This week on the Health Made Simple Show, I’m going to cover the topics I’m talking about at my seminar this weekend. We’re going to be addressing long Covid and other long-term health issues that can occur after a virus or other health problem. Part of our science is practice and continued learning and Covid has allowed us to have a large pool of patients to observe and learn from. Hopefully, we can use this moment to develop and improve our long-term treatment strategies so we can better address these issues.

Watch the live show below:

First, I’m going to start with some clinical insights from today’s practice. My first clinical insight is a couple who have both been diagnosed with cancer. They’re both in their sixties and they’re absolutely wonderful people. She was diagnosed with bladder cancer and chose to take an alternative route. It’s been a three-year journey and it has certainly been a battle. As we have learned about cancer, getting a clear test doesn’t always mean a permanent clear test, so it’s been important for her to continue to press forward on this journey and not go back. It’s a great lesson for all aspects of our lives too. Through it all, her husband has been amazing and joined her on her journey. As she was on the tail end of her journey, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. She told me that she was actually glad that she had gone through what she had so she could be there for him during his diagnosis and understand what he’s going through. That’s real love. The mindset we choose is so incredibly powerful and has far-reaching effects on our lives and the lives of those around us.

The second insight is about a lady I started seeing right after she had her second baby. She was in complete adrenal fatigue, which isn’t surprising, the most tired people I ever meet are moms. In her case, having someone just listen to her and tell her that needing help is totally okay was a huge first step. She was so fatigued that she thought exercising would help her get more energy. However, she just got more tired, which is a total red flag that your adrenal glands are not functioning properly. After a while, she stopped coming in and went to raise some children. When I recently saw her, though, I could tell she had gone backward. She told me she was exhausted, gaining weight, lacking libido, etc. When I asked what was going on, she told me Covid had been hell, the kids were home all the time, they were all on top of each other and she was stressed to the max. I reminded her that we were just revisiting an old situation and she balked because, as she told me, “I thought I fixed that!”. This was the lightbulb moment. If you go back to the same patterns that caused your issues, you’re going to go back to the same issues. 

I get people who come to see me all the time and say, “I just don’t feel right”. People who practice functional medicine see a lot of tricky cases because they’ve often been dismissed by people who practice traditional medicine. Outside of the occasional case that is truly psychosomatic, most of the cases I see are people who are struggling with something unnamed they need help with. Sometimes doctors say things like “It’s all in your head” or “It’s just stress” without any help offered. Sometimes they’re being dismissive and sometimes they’re just out of their league. Either way, it can be immensely frustrating. 

There is a specific strategy you can take if you ever find those words coming out of your mouth. There is something out there called Post-Viral Syndrome (PVS), which happens after having a virus. Viruses enter the body and multiply to take over other cells and beat up your mitochondria along the way. This is not something new, but today you might hear it called Long-Hauler Syndrome or something similar. The difference is, now, because of the massive number of Covid cases we’ve seen in the last few years, we have thousands and thousands of people experiencing this same thing all at once. This makes the clinical observation a lot more clear and it confirms what we thought about PVS. 

Symptoms can include:

• Fatigue
• Brain Fog
• Confusion
• Lack of Interest
• Joint Pain
• Hair Loss
• Loss of Taste and Smell
• Gut Issues
• Unexplained Weight Gain
• Unexplained Weight Loss
• Ringing In Ears
• Mood Swings
• High Blood Pressure

This can be especially confusing for people because post-viral symptoms can be different than the symptoms of the virus. Not only that, but they can take 2-4 months to appear. 

Here are the four things you need to be addressing if you have PVS or any type of long-hauler issues. 

1. Adrenal Issues

Your adrenal glands are essentially your stress management glands. They produce cortisol, testosterone, and other hormones. If they get dysfunctional, you’ll start to get excessively fatigued. You’ll get a good night’s sleep and still feel tired. The adrenals give us the most protection in the body. In the beginning, it can be difficult to tell because the cortisol the adrenals produce can mask itself as adrenaline or testosterone. Eventually, you end up in the “wired and tired” phase where you’re tired all day and wired at night. Another classic symptom is dizziness when you bend forward and come up. Once we see these issues, we have to address the adrenal problems alongside the symptoms. If you don’t address the root adrenal causes, you’ll never heal. Sometimes you may not even know you’ve had a virus, but noticing these issues and cleaning up your adrenal glands will go a long way toward helping your overall health. You can test for these issues as well. 

2. Immune Function

This is really all about Vitamin D levels. It plays an essential role in the function of your immune levels. Getting a test and finding out your Vitamin D levels is key to understanding your overall health. Even for people who get a lot of sun and for some who are actively taking a Vitamin D supplement, your levels can still be way off. 

3. Gut Health

In the event your gut isn’t functioning properly, you’re probably not absorbing the nutrients you need, especially Vitamin D. This is a specific thing that a lot of doctors simply don’t or won’t address properly. They’ll treat symptoms like heartburn and indigestion, but they won’t work to heal the microbiome that’s causing those issues in the first place. Go back and watch This Episode to learn about the four Rs of gut health: Remove, Replace, Repair, and Rebalance. This is a MUST-LISTEN episode for anyone dealing with PVS or anyone trying to optimize their gut health. We talk about how dysfunction in the gut affects every single area of your life: physical, mental, emotional, etc. 

4. Stealth Pathogens

Stealth Pathogens are other viruses that already exist in your body. When you get broken down by whichever virus you had, they wreak havoc on your body in its weakened state. This is what we’ve seen so much of in the last few years. The fear, uncertainty, and vulnerability that were caused during lockdowns created a perfect storm for viruses to thrive. These opportunistic viruses are just waiting for us to make a mistake. Viruses like Epstein-Barr just wait for us to be weakened and then they pounce. I’ve only had two patients with PVS symptoms not test positive for Epstein-Barr antibodies. Usually, your body is holding it at bay, because that’s what the body is good at. However, in a state of prolonged stress or a health crisis, your body is rendered vulnerable for these stealth pathogens to strike because it’s depleted on resources. This is also true of shingles, herpes, Lyme, etc. If you’re looking to work through my specific stealth pathogen protocol, you can contact me at (850) 231-9288 or info@balance30a.com. 

If you’ve ever felt like something’s wrong, but you just can’t put your finger on it, this deep dive is for you. If you’ve known something hasn’t been right since a specific moment in time or health issue, this deep dive is for you. If you’re struggling with any of the above symptoms and you want to change your health, this deep dive is for you. 

And last but not least, this week’s action to become superhuman is…

Choose The Mindset That Serves You

Sometimes our mindset doesn’t serve us at all. Let is be one that moves you to action and drives you to the place you want to be.

What’s Next?

We have put together a dashboard of all of Dr. Bart’s videos, based on health topics, in our Level-Up Health Membership.

This library of health content is low cost, so we can help you on your journey to becoming superhuman! 

Not only is it extensive, but it will continue to expand with new videos each month. Also, you will have the opportunity to share these videos with your friends and family!

Dr. Bart Precourt

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