Long haul is when you experience weird health problems for months after being exposed to the COVID spike protein. Because there is a lot of overlap between vaccine injury and long haul from natural infection, I will talk about both forms as 'long haul'.
Everybody's symptoms are different and there may be over 200 symptoms. Some of the most common symptoms are:
- exercise intolerance, post exertional malaise
- brain fog
- fatigue
- ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
- shortness of breath
Some long haulers are disabled by the condition and are unable to work.
TREATMENT
There are two related groups of doctors treating this condition: FLCCC and CovidLongHaulers.com
The FLCCC protocol can be found on their website. Their friends at Covid Long Haulers.com have a slightly different protocol (e.g. they use maraviroc for many patients) as well as diagnostic testing for long haul.
The two key drugs are ivermectin and a statin (like atorvastatin and pravastatin). Ivermectin reduces symptoms for some people but doesn't deal with the underlying cause. Statins may help your body clear the root cause faster. Both drugs can be hard to get quickly so it may be better to order them right away.
WHAT CAUSES LONG HAUL
Bruce Patterson is a former Stanford researcher who has setup a company to deal with long haul COVID / PASC, post vaccination syndrome ('long haul from vaccines'), and chronic fatigue syndrome. He has discovered that the S1 part of the spike protein finds its way into nonclassical monocytes, which are like the 'garbage trucks' of the immune system. For some reason, the S1 spike protein sticks around in the body for months before it is eventually cleared away. His theory is that the spike protein sticking around is the root cause of weird health problems... either through hyperimmunity and/or autoimmunity.
- Hyperimmunity = Your immune system being hyperactive and doing things like making your blood vessels dilate, which can cause headaches
- Autoimmunity = Your body making antibodies that accidentally engage in 'friendly fire'. While antibodies should be attacking foreign invaders like the spike protein, they instead attack some specific tissue in your body.
See this article for more information on Bruce Patterson's work. Also go on Youtube and search for
- drbeen bruce patterson
- drbeen ram yogendra
- bruce patterson
You can compare that information to current treatment guidelines such as this Aug 2021 paper published in the BMJ. While that paper has over 500 citations, it has very few insights regarding the cause of long haul and effective treatment.
Other research groups such as Akiko Iwasaki's lab have also been researching long COVID and have found auto-antibodies in patients. Auto-antibodies are antibodies that should be attacking foreign invaders (like the spike protein) but unfortunately also engage in friendly fire and go after specific antigens in the body. Our bodies produce antibodies through a controlled mutation process so our antibodies are able to attack anything. Our immune system presumably has some mechanism to filter out antibodies that engage in friendly fire but for some reason this process fails and auto-antibodies are created. Spike protein in the body or some reservoir of a virus is triggering the immune system and causing it to pump out auto-antibodies. The FLCCC protocol mentions low doses of corticosteroid therapy; high doses of corticosteroids are commonly used for autoimmune conditions to reduce symptoms (unfortunately they are not a long-term solution).
FINDING A DOCTOR
The FLCCC website has a directory of doctors that are friendly to the protocol. Covidlonghaulers.com can also refer you to a doctor if you use their service.
You can talk to your current doctor to see if he/she would be willing to try the FLCCC protocol. Due to the politicization of the coronavirus, your doctor may be against the idea of using ivermectin or treating vaccine injury (which supposedly cannot happen from a 'safe' vaccine). Some doctors may engage in blaming the patient for having anxiety when they don't know how to treat the patient.
Another option is to use telemedicine until you find a doctor willing to treat you.
IF YOUR DOCTOR DOESN'T WANT TO TREAT YOU
If you can't find a doctor and want to try the sketchy self-medication route, the FLCCC's I Recover protocol is available on their website.
Many of the *safe* drugs in the FLCCC protocol can be easily obtained. Melatonin and supplements can be purchased online or from retail pharmacies.
Ivermectin is very difficult to get in some countries. The better ways to get it are:
- A telemedicine doctor, available in some countries
- A few countries like Mexico sell it over the counter
If you cannot get ivermectin, see this guide for more options.
Not-so-safe drugs
Statins are a prescription drug because they have side effects and aren't safe enough to be sold over the counter. If your urine starts looking like Coca Cola (image), get medical help and learn about rhabdomyolysis.
You may be able to find a telemedicine doctor willing to prescribe a statin to you. If you want to buy this prescription drug online, here's one option.... lovastatin (monacolin k) is naturally found in some foods as well as supplement products. A UK company claims to sell a supplement which contains 10mg of Monacolin K (lovastatin) for each pill. Ebay resellers and Eco Natural Products ship internationally. To prevent yourself from getting into trouble, you need to do 2 things:
- Read the packaging on the supplement for safety information.
- Go on Youtube and search for "lovastatin pharmacy". You'll find videos on drug safety targeted towards working pharmacists.
- (optional) Read this academic paper which claims that commercial supplements vary widely in lovastatin content.
Fluvoxamine is a prescription drug. Apparently you can buy it from sites like indiamart.com. What you should know:
- It may increase your risk of suicide (!!).
- Some people have horror stories about their journey in withdrawing from SSRI drugs like Luvox/fluvoxamine. Just search google for "luvox withdrawal reddit". Many doctors are not aware of the dependency/withdrawal problems that SSRIs can cause; nor did they receive training on how to help patients get off these drugs. They would not provide patients with informed consent.
- Serious withdrawal problems happens when these drugs are used for long periods of time (e.g. 1 year, years, etc.). Short term use should be fine.
- If you are already on SSRIs, antidepressants, or a Prozac-like drug, you can ask your doctor about switching to fluvoxamine or Fluoxetine (Prozac). Fluoxetine is thought to provide a similar effect to fluvoxamine for long haul.
Benzodiazepenes, which may be useful in treating mast cell activation syndrome, have withdrawal issues too. If it is a controlled substance in your country, importing it may be illegal.
Please don't do crazy things with prescription drugs. Inform yourself about their risks and downsides before going down those routes.
Vaccines for long haul may be a bad idea
Some long haulers seem to get better after getting vaxxed while others report getting worse (with other people seeing no difference). Bruce Patterson's opinion on getting vaxxed is like 'adding fuel to the fire' because the S1 spike protein is the root cause of the problem and the vaccine causes your body to have even more spike protein.
Closing thoughts
Because the symptoms are all over the place, it's possible that you don't have long haul. Only a few symptoms like exercise intolerance are specific to long haul. If you try treatment and it doesn't do anything, consider the possibility that you might have something else like MCAS (discussed in the FLCCC protocol), ME/CFS, chronic Lyme, stroke / brain damage, cancer, autoimmunity causing brain fog, thyroid issues, silicone implant incompatibility syndrome, etc.
There are also people who don't respond to the FLCCC protocol and the CovidLongHaulers protocol. :/ Maybe one day medicine will get better and you will find the answers that you are looking for.
Resources
sequela.uk lists Facebook groups where you can find support.
there doesn't seem to be anything here