Bowen Therapy for Long COVID Symptoms
WHY LONG COVID IS A CONCERN
You (or your loved ones) survived COVID-19, but are not yet healthy. That states the problem in one sentence.
Researchers estimate that more than five million people worldwide continue to suffer from debilitating symptoms months after contracting COVID-19. Many of these “long-haulers” cannot work. As I write this, in addition to the devastation caused by more than four million COVID-related deaths worldwide, Long COVID has serious economic and health repercussions. And, the pandemic is not over.
The United Kingdom has led the way with respect to research that examines the extent, type, and severity of post-COVID-19 symptoms. The BBC reported that “A study conducted by University College London and King's College London found one in six middle-aged people who reported being infected with coronavirus said they had long Covid symptoms. This fell to one in 13 among younger adults.”
While it may be too soon for our federal and provincial governments to compile data and report on the number of Canadians suffering Long COVID symptoms, we can extrapolate from the UK statistics. More than 5.8 million people in the UK contracted COVID-19. The UK Office for National Statistics reports that, as of 6 June 2021, almost a million people in the UK have symptoms persisting for more than four weeks. (Of those million, four out of 10 experienced symptoms for more than a year.)
Based on the UK 1:6 ratio, if one in six Canadians who contracted COVID-19 similarly suffer from persistent symptoms, and Canadian cases exceeded 1.4 million, therefore potentially 235,000 Canadians who contracted COVID-19 are at risk of Long COVID symptoms lasting four weeks or longer. The actual numbers may be higher or lower. It remains to be seen how many long-haulers will access the provincial and territorial healthcare systems for help between 2020 and 2023.
LONG COVID SYMPTOMS - THE LIST IS LONG
Long COVID research extends outside the United Kingdom. A team of patients recovering from COVID-19 formed the Patient-Led Research Collaborative. Their study was approved by two universities in the United States and United Kingdom respectively. The collaborative tapped on-line support groups, distributing the survey to more than 3,700 people in 56 countries who had confirmed or suspected COVID-19, and who also had Long COVID symptoms lasting more than 28 days. Participants reported 203 symptoms in 10 organ systems. The survey findings* were published in July 2021. Click on the link below to read the published paper.
*Article Citation: H.E. Davis et al., Characterizing long COVID in an international cohort: 7 months of symptoms and their impact, EClinicalMedicine (2021) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101019
SYMPTOMS RECORD FOR PATIENTS
The H.E. Davis paper cited above sorts 203 reported symptoms into categories such as Cardiovascular, Gastrointestinal, Pulmonary/Respiratory, etc. The survey results also provide a window into how prevalent each of the 203 symptoms is among long-haulers.
Impaired memory is one of the most common Long COVID symptoms. When dealing with healthcare providers, it can be difficult for a patient to remember all their symptoms and details over months of illness.
Therefore I adapted the paper’s information on symptoms and their frequency to create a Long COVID symptoms chart in PDF for patients and/or their healthcare providers. The most frequently reported symptoms per the H.E. Davis study are listed in the chart. Patients can check off each symptom and its severity every week to track their health over time. Download the PDF.
Compare my symptoms record approach with a screening tool named C19-YRS (Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale), which was developed by Dr. Manoj Sivan (associate professor at University of Leeds and WHO consultant COVID rehabilitation Europe) and his team. The C19-YRS app is now widely used across the UK’s National Health Service.
WHAT ABOUT TREATMENT?
Conventional practice is to treat the symptoms of what is a very complex autoimmune syndrome affecting several organs including the brain, and basically the entire body. This means family physicians must refer patients to various medical specialists.
Dr. Manoj Sivan advocates multi-disciplinary clinics offering integrated care to help previously hospitalized and non-hospitalized UK survivors who have symptoms lasting more than 12 weeks. He says in a presentation (available on request) that these patients have hyper-reacting immune systems and need “an immune system reset.” Those with Long COVID tend to be women aged 40-65, as well as those with one or more preexisting conditions. He warns that if symptoms are not managed within six months, Long COVID is likely to become a long term problem.
In an ideal world, long-haulers would be able to see specialists in a timely manner. However, due to high demand, patients may have lengthy waits to access Canadian healthcare services.
WHY TRY BOWEN THERAPY?
Bowen Therapy is a whole body neuromuscular therapy taught in at least 25 countries. While the therapy is predominately known for addressing muscles and fascia (similar to massage), it actually has more extensive benefits.
Although to my knowledge there are not yet randomized control trials to prove it, Bowen Therapy anecdotally reduces systemic inflammation. In Long COVID patients, inflammation was still a factor in 20% of UK cases tested for the C-reactive protein.
Bowen Therapy practitioners have had very good outcomes when treating Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, fibromyalgia, and concussion, including this practitioner. Many of the symptoms are identical to those of Long COVID:
ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia: brain fog, chronic fatigue, muscle pain, etc.
Concussion: brain fog, brain inflammation, tinnitus, fatigue, sensitivity to light and noise, memory issues, etc.
Bowen Therapy is one of very few therapies that directly address the nervous system. Several procedures stimulate nerves.
There are procedures to stimulate healing in organs, such as Respiratory Procedure and Kidney Procedure.
So where is the proof that Bowen Therapy is in fact helpful for Long COVID symptoms? Again, the United Kingdom is leading the way. More than 60 UK Bowen Therapy practitioners are currently engaged in a Long COVID case-series study that aims to find out.
Jasmina Popovic, a Serbian Bowen Therapy practitioner, related her personal story of Long COVID recovery in an article entitled Why Bowen After Covid-19 in the June 2021 issue of Bowen Hands - The Journal of the Bowen Therapy Academy of Australia.
She writes, “It’s been six months since the onset of my problem with severe, bilateral pneumonia… I was on oxygen for nine days. I was losing my breath, I felt incapacitated to speak and body seem deprived of all its strength. After leaving the hospital, for a long time I didn’t have energy, I got tired quickly, I couldn’t walk. I often had a painful tightness in my chest.”
She took vitamins, and received regular treatments from her husband, also a Bowen practitioner. In the concluding section of the article, she reports,”Today I feel good, I have no consequences and I can say for myself that I am a healthy woman. I love Bowen!”
Long COVID sufferers have nothing to lose, and perhaps their health to regain in a timely manner, by trying Bowen Therapy weekly for at least six sessions to find out if there are improvements in symptoms severity. Find a practitioner.
March 2023 Update
Research into Long COVID has continued since I wrote this blog post. Long COVID Now Looks Like a Neurological Disease, a Scientific American article by Stephani Sutherland dated March 1, 2023 summarizes the findings to date about the causes. Continued inflammation/immune system activation is a major contributor to symptoms. The article describes the harm to the brain, nerves, and the heart. Sutherland notes: “Vaccination appears to reduce the danger but does not entirely prevent Long COVID.”
Madeline McBride, M.A.Sc., is a Certified Bowenwork Practitioner and neuromuscular therapist in Ottawa, ON Canada. www.McBridePainClinic.com