Long Covid Syndrome: What is it and which are its symptoms?

The SARS-CoV-2 virus has been of interest to the global community for the past two years, leading to the search of innovative research ideas, mechanisms and strategies for the treatment, reduction and prevention of the spread of the disease.

The pandemic leaves long-term problems regardless of the severity of the infection, and 5% of patients who had even mild illness, as subclinical and asymptomatic forms, suffer from various symptoms, characterized as persistent patients and even 1% of them for more than a year.

The new syndrome, Long Covid or Post Covid, as recognized by the WHO, has begun to be understood in Greek patients who experience enormous difficulties after their illness, while at the same time, it gathers scientific interest, with experts looking for the causes and ways to treat it.

The symptoms of the syndrome affect various systems of the body, it is referred to in the US as "disability" and includes a variety of symptoms such as fever, exhaustion, shortness of breath, headache, cough, dizziness when standing, tachycardia, procardiac pain, arthralgia, myalgia, depression, Mental discomfort, difficulty thinking and concentrating, loss of taste, anosmia, tinnitus, herpes, acne and hair loss.

SARS-CoV-2 can also directly affect certain brain cells, causing neurological and stroke episodes with memory loss, foggy thinking, mental retardation and cognitive deficits. It is therefore necessary to monitor patients with coronavirus in specially organized structures by an interdisciplinary team, something that is already being done in many European countries. In Greece, there are Post Covid Reference Centers in Evangelismos and Papanikolaou Hospitals and Nursing Clinics, while the long covid Patients' Association also operates to monitor patients who have been hospitalized and need physical rehabilitation and self-management training for a gradual return to daily life.

The greatest effect of prolonged Covid-19 disease was found in those aged 25 to 34 years at 18.2% compared to other age groups, acting as a danger signal for young people to rush for vaccination, because the sooner the better it is.

Long Covid syndrome, which occurs regardless of the severity of the infection with symptoms both physically and mentally, requires everyone to be sensitized so as not to feel invulnerable to the virus and especially to establish the vaccine as the only preventive measure to avoid disease and infectious side effects.

Long Covid Symptoms: Treatment with Medical Acupuncture

Medical Acupuncture is a peripheral tissue stimulation that is transmitted to the Central Nervous System and is described by neurophysiology. Acupuncture as a method of peripheral aesthetic stimulation (neurostimulation) causes changes in the aesthetics, excitability, function of the autonomic nervous system, hormone levels and the immune response, with the therapeutic goal of changes in the level of brain nuclei, nerve axes and functional neural networks.

Recent studies on the effect of Acupuncture on brain stimulation using functional magnetic resonance imaging (f MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) have shown that large specific areas of the brain are activated and deactivated when acupuncture is applied to certain parts of man and animals body.

Acupuncture has been established internationally as a complete treatment system. The World Health Organization has recognized acupuncture as a medical treatment method with a number of indications. In 2010, UNESCO included acupuncture in the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Medical Tourism: Greece as an ideal destination

Medical wellness tourism is especially popular worldwide, as people have a strong need for relaxation and inner search to cope with the problems of long covid syndrome, to detoxify as well as a need for longevity and well-being with an introspection imposed by the pandemic as a teacher of humility.

The personal fulfillment and transformational self-improvement achieved by such experiences are now a priority for medical well-travelers as the megatrends of 2022 that deepen and seek new experiences, highlighting the term "transformative travel". Greece, with its great biodiversity and the unique bioclimate for physical, mental and spiritual rejuvenation, is a place of reference after the Golgotha ​​of long covid syndrome.

Konstantinos Kouskoukis
Professor of Dermatology - Lawyer
President of the Hellenic Academy of Thermal Medicine
www.thermalmedicineacademy.gr
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Address: 42 Sofokleous Street, Voula 16673, Athens, Greece