Jamie Oliver Reveals ‘Deeply Scary’ Long Covid Battle Of Wife Jools

Posted on 20/08/2022 by Boris Clair

Jamie Oliver has opened up about his wife Jools’ “deeply scary” two-year long Covid battle.

The TV chef hailed the mum-of-five as “an absolute superstar”, revealing the 47-year-old has been “really affected” by the virus.

He told the Daily Mail Weekend magazine: “She’s had bad Covid and long Covid so she’s been really affected by it, sadly.

“She’s okay but still not what she wants to be. It’s been two years, she finds it deeply scary.”

Jamie explained they had seen specialist medical professionals but have been unable to solve her symptoms as the condition is still being learnt about.

“We’re all over Harley Street like a rash but no one really knows anything. The data on long Covid is still piling in. She’s been an absolute superstar,” he said.

There are 1.8million Britons estimated to have long Covid, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.

This month, experts from King’s College London said there appears to be three “subtypes” of the condition, each with their own set of symptoms including, fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, muscle ache and heart palpitations.

Jamie and Jools have been married for 22 years and have five children together.

Speaking about his relationship, the TV chef said: “Me and Jools have been together since we were 18.

“We went to London with nothing but dreams and aspirations. Luckily, we were able to solidify our relationship before it all kicked off. Then we did it together. It was exciting.

“When I first started going out with Jools, she was like, ‘I’ll never be able to have kids.’ She had polycystic ovaries. But here we are with five.”

The couple are parents to Poppy, Daisy, Petal, Buddy and River.

Jamie Oliver, Jools Oliver and their family pictured in 2016.

Oliver added: “I haven’t done teenage boys yet but I found teenage girls very hard. I tried to be an on-point dad, I’d give myself nine out of 10 for effort.

“The the minute they get to 13, you’re dumped. You’re outside looking in. All you want is a few hugs a day and to be appreciated but there’s a lot of chemistry going on.

“You never get the kid back after 13, they completely change. Just when you start to get them back, they’re off to university. So it’s like a bereavement.”

In 2020, Jools revealed she had had a miscarriage during lockdown and the couple have spoken openly in the past about losing “five little stars in the sky”.

Exercising With Long Covid Is Tough. This Gentle 5-Minute Workout Can Ease You In

Posted on 27/04/2022 by Boris Clair

You’re reading Move, the nudge we need to get active, however makes us happiest and healthiest.

Re-establishing your fitness routine after having Covid can have major benefits for your physical and mental health, but it needs to be approached cautiously if you’re still experiencing long Covid symptoms.

The NHS advises those experiencing long Covid to ease themselves back into exercise slowly. “Exercise is very important for regaining your muscle strength and endurance but this needs to be safe and managed alongside other long Covid symptoms,” it says. You can read further information about exercising after Covid infection on the NHS website.

Jeannie Di Bon, founder of the Moovlite app, is a movement therapist specialising in working with people experiencing chronic fatigue and chronic pain. More recently, she’s been designing workouts for those experiencing long Covid.

“You may find that your energy levels have dropped post-Covid and you may experience fatigue and post-exertion malaise (PEM),” she explains. “With this in mind, I recommend taking it gently and slowly. We need to keep the nervous system calm to allow the body to repair and we need to start moving without causing a fatigue flare-up.

“Listen to your body and try not to push yourself to pre-Covid fitness too soon. The more you fight the impact of long Covid, the harder it may be to recover.”

Below, Di Bon has shared a gentle, five-minute workout created for those who feel ready to start moving again.

But remember, always speak to a healthcare professional about resuming physical activity if you’re experiencing chest pain or severe breathlessness, or if physical activity is worsening your long Covid symptoms.

Exercise 1: Belly breathing

Start with some gentle belly breathing, allowing the lower ribs to expand. For many people, Covid causes a cough and cold so we want to start moving the lung tissue in the right way. Try to breathe quietly in through the nose and out through the nose. Lying on your back does not require strong inhales so take it very gently, allowing the breath to come to you.

Exercise 2: Arm rolls

Staying supine (lying on your back) is a good way to start moving – especially as some people experience dizziness with long Covid. You may find you don’t want to be standing for too long or doing exercises that involve inversions or squats. Keep it simple. This arm roll exercise can help stretch into the thorax and open the chest.

Start with your arms by your side. Try to keep the back heavy as you move the arms above your head and gently stretch. Let your breath settle the spine into the floor and allow the tissues to relax. You can add arm circles to this for a beautiful stretch across the chest.

Exercise 3: Ankle roll

To help with the dizziness that can happen, some simple leg exercises like calf pumps or ankle circles are recommended. You can do these lying on your back: hold on to one leg and try to circle to the ankle without the rest of the leg moving. Gently lower it back to the ground and repeat on the other leg.

Exercise 4: Resistance training

To build leg strength further, you can add a band for resistance work that is also gentle. This is another great exercise for circulation and helps prevent dizziness. Take a band and place it around your foot with the knee bent. Focus on gentle rolling the back of the thigh along the mat until the leg straightens.

Try not to lock the knee or hang into the band. Keep the energy flowing down the leg into the band. The back stays heavy into the mat – if your back is arching, raise the leg higher. Once the leg is straight, press the balls of the feet into the band and start to point and flex the foot. This is a brilliant way to utilise the calf pump.

Exercise 5: Seated twist

A seated twist is great to help circulation and digestion. Many people do experience stomach cramps and pain with Covid. Find a comfortable seated position and cross one leg over the other straight leg. Use your arms to guide yourself around to look over the opposite shoulder. Try to lift the spine up as you twist, rather than compress the spine. It’s also important to go gentle and not force into the twist. Stay in the position and breathe softly allowing tight muscles to release. You can then repeat on the other side.

Move celebrates exercise in all its forms, with accessible features encouraging you to add movement into your day – because it’s not just good for the body, but the mind, too. We get it: workouts can be a bit of a slog, but there are ways you can move more without dreading it. Whether you love hikes, bike rides, YouTube workouts or hula hoop routines, exercise should be something to enjoy.

These Are The People Most Likely To Experience Long Covid

Posted on 06/01/2022 by Boris Clair

Long Covid has been shrouded in mystery for much of the pandemic. But new research has finally shone a light on those who suffer a whole range of symptoms weeks or even months after they stopped being infectious.

New data from the Office of National Statistics has now revealed approximately 1.3 million people in the UK have self-reported long Covid as of December 6.

These estimates are based on participants who responded to a survey, rather than everyone in the population who had been clinically diagnosed with long Covid. This is a staggering number, adding up to 2% of the population.

Trends spotted among long Covid sufferers:

They tend to be between 35 and 69 years.
They are usually female.
They might live in a more deprived area.
They work in health, social care or teaching and education.
They deal with another activity-limiting health condition or disability.

ONS reported that 64% of people who self-reported long Covid said it affected their daily activities.

And among those who told ONS they had long Covid – in the month leading up to December 6 – 21% said they had confirmed or suspected Covid less than 12 weeks before.

Around 70% said they had confirmed or suspected Covid at least 12 weeks ago, while 40% said they had it at least one year ago.

Symptoms can include:

Fatigue
Loss of smell and taste (parosmia)
Shortness of breath
Difficulty concentrating (brain fog)
Insomnia
Dizziness
Pins and needles
Joint pain
Depressing and anxiety
Chest pain or heart palpitations
Tinnitus or earaches
Feeling sick, diarrhoea, stomach aches of loss of appetite
High temperature
cough
Sore throat
Rashes

What it’s like to have long Covid

Support worker Quincy Dwamena, 31, told PA reporters that he was a “healthy young guy” who “went to the gym often” before getting seriously ill from Covid.

Speaking in August 2021, he said: “I ended up being hospitalised and thought I was going to die.

“My advice is to get the vaccine: don’t put yourself and others at risk, I wish I’d got mine as soon as it was offered.”

Special needs tutor from London, Megan Higgins, 25, also told PA: “It’s now been eight months since I tested positive, and I can’t even walk around the shops without getting exhausted.

“Long Covid is debilitating, so please, get vaccinated. I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through what I have.”

Ella Harwood, 23, also contracted long Covid. She told reporters: “I’m young and fit but I was bed-bound for seven months with Covid.

“Before I caught the virus, I was super active and had no health concerns but I now suffer with asthma which I didn’t have before and a number of allergies.

“I fear I’ll never be the same again but I’m making progress and I’m very grateful that I’m still alive.”

However, some hopeful studies around long Covid have been published in recent months.

Being double-vaccinated can halve your risk of developing long Covid, while the overall numbers of people reporting long Covid is thought to be falling.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Methods For Treating Long Covid Called Out By NHS Medical Director

Posted on 24/02/2021 by Boris Clair

A NHS medical director has criticised Gwyneth Paltrow after she revealed her methods for tackling the long Covid symptoms she has been suffering from since contracting the disease last year.

Earlier this month, the Oscar-winning actor-turned lifestyle guru revealed she had tested positive for coronavirus early on in the pandemic.

She went on to disclose that she had been left with “long-tail fatigue and brain fog” and “high levels of inflammation” in her body.

The 48-year-old has since embarked on a “keto and plant-based” regime, with no sugar and alcohol, and fasts until 11am every day.

But Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for the NHS in England, said that “serious science” should be applied and “influencers” have a responsibility after name-checking Gwyneth.

“Like the virus, misinformation carries across borders and it mutates and it evolves,” he told PA.

“So I think YouTube and other social media platforms have a real responsibility and opportunity here.

“In the last few days I see Gwyneth Paltrow is unfortunately suffering from the effects of Covid.

“We wish her well, but some of the solutions she’s recommending are really not the solutions we’d recommend in the NHS.

“We need to take long Covid seriously and apply serious science. All influencers who use social media have a duty of responsibility and a duty of care around that.”

Writing on her blog on her Goop website last month, the Hollywood star wrote: “So I turned to one of the smartest experts I know in this space, the functional medicine practitioner Dr. Will Cole. After he saw all my labs, he explained that this was a case where the road to healing was going to be longer than usual.”

Gwynnie being Gwynnie, the post then saw her discuss detoxing and other healing methods (including infrared saunas), which you can read more about on her website.

A number of Gwyneth’s A-list peers have spoken out about their own personal experiences of Covid-19, including Tom Hanks, who was among the first public figures to speak out about testing positive for the disease in March 2020.

Hugh Grant also shared recently that he believes he had Covid last February, stating: “It started as just a very strange syndrome where I kept breaking into a terrible sweat. It was like a poncho of sweat, embarrassing really.

“Then my eyeballs felt about three sizes too big and this feeling as though an enormous man was sitting on my chest.”

Am I Still Infectious? What People With Long Covid Symptoms Should Know

Posted on 21/01/2021 by Boris Clair

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The Paradoxical Under-employment of Rehab Physicians During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Posted on 10/01/2021 by Boris Clair

January 9th, 2021 by Dr. Val Jones in Uncategorized

I used to joke that for all the hardships of being a physician, at least we had job security. Little did I know that a viral illness would put some physicians “on the bread line.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the physician workforce in both anticipated and unanticpated ways. While stay-at-home orders decrease temporary demand for cosmetic and elective surgical procedures by dermatologists and orthopedic surgeons, inpatient rehabilitation facilities are also feeling the squeeze, though the number of patients who need their services are growing exponentially (due to post-COVID syndromes).

In states of emergency, hospitals at (or over) capacity have the right to commandeer beds from other units within their system. So for example, if there is a unit devoted to the rehabilitation of stroke or car accident victims, the hospital might re-allocate those beds to COVID-19 patients. There is also financial incentive to do so because Medicare pays 20% higher rates to hospitals for each COVID patient that requires admission.

So what happens when the rehab unit turns into a COVID unit? A few things. First, the patients who need inpatient rehabilitation with close physician monitoring are turfed to nursing homes. Fragile stroke patients, those with high risk for neurological or cardiac decompensation, and inpatients with complex medical problems (such as internal bleeding, kidney failure, or infectious diseases) are sent to a lower level of care without suficient oversight by physicians. These patients often crash, get readmitted to the hospital, or in the worst case, decline too quickly to be saved.

Second, the physicians who take care of rehab patients (rehabilitation physicians, also known as physiatrists) hand over care of the COVID patients (in the former rehab unit) to hospitalists, reducing their own workloads substantially while the hospitalists are overwhelmed and at risk for burn out.

Third, hospitals are struggling to cut costs due to the suspension of their lucrative elective surgical pipelines during COVID surges – and put a moratorium on hiring additional physicians who would normally be assisting with growth and expansion efforts in neuromuscular, brain and spinal cord injury rehabilitation.

Finally, in some cases rehab units are experiencing low censuses not because their beds were commandeered for COVID patients, but because elective surgeries have diminished and patients are afraid of coming to the hospital. Many of those with symptoms of heart attacks, strokes, brain injuries, etc. are staying home and “gutting it out” while reversible or treatable injuries and disabilities become permanent. The devastating toll will be difficult to quantify until normal medical surveillance and care resumes.

Meanwhile, physiatrists with outpatient practices and pain management clinics are experiencing a dramatic drop in patient throughput, with telemedicine visits largely inaccessible to the poor and disabled populations they serve. Those outpatient physicians seek to augment their income with part-time inpatient work, and unprecidented numbers are seeking employment through locum tenens agencies. Unfortunately, agencies have scant inpatient jobs to offer for the reasons I discussed above, and competition is fierce among agencies and physicians alike. It’s often the case that 7 or more agencies will contact a physician within hours of a new job posting, and that job will be filled before the physician can respond – and at an hourly rate 20-30% lower than pre-COVID days (based on my personal experience).

These are some of the unexpected underemployment consequences of the COVID pandemic for one sub-specialty group: physiatry. I imagine the forces at play may be similar for my peers in oncology, neurology, or preventive medicine, for example.

One thing is for sure: emergency medicine physicians, internists, and critical care specialists are facing a tsunami of patients while others of us are sitting on the bench, wanting to help but not trained to do so, “sheltering in place” as the non-COVID march of disease and disability continues apace.

Tags: COVID-19, Disability, Locum Tenens, Long COVID, Physiatry, Physician Workforce, PM&R, Rehabilitation Physician, Under-employment, Unemployment

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