Smart Covid recovery

After one year of Covid in the UK we have all become accustomed to the routines of Hands Face and Space. These routines that have become part of our normal behaviour are obviously designed to reduce the infection rate.

The second way of helping ourselves is to be proactive with our health. Vitamin D supplementation (between Oct and March to take 10 micrograms or 400 IU per day) is now routinely advised, as is exercise (two and a half hours of cardio per week) healthy eating and good quality sleep  The idea is to give us the healthiest body with the strongest immune system possible to fight infection.

But what happens after all this effort if we contract Covid? How we recover plays an important role in our speed and quality of recovery, potentially reducing reactivation of the symptoms.

Symptom flare up can occur, often as we start to recover and this can be in the in the first six weeks after infection. Most people (about 80%) who experience Covid will get mild symptoms, but it is equally important to recover well if you have had mild symptoms as serious symptoms. Symptom flare up can be caused by doing too much too soon (TMTS), as energy returns and pressures of returning to work and completing un-done tasks mounts, the frustrations of a mild Covid infection often bubble over into doing TMTS.

One of the most notable symptoms of Covid is fatigue, not just tiredness, but a sudden crashing loss of energy. The temptation when we experience this is to stop everything and take to our beds, then when our energy returns we continue with our un-done tasks and work. This produces a cycle of peaks and troughs. Over time the troughs can get deeper and longer and the peaks of energy get lower. It’s very important to moderate our activity levels, not just physical but mental too.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) recently published information on activity levels, how to pace ourselves, what intensity to exercise for and for how long depending on how badly we have been affected by the Covid infection. We can help you understand this as part of your recovery plan. Encouraging better breathing, diaphragm movement and physical health creates part of the foundation of a strong Covid recovery.

This return to health advice needs to be taken in conjunction with the advice we should(!) already be following; limiting the spread of infection, healthy eating, smart supplementation and good sleep. If you need any advice we are here to help.   If you find that excessive coughing has injured your back or that bed rest has stiffened you body we can help with that too. After the year we have had we owe it to ourselves to make the best possible recovery to enjoy life to the full again.