I’ve had Long Covid twice, and completely recovered so far, once. I’ve learned a lot about what brings on a bout for me, and what I can do to recover. I believe what I’ve learned likely applies to you too..

My Long Covid History

The first time I got Covid was right at the outset of the pandemic on March 14, 2020. I was sick for 3 weeks, first with a headache, then a sore throat, followed by coughing, shortness of breath, then unrelenting fatigue. Then I got better. I enjoyed good health for two months, then for no apparent reason, and with no positive Covid test, I got all the same symptoms back and cycled through them again. For a month. Then I got better. Symptom-free, I was back to my old self. Until two months later after I ate two gluten free chocolate chip cookies one night. Then wham! the Covid symptom,s were back with a vengeance, this time with vomiting and diarrhea. I was worse than before. Still no positive Covid test. I got better after a month of bedrest. Then two months later, I stayed up too late, until 2am and let myself get overtired. The next day the Covid symptoms were back, and I was bedridden with that unrelenting fatigue for another month.

This time, I took vitamin C on a schedule, pushing an extra 1000mg every 2 hours all day for a month until I was better. After that bout, I gingerly tested my resilience with a cheat here (some rice), a cheat there (a little fruit), a bigger challenge here (a cookie), another there (a glass of wine). My body responded like it used to pre-Covid, with no ill effects from these small dietary challenges.

Unfortunately I got Omicron in May of 2022 on a trip to Disneyland. I so wish I had worn a mask on that trip and saved myself this trouble! I recovered from the very mild bout of Omicron in about two and a half weeks. I learned during the recovery process that I seemed to have the same Long Covid sensitivities to dietary challenges as before, so I became very careful about what I ate. I ate only low-inflammatory foods: Meat, poultry & fish, vegetables, yams, winter squash, and beans. In particular, I cut out grains except a little white rice, alcohol, and sugar.

For two years I stayed on this diet. While I still had Long Covid, I didn’t have any symptoms as long as I “walked the straight and narrow” of this diet. As a “side effect” of this diet, I lost 20 pounds and all my arthritis symptoms went away.

After two years, I had gum surgery. As a part of the surgery, I had to go on a course of harsh antibiotics, in this case Flagyl. After a week on the antibiotics I started to get a little cough.

That symptom—coughing even once—is enough to tell me my immune system is reacting and I need to take extra good care of myself. But I had recently joined an outrigger paddling team, and our first regatta was the next day. I attended the regatta, paddled in the 44-miniute race (my boat won!), ignored my worsened coughing symptoms—just didn’t notice I was so distracted—and was flattened by Omicron fatigue for the next 5 weeks. I am just now pulliong out of it.

What is going on here?

Diseases of Inflammation

Based on my lived experience that I described above, I believe this disease has one basic feature in common with other chronic diseases that we know much more about: obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, autoimmune disease, and autism. What do all these diseases have in common? They all are diseases of inflammation (https://doi.org/10.2174/138161282601200225102049). In other words, they don’t take hold unless global systemic inflammation is present.

How Do I Reduce Systemic Inflammation?

Based on this knowledge, I believe those of us who want to reduce our risk of chronic disease, including Long Covid, need to do everything we can to reduce systemic inflammation. Here’s a list of actions to help you on your way:

• Eat plenty of vegetables

• Eat protein at every meal such as meat, chicken, and fish.

• If you do not have thyroid problems, you can also eat tofu.

• If you are particularly hungry, supplement your meal with beans, yams, or winter squash.

• Take plenty of vitamin C to your bowel tolerance.

• Eliminate grains from your diet. Grains are high in pro-inflammatory anti-digestives called lectins and should be eliminated. This includes the especially pro-inflammatory grains wheat, barley and oats which contain gluten.

• Eliminate dairy from your diet. Dairy is one of the most pro-inflammatory foods you can eat.

• Eliminate sugar from your diet, including jam, honey, and chocolate.

• Eliminate fried foods such as corn chips, popcorn, nachos and taquitos.

• Eliminate starchy foods from your diet such as potatoes.

• Exercise moderately, not to excess

Learn to pay attention to your body’s response to what you eat. If you do, you can optimize your diet to enjoy a lifetime of good health.

Have you tried this method to free yourself of Long Covid symptoms? What has your experience been?