-COVID-19 affects every one of its victims differently
and sometimes unpredictably.
Some only experience acute COVID.
They test positive for the virus,
experience symptoms for a short period of time,
then return to life as normal.
Others, however, experience something doctors are calling
"long COVID"
when certain chronic symptoms re-emerge or drag on
with no avail for months after the virus has left their system.
-The severity of the long COVID symptoms
for some people is stunning.
It's very significant,
and I worry that it's deeply affecting people's lives.
And what's frustrating is we don't know how long
that may last for people,
and we don't know how to treat it right now once it sets in.
A good proportion of people who have asyptomatic COVID-19
illness feel like they don't completely recover.
-While doctors are still trying to find treatments
for long COVID,
there are some practical steps you can take.
Breathing symptoms are a hallmark symptom of coronavirus.
If you continue to experience shortness of breath,
talk to your doctor to make sure it's not
a result of a lung problem,
an irregular heartbeat, or post-COVID pneumonia.
The key is not to overexert yourself.
Instead, ease back into motion.
-Sometimes just simply walking on a regular basis.
Gravity's making your diaphragm go down.
You're taking deeper breaths.
You're getting mucus mobilized
that might be in the base of the lung.
And you're keeping your overall health in better shape
because of the aerobic activity of walking.
Strenuous activities that make you breathe harder in or out,
deep breathing by themselves
are not really going to improve the lung function.
So you basically want to keep your muscles fit.
You want to keep that level of activity
that keeps you from being sedentary.
That's the best way to keep that shortness of breath
under better control.
-Some of the most common symptoms of long COVID
are lasting or re-emerging fatigue and exhaustion.
It's important to rest early on in your COVID-19 diagnosis
to potentially prevent these symptoms down the road.
-If you don't let your immune system have the resources
that it needs from an energy standpoint,
then you're tying your hands behind your back,
and that immune system can't work as well as we'd like.
At least that's the theory behind why resting
can be helpful in preventing this from becoming long-term.
-But if this continues even after you test negative,
you should still take time to rest.
-If you're having the fatigue from COVID-19,
don't try to push through it.
Wait a week, two weeks to really start
getting back to normal if you can.
-Fogginess can also be a prevailing symptom.
While experts are still unsure about the cause and treatment,
there is one familiar recommendation.
-It's brain rest. You know, let yourself recover.
We know that some of this brain fogginess may have been due
to changes in oxygen level early on that never really recovered.
We also don't know is there just some chronic inflammation
in those brain cells
that's affecting their ability to interact with each other,
and that's why the memory's off and the concentration's off.
I wish I could say we had a treatment
for that, but we don't.
-All of these unknowns remain frustrating to doctors.
And unfortunately, experts still aren't sure
if those suffering long-lasting symptoms
will ever fully return to normal.
-I think there is an unknown right now
as to how many of these people who get chronic
or long-haul COVID syndrome,
is there ever gonna be a change back to normal?
Is this gonna be a lifelong flaring, remission,
always having to change their quality of life
as a result of this?