Clinical Lead and Senior Physiotherapist, Clare Silvester discusses some of the long-term effects of Covid-19.
The emergence of Covid-19 has shaken the world, with hundreds of thousands of people falling ill across the globe and devastatingly, many losing lives to the disease. Even for those people not directly affected by the virus almost every facet of life has changed, from the way we work to the way we socialise with friends and loved ones.
As the weeks and months have passed, we have gradually learnt more and more about the nature of the virus, the way it is spread, the vulnerable patient groups and what we must do to beat it.
One body of emerging research is into the longer-term symptoms that some people are experiencing after being infected. Although in most cases people are recovering from the classic viral symptoms after a week or two and return to feeling normal, some people report being left with symptoms of generalised fatigue & muscle aches, shortness of breath, 'brain fog', depression or simply an inability to return to the normal levels of function and activity that they were achieving pre-infection.
Previous research conducted on a similar post-viral syndrome seen in SARS (also a coronavirus) showed evidence of a prolonged disturbance to the brain’s ability to flush out toxins, causing inflammation and malfunctioning within the central nervous system, giving rise to the unpleasant symptoms even after the virus has been beaten.
If you have been unlucky enough to contract the virus and can relate to some of the longer-term symptoms mentioned above, here at Ultra Sports Clinic we can help. It may be simply that you are struggling with returning to the same level of sporting performance that you’ve been used to, or it may be that the symptoms are affecting your ability to function on a daily basis with general activity. Our team of specialists can give you advice on how best to return to exercise, ideas for activity modification and pacing strategies if you are feeling run down. We can also offer hands on treatment to address muscle and joint soreness and graded rehabilitative exercise to help you with your general fitness and conditioning.
Call us on 0203 893 5100 or book an appointment online.
Clare is Clinical Lead and Senior Physiotherapist at our King William Street clinic. Find out more about her here.