Positive Health Online

“We take for granted the idea that if something goes wrong, doctors will be able to fix it.”
Heather-Elizabeth Brown

Roadmap to Recovery is a valuable and important guide to much that is known about Long Covid and much that has proved helpful to sufferers.    

The author writes in a clear and low-key style with a consistent emphasis on the fact that understanding Long Covid is very much a work in progress – this book is a starting point for now.  The author is an educator [Doctorate in Education] rather than a research scientist or doctor. His aim is to provide a guide that is clear, balanced, and well-referenced so that readers can check out the information themselves, find what is specifically relevant to them and take personal responsibility for discovering the paths that will work best in their quest for recovery.

There are tensions between standard Western medical practice and complementary or alternative practices.  There are also tensions within Western medicine between those who make a psychiatric rather than a physiological interpretation of the range of symptoms appearing in Long Haul Covid as well as other similar chronic conditions.

Referring to standard medical practice, the author states:

“Their primary treatment protocol is to have interdisciplinary teams of specialists look at the body’s different organs exhibiting symptoms. But they don’t take a whole-body approach; they don’t try to uncover the underlying root causes that might be causing the symptoms associated with Long Haul Covid, and how it manifests in so many different organs of the body.” (Introduction p i)

Roadmap to Recovery addresses this tension by presenting several approaches fairly and dispassionately.  This broad-based, level-headed approach is this author’s gift to readers who want to understand Long Haul COVID Syndrome and want help for themselves or others in the process of recovery.

The book consists of four parts:  Long Covid, How We Got Here, Treatments, Resources.  Each chapter begins with a list of Key Facts – an additional bonus for grasping the overall concepts quickly.

Part I Long Covid

The first of the book’s four sections describes the many symptoms experienced by Long Covid sufferers, the range of their effects, and how neither current medical nor social systems are equipped to understand or deal with it.  As previously noted, medical care is focused on single organs or systems, and social care systems do not recognize multi-system, chronic conditions.  Consequently, the costs incurred are not considered legitimate, so are passed on to the patients.

This section concludes with an account written by a journalist who has spent months in an unrewarding quest for proper diagnosis and treatment.

“Since December, I've seen 15 specialists, received eight scans, visited three ERs and -- even with insurance -- spent $12,000 seeking a return to normal life.” P 23

Part II How We Got Here

This second section explains the historical origins of Covid and how it has spread, followed by a chapter on what has been done, and one on what could have been done. There is also a chapter on  Vitamin D and the immune system.

Within this section, germ theory and terrain theory are important concepts for explaining public health measures and treatment recommendations.

Goodman points out that public health measures and treatment recommendations were largely dominated by the germ theory – the focus on the specific pathogen which causes a disease: a virus in the case of SARS-cov-2.

All the mandates which were summed up in lockdown, including social distancing and the wearing of masks, were focused on preventing the virus from spreading from person to person.  We were encouraged to keep our homes well-ventilated to serve the same purpose.

Advice about home care was minimal – stay home.  Drink lots of fluids.  Take paracetamol. Rest.

If you got sick, the advice was to go to a centre and get tested.  (My own reaction to this was “how is that supposed to help you get better?”)

If you tested positive, you self-isolated to avoid spreading the disease. 

Then we were supposed to wait until they developed a vaccine…an outside intervention which is designed to attack the virus through speeding up and strengthening the ability of our immune systems to identify and react.

Other measures which could help to boost the body’s natural defences were largely overlooked (although WHO did tell us that Vitamins D and C, and zinc are important for a healthy immune system, while emphasizing that these were not a cure). 

Terrain theory explains how the health of the human body plays a major role in mitigating infection.  Gardening is a good metaphor.  Do you rush towards pesticides and the fungicides, or do you enrich the soil, make sure the plant has the nutrients, the sunlight that it needs?  A healthy plant can take better care of itself.  Likewise, a healthy human being is more resistant to the pathogens we encounter. When we are all exposed to a germ or a virus, some get sick and some do not; the reasons aren’t mysterious, some of us are in better terrain than others.

The author advocates more recommendations aimed at boosting our natural immune systems, a holistic understanding of immunity that includes both germ and terrain theory and greater discussion on natural immunity which can provide more lasting protection. 

The section includes a further discussion about Vitamin D and the immune system and concludes with two contrasting case studies.

According to Heather-Elizabeth Brown “We take for granted the idea that if something goes wrong, doctors will be able to fix it.” (P 59) This is a powerful and meaningful quote for those who suffer from complex chronic diseases…we find out how wrong that assumption is! 

Amanda Thebe is a fitness expert.  She is typical of many of the most serious cases of Long Covid, true also of ME/CFS:  the fitness expert who was determined to fight through it all and blames herself for not getting better.  For these determined, courageous individuals, this type of illness is most punishing, as they are forced to learn that conscientiously disciplining themselves to do less than they can is the only way towards ultimate recovery.

Part III Treatments for Long Haul Covid

The first six chapters [10-16] cover the following issues: how the Center for Disease Control (CDC) treats long haul Covid; the multidisciplinary approach; treating Long Haul Covid as a chronic disease; the functional medicine approach; innovative medical protocols and treatments (these have largely arisen from front-line doctors who are treating and gathering information from patients); and finally complementary treatments including homeopathy, acupuncture, and integrative medicine.

Chapter 17 is a stand-alone essay by Thomas E. Levy MD JD, which is an editorial provided by the Orthomolecular Medicine New Service with its own list of references.  The material is highly technical in content, with information which appears to be significant and may offer some pathways into helpful treatments.  This article is significant in that it takes on discussion of the adverse effects which can occur after vaccination and includes suggestions for treatment of these. [See reviewers notes on aspiration, and Breaking News on CDC selective reporting at end of article.]

Providing a clear account of these effects is a useful and important exercise, and one which must take some courage in the face of fanatical anti-vaxx myths and the equally fanatical dismissal of valid criticisms on the grounds that presenting these facts will put people off getting vaccinated.

Readers are given access to a detailed, fascinating, and perhaps ultimately frustrating account of various diagnostic tests and treatments.  For most ordinary readers, such treatments and tests are completely out of reach, both geographically and financially.  Levy does recognize this issue and offers advice on what we can do that will still be helpful.

Part IV – Online Resources

This chapter is just what it says it is and gives the reader advice on how to seek out some of the major support groups, some of which are also involved in providing information to researchers.  That is followed by a list of other resources.

In conclusion, let me reiterate my unreserved opinion that the author deserves the thanks of all of us concerned with Long Haul Covid and who are seeking a path to recovery by giving us this balanced, comprehensive, clearly written guide to what is known so far.

About the Reviewer

Nancy Blake BA CQSW is a person with ME, author and advocate interested in the similarities between Long Haul Covid and ME/CFS, and the implications for care.  Dr Bruce Patterson’s theory concerning the role of viral fragments in maintaining symptoms, and the importance of restricting exertion to prevent spread of autoimmune inflammation seems relevant to both. A link to this work can be found in   http://www.positivehealth.com/article/cfs-me-long-covid/me-cfs-covid-long-covid-rest-and-ivermectin 

She also recommends readers to the following video from Dr John Campbell, which explains how any risks from the process of vaccine injection can (and should be) minimized by aspiration during the injection process. (https://youtu.be/NVXA9posslo ).

Breaking News: https://youtu.be/gyHg1wtob9c 

Further Information

Available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com