Many of you have asked me about Long Covid, which clinically is now called Post COVID-19 condition (PCC). It refers to those individuals with continued symptoms, with fatigue being the most common, lasting more than 12 weeks after developing Covid-19. Researchers have determined that there is dysfunction in the mitochondria which are the “power houses” or energy producing organelles in our cells. As such, people feel exhausted much like they do in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome(CFS), which also seems to be related to mitochondrial dysfunction.
A study was done on treatment with high dose (500 mg daily) Coenzyme Q10, a supplement reported to improve mitochondrial dysfunction. Supplementation was evaluated in a placebo-controlled, double-blind, 2 × 2 crossover interventional trial and did not show statistical improvement compared to those not taking the supplement. However, the good news is that both treated and non-treated patients typically had an improvement in their symptoms around the 20-week mark.
Studying PCC has the additional benefit of assisting those with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). You may see the disorder listed as CFS/ME. It is a real entity that debilitates many people. As researchers work out the causes of PCC, they will be assisting those with CFS/ME at the same time. This is good news as CFS has been typically either ignored or misdiagnosed as psychiatric or “being all in the patient’s head.” That is typical in medicine. When something does not fit into a nice little diagnostic box, many clinicians will just say it is psychiatric which is insulting and of no assistance to the patient whatsoever. The other option is the patient will be brushed off or sent to various specialists with often no improvement.
It is my hope that the NIH will receive additional funding to study and more importantly, assist those with CFS/ME. A helpful website for those seeking more information on CFS/ME is https://www.healthrising.org.
