Long Covid Syndrome
– when exhaustion remains

Theraklinik Long COVID Blutwäsche – Blut im Dunkelfeldmikroskop vor (links) und nach (rechts) Blutreinigung (HTA)

Mechanical blood purification procedures for the treatment of Long-COVID: Blood in the dark-field microscope before (left) and after (right) blood purification (HTA). In the middle you can see the blood in the adsorber.

Apheresis at Long Covid in Berlin

Reading time: 7min

Machine blood purification procedures for the treatment of Long COVID and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Exhaustion and lack of energy are the main features of Long COVID and well-known fatigue syndromes such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), respectively.

Long-COVID refers to the persistence of symptoms beyond four weeks following acute infection with SARS-Cov2. If symptoms persist for more than twelve weeks, it is referred to as post-COVID syndrome. It is estimated that up to 15% of all COVID-19 sufferers are affected, regardless of the severity of the disease, age, or pre-existing conditions.

Common symptoms are:

  • Fatigue, muscle weakness, pain and exhaustion

  • Headaches, concentration and memory disorders (so-called “brain fog”)

  • Respiratory problems

  • Odor, and taste loss

  • Depressive moods and other mental disorders

  • Sleep and anxiety disorders

  • Heart muscle inflammation

  • New-onset kidney and metabolic diseases

  • Thromboembolism

For more information, please contact the Robert Koch Institut (RKI)

17.10.2022: „The Pandemic of the Untreated“-An ARD documentary on persistent complaints after COVID illness or vaccination – with the well-known doctor and TV presenter Eckart von Hirschhausen.

A successful documentary that shows how helpless doctors currently are in the face of Long COVID, how desperate sufferers grasp at any straw and how blood washing can possibly bring relief.

See for yourself:

ARD-Mediathek: Die Pandemie der Unbehandelten

(starting at minute 6, the performance of apheresis/blood washing is discussed).

At THERA Praxisklinik we perform blood washing (with or without simultaneous hyperthermia treatment) several times a week. Our patients find the treatment a great support in their healing process. If you have any questions or would like initial information, you are welcome to arrange a free 10-minute telephone call with one of our physicians.

Do you suffer from new symptoms
in the temporal context after a COVID vaccination?
Then please read our article Treatment for Post-Vac Syndrome.

Simply exhausted or the consequences of infection with SARS-Cov-2.

If symptoms such as exhaustion, rapid fatigability or cognitive impairment are new or persist after a coronavirus infection, then one should think of the Long-COVID syndrome. The syndrome can also develop after an unnoticed infection / an asymptomatic course.Especially in the pandemic times, when we all have to suffer from restrictive measures, stress and anxiety, it is important to take care of your own health and to take symptoms seriously and, if necessary, to get medical clarification. Given the wide variety of symptoms, it is often not easy for even medical professionals to distinguish between a pandemic-related psychological stress reaction or post-viral fatigue.

Silent inflammation and chronic stress often go hand in hand and promote any disease process. In principle, COVID-19 can attack all organ areas. There are also organ damages that (initially) do not cause any or only very unspecific symptoms (subclinical multi-organ damage).

This is well known in medicine. Eighty percent of an organ can be damaged before symptoms appear. The body is a miracle of compensation. The other side of the coin is that this is why silent consequences of an infection are often not discovered or discovered very late. Therefore, especially after an infection with the novel coronavirus, it is advisable to rather go to the doctor once more for a check-up. If detected early, even subtle damage can be better treated.

“Complex clinical pictures such as post-/long-COVID require […] a generalist interdisciplinary approach with a view to the whole person, as well as continuity of care.”

[from S1 Guideline Post-COVID/Long-COVID, as of 07/12/2021]

Due to the variety and complexity of possible symptoms, it is also recommended by the authors of the current guideline on Long-COVID that patients be seen by physicians from different specialties who should work together to find a cure. At large university hospitals, therefore, there are now even specially established post-COVID outpatient clinics.

At THERA Praxisklinik, a holistic approach is the standard. Our patients benefit both from integrative diagnostics and from our multidisciplinary team of specialized physicians and therapists.

Long COVID and the vaccination

We also treat patients whose symptoms first appeared in temporal connection with a vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 or whose illnesses worsened strongly in temporal proximity to a vaccination. Although there are no data from large studies on this to date, there are indications that vaccination could also trigger long-covid. There are several lines of evidence and pathophysiological explanatory models for this, such as autoantibodies, inflammatory responses of the vessel walls, and minute vessel occlusions by spike proteins. Several individual case observations by different physicians also speak for such a connection. In each case, however, an individual look must be taken, as generalizations are not helpful.

It is worthwhile to support self-healing powers with Long-COVID.

The human body, through its various regulatory systems, has the ability to constantly rebalance itself under a wide variety of stresses.

Chronic stress, nutrient deficiencies and environmental toxins are just a few examples that our modern way of life brings with it and that weaken us.

We can usually withstand these stresses for a long time, but at some point even the most effective system is overloaded and goes to its knees. And often it is an acute infection that triggers a breakdown.

However, in order for the regulatory systems to recover from the illness, we reduce the stresses on the various levels in order to free up resources again for the self-healing powers. To do this, we use extensive and specialized diagnostic methods and various proven therapeutic methods.

Blood washing with apheresis and adsorption:
Effectively and in a short time remove a large amount of harmful substances at once.

Both blood purification methods (hemoperfusion methods) physically remove harmful substances from the body. Depending on the method and filter systems used, heavy metals, pesticides, solvents, inflammatory mediators, autoantibodies, etc. are removed.

In the case of apheresis, we examine the filtered pollutants (the so-called eluate) in the laboratory as standard.

In the case of adsorption, on the other hand, the pollutants are so firmly bound that the adsorbate cannot be examined in the laboratory. Here, we measure the pollutants before and after therapy in the patient and, if desired, supplement this with before-and-after photographs through the dark-field microscope. This pictorial representation of the blood and its components is very impressive in the vast majority of cases (see cover photos).

Even before the Corona pandemic, we were able to achieve good results with our Thera Mito Apheresis (TMA) as well as with Thera Mito Hyperthermia Adsorption (TMHA) in CFS and other clinical pictures.

Extracorporeal blood purification procedures, i.e. procedures in which the blood is purified outside the body through filter systems, have been established in medicine since the 1950s.

They are mainly used when the body’s own detoxification organs can no longer do their job adequately.

The best known is dialysis, in which patients with inadequate kidney function are detoxified regularly in dialysis centers, sometimes over a period of several years, usually to bridge the period until a donor kidney is available.

Another common area in which these blood purification procedures are used is intensive care medicine. There they help to bridge the organ failure that often occurs in intensive care patients, or to counteract the so-called cytokine storms, i.e. uncontrolled excessive immune reactions.

A lesser-known but nevertheless frequent area of application is patients with congenital lipometabolic disorders. In this case, the blood fats are removed from the bloodstream, usually on a weekly basis, in order to prevent premature heart attacks and strokes.

In H.E.L.P. apheresis (heparin-induced extracorporeal LDL precipitation), the pH of a portion of the blood is altered in the machine so that harmful components otherwise dissolved in the blood can precipitate and then be filtered out. This procedure is primarily used to treat congenital dyslipidemia, but like most extracorporeal blood purification procedures, is also successfully used in the treatment of CFS / ME / Long COVID.

Although the comparability of extracorporeal blood purification procedures among themselves is severely limited [REF], reports of colleagues successfully using similar procedures for Long COVID, Post Covid Syndrome, and side effects of Covid vaccinations have also been accumulating recently.

Over the past few decades, the technologies have been steadily researched and developed, and they are now being applied in other settings.

For example, the colleague Dr. Jäger from Mühlheim reports on her successes with H.E.L.P. apheresis in Dr. Hirschhausen’s Check-up.

This treatment with H.E.L.P. apheresis is also possible in the THERA Praxisklinik, but we generally use more advanced systems. H.E.L.P. apheresis has been used in Germany for over 30 years.

Over the past few decades, the technologies have been steadily researched and developed, and they are now being applied in other settings.

In one session, which lasts about 3-4 hours, about 4-6 liters of blood are purified during this procedure.

In our clinic we look back on years of experience with Thera Mito Apheresis (TMA), with which we can help patients with, for example, detoxification disorders and chronic inflammatory diseases (multiple sclerosis) or ME/CFS sufferers (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome).

 

Put simply, in a treatment, the blood in the machine is separated from unwanted components by a filter. These “washed out” contaminants (called eluate) are collected in an extra bag and can be tested in the laboratory.

 

The more effective and successful procedure for Long Covid and other post-viral exhaustion syndromes is our Thera Mito Hyperthermia Adsorption (TMHA). In this process, approximately – 50-70Liters of blood are purified in the same time. Unlike a classic filter system, which in principle works like a simple coffee filter, here there is no membrane that retains certain particles and lets others through, but small synthetic resin beads with a special biocompatible surface of about 35,000 m2 in total, to which the unwanted substances adhere and are thus removed from the bloodstream.

 

A catheter is placed in the large inguinal vein for the duration of the treatment for the significantly larger volume of blood used in this procedure.

Theraklinik Long COVID Blutwäsche – Blut wird im Oxygenator mit Sauerstoff aufgesättigt

Machine blood purification procedures for the treatment of Long-COVID: Blood is saturated with oxygen in the oxygenator.

The purified blood is enriched with medical oxygen (oxygenated) before being returned to the body. No other procedure achieves peak concentrations of 500 pO2 -meaning that for a short time there is five times more oxygen in the (venous) blood than under optimal normal conditions.

Such values are hardly reached even with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, which is used in other centers for the therapy of Long Covid. As a result, oxygen reaches otherwise less well-supplied areas in the periphery in high concentrations, stimulating metabolism there as well. This also produces antimicrobial effects, especially when combined with hyperthermia.  The blood is briefly heated to 42° before it is returned to the body. Thus, an artificial fever is created, which in turn has many positive effects – among other things, significantly more harmful substances are removed from the entire tissue due to the significantly increased blood circulation throughout the body.

Furthermore, the heat produces so-called heatshock proteins (HSP), which have a variety of positive effects on health. They are the body’s own repair system, which can repair defective body proteins.

In both blood purification procedures, i.e. Thera Mito Apheresis (TMA) and Thera Mito Hyperthermia Adsorption (TMHA), we use our successful infusion therapies concomitantly, on the one hand to increase the detoxification effects and on the other hand to make the entire procedure even more tolerable. In the process, the stores of essential vitamins, minerals and trace elements are replenished. In addition, substances are given to support the body’s own detoxification systems in their work.

Blood purification procedures for the treatment of Long-COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome- the before and after is very important.

We attach great importance to a good before and after preparation of the blood purification procedures.

On the one hand, this involves identifying and eliminating possible obstacles to therapeutic success in advance in each case, and on the other hand, quantifying the detoxification by means of laboratory tests before and after.

Outflow obstructions in the vascular and lymphatic system, blockages of spinal or other joints, hardening of fasciae of the muscles and all other interference fields should be looked at and treated. Here we recommend our Autonomic Regulation Therapy according to Norbert Fuhr (AHNF).

Since the blood circulation of the smallest vessels often plays a decisive role in Long-Covid, we often use procedures such as oxyvenation according to Regelsberger or ozone high-dose therapy, even in preparation, to improve the microcirculation and to train the antioxidant capacities of the body.

Also the “altitude training”, the Interval Hypoxia Hyperoxia Training (IHHT) can be indicated to support the healing success following a blood purification therapy.

For our international patients we create individual cure programs in order to make the treatment program as effective as possible for the duration of the stay in Berlin.

Our doctors will be happy to inform you about the individual possibilities in a 10-minute initial consultation.

Your contact persons

Contact and appointment possible at any time

Do one or more of the above points apply to you and would you like to do something for your health? Are you curious? Please feel free to contact us by phone to make an appointment.

You can reach us according to our opening hours at tel. 030 79016533. We look forward to your call or message.

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