[w______roy]

I can relate about physical exercise—I had debilitating long covid symptoms for about six months with no end in sight. Could not work out, had to plan climbing stairs around my schedule so I'd have 20 minutes after to recover. Until I was forced to go on a business trip to Europe for two weeks where I was walking 20-30,000 steps a day and carrying luggage everywhere. Afterwards I felt 80-90% better, it was crazy. Still no way to know if that was just coincidence or not, but I keep seeing anecdotal stories about physical activity being key.

[AnonCoward42]

This is actually a good point. Not necessarily true for everyone, but it can be caused by avoiding physical exercise too much after being sick for weeks. It mimics/triggers depression and you feel sick/bad because of that. Had that pre-2019, so it sounds very familiar. I felt sick for months and when I had to ignore it, it went relatively quickly away (in a few days really).

Some might call this psychosomatic, but I feel like calling it like this is maybe reversed or at least sounds reversed to me as the physical state triggers the psychological condition and can then start a vicious cycle, which is only broken on the physical level.

edit: Of course don't go full tilt and be sensible with your physical exercise after not doing anything (lying in bed) for a week or more. Even a walk in the park can be exercise!

[civilitty]

I don't think it's psychosomatic because it mirrors other physical injuries in weight training.

There is a threshold beyond which an injury becomes too severe and requires proper rest, an immobilizer, and physical therapy. It requires a little bit of experience to identify those injuries but below that threshold it's better to soldier through the pain with lighter intensity exercise that works the injured muscles.

A safe example is working through delayed onset muscle soreness.

[treprinum]

With LC it's difficult when you get POTS, i.e. my resting HR was 60 and the moment I stood up it shot to over 150, making me dizzy and super unwell. Rowing machine and electrolytes helped quickly though. Also, post-exertional malaise (PEM) is real, when I overdid it with sport on my good days, I paid by a week in bed unable to move. Pycnogenol/OPC turned out to be a great help with that.

[treprinum]

Full tilt meant 200m walk in the park -> instant PEM. When you have no clue what is going on, stop applying your basic recipes on new health issues from pandemics, you would literally harm other people that could suffer because of your silliness. Imagine this condition being more like being at 3/4 of slow dying from asphyxia on Mt. Everest. It felt like I was 70 years older and started understanding what old people go through when their body stops functioning properly. I am pretty sure there is some oxygenation issue as when I went to high mountains and left the gondola at the top of the mountain, I almost passed out from lack of oxygen and that was only like 6,000ft difference. That corrected once I went back to the valley so I could limp back to my hotel.

[AnonCoward42]

> When you have no clue what is going on, stop applying your basic recipes on new health issues from pandemics, you would literally harm other people that could suffer because of your silliness.

How can my comment harm people? It didn't say that walking (any distance) is the only or the lowest exercise possible nor did I say that lack of exercise is the only explanation to begin with. Actually the opposite is implied and taking a walk was an example for something that is usually not considered exercise.

[treprinum]

I was reacting to your edit when it became clear you didn't consider that just a short slow walk can send LC people to a bed for a week, i.e. physical activity is not an answer for people suffering from it.

[w______roy]

Definitely I think the psychological aspect plays a key role. I have not kept up with the Covid-19 literature in the last year and a half, but I recall many women reporting that it disrupted their cycle. In fact, my partner contracted Covid-19 and had an altered period for a few months and developed acne for the first time in their life. So it would seem hormones are being messed with, which can really mess with your emotions/mental state and like you say, could jumpstart a vicious cycle.

[giardini]

Europe trip = better diet + restricted schedule (esp. sleep)

perhaps?