The Dr. Josh Axe Show - Breaking Down the Science of Long COVID

Episode Date: December 11, 2023

You may be suffering from Long COVID! Long COVID has rapidly become a health crisis, with 20 million Americans reporting symptoms lasting months after their initial infections. What exactly is behind these lingering issues and cognitive dysfunction? In today’s episode, Dr. Josh Axe gets to the bottom of long COVID, sharing the science behind it and actionable solutions to start feeling better. You’ll learn:  Millions of Americans are experiencing significant limitations in their ability to perform day-to-day activities Symptoms of Long COVID including fatigue, brain fog, headaches, and anxiety The surprising root cause of Long COVID symptoms The Dr. Axe Long COVID protocol Join us as Dr. Axe helps make sense of the long COVID crisis with science-backed advice for recovery. You’ll get his science-backed protocol to equip yourself or loved ones with practical support if struggling with post-COVID complications. Want more of The Growth Lab with Dr. Josh Axe? Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Follow Dr. Josh Axe Instagram Twitter Facebook Tik-Tok Follow Leaders Instagram Twitter Facebook Email Newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

20 million Americans are experiencing long COVID. And listen, I actually think there's a lot more people that are still experiencing the side effects of when they had COVID. Any one of these symptoms, it could be due to long COVID, according to Mayo Clinic. It's number one is fatigue. Muscle pain. Number three, digestive disorders. Number four, and this was really common in women, abnormal menstrual cycle. Next up, mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.

Next, neurological issues such as a loss of. taste and smell of brain fog or lack of concentration, headaches, heart issues like palpitations. Next is blood clots. If you want to improve long COVID, we've got to address the health of your blood. This is the Dr. Axe long COVID protocol. Hey everyone, I'm Dr. Josh Axe. Welcome to show. On today's episode, I'm going to be digging into the science behind long COVID and giving my exact protocol and recovery plan for long COVID. Now, here's the reality today. 20 million Americans are experiencing long COVID.

And listen, I actually think there's a lot more people that are still experiencing the side effects of when they had COVID, and they don't even realize it. And I would ask you this, remember when you might have had COVID in the past? Is there anything since then? Fatigue, brain fog, just something that's going on that you still had since then. Well, there are millions, tens of millions of people where that's the case according to scientific studies. And basically what long COVID is, is if you had COVID four weeks after having COVID, if you still have symptoms, sometimes even months or years later, that's the definition of long COVID, anywhere from a month or longer where those symptoms keep going. You know, more than one and four long COVID patients reported having severe limitations in their ability to perform, even day-to-day activities, even in 2023.

And so the reality is long COVID is affecting a lot of people to a certain degree, and a lot of people is affecting them severely. Now, according to the Mayo Clinic, the most common long COVID symptoms are, if you have any one of these symptoms, it could be done. due to long COVID, according to Mayo Clinic. It's number one is fatigue. If you lack energy and you just don't feel like you have this sort of stamina, that's number one by far's fatigue. Next one is muscle pain. If you have muscle or sort of joint pain, it's kind of still right now, listen, this muscle

pain, it's not like you have one muscle that's sore or one joint that sore, it's sort of several errors of the body that kind of stayed sore. And by the way, it's not saying you have all of these symptoms, it's just one, of or a few of these symptoms. So again, number one, fatigue, number two, muscle pain, number three, digestive disorders. Number four, and this was really common in women, abnormal menstrual cycle. Next up, mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. Next, neurological issues such as a loss of taste and smell, brain fog or lack of concentration, headaches, heart issues like palpitations. Next is blood clots. So those are

the biggest symptoms, according to the Mayo Clinic, when it comes to long COVID symptoms. And I've especially seen blood clotting. Now, people didn't necessarily go to the doctor because they had blood clots, but that is a make, you're going to hear this again in just a second when I get into this. That's the one you want to pay attention to. If your blood is sticky and clotting and not moving, that will cause almost all of these issues I just mentioned. Blood clotting increases your likelihood of heart palpitations. It increases headaches because you're not getting blood flow to the brain. It causes fatigue. It can cause abnormal menstrual cycles. So all of the things that we've talked about here can be due to your blood getting too sticky enough moving through the body enough due to the

virus. Now there's also a new study that looked at the DNA from 6,450 people who developed long COVID, and they found that those who had a certain DNA DNA, marker also tended to have a gene that could get turned on in association to lung cancer that was called the FOXP4 gene. And overall, basically it was a, hey, somebody has a lung deficiency. Okay, there's a deficiency in the lung. And so when we really saw this with COVID, I think the biggest deficiencies are related to the blood, secondarily, how that impacts or is in connection to the lung and the whole cardiovascular system. So now here's some new research, and then I'm going to get into just a minute exactly what to take for supplements and foods when it comes to long COVID and lifestyle.

It's been actually shown I've got a great study on this. New research hints at some underlying immune dysregulation in the lung itself, according to researchers, suggesting an abnormal immune response to COVID might be causing long-term harm. So listen to that. The study said, an abnormal immune response to COVID. So if your immune system is overreactive, and this is really connected to something related to the spike proteins that occur when somebody gets COVID and that sort of setting off.

Think about it like this. Like an autoimmune disease. Okay. If you, somebody with an autoimmune disease, the body starts abnormally attacking itself and causes a cycle that continues to go on until really that immune dysregulation can be shut off typically in the gut. Okay. You heal the gut. Sometimes that immune disease, then it just turns off. Well, the same thing happens here with long COVID.

There's an immune response that kind of gets put on repeat, keeps going and going and going until you find a way to shut it off. I'm going to go through the protocol to start to shut it off here and a minute. Now, I want to get into, we've covered the Western perspective, what's going on with immune dysfunction. The Chinese medicine perspective, the eastern perspective of COVID is this. The virus causes blood stagnation and clotting, which increases the risk, of heart issues, fatigue, and neurological dysfunction. So again, the TCM, the Chinese medicine view, is that a virus, this virus that is affecting your blood cells,

okay, it's affecting your blood, causing it to not move throughout your body as fast, and so you're not getting as much nutrients, you're not getting oxygen to various areas of your body, everything from your brain to your lungs to, you know, your extremities. And that's really what's going on here. If somebody has a long COVID, and what we found with COVID in general, is it's causing blood stagnation and clotting. And so it's not moving through your system.

And of course, that's going to make you tired. Of course it can cause brain fog. It can also cause neurological issues. And so here's the key. If you want to get to the root cause, if you want to know the truth, it's this. If you want to improve long COVID, we've got to address the health of your blood. We've got to help eliminate viruses in the blood. And we've got to help do things to get your blood.

moving, help it clot properly, and really nourish your blood. That's it. So if you want to fix that, that should be the biggest focus. TCM practitioners have found that COVID virus causes, again, this blood stagnation and clotting, which affects, again, mostly the heart, or the blood and the heart and the cardiovascular system. What was the other symptom that people had after COVID? Myocarditis, inflammation of the heart. We're seeing a lot of these young, athletes with fatigue and in brain fogging dizziness and all these things why well blood clotting right all of that then affecting the heart and the cardiovascular system so that's what we're seeing here all of this makes sense if we just think about it logically from that eastern perspective now

I want to jump back to that western study here's what they found most symptoms were related to the cardio respiratory system there's lung related that's why there's a lot of associated fatigue also the feelings of well-being people just didn't feel well that was also 42% The next would be loss of senses. That could be the sense of taste and the sense of smell. Also, fewer patients had things like headaches, brain fog, ear, nose and throat issues in gastrointestinal, those digestive issues. But again, really that fatigue and issues related to well-being,

those were the biggest symptoms people had. Here are the other things that was found in another study. They found weakness was really common. 38% had sort of fatigue in general. They just didn't feel as strong as they were after COVID. again, bad taste in the mouth, shortness of breath and loss of sense and smell. But the biggest one was weakness is feeling like,

I don't have that energy and vibrancy I had before COVID. That's the biggest symptom that you have long COVID still. Now, here's another great study that found a nutritional deficiency associated with long COVID. It says patients with long COVID had lower average vitamin D levels than patients without long COVID, and vitamin D levels were significantly low. lower in patients that were experiencing some of those bigger symptoms like headaches and brainfall.

So if somebody has long COVID, one of the first things they should do is get their vitamin D levels tested. Because vitamin D levels that are sub 30 are going to be an issue. Now, I really believe optimal levels are going to be at least 50 or higher. Ideal, I believe it's probably closer to that 60 to 80 plus level. But again, below 30, that is a major, major vitamin D deficiency. And you going to be taking at least 5,000 to 10,000 I use daily of vitamin D3. There was another study that looked at therapies or supplements that were the most beneficial for long COVID. And they found in the study that the supplements that were taken together were bromalin,

which is a enzyme, it's a proteolytic enzyme found in the core of a pineapple, which helps with helping a breakdown protein, spike protein, helping breakdown in regular. regulate that spike protein in the body. So Bromlin was in there. St. John's work helped mood. Boswellia, that's part of the frankincense plant or resin that helps reduce inflammation in the blood. Corsetin, which reduces histamine reactions in the blood and respiratory system, zinc, which is responsible for immune system regulation. And vitamin D also responsible for immune regulation. So these were some of the top supplements that were recommended in one. one study and that we're shown to be beneficial. Also I want to touch on another clinical study here.

It says the clinical study results indicated there were statistically significant improvements in the overall symptoms after two and four weeks of treatment using these herbs and vitamins. One study found that middle age patients in the hospital with COVID-19 were less likely to need oxygen therapy, intensive care support, or both when they received daily supplements of magnesium plus vitamin D and vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 is important because that really helped with, if somebody is having a loss of their sense of taste and smell, vitamin B12 is very important.

It also helps with energy levels. So that's good as well. Now, what I'm going to do now is go into based on the studies I've read multiple studies. Most I've covered here, a few I didn't get into yet. But this is the Dr. AX long COVID protocol, okay? First is vitamin D taking 5,000, but really ideally 10,000 IUs daily. That's 5,000 I use twice daily of vitamin D3. Next is zinc, 30 milligrams, two times daily.

Next is number three, taking a liver supplement or an organ blend supplement. This is going to have B vitamins. It's going to have iron. These are critical for building and strengthening the blood. Or if you don't want to take a liver supplement, taking a methylated, vitamin B supplement. Okay, a supplement with methylated B vitamins, okay, but I really like that liver doing once to twice a day of those six capsules or tablets of a liver or an organ supplement. Number four would be proteolytic enzymes that have bromelin and nanokinase or taking a supplement that

has quercetin and bromelin. Okay, so a supplement that's quercetin and bromlin in it. Number five would be turmeric. Tumric reduces inflammation nurses the blood. 3,000 milligrams a day. And then another one would be NAD plus. NAD plus helps with cellular health, helps with immune regulation. That's another one I like. And then a few others I want to mention beetroot juice. Beat root juice is very nourishing in bloods or whether you just want to get beats in your diet as a food or take that as a supplement and a smoothie. That's great.

And then last for women, specifically Dong Quai. Okay, Don Quai. If you're having menstrual issues, hormonal issues, blood issues, anything as a woman. you may think you're having some long COVID symptoms, energy issues. Don Quay is something you should definitely consider taking along with a blood-building supplement. But again, long-COVID protocol, vitamin D, zinc, a liver supplement or something to help build the blood, enzyme supplement with bromelin and quercetin, turmeric NAD plus, and beetroot juice are the top supplements as part of my long-COVID protocol. In addition, diet-wise, you would consume a lot of foods that nourish your food.

blood. Basically, here should be your diet. Meat, especially getting a lot of red meat and wild fish. So get omega-3s, those help thin the blood and help reduce inflammation in the body. And red meat has iron and B vitamins that will nourish you by. So red meat and wild cop fatty fish. Those two things, as much as you can in your meals. Chicken's fine. Eggs are okay too, but really focus on those two forms of protein and collagen, because that's going to be really important for reducing inflammation as well. also collagen or bone broth as sort of another source of protein. So that's number one category. Number two, lots of vegetables.

It can be steamed, a little bit of raw, do them in soups. So that's the second category. And that's really should be the basis of your diet. Meat and vegetables, meat and vegetables, meat and vegetables, followed by berries, okay? Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, strawberries, strawberries, goji berries. Getting berries in the diet is also going to help nourish your body.

And then getting a little bit of healthy fat in the diet. I would recommend specifically olives are extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil specifically. So olives and coconut are going to be the two most beneficial, they're best for the liver, which also supports your blood. So really, coconut oil, olive oil should be the focus there. And then you want to spend some time outside. I also really like doing a combination of contrast therapy where you're doing cold plunge and infrared sauna, red light therapy, that infrared can also be really.

good for your blood rejuvenating your body getting some time outside just going on walks if you're tired and you don't find you can exercise as much as you should spending time outside just going on walks ideally before after meals is a really really great time to go and I think if you can do all of those things and listen and this isn't that complicated take a few of the supplements I mentioned try and have the diet of mostly meat vegetables berries and a little bit of healthy fat there that's it and then get outside walk okay if you can do those things I think you're see really, really good results. And by the way, if you know somebody who needs to hear this,

because as the study shows, there are tens of millions of just Americans alone who still have long COVID symptoms. And if you know anybody who needs to know the exact protocol, maybe if they come up with it again or come down with even the new strains again, this protocol should still be greatly beneficial for those people. And if there's something you found

that also be greatly beneficial, or you've having any experience with long-combin. Hey, let me know in the comment section in this video. And, hey, if you're not subscribed to the video, please subscribe. You know if you're not subscribed, you won't see a lot of the videos I put out. I've got some really amazing interviews, some really great in-depth talks on how to grow personally and grow your health coming up here as part of the show. And by the way, thanks for everybody who's on mission with me, teaching the world about the importance of food is medicine and mindset medicine and being all we can be. And so anytime you share this video, no, I'm so grateful for your shares, your comments, and for subscribing.

And also I want to let you know, if you liked this video, click here to watch my video on the seven health habits to live decades longer. I think you'll love it. Thanks for watching.