Mr. Hands

1. long covid-affected people have a function limit they cannot go past or else it will cause issues that "set you back 5 steps" in my doctor's terms. this goes beyond exercise: it's social energy, work energy, chores, thinking. american culture is very "you need to push past your limits". do not do it with long covid.
2. i am being prescribed low-dosage naloxone. long covid sufferers have ambiently higher levels of inflammation, which affects your nervous system (via "muscle memory" as my doctor explained it) which is why long covid can be considered a nervous system disorder. the receptors that cause your body to create inflammation can be controlled with low-dosage naloxone. supposedly once i find the right dosage my fatigue and brain fog will be better. normal dosage is about 50mg, but low-dosage for this treatment is between 1-9mg.
3. this shit is real. there are professionals who are successfully treating people like myself, who take this seriously, who know enough from research to understand how various symptoms are interacting despite it being fresh and new. if you are feeling thrown under the bus like i have been, it's important to know that you are not alone and that there is a path to recovery.

honestly i think there was another thing i was gonna say but uhhhh i forgor. hope this is helpful and gives you optimism and helpful advice if you're suffering long covid like me.

edit: i remembered!

4. long covid can fuck with your ability to absorb tryptophan, which your body needs to produce melatonin, so if you are struggling with insomnia/sleep quality, then take melatonin!

My wife has suffered from ME/CFS for fifteen years now, and this gives me hope. ❤

Realizing that it may be particularly difficult to determine with confidence what the precise long-term effects of COVID are, because the people who never get it over a period of a decade or more will overwhelmingly have the same set of confounding variables (especially very rarely getting other repository illnesses like cold/flu). I guess you can compare post-COVID zero-precaution outcomes to pre-COVID, but as time goes by that'll also have increasingly many confounding variables.

Very rarely, people develop chronic fatigue after immunization from Hepatitis B. This study from 2014 tried to find common denominators between them and found some protein bullshit that I don't quite understand.

Anyway, the issue remains the same: Getting the medical establishment to take these issues seriously.

Comparison of the biopsies taken before and after cycling revealed the function of the mitochondria worsened after exercise in those with long Covid, and these participants had far more tissue damage after exercising and signs of the body attempting repairs.

“That can explain, for instance, the muscle pain that these patients are experiencing after exercise,” said Wüst.

He said the findings highlighted that people with long Covid should not undertake intense exercise.

“It damages your muscles, it worsens your metabolism, and it can explain why you feel muscle pain and fatigue up to weeks after the exercise,” he said.

Just want to highlight that "intense exercise" here is used to describe 10-15 minutes on an exercise bicycle.

idk maybe im just a gym rat but when I hear intense exercise I think of a lot more than just that, so important to note that no they found these changes and this impact after only a ten minute cycling workout

Edit: okay the 15 minutes is a FTP test where you're supposed to bike as hard as possible for 15 minutes, that is actually pretty strenuous.