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Weird-Fox-4036 t1_izetb3d wrote

It's all connected, the CNS gets damaged by covid, especially the microglia are overactive and keeping the neuroinflammation up. The vagus nerve is one part of the CNS and therefore inflammed too. The LDN lowers the activation of microglia and neuroinflammation. Furthermore it slows auto-immune actions and improves neurotransmitters. It helped me a lot. Most helpful for my Vagus nerve was the stellatum ganglion blockage. I seizured and fainted in the beginning when I tried breathing exercises. Then I got an oximeter (most long COVID patients have chronic hyperventilation) and just tried to get the oxygen level down by concentrating on breathing out longer than inhaling. There is no need for special exercises, breathing out longer already has a positive effect. I also got the polar H10 and the autonom health app, it measures your HRV and gives direct feedback of the state of how Parasympathicus and sympathicus work together.

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Mountainstreams t1_izeveuu wrote

That’s interesting that you had the same symptoms as my wife from the breathing exercises. Up until now most doctors are surprised she can’t handle them. Her case is a bit unusual though because she started getting the stomach spasms & heart palpitations an hour after her second Covid vaccine & they dissipated somewhat over the next 3 weeks. Her cardiologist said that he sees a lot of the same POTS like symptoms from Covid & the vaccine but most people improve over time. She is a lot better now than she was last year but her vagus nerve still seems to get relapses every few months & doctors don’t seem to understand it. The neurologists seemed to understand it the least. It seems like any immune stressor can trigger it, be that a common cold or Covid infection or even a stomach bug. We’re hoping some breakthrough research comes out on the neurological side of long Covid in the next year or two since it feels like personal experimentation at the moment. But I think we will pursue trying LDN once we made sure it doesn’t interact with POTS medication! A stellate ganglion block is also on our list of possible treatments but were going through the list slowly & carefully for now.

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Weird-Fox-4036 t1_izewunc wrote

My docs meant that my whole CNS (including vagus nerve) is highly inflamed due to covid. First studies show that this is the reason for many neurological symptoms. I have developed severe pots too and take several meds for it, obviously check with your doc, but it's a pretty common combination. Also for pots, as it's also connected to autonomic dysfunctioning. I would startreally low, like 0,5 mg, and try different day times. I started with 1,5mg and the first two weeks were hell, I had insomnia and insane migraines, but then I changed to mornings and then I only had some more headaches for some more weeks and now I don't have any side effects, as long as I take it in the morning. But my cognitive function and neurological health keeps improving.. I would do my own research and try different things, as everyone reacts pretty different to LDN. And I wanted to skip it several times but I'm really happy I stayed with it.

Wish you good luck

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Mountainstreams t1_izexmcj wrote

Thanks for the tips. We were worried about the side effects alright. She was getting bad migraines for a while until we switched to magnesium glycinate from citrate as one of her supplements. She only had brain fog in the early months thankfully, but she does get fibromyalgia & costochondritis. It was actually her rheumatologist that prescribed the LDN for the pain side of things. But it might be the case that all the symptoms fit together.

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