The long-term effects of COVID-19 mainly include the following symptoms:
Over-tiredness and exhaustion
Shortness of breath and breathing problems
Cognitive disorders
Headache
Coughing
Loss of sense of smell and taste
Sleeplessness
Muscle fatigue/muscle pain
Chest pains
Intermittent fever
Skin rashes
Problems after physical exertion
People usually will consult their family doctor first. But if the symptoms continue, TCM including acupuncture and herbs can also help.
How does TCM explain the Long covid symptoms?
The covid virus can attack many organs of the body, like lung, heart, brain. Even if the patients overcome the virus, the injury has been done. If the heart has been attacked by viruses, people will suffer fatigue, depression and anxiety, insomnia, chest pain.
During the covid infection, lots of people had high fever and too much sweating, which resulted in the Yin difficiency. If muscle lacks Yin, it will lead to muscle pain. If the nerve lacks Yin, it will lead to loss of smell and taste.
Sometimes even the virus does not exist in the body, but the toxin produced by the virus does not completely disappear, which will lead to intermittent fever and coldness, headache, and cough.
I have treated patients with long covid symptoms in my practice with acupuncture and TCM herbs. It seems quite successful. Because all these symptoms can be explained well by the TCM theories, there are corresponding treatments too.
