The Antidote #3: gut health, reinfections, and wellness resources

Your fortnightly roundup of info, resources, and recovery tools

Welcome to The Antidote, the biweekly roundup post from The Tonic that is filled to the brim with goodies.

The Tonic is a light-hearted, 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.

If you’re new here, you should know that my posting schedule is generally once a week on Saturdays or Sundays, and I alternate between a narrative post and a roundup post, so as to get more resources out to you and also to manage my own energy levels (often referred to as spoons). 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!

Folks have been so abundant in their support of my efforts here via the Amazon wish list in lieu of paid subscriptions (which could jeopardize my disability benefits). A big Tonic THANK YOU this week goes to Debby and Peter P. for your generous gifts! Also, thanks to the sweet soul(s?) who sent me a pair of lip balms, hand cream, and vitamin B supplements - there were no notes in the packages, so I’m not sure who sent them. If it was you, do let me know!

If anyone else is interested in showing support, here’s the deets:

The Tonic is free to read - Amy is so happy you’re here! There is no paid subscription option here like with other Substack newsletters. However, if you are valuing the experience and are able, please consider a show of support by sending a gift of health, wellness, or joy from this Amazon wish list. Anyone who does gets a 📢 in an upcoming post. Thank you!

Well, it was just Thanksgiving here in the U.S. and my (little) big sister and fam hosted yet again. They are all literally the best. Out of respect for my immune-compromised state, everyone took a COVID test the day before. Here’s my delicious little grandniece with some results:

Also, here’s an awesome pic I took of our backyard Japanese maple, which was🔥en fuego🔥these last few weeks.

So, good people, how has your week gone? The good, the bad, the fugly?

Now for episode three of The Antidote…

Podcasts/recordings

💰 Check out this webinar recording about how to apply for both private, employer-based disability and SSDI in the U.S. It’s chock full of info (and quite long), so here’s the TL;DR summary sheet.

🤞🏼 Raelan Agle again for the win: this conversation with Dr. Will Bostock was very interesting and gave me a lot of hope. One thing he said that I loved (paraphrased here):

the severity of your symptoms does not necessarily correlate with the severity of illness

A very important point to remember when symptoms flare and you start thinking the worst.

✍🏾 I am only halfway through this gem from Andrew Huberman, which is about a specific journaling technique backed by plenty of research showing that it’s effective at reducing symptoms of so many conditions (lupus and fibromyalgia included). Check it out:

Research

🤒 A new study out of China shows that 54% of COVID-19 survivors surveyed had at least one sequelae symptom at 3 years after symptom onset and before omicron infection, of mainly mild to moderate severity. Of note too is that during the omicron wave, participants with long COVID at 2 years had a significantly higher proportion of re-infection.

🦠 Speaking of re-infections, the awesome Cort Johnson over at Health Rising posted The Re-Infection Question in Long COVID, ME/CFS and Post-Infectious Diseases. Bottom line: you don’t want to get COVID again no matter if you’ve recovered from it fine before or if you have long COVID. Things can always get worse for you, symptom-wise (and quality of life-wise).

🐛 I’m putting this here under research because I want it to stand out from the miscellany: The Steep Costs of Disrupting Gut-Barrier Harmony: An Interview With Elena Ivanina, DO, MPH

So many with long COVID and ME/CFS have gut dysfunction (including me 😏). From the article:

“It wasn't until recently, however, that Western medicine has adopted the notion of gut-barrier dysfunction as a pathologic phenomenon critical to not only digestive health but also chronic allergic, inflammatory, and autoimmune disease.”

And let’s keep the gut train going:

🍓 This was the first time I heard this term “the worried well”: Personalized Nutrition Programs Are Making People Feel Weird About Food. I know a lot of long haulers have seen major changes to their gut health since having COVID. I for one did some of this gut testing under the advisement of a functional medicine doctor, but I didn’t obsessively buy into the program that was being pushed along with it. Grain of salt, I thought (which is coincidentally good for POTS 😆).

Webinars

New:

👩🏽‍⚕️Solve M.E. is hosting a Zoom webinar, The Patient-Doctor Partnership: Optimally Treating People with Long Covid and ME/CFS Across the US. Register here.

Boosting these again for anyone who missed them last time:

👉🏼 The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at NIH is holding a series of webinars to explore the current state of research on ME/CFS, discuss knowledge gaps, and suggest future research opportunities.

The next one is on Chronic Infections and will take place on Thursday, November 30th from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM (ET). Hear updates from Dr. Michael Peluso, Dr. Maureen Hanson, Dr. Anthony Komaroff, and Prof. Simon Carding. The webinar is open to the public and will provide the opportunity to ask questions and make comments. Register here. 

Also mark your calendar for December 8th when Dr. Paul Hwang will present his groundbreaking research on a protein that disrupts mitochondrial functioning and is found in ME/CFS patients. Register for the December 8th webinar here.

Dr. Beth Pollack at MIT will be presenting on Less Studied Pathologies at the January 5th webinar. Register for January 5th here.

👉🏼 CDC ME/CFS Stakeholder Engagement and Communication (SEC) Conference Call, with updates from the CDC as well as two presentations: Understanding Infectious Origin of ME/CFS through the Recent Pandemic by Bhupesh K Prusty, PhD of the University of Würzburg, Germany, and Endogenous Retroviruses and ME/CFS by Dawei Li, PhD of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. December 18, 3pm EST. J

Join Zoom here: https://cdc.zoomgov.com/j/1603213189?pwd=S2ZydmVscVkxcXp5UEZiRERZMVNTZz09

TELEPHONE: 1-669-254-5252 or 1-646-964-1167 

MEETING ID: 160 321 3189

PASSCODE: 85624358

International numbers available: https://cdc.zoomgov.com/u/abkdpV7F6D

Miscellany

🤧 Good question: Does a Runny Nose Mean You Have COVID-19, the Flu, or a Common Cold?

⚕️Healthcare in the U.S. is abysmal for the price tag; even people with coverage often skip care due to the out-of-pocket costs. Check out The Cost of Not Getting Care: Income Disparities in the Affordability of Health Services Across High-Income Countries.

🩸 Workwell Foundation recently teamed up with Daniel Lee, the co-founder and CEO of STAT Health, to test an exciting new in-ear wearable device that measures blood flow to the head. Folks with ME/CFS and long COVID may be interested. Read more here.

👯‍♀️ I recently joined The Women’s Wellness Circle to get some additional support for my recovery. Moon and Frances are the co-directors and they are both graduates of and coaches for the Gupta Program (which I am re-committing to right now). Through the WWC, they offer several Zoom sessions a month. There’s a weekly yoga offering as well. The first session I attended last week was on polyvagal theory and tools for using presence to ground your nervous system. It was excellent. I recommend that anyone who identifies as a woman (their policy) check them out.

🩸 Speaking of people with ovaries, Dr. Eleanor Stein, an ME/CFS guru from Canada, has a fantastic blog post called Hormone Replacement Therapy in Menopausal Women.

🩶 I did not know that Rosalynn Carter was a big mental health advocate, but now I do. Read all about it in What Rosalynn Carter understood about mental health.

Now stick around for…

🥳 The After-party 🥳

Added resources, joy, tomfoolery, and buffoonery

😽 Here’s some Substack joy: one of my fave ‘stackers,

Natalie McGlocklin

, expanded her family recently (kittens!). I didn’t think it was possible for her truly awesome and fun book newsletter

Subverse

to get any better, but clearly I was wrong.

The Curator: Spill the Family Tea

🎄 More Substack joy from

Mo Collins

:

Put a tree in your home, if you have one. Never mind the religion of it. Fill it with joy. Share it with friends and family.

Even a weary world rejoices.

🤍 Winners of the week: The hostages and prisoners being released in Israel and Gaza. And their families. Let’s hope this keeps going.

Also, this sweet family. The bride changed into her grandmother’s wedding dress before dancing with her grandfather. Ugh, I’m not crying, you are 😭

🤦🏼‍♀️ Buffoons of the week: there are TWO buffoons this week (unrelated to each other):

1. This arrogant SOB doctor performed a procedure while knowing he was COVID-positive. Read about him in Medical Board Reprimands Doctor Who Worked While COVID-Positive.

2. The arrogant SOB comedian Matt Rife made a terrible joke about domestic violence, and then doubled-down in his fake-apology response by insulting the disabled. I love comedy, and I love comedy with a bite to it, but punching down is just lazy joke-telling.

🐈‍⬛ 💩 And finally, it’s this week’s Cat Dump. Calico Corner edition (who remembers that store in the mall back in the 80s/90s?).

1. Zira, standing in the corner where we put her water bowl, waiting patiently for the water to be delivered. We've never had a cat who loved water this much. 2. Birdie has taken over Zira's old sleeping spot (which is actually a ridiculously pricey chiropractic pillow with a fleece over it. 3. Zira, the elder stateswoman of the house, and me. Or, me with a Zira beard. You choose.

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**Disclaimer: Although I AM licensed to ill, to drive, and to practice social work, I am NOT a licensed medical professional. You should not rely on any information contained in this newsletter in making medical, health-related or other decisions. Please consult a doctor or other health professional.