which is weird. So, I did one of those antibody tests after like two and a half years, you know you go to the hospital.

They take your blood and stuff.

Two and a half years et cetera hadn't had it.

And I was like whoa, because my mum and dad had had it but I never had. I feel like I've had it now, but I feel like I've had it more recently, over the last like six, seven months then, during the peak of it, but we actually lost someone close to family when talk too much about it to COVID, and she was one of the first people to actually pass away from it.

So it was kind of close to home but then, like this, covid has been seen as like this thing, where it's like is it a fraud? Like is it real for me? And like our family is very, very real, but I don't know why it's kind of been played down a bit. What's your sort of view that?

it's a really controversial one, isn't it? Because there are some people who just don't believe in it. They just didn't think they've ever happened, which it's quite a hard to look at. That when a lot of people died as a result of it. If you don't mind me asking the person that you lost, were they ill before?

I'm not sure they were on holiday.

So I know that most people either that have contracted some sort of illness or you know they were had cancer, for example, and I know that, without using a better phrase, covid basically finished them off and it's really horrible way to say it. But I think if you're really really unwell and you contracted COVID, I think it's like the really complicated of having sort of a cold and flu, but way more of a aggressive version of that.

So it's like it wouldn't make the immune system worse.

Correct. Their immune system was crashed anyway and it basically just finished off the job. It's a really horrible way of describing it, but that's how most people would have gone is because they were really unwell and immune system was really low, and so on and so forth. But I don't believe it just wasn't a thing, because it was there for us all to see, wasn't it?

Yeah, we also have. My brother was telling me this this is someone he works with, or was like a friend of someone they worked with. And they are like still, after four years, haven't got their taste buds back.

Wow.

He's like a big, big eater, loves going out. Always go out after work for like state chips, whatever it is. Like loves, it Still can't taste, like, can't taste anything since having.

COVID I, I think that's crazy.

It's just like I feel like COVID was like this huge thing and then people sort of retaliated against it. And you can't even post about it. We might not even get into an algorithm with this. I don't think people realize we can't talk about pandemic. Every post I've done on the pandemic for short form Instagram you just block straight away, you can see reviews.

This is where I, like a lot of other people, get really skeptic. I mean not skeptical in the sense that I don't think it happened, but why is it always removed? Why is it censored? Everywhere you look, I mean, it's there and, like you say, it's so quick. The second, the second you put something up, this mentions the word pandemic or COVID it's removed immediately. So that's what he's sort of thinking. Why, why is that? And that's why people get really into the whole. Why is it the case? They look into, you know, conspiracies as to why the government are trying to hide it and all that kind of stuff, which I get it. I do get it. If it's like that, why are they doing that?

Yeah, it is weird. Let's go back to long COVID and this is something from the national statistics and it calculated that about 3% of the population in the. Uk, which equates to around 2 million people, I think, are suffering with long COVID, and it is estimated that 25% of long COVID sufferers have developmental health issues, and in the USA it estimates that 28% of the adults who caught COVID have experienced long COVID. So this is a lot of people a lot of people.

So that's around. So their study shows that 6.8% of American adults are also experiencing long COVID, which equates to just short of 18 million people. A lot of people. This is a lot of people. I don't really hear anything about long COVID, and the reason we actually heard about it was we got a lovely DM from a really nice lady and she was telling us about her journey in long COVID and it's not necessarily something that I thought to do a mind bite on or even a podcast on and then she started telling her story and the actual problems of it, and then we both discussed and we were like we have to talk about this.

And it's crazy, the actual numbers, the numbers that are backed by it. So just in the UK and US alone, you have over 20 million people suffering from it with these symptoms. What's your kind of view on, you know, not the silence of suffering with long COVID? I've seen a lot of clips of people going for Rishi Sunak at events and stuff, at being like what are you going to do to help us? Like we can't work anymore. We're suffering a load of mental health benefits. Like I said, then it can age your mental state by 10 years.

So what's your?

actual view on the whole situation along COVID as well.

Well, it's a bit of a mess, isn't it? But, like you say, you just don't hear anything about it. Because if you want, if you do mention it, you do publish us about it, it's removed. So that's why it's everything's a bit hush hush. I've not heard a great deal on, obviously, the news or some things that I read articles and you found this stuff. 20 million people is a staggering number. That's mad. But also I do think that the mental health issues as a result of COVID in general would have equated to a lot of that stuff as well. But then, like the guy that you know, losing his sense of taste for four years, will he ever get that back?

It's like can you get that back after four years. Yeah, it's a normal bloat. He's literally it's been four years.

I doubt he'll ever get it back.

Got family, two kids Like who two kids are like in their teams, like he's just a 50 year old guy and he literally can't taste still anything.

That's mad, it's crazy.

It's such a shame as well. But then, coming back to the lovely person who sent us the message on everything I won't say her name. She's no longer able to work so had to give up her business. She's needed to do speech therapy, which is crazy to hear, and she's also suffering a lot with her mental health from this, because I feel like you can feel misunderstood, you can be lonely because it's like oh, covid wasn't real. Listen to that, these people. This is very, very real.

It changed their lives right.

Exactly. If you're having to give up your business, you can't work properly. The actual effects that when I read her page were like crazy as well when I properly looked into it.

And it's just it comes about to a point where it's just very, very sad. But then it's what can you do? Because it comes to a point where we have people saying I'm trying to find a study here for you guys. But yeah, here we go. This is from Queensland, australia. They published a study suggesting there is no such thing as long COVID, as it's no different from symptoms experienced after a viral infection like the flu. None of this helps those suffering find the help and support they need. So I don't understand like it clearly is there or it's clearly something like. I have family friends who aren't like soft people who are still struggling from this, and then, obviously, the lovely person who sent us this message as well. She is too. So why do you reckon that's happened? Why do you think that's now saying no, it's not a thing?

I think it's about. At the time, it was the most dangerous thing on the planet Stay inside, it's deadly. You breathe on someone, you'll kill them Whereas now, two, three, four years later, they seem to be like no, it's not that bad anymore, it's like a common cold. We now want to have to grow immunity to it. I think it's about shirking responsibility and now it's not their problem anymore. It's the amount of people affected by this is still quite small compared to the amount of other people you have to look after.

So, because the numbers, obviously to you and me, of 20 million people globally is a huge number, but unfortunately, the lady that messaged us on social media, she's one of very few that aren't being heard because one that gets censored so it doesn't get out there. Why that is obviously is beyond use and mine comprehension or understanding, but I think it's just. The numbers are so, so much smaller now, so you're not going to get heard, they don't care enough, so there's a mean. Well, there's bigger things going on in the world that they might view and that might be true, and you know, the mental health crisis is this huge, which obviously is a priority, but the mental health crisis obviously involves her as well. So she's in amongst that, which is a really small percentage, unfortunately. I think it's just that. I think it's just getting lost in amongst the other noise going on, fortunately. What do you think?

Oh mate it's just it's just I don't really have like a view, like a point of being like we need to do this, we need to do this. I just hope, like doing episodes like this, if everything else is in a way going to get blocked somehow, like you can post like tons of dodgy things but you can't talk about this. I hope just discussing this it's clearly still here fact, whether people accept it or not, and I think that raises sort of some light to the topic, even though a lot of the pandemic stuff pandemic stuff does get discussed and it gets banned straight away. So it's like for me it's a very touchy subject.

Obviously, a few people close to home who aren't just like people that would make anything up, these are proper these are tough people, Some that passed away from COVID, some that struggling with their taste and long COVID as a whole, the mental health problems of our lovely follower where she was saying how she's struggling from it. I think that's the bit which people don't see. It's not necessarily the physical side, it's the psychological side.

The nose we came back to at the start. It's the insomnia, it's the brain fog, it's the mood disorders, it's the heightening of depression, anxiety and PTSD and obviously we can't cure that. We don't have long COVID. I don't know what it feels like to have long COVID.

We do know what it feels like to battle mental health problems, and I think it's such a shame when you have something like that which turns into a psychological issue Arguably I could be wrong here, but arguably more than the actual physical issue and the breathing problems and it affects your business, it affects your family life, friends, the whole thing, and I just think that's such a shame from my point of view. And I don't know what to suggest on how to cure it, but hopefully episodes like this can make such a big difference.

Absolutely, absolutely 100%.

I think one thing I would suggest to this person and again we won't name them I think it really helps to have sort of like-minded people that you can maybe tap into, whether it be setting up, of joining a forum because there's 20 million people that are going through.

Not the same thing, but similar things is joining maybe, a Facebook group or a forum and chatting to people even they're across the pond and you don't know them personally, I think, gaining advice from them and what they've maybe done in the US or Australia or whoever it is, wherever you are. I think that might be good by doing it, because if you are sort of shouting from the rooftops and not being heard by, let's say, rishi Sunak and the British government, it makes it really hard because you feel like you're alone and there's no sort of help for you. So maybe reaching further away and going online and maybe building that forum, building a platform, and then maybe you might get heard, because, unfortunately, the loudest person in the room often is. So if you can build that platform and build a Facebook group and get people following you, like us, maybe you will get heard eventually. But it's tough.

Awesome. We hope you enjoyed the episode. This is a cool one on Long Cove and there's something that I've actually really enjoyed researching. I know you felt the same. If you want to let us know more about Long Cove, you know some things we can discuss further down the line, some things we missed, maybe some other resources we can look at and promote on the page as well. Please let us know down below, and we hope you enjoyed this episode, but for the meantime I'm Tom.

I'm Joe.

And this is Inside of Mine Mine Bites.