{"id":29774,"date":"2021-02-15T22:35:24","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T22:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/?p=29774"},"modified":"2021-02-15T22:35:24","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T22:35:24","slug":"long-covid-weve-been-here-before","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/long-covid-weve-been-here-before\/","title":{"rendered":"Long COVID \u2013 we\u2019ve been here before"},"content":{"rendered":"

British Medical Association<\/strong> news<\/strong>:\u00a0 Long COVID \u2013 we\u2019ve been here before<\/a>
\nby Jennifer Trueland, 12 February 2021<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Long COVID is a new condition, but those who have endured years of ME\/CFS can share their common experience \u2013 and a long history of being misunderstood<\/h3>\n

\"\"When it was becoming clear that COVID-19 was a serious issue early last year, Nina Muirhead (pictured) had a strong suspicion about what would happen next.<\/p>\n

As a doctor who had developed ME\/CFS following an attack of glandular fever four years ago, and in common with others in the scientific and ME patient community, she predicted that there would be a sub-set of people who, like her, would still be suffering months or even years after contracting the\u00a0virus.<\/p>\n

\u2018I wrote to Professor Whitty [England\u2019s chief medical officer] and Sir Patrick Vallance [chief scientific officer] back in March saying there\u2019s going to be a long COVID, and maybe there should be a health warning put out about this \u2013 maybe people should be advised of the long-term consequences, maybe we could do\u00a0a\u00a0study.<\/p>\n

\u2018But they were so overwhelmed with fighting the big fire [acute COVID], and because ME\u00a0is so misunderstood by the medical profession, they didn\u2019t have the same end of the binoculars as I do. They didn\u2019t see it coming in the same way.\u2019<\/p>\n

Nearly a year on, it\u2019s becoming accepted that long COVID is a serious problem. The Office for National Statistics said in December that an estimated one in five people testing positive for COVID-19 exhibit symptoms for five weeks or longer, with one in 10 exhibiting symptoms for 12 weeks or longer…<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Amy Small, a GP in Lothian who has campaigned on long COVID after becoming ill herself, acknowledges that she has learned a lot about management of the condition from the experience of people with ME\/CFS.<\/p>\n

\u2018One of the first things I did when I realised that I wasn\u2019t getting better was that I phoned a friend who has had severe ME for several years.<\/p>\n

\u2018I asked her what would you want to know if you were me now, and you could see this coming \u2013 what would you do? She suggested pacing first and foremost \u2013 learn to pace properly. I had never really understood what pacing was \u2013 I thought it was to do what you\u2019re doing, but do it more slowly.<\/p>\n

\u2018But someone on Twitter recommended a book to me called Classic Pacing for a Better Life with ME and that was a real turning point for me.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
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h long COVID had found giving up sugar very helpful, and she\u2019s got me on a load of supplements. I said to my husband years ago that if he ever caught me taking turmeric for medicinal\u00a0purposes, then shoot me,\u2019 she laughs. \u2018Boy\u00a0did I live to regret that. I think my attitude has\u00a0changed.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Keeping a symptom diary and consulting a nutritionist have also been helpful \u2013 although Dr Small admits that some of the advice would previously have been anathema to her as an evidence-focused medic.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/strong><\/a> from Dr Nina Muirhead, Dr Charles Shepherd and Dr David Strain, an ME\/CFS researcher, now leading the BMA\u2019s COVID response.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British Medical Association news:\u00a0 Long COVID \u2013 we\u2019ve been here before by Jennifer Trueland, 12 February 2021   Long COVID is a new condition, but those who have endured years of ME\/CFS can share their common experience \u2013 and a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[5684,6332,239,6534,4680,6533,6196],"class_list":["post-29774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-covid-19","tag-dr-amy-small","tag-dr-charles-shepherd","tag-dr-david-strain","tag-dr-nina-muirhead","tag-jennifer-trueland","tag-long-covid"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5qkYK-7Ke","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29774"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29803,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29774\/revisions\/29803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}