Long Covid Tips

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) People who have not experienced a significant post-viral crash such as long-COVID may be surprised to learn that it is sometimes treated as if it were traumatic brain injury (TBI).   But anyone who has lived with long-COVID, or other causes of chronic brain fog, memory issues and fatigue will understand it.   Even though after COVID most people do not show physical damage to their brains, the symptoms are can be remarkably similar to those of traumatic brain injury, such as after a stroke or a blow to the head.   Where it gets weird, is that when many such people get lots of rest, avoid stress, and do not overwork their brains, they can function quite well at times, and someone who did not know them before their symptoms started would think they are “normal” if they meet them on a good day. It took me over a year of waiting before I was allowed into a great research hospital’s post COVID program.   But once I finally made it in, one o...

What are phosphenes? Along with all of the crazy symptoms after COVID came an annoying increase in phosphenes, those odd moving bits of light that pass through vision that some people call “floaters”.  If you have ever looked through a microscope, binoculars or a telescope, you may have recognized them as illusory glowing specs that that move around without really interfering with vision.  They are typically not believed to harmful, and everyone has them to some degree, but I found the increase in them to be annoying.   Since migraines often come with auras (overlays of color on your vision a bit like a lens flare on a camera), perhaps my permanent migraine caused me to get more of them Either way, I did some research and learned that lutein, zeaxanthin and astaxanthin can potentially help with them.  I stumbled across these items while looking into ways to boost cognitive function, as higher levels of these within the brain seem to be associated with healthier ...