The Antidote (yes, another new name)
Your fortnightly roundup of info, resources, and recovery tools
Friends! If you’ve been a fan of The Tonic for a while, you know we’re not afraid of name changes around here. We used to be called Long COVID and ME, but wanted a name that was more encompassing, uplifting, thirst- and knowledge-quenching.
Many thanks to the leaders and participants of
, who provided guidance and cheerleading on the change. I was recently a participant in the inaugural class of their five-week, “all things Substack” course, and I learned so much and met so many awesome new ‘stackers along the way. I highly recommend subscribing and checking out their next class!So again, if you’ve been here for a bit, you know that every other week, my post is a round-up of Long COVID, ME/CFS, and other health news and goodness. This was previously called The Rodeo (“a lassoing of info, resources, and recovery tools”), but I realized recently that The Rodeo doesn’t quite go with the name The Tonic and could be a bit confusing when paired together.
Once again, I enlisted the brainstorming help of the Substack Soirée crew and boy, is that bunch creative. I wanted a name that was more complementary to the healing elixir that a tonic provides. The class participants’ suggestions got my own usually dormant creative juices flowing, and voilà! The Antidote was born.
antidote (noun):
something that relieves, prevents, or counteracts
Antidotes aren’t always curative, but the info you’ll find here can be a source of relief, can prevent you from getting sick or sicker, or can possibly counteract the effects of less helpful information out there.
So, here we go with this edition of The Antidote.
Substack salves
This was a particular banger of a week for Substack health and wellness newsletters. I’d love to draw your attention to a few here.
First, ICYMI, here’s my interview with
for her series, the Lady’s Illness Library. Rae has lived experience with chronic illness and asked me some excellent questions. Consider subscribing to her newsletter if you don’t already.
Next let’s go to
’s post on applying for disability in the U.S. - chock full of amazing links and resources, plus super helpful advice from her.
New friend of The Tonic
gave me a shout-out earlier this week in her post on staying steady during tougher times. I’ve been so grateful to start connecting with her here on Substack.I discovered two great posts on managing stress this week: one from
and another from , an MD who is offering a free, eight-week course on managing stress (I’ve linked below to the kick-off post, but several others are already up).
For an excellent COVID/long COVID science digest this week, it was
for the win: asks a simple but poignant question: 'Am I asking more of myself today than I can recover from tomorrow?'
And finally, The Tonic got another shout-out this week from
. Definitely check out her post this week, as well as links she includes within for her Winter Camp, which provides connection and community for artists and writers over the isolating winter months. What a cool idea!
COVID-19 vaccine and vaccine-injury
An astute reader of The Tonic recently asked why I haven’t made much mention of the COVID-19 vaccine in my newsletter thus far. She also asked if I’ve been vaccinated. I wanted to share with all of you the response I gave to her, in case you too have been wondering about this.
Wow, good catch. I was waiting for the day when someone would notice that!
So, here’s the story. I got my first two Pfizer shots in 2021 and then one booster in 2022. They made me feel truly awful each time, intensely for 36 hours, and then worse than long COVID baseline for two weeks each time before dumping me back at baseline.
Since 2022, I have personally heard of hundreds of vaccine-injured long haulers - similar symptoms to mine, but from the vaccine. My mother in law and father in law both had this happen (both dealing with terrible fatigue for over a year now). Some friends have had family members in even worse shape; one long hauler friend’s son has bone necrosis in his hips, which began soon after the vaccine. I am not a conspiracy theorist in any way, but the long COVID study webinars I’ve been on are made up of 30-40% vax-injured long haulers or caregivers looking for answers. The media is not sending these messages, because they don’t want deter people from getting vaxxed. I sort of get it.
The Yale LISTEN study that I’m in as a long hauler has hundreds of vax-injured people registered as a separate cohort. I’m so glad an institution like Yale is no longer ignoring these folks.
Lastly, I asked my functional medicine doctor in late August about my getting any of the upcoming fall shots (C-19, RSV, flu), and his answer was: “I can’t in good faith advise any of my long COVID patients to get these shots. We just don’t know enough yet about how they will impact you.” He’s an MD with many decades of experience who basically invented functional medicine, so I trust him implicitly.
So...as you’re getting the sense, I don’t cover it in my newsletter because I don’t feel right weighing in either way. I’m not anti-vax, but I’m not exactly pro-vax either. And I don’t want to influence what anyone decides to do or start any kind of political fury in my (intentionally) light-hearted newsletter. I hope that makes sense.
Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. But that’s my take for now.
I also wanted to share with you this story, offered through the Kindred app, which is where participants of the Yale LISTEN study access their data and participant stories/info: The Role of Philosophy in the Dismissal of V Injury: A Kindred Member Story.
COVID viral load
In COVID Viral Load Peaks Later Now Than Early in Pandemic, the author looks at a study that says that viral load is now peaking around day four of symptoms, rather than on day one as we were seeing earlier in the pandemic. This has obvious implications for at-home testing efficacy; folx might test on the first couple of days of their symptoms and believe they are COVID-free if they get a negative result. It’s super important to stay home whenever you start getting sick to avoid infecting others. (Note: you may need a free MedPage Today log-in to view this article).
COVID and menopause
COVID-19 may be sending women into perimenopause earlier than it would have started otherwise. I know that at 48, I’ve had several moments where I feel like I’m in a game show called Long COVID or Perimenopause? The symptoms can overlap and be tricky - especially the temperature dysregulation that comes with dysautonomia, as well as changes to skin and hair.
(I picture a middle-aged white guy with a combover, a tan suit, and a long, thin microphone - my Long COVID or Perimenopause? game show host is apparently Bob Eubanks🤷🏻♀️).
For some reason, this also reminded me of the hilarious SNL game show skit from a few years back - not about menopause, but COVID-related:
App recommendation
Friend of The Tonic
has recovered from Long COVID (yay!) and recommends the app Training Today for anyone else in this boat who is looking to slowly and carefully get back into exercise. Thanks, Helen!Heavy Metal(s)
A lot of folks with LC, ME/CFS, and other intractable chronic illnesses are concerned about their toxic load and clearing toxins from their bodies so they can promote healing. Well, this here isn’t great news: A Third of Chocolate Products Are High in Heavy Metals, CR's Tests Find.
Stick around for…
🥳 The After-party 🥳
Added resources, joy, tomfoolery, and buffoonery
♻️ Check this out: Recycling is about to get much easier. I had read a few years ago that China stopped buying our recycled plastic, so not sure there’s still a big market for it, but let’s choose hope today.
⚕️ Here’s a great Substack post by
from a few weeks back on spotting bad medical info from a mile away:
💃🏽 Winners of the week: The dance pros of Dancing with the Stars, who created this absolutely breathtaking group routine to honor ballroom legend and longtime DWTS judge Len Goodman, who died earlier this year. If DWTS is not your thing, that’s cool - it’s admittedly a bit cheesy and over the top. But do yourself a favor and watch this gorgeous dance (which starts at 4:25 in this video).
🤦🏼♀️ Buffoon of the week: Give it up for the guy who is half Trump’s age but already seems to have told twice the number of lies. There are no sweaters-under-blazers in federal prison, GEORGE. (If you have a New York Times subscription, check out George Santos Swore He’d Never Talk to Me. Then the Phone Rang). Chock full of narcissistic projection and jack-assery.
🐈⬛ 💩 And finally, it’s this week’s Cat Dump:
Loving the rebrand. And the kitties 🥹😍
Wow this is a fantastic roundup filled with great info! Thanks so much for the mention too! I appreciate it a lot. I'll enjoy reading all through this health and wellness tools. ☺️