Chris, 46, is an athlete who has participated in marathons and climbed a 7,000-meter-high mountain in Central Asia before the outbreak in 2020. But then everything changed.
He was diagnosed with new coronary pneumonia in March 2020, and his symptoms were not too severe, except for a little difficulty breathing and coughing. He resumed remote work a few weeks later, only to find he might not overcome the intense fatigue of the constant attacks. He coughed frequently, felt pain in his chest, his heart beat faster following walking a short distance, and if he worked a little, he would be extremely tired for days on end. In the end he had to stop working completely and recuperate for a whole year.
“It was a feeling of physical and mental exhaustion that I’ve never experienced,” Chris recalls.
Are you also a victim of the “long new crown” like Chris? Or worry regarding long-term sequelae following diagnosis? This article sorts out what the new crown is and how to treat it.
What is the new crown?
Long-term COVID-19 refers to experiencing a series of new, recurring or persistent health problems for at least 4 weeks following contracting COVID-19. About 10% to 20% of patients will be affected by the new crown following recovering from the initial disease symptoms. A CDC survey in June found that 19 percent of U.S. adults diagnosed with COVID-19 had symptoms.
This year’s study in the medical journal The Lancetpoint outPeople infected with the Omicron variant have a 24% to 50% higher risk of developing the new crown than those infected with the Delta variant.
What are the symptoms of the new crown?
The most common symptoms are:
- Fatigue affecting daily life
- Cognitive impairment or brain fog, which makes it difficult to think or concentrate
- fever
- Heartbeat
- Dizziness
- sleep disorder
- Shortness of breath
- joint or muscle pain
- loss of smell
- hair loss
- Sexual behavior problems such as decreased libido
Who is prone to have a long new crown?
Everyone has the potential to develop a long-term new crown, but Mandy De Vries, director of education for the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC), said that preliminary investigations show that people with the following conditions are more likely to have a long-term new crown:
- age
- Pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes
- Woman
- Mental illness, such as anxiety and depression, prior to the diagnosis of COVID-19
- unvaccinated
- Multiple COVID-19 infections
Why is there a long new crown?
How the new crown happened, although the reason is still being studied, it is initially pointed out that it may be because the virus has been left in the body. If the hypothesis is true, the medical community can still develop antiviral drugs to completely eradicate the virus.
A September study in Clinical Infectious Diseases, a medical journal published by the University of Oxfordpoint outscientists took blood from 63 patients who had been infected for a year, and most of the samples found the spike protein that makes up the coronavirus.
How to treat and recover?
Full recovery from COVID-19 can take weeks, and very few symptoms last up to a year.
If you feel extremely unwell with the new crown and want to seek treatment, Columbia University Irving Medical Center recommends that you should first see a family doctor or a general clinic. Going directly to a specialist clinic may be time-consuming and labor-intensive. If not, it should be evaluated by primary medical institutions first, and then referred to specialists if necessary.
If you want to take care of yourself and recover quickly in your daily life, you can start with “eating”. Joan Blake, a clinical professor of nutrition at Boston University, said a balanced diet is important, especially a Mediterranean diet rich in vegetables, fruits, olive oil, nuts and whole grains.
Also remember to eat meat to avoid fatigue, chicken and fish are good choices. “Insufficient protein intake can lead to fatigue, and the new coronavirus has fatigued you, and if the body does not have enough protein, it will not help,” Black said.
In addition, make sure to drink enough water, preferably with a water bottle with you. “When people have severe COVID-19, they usually rest and sleep for long periods of time. That’s where nutrients, especially water, are lost,” said Greg Vanichkachorn, director of the COVID-19 recovery program at Miaoyou Hospital in the United States.
How to ease the psychological burden of the new crown?
Perhaps the most worrying thing for those who have experienced the long-term new crown is that the long-term unhealed symptoms not only affect their lives, but also produce fear and a sense of powerlessness of “how can they never get better”.
The aforementioned Chris shared this feeling: “I can’t work, I can’t exercise, I have to sleep every followingnoon. I can’t play with my kids like I used to, I’m so sad. People with Covid-19 don’t know why this happens, so they get scared , I don’t know when it will get better. Looking back, it was probably the worst time of my life.”
Mental health concerns caused by the long-term new crown have begun to be studied.Seattle health data firm Trueveta for Archyde.comanalyzefound that people with Covid-19 were twice as likely to be prescribed antidepressants for the first time than those without Covid-19.
In addition to the physical symptoms that plague your life, if you have a new crown, you should also pay attention to your psychological condition. Please bravely accept professional psychological treatment. Chris shared that the firm support of family members and colleagues of the new crown patient would be a great help. He also started doing mindfulness and breathing exercises, which helped relieve emotional and mental distress.
(Author: Zhang Fangyu; this article is published by “Business weekly“Reprinted with permission; source of the first picture:Created by Freepik）
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