WINTER PARK, Fla. —
From fatigue to anxiety and confusion – even after recovering from the virus, long COVID-19 symptoms are not only hard to deal with, they’re hard to understand.
A new breakthrough study by a Central Florida medical facility shows how a treatment is helping some long-haulers heal.
Gillan was diagnosed with COVID-19 in September 2020. Even after she recovered from the virus, her pain didn’t fully disappear.
“I couldn’t run, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t do dishes,” Gillian said. “I like literally was struggling for so long and so often that there was nowhere for me to get any answers to my problems.”
She battled memory loss, confusion and blurred vision.
It wasn’t until recently when she finally felt hope again after meeting Dr. Mohammed Elamir from Aviv Clinics.
The clinic is using hyperbaric oxygen therapy to help treat people with long COVID-19 symptoms.
After a consultation, the patient goes through a three-day assessment. Depending on the symptoms, the doctor takes images of the patient’s brain to better understand the impact.
The hyperbaric oxygen therapy can make a patient’s lungs gather much more oxygen than normal. Their body or brain can create new cells and grow new blood vessels.
“So that way as you go through the treatment you should see that brain fog improve, your memory and concentration improve and your physical performance improve,” Dr. Elamir said. “That’s something we measure along the way and when you complete the program we repeat that same three-day assessment.”
Just under 100 patients took part in the COVID-19 study.
Treatments last eight to 12 weeks and are personalized to the patient.
Gillan says she feels like a new person after going through 10 treatments.
“I can walk, I can do cardio, I can do my kids’ homework,” Gillan said.
“More and more as people recognize the definition of long COVID we’re going to be able to identify specific things that we can treat, but it doesn’t stop there,” Dr. Elamir said.
The clinic also uses the treatment to help heal other conditions such as traumatic brain injury and Lyme disease.
Cited from WESH2