The Antidote #14: redefining airborne, the unexpected gift of long COVID, and Akiko for President!
Plus, tons of links to other brilliant health and culture Substack posts
Welcome to The Antidote, the biweekly roundup post from The Tonic that is filled to the brim with goodies.
The Tonic is a lighthearted, heavily resourced newsletter for folks interested in learning about long COVID, ME/CFS, and other chronic illnesses. Come for the info; stay for the whimsy. Or vice versa.
I will generally post once a week on Saturdays or Sundays: a narrative post when my energy allows and resource roundups (The Antidote) at all other times. Occasionally I post more than once a week, usually to announce an event or to push brief, timely info out to you sooner.
Wish list shout outs!
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Keith C. Ellis, Ph.D., a medicinal chemist, developed CircuGuard, an herbal triple anticoagulant therapy, after a research deep dive into Long COVID led him to the microclot issue as front and center. Here is a bit more from a post of his from October. You can read additional posts for more information on each ingredient in CircuGuard and why they are effective replacements for the pharmaceutical versions.
Here is a video of a woman who is having great results so far. I have been using it for about two months and I’m tolerating up to six pills a day with no sensitivities. Within the first week, my brain felt clearer than it has in a long time. I’m monitoring the clotting in my fingernails over time to see if that resolves too; I plan to try CircuGuard for at least a few more months.
If you also want to try CircuGuard, Keith is offering a special one-time code to readers of The Tonic. Get 10% off when you use the code TONIC10 at checkout.
Okay, now for the links.
Ewwww noooo…not that kind. This kind 👇🏽
COVID, Long COVID, and ME/CFS
🌟 First up, the incomparable Akiko Iwasaki, renowned Yale immunologist and Long COVID research scientist, named one of Time’s list of 100 Most Influential People. I am a participant in one of her studies at Yale, designed with an extraordinary level of patient involvement and engagement. I can tell you she is as nice and humble as they come. This is very well-deserved indeed.
➡️ For anyone who read my post last week - Recovery tools, part 1 - here is a follow-up video from Ashok Gupta on a recent study showing very positive outcomes for people with Long COVID, ME/CFS, and other conditions after doing the Gupta Program.
🚽 What toilets can reveal about COVID, cancer and other health threats - a great article in Nature by Betsy Ladyzhets (of The Sick Times). No one can explain wastewater monitoring like Betsy.
😷 The World Health Organization initially said in 2020 that COVID-19 was not an airborne disease. Yikes. In a strange pivot, they’re now redefining what airborne means.
Here’s
to wade through the B.S.:
👅 Long COVID Taste Loss May Not Involve Taste Buds (requires a free MedPage Today account).
🦠 From the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services: Implementation of the Government-Wide Response to Long COVID. (No, I have not read it, because I have plenty of other fiction for when I need to fall asleep).
🤢 Unruly Gut Fungi Can Make Your Covid Worse.
👨🏻⚕️
lays it down on Paxlovid:
👩🏻⚕️ Came across
for the first time this week - she’s an ER doc, writer, and wife of a man dying of cancer. Check out this post of hers:
🚸 For those with kids, great guest post from
on ’s newsletter:🤕
with a fantastic post on the link between migraine and chronic fatigue:
Webinars/conferences/podcasts/videos
🖥️
brings us news of the PolyBio Spring Symposium, complete with the full line-up of speakers. It takes place on May 17th from 12-5pm. I enjoyed the last one of these, which offers short presentations on research projects of interest. You can join the ones you want, skip the ones you don’t. Thanks for putting this together, Colleen!
🧘🏽Paths to Wellness: Two Holistic Approaches for Chronic Complex Conditions is a free event taking place on May 17th at 2pm ET and featuring Dr. Eleanor Stein (who recovered from ME/CFS after an astounding 33 years sick) and The Tonic’s favorite yoga instructor, Shannon Williams. Click the link above to register.
❤️🔥 Speaking of that baddie Shannon, she’s offering yet another free modified movement class through #MEAction on May 30th at 2pm ET. Sign up here. If you’ve been wanting to check her out since reading my post on my experience (“Have you tried yoga?”), this is the perfect chance.
❤️🩹 Here’s a somatic tracking meditation for folks with chronic fatigue:
Health miscellany
🐥 Remnants of Bird Flu Virus Found in Pasteurized Milk, FDA Says. Guess which immunocompromised redhead will not be fucking around with milk products for the time being? Forgive me for not trusting the government agencies who are in charge with safeguarding our health.
🫁 Check out this tool from the American Lung Association where you can enter your zip code and get a scorecard of how your area is doing re: air pollution.
😲 While we’re on tools, check out this one to assess your risk of breast cancer. Mine said I have a 16% chance of developing it over the remainder of my lifespan. Yikes.
👩🏼⚕️Patients are less likely to die when treated by female doctors, study shows. Women tend to be better listeners and tend to get out of the way of their egos in order to hear what a patient is experiencing - especially female patients. (I said ‘tend to’ - I’ve had my share of shitty women doctors, as you probably have too).
👵🏾 How Medicare Advantage plans use AI to cut off care for seniors. This is just ugly.
👷🏽♀️ Rise and grind? Working late, volatile hours may lead to depression, illness by 50. So many of us with LC and/or ME/CFS have stories of work hustle and burn. Don’t sacrifice your health for your employer. Even the best ones out there will soak you dry.
🍵 Why 10am is the perfect time to have your morning coffee.
📰 Two very poignant health-related Substack posts I’ve come across recently. The first one is about what not to say to someone whose spouse is dying, but could easily be what not to say to someone with any health issue.
This next one is by the incomparable
and discusses those of us with less than perfect health, the “unfixed”:The unfixed person has learned to see the world differently. Uncertainty has become a certainty. They’ve learned that pain and joy can exist simultaneously. They haven’t turned their back to the possibility of answers or a cure, but they’ve learned to positively engage with life despite the lack of a fix.
Now stick around for…
🥳 The After-party 🥳
Added resources, joy, tomfoolery, and buffoonery
Today’s after-party has a “great posts on Substack” theme. Enjoy!
🏳️🌈 Yay for this new Substack: Queer Science Lab! Give Ev some love (subscribe!).
☀️ I loved this post by
on the eclipse. I promise you will laugh and learn some stuff. Good times:
🤪 I had never heard the term “YouTube Face,” but I knew exactly what it was immediately and have long thought it is among some of the goofiest shit I’ve ever seen and a bizarre way to attract views. Check out
’s take on it:
🫤 Finally, like many of you, I gave Taylor Swift’s new album a cursory listen last week and I continue to be completely underwhelmed by her as an artist.
’s post (to me) was pitch-perfect in every way. BTW, he and I both feel this way about Beyoncé too (I have tried, believe me. Cowboy Carter just feels super-duper contrived and middling).
🤦🏻 Buffoon of the week: “I thought he wanted to be friends,” said this week’s buffoon Moira Gallacher of Scotland, referring to a FUCKING WILD BEAR with whom she circled back to take a selfie who then MAULED HER. Please, people, listen to the NPS. Bison or bears. Seriously, don’t be stupid.
🏆 Winner of the week: Is this woman a winner? You decide. She’s DonnaJean Wilde, she’s 59yo, and she planked for 4.5 hours straight to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. Personally, I’d choose to spend 4.5 hours of my time left on earth doing almost anything else, but hey - to each their own.
🐈⬛ 💩 And finally, it’s this week’s Cat Dump. Weird sleepers edition.
The WHO was really on their game when they employed the reverse "got a hammer" response.
Have hammer, everything's a nail!
No masks, NOTHING could possibly be airborne!
BUT, those were Sweet Italian!
And can I have your Taylor Swift albums? I'm going through a phase.