"Tin Foil Hat Territory? The Gupta Program, the Lightning Process and the BPS [biopsychosocial] in #LongCovid and ME: How brain retraining therapies intersect with the biopsychosocial model"
"This excellent article highlights the similarities of these methods with the unevidenced 'biopsychosocial' approach to ME/CFS which has dominated research and treatments for years and is now infiltrating Long Covid, including in NHS clinics."
"We need to be vigilant and educated to spot this charlatanry. We need therapeutic treatments that actually work and stop gaslighting those with post-acute viral disease."
Responding to a BBC programme, Dr Edzard Ernst highlights data showing many are harmed by the Lighting Process and the lack of evidence for claims made.
He concludes: "Does anyone think that LP or its promoters are remotely serious?"
BBC: #LongCovid course is 'exploiting people', says ex-GB rower
Former Team GB rower Oonagh Cousins was offered a free course of the contested
alternative treatment "Lightning Process" (LP) for her long Covid. She says: "They were trying to suggest that I could think my way out of the symptoms, basically". The BBC has secret recordings from an LP-course confirming patients are told they can recover by changing thoughts, language and actions.
Professor and LC-researcher Danny Altmann says such behavioural approaches disregards the "mass" of measurable underlying damage in patients. Neuroscientist Dr Camilla Nord says the course is straying very far from neuroscience and calls it an abuse of scientific terms. The story is presented both as an article https://www.bbc.com/news/health-69040592 and a 38 min radio programme titled "Long Covid: Mind Over Matter?" https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001zg5q
(pay wall)
"Parents of children with #longCovid claim they have been accused of faking or exaggerating their child’s illness, leading to social services’ involvement and... court cases and the threat of the child’s removal from the home."
New research from UK team:
Examining well-being and cognitive function in people with #longCovid and ME/CFS, and age-matched healthy controls: A Case-Case-Control Study
"In this article, we review the evidence surrounding the post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 and the potential benefits of the use of heparin, with a special focus on the treatment of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome”
"*PEM is post-exertional malaise, also known as post-exertional symptom exacerbation. It is a symptom of ME/CFS and is also found in many people with #longCovid"
"PEM is dangerous. PEM can last hours, days, weeks, months, or a lifetime. Its duration and severity are wildly out of proportion to whatever prompted it. It can result in permanent harm. PEM can take a person who is able to work or look after their children, and make them bedbound. PEM destroys lives."
I think diagnoses like #LC & #MECFS are important for those ill after an infection to help adapt to the impairments, not get worse from pushing/having to push, etc
Developing effective strategies to optimize physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness in the long Covid population- The need for caution and objective assessment
"A clinical trial to test if the fibrinolytic enzyme Lumbrokinase improves symptoms and mitigates blood clotting issues or platelet hyperactivation in patients with #LongCOVID, ME/CFS, & LongLyme disease."
We have made images of the charts from the analysis of PubMed publications data for #MECFS & #LongCovid available in our Google Drive, for use by anyone in advocacy 📊
"We have found a potential mechanism underlying #LongCOVID which could represent a biomarker – that is, a tell-tale signature of the condition. We hope that this could help to pave the way to develop therapies and give some patients a firm diagnosis”