Nearly three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, experts are trying to understand the lingering symptoms of what’s commonly called long COVID, who’s most at risk, and how the symptoms can best be treated.

Becker emphasized that PCCs are equally likely to occur in patients with COVID-19 whether they were hospitalized or stayed home.

“In our experience treating over 500 patients with PCC,” Becker said, who also runs the UC–Davis Health Post-COVID-19 Clinic, “the most common symptoms [of PCC] are fatigue, post-exercise exhaustion, shortness of breath, and chest pain.”

Becker’s initial treatment approach includes carefully selected tests to evaluate the heart, lungs, muscles, and joints. A diagnosis pertaining to one or more of these is followed by targeted treatment based on teaching patients physical and mental ways to ease symptoms.

Signs of post-viral chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) include fatigue, combined with brain fog or pain that lasts more than three months after the initial infection.

“It is suspected that a significant portion of people who dropped out of the workforce in the ‘Great Resignation’ had milder cases of post-COVID CFS,” Teitelbaum said.

Chronic fatigue syndrome can severely affect a person’s quality of life. “In the 10 percent of COVID cases that have more severe post-viral fatigue, it can be totally crippling,” he said. “Even leaving people bed and housebound.”

There are currently no well-established treatment options for post-COVID chronic fatigue syndrome, although research to find effective methods is ongoing.

Teitelbaum’s research showed that 60 percent of people with post-viral chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia improved by simply taking Korean red ginseng.

Improvements in this group were a 67 percent average increase in energy, a 44 percent average increase in overall well-being, a 48 percent average improvement in mental clarity, a 46 percent average improvement in sleep, a 33 percent average decrease in pain, and a 72 percent average increase in stamina.

“Shortness of breath is very common post-COVID, but usually not dangerous,” Teitelbaum said. “Mostly it’s simply scary.”

You can use a pulse oximeter when you’re experiencing shortness of breath to tell whether it’s a lung or heart problem (due to low oxygen levels)—or just a sensation of breathlessness.

“All of these supplements are relatively low-cost,” Teitelbaum said. “And therefore doctors don’t hear about them.”

They noted one patient who stopped taking guanfacine due to an episode of low blood pressure and reported their brain fog returned. The condition was resolved when they resumed taking the drug.

“The finding that one patient’s cognitive abilities worsened when guanfacine treatment was suspended, and improved with guanfacine reinstatement, supports a therapeutic role for this compound,” the authors wrote.

Researchers emphasized that placebo-controlled trials are needed to better understand how these drugs work to treat brain fog.

Based on the studies of these low-cost, doctor-recommended remedies, there’s help at hand—and hope for those suffering the long-term, sometimes debilitating effects of long COVID. Remember to consult your doctor for possible contraindications to any medications you may be taking before trying any new remedies.