There’s an increasing amount of anecdotal evidence from people suffering from Long Covid. This is where symptoms remain for much longer than the suggested two week period and are often accompanied by issues outside the officially recognised cough, fever and loss of taste or smell. These most commonly include debilitating fatigue, breathlessness, muscle aches and joint pain. Also, ‘brain fog,’ memory loss, lack of concentration, and depression. Very similar to the symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).
What is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?
The main symptom of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is feeling extremely tired and generally unwell. But this tricky condition can also deliver a range of additional nasties. The severity of which can vary from day to day, or even within a day. These include:
- muscle and/or joint pain
- headaches
- sleep issues
- brain fog – problems thinking, remembering or concentrating
- a sore throat or sore glands that are not swollen.
- flu-like symptoms.
- feeling dizzy or sick.
- fast or irregular heartbeats (heart palpitations)
Over the past few weeks, Osteopath Robin Kiashek has seen an increase in the number of patients presenting with these types of symptom.
Robin said: “Several of the patients I’ve seen with CFS symptoms know they have had COVID. But, of course, we will never know how many people have already had it but were asymptomatic.”
What can be done to ease the symptoms of CFS?
Robin has been a licensed practitioner in The Perrin Technique™ for CFS/ME and Fibromyalgia for over 10 years.
This is a manual method that aids the diagnosis and possible treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME. It was developed by Osteopath and neuroscientist Dr Raymond Perrin DO PhD in 1989.
What is the Perrin Technique™?
The Perrin Technique™ is based on Dr Perrin’s theory that different stress factors whether physical, allergies, emotional or infections lead to an overstrain of the sympathetic nervous system.
Further investigation has led to a probable cause of this nervous system overload being a build-up of toxins in the fluid around the brain and the spinal cord.
Some of the poisons caused by infection or inflammation in the head or spine flow through channels from the brain into the lymph ducts of the head face and neck.
The toxins are also meant to drain down the spinal cord and out into the lymph ducts lying along the spine. In a CFS/ME sufferer there is a back flow of these normal drainage points which leads to further toxicity and dysfunction of the central nervous system. This leads to the many symptoms we see in CFS/ME.
Research over past 30 years has validated Dr Perrin’s theories read more about them here.
The Perrin Technique and Long COVID
Dr Perrin and his colleagues from the University of Manchester have written to a number of medical publications to highlight the potential for a post-viral syndrome to manifest following COVID-19 infection. A similar situation was previously reported following Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) infection, also a coronavirus.
Back in the clinic
Whilst this may sound like yet another blow from the hammer that is proving to be 2020, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Robin said: “Working with the symptoms of CFS is never straightforward and patients often end up at my door after suffering for months (if not years).
“They have frequently been subjected to a barrage of medical tests and received lots of negative results. So, they are also feeling understandably anxious about what’s could be ailing them.
“The good news for people struggling with Long COVID symptoms is that they are fairly recent and are therefore likely to respond more quickly to treatment. But it can still be a long haul.”
Patient X has been seeing Robin intermittently since the end of April, shortly after they started to feel unwell.
Patient X explains: “In April, I was feeling the post-viral effects of likely Covid-19 and felt I had nowhere to turn to for support from a health and well-being perspective. My GP practice still remains phone consultations-only and I was frustrated that my health wasn’t improving. I had crippling fatigue, strange neurological symptoms, insomnia, dizziness and many other symptoms following the acute viral phase.
“Luckily, I did some research and learned that the Perrin Technique™ might be beneficial.
“I started regular sessions with Robin and was grateful for the holistic advice. He confirmed that I had post viral fatigue which mirrors chronic fatigue syndrome and I started my Perrin Technique™ sessions weekly.
“I am not 100% yet back to normal, but I feel it’s been a beneficial journey so far. I also feel empowered that I have a way of helping my recovery beyond resting and healthy eating.”
There are two Robin Kiashek Osteopath Clinics – in Central London (on Regent Street) and in East Finchley.
If you’re suffering with any of the symptoms listed above, then why not request an appointment or call on 020 8815 0979?
As a London osteopath with a keen interest in ME/ CFS, I was delighted to hear that Dr Raymond Perrin, creator of the Perrin Technique, has won the Research and Practice Award handed out by the Institute of Osteopathy. The first ever national awards ceremony took place last month at their yearly convention where Dr Perrin was handed the award to recognise 26 years of research into ME/ CFS and fibromyalgia.