
Ask HN: Long Term Covid-19 Complications - lend000
As someone who had a mild COVID-like illness in March, but never fully recovered (with the primary remaining symptom being body fatigue, sometimes post-nasal drip, and some tingling in the extremities, none of which are showing signs of improvement after 5 months), I want to survey the HN community about similar complications.<p>It seems like it isn&#x27;t uncommon to have lingering COVID-like symptoms after testing negative for the live culture, with varying degrees of severity [0][1][2].<p>Please leave your story if you&#x27;ve had similar symptoms. I&#x27;m especially interested in how you&#x27;ve been treating it and if you&#x27;ve had any success.<p>[0] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wsj.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;three-months-in-these-patients-are-still-ravaged-by-covids-fallout-11593612004<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sciencemag.org&#x2F;news&#x2F;2020&#x2F;07&#x2F;brain-fog-heart-damage-covid-19-s-lingering-problems-alarm-scientists<p>[2] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.statnews.com&#x2F;2020&#x2F;08&#x2F;12&#x2F;after-covid19-mental-neurological-effects-smolder&#x2F;
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adventured
If the tingling is non-trivial and persistent, I'd strongly suggest R-Lipoic
acid (not Alpha-Lipoic acid) for the possible nerve damage (peripheral
neuropathy). It's over the counter, you can buy it from Amazon etc. 100mg once
per day, take it with food. It will drop your blood sugar levels a bit, you
may notice that initially (which is a reason to take it with or right after
food). Cost is about $8 per month equivalent typically. It'll be worth trying
to see if it removes the tingling, particularly if it becomes more severe over
time. It's often quite effective for peripheral neuropathy. Also of course
research R-Lipoic acid (if you haven't yet) and see what you think independent
of what I'm saying.

~~~
luckman212
Hadn't heard about R-Lipoic Acid until now. I couldn't find much as far as
clinical studies. I read the WebMD page[0] but if you have any better sources
please share!

[0]
[https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-767/alpha-l...](https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-767/alpha-
lipoic-acid)

~~~
adventured
I got some light nerve damage, peripheral neuropathy, around eight years ago
from taking just part of one round of Cipro. Nerve damage is now one of the
many blackbox warnings commonly recognized for that rather evil class of
antibiotics (fluoroquinolones).

Like most people that get nuked by Cipro, I hadn't properly understood how
extraordinarily dangerous the drug is. I had taken antibiotics once or twice
in my life, for trivial things, I assumed Cipro was no more risky than, say,
Azithromycin.

Then one day, not long after the Cipro symptoms began (damaged my achilles
tendons also), I noticed my fine motor skills in my fingers were acting weird.
I could either fully squeeze eg a drink in my hand, or I'd almost drop it, the
in-between fine grade nerve control was sort of missing. There was also some
tingling sensation that went with it. So of course I freaked out a bit
mentally, naturally, thinking the worst of what that might be the start of
(ALS for example). Turns out, fortunately (how odd to say that), it was nerve
damage caused by Cipro.

After a lot of research, I found R-Lipoic Acid (RLA or R-LA). Diabetics often
use it to control their peripheral neuropathy, and it will also lower your
blood sugar levels (which isn't something I needed in my case). Depending on
the extent of the nerve damage you have to use more of it. Some diabetics use
very high doses to control the tingling / nerve damage consequences that stem
from their diabetes. In my case I was lucky, mostly the finger nerve
twitchy'ness and low grade tingling is all I got and I was able to control
that with a low dose 100mg of R-Lipoic Acid. I first tried Alpha-Lipoic Acid
(ALA) and it didn't work very well, so I switched to the R-Lipoic form and
that worked perfectly. From everything I read at the time, Alpha-Lipoic Acid
doesn't seem to work as well compared to the R-Lipoic form when it comes to
nerve damage. If I stop taking it for more than ~24-36 hours, the effects of
the nerve damage return. I haven't seen any progression in the nerve damage in
the last seven years, I take one 100mg capsule of R-Lipoic Acid per day, and
everything is normal so long as I maintain that routine. As a programmer /
developer I type all day long, so you can imagine how nerve damage
consequences in the fingers could be threatening, however the R-Lipoic Acid
has so far made it such that I don't see any of the nerve damage consequences
and can function normally.

I no longer have any of the sources I used to find/research R-Lipoic Acid as a
solution. I'm not surprised if there are not very many clinical trials though,
it's an inexpensive over the counter solution. You can read a zillion reviews
on Amazon and elsewhere from people that use it for this though, and you'll
find it's not uncommon for doctors to recommend trying it for lighter cases of
peripheral neuropathy. It's a very low risk potential solution. I recall one
of the first things I read about the ALA form was that it had been in use in
Germany for many years as a therapy for peripheral neuropathy.

Apparently body builders sometimes take Lipoic Acid as well. The process by
which it lowers blood sugar and increases insulin sensitivity apparently
involves increasing metabolism a bit. Lipoic Acid also binds with heavy
metals, it can apparently pull heavy metals out of your body and crosses the
blood brain barrier (you can find some studies on heavy metal detoxification
that reference using ALA for that). ALA has been found to lower cholesterol
levels. I don't take it for any of those reasons though. It's an interesting
compound.

Here's a good article on Alpha-Lipoic Acid:

[https://diabetesaction.org/article-alpha-lipoic-
acid](https://diabetesaction.org/article-alpha-lipoic-acid)

Also:

[http://pennstatehershey.adam.com/content.aspx?productid=107&...](http://pennstatehershey.adam.com/content.aspx?productid=107&pid=33&gid=000285)

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bluecup
Definitely resonates with me. I had relatively non-mild covid symptoms in
March / April but never went to the hospital.

I've pretty much experienced what lots of other people have related over the
past 4-5 months--different symptoms popping up and going away every day, all
falling into the kind of umbrella of post-viral symptoms.

I've definitely noticed a pretty big improvement the last few weeks but I
still get hit out of the blue with fatigue, brain fog, and occasionally a
heavy chest. I would be more concerned but I went through a very similar
experience with mono a few years ago, and hoping things will continue to
slowly lift with time and as u/notahacker mentioned rest, low intensity
exercise, and healthy food.

------
notahacker
The main lingering symptom for me was periods of discomfort in the thymus and
to a lesser extent swelling in my lymph nodes under the armpits, mainly
cropping up when I was tired [much more easily than usual], undergoing
physical exercise, or drinking even small quantities of alcohol. Assume this
was my immune system being more easily stressed than usual. Seems to have
subsided as a response to fatigue now, and I can happily go running or stay up
later without issue.

All I've done are the generic health recommendations [sleep more, eat well,
avoid alcohol, take regular low intensity exercise, avoid sources of stress]

