Dr Benjamin Krishna and the Virology & Immunology team at Cambridge University have identified a protein, elevated in the blood of Long Covid patients, that could act as a potential biomarker for the condition. This week, we spoke to Dr Krishna about their study, published in Science, which sampled the blood of Long Covid patients across several years. They found Interferon Gamma (IFNɣ) at, an average of, six times the normal level. IFNɣ is a key protein in the body’s immune r...

Dr Theoharis Theoharides, aka “The Mast Cell Master”, has been exploring the world of Mast Cells, their influence on our bodily functions, neurology and genetic make up, for over half a century. The Director of the Center of Excellence for Neuroinflammation Research and Professor at the Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine at Nova Southeastern University joins us this week to discuss the role that Mast Cells play in neurological conditions such as Long Covid, and the way in which we infl...

Conor Browne, an independent Biorisk Consultant, analyses biosecurity risks for governmental bodies, commercial enterprises and NGOs, aiding with business continuity, forecasting and policy. He understood that Covid-19 was airborne in February 2020 but, he says, “it’s the first message that sticks”. In this week’s episode he discusses how our governments’ initial messaging of handwashing and surface-to-surface transmission had a huge impact on the course of the pandemic. We...

David Cutler, Professor of Applied Economics at Harvard University, has spent his career assessing the economics of healthcare. Over the past four years he has applied his skills to assessing the cost of Covid, and subsequently Long Covid, on the U.S. economy. His original analysis, published in JAMA in 2022, suggested that Long Covid would cost the U.S. economy $2.6 trillion, but with the chronic condition proving more prevalent and prolonged than originally estimated, those figu...

Dr Nancy Klimas, Director of the Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine, Nova Southeastern University, is an immunologist internationally renowned for her work in multi-symptom illnesses. In this week’s episode she explains her work, from HIV through ME/CFS and Gulf War Syndrome, that has led to her having insight and an amazing team to channel efforts into Long Covid research and treatment. In an insightful overview she describes her work in understanding the mechanisms (viral per...

Dr Rob Wüst, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Movement and Behaviour Sciences, is an expert cardiac and skeletal muscle metabolism and mitochondrial function. He and the team at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, published the “PEM study” in Nature Communications, which investigated the muscular changes in Long Covid patients who experience post-exertional malaise (PEM), or “the worsening of fatigue- and pain-related symptoms after acute mental or physical exercise”. In this week...

Dr Thomas Chelimsky, Professor of Neurology and Director of VCU’s autonomic laboratory, is a specialist in autonomic dysfunction and a vocal advocate for considering the mind and body as one cohesive system. He, along with his team at the VCU clinic, take a unique brain-body approach to treating Long Covid patients, with success. In this week’s episode he discusses the autonomic issues faced by Long Covid patients including migraine, which he believes is prevalent in c. 50% of patients...

Dr Andrew Klein, an anaesthetist at the Royal Papworth Hospital Cambridge, runs the Cambridge Iron Clinic where he treats people with Iron and B12 deficiencies. Since the start of Covid he has seen an increase in people with these deficiencies, many of whom have been diagnosed with Long Covid. In this episode Dr Klein talks us through the overlapping symptom sets that render people debilitated with all three conditions. He describes the various ways in which are body is not able t...

Physiatrist Benjamin Abramoff, M.D. is the Director and Co-founder of the Post Covid Assessment and Recovery Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. An Assistant Professor in Physical Medicine and Rehabilition, Abramoff used his expertise to co-author the study, published in Cell, that found that serotonin depletion is prevalent in Long Covid patients. In this week’s episode, Abramoff talks us through the findings of their study, the hypothesis of what drives the deple...

Tim Henrich is a Professor of Medicine and expert in infectious diseases, focused on chronic viral infections at the University of California, San Francisco. He is another member of the titan Long Covid research team who have tracked patients since the beginning of the pandemic (LIINC study) and are making roads into understanding the mechanism of the disease and potentials for treating it. In this week’s episode he talks us through some of the exciting work that he is doing, alongside our pr...

A supplement to Episode 68 - Consultant Neurologist Steven Allder of Re:Cognition Health explains what tinnitus is and why we are experiencing it in Long Covid. Living with Long Covid? How was your week? Website - https://www.tlcsessions.net/ Twitter - @SessionsTlc https://twitter.com/sessionstlc Insta - @tlcsessions https://www.instagram.com/tlcsessions

A supplement to Episode 68 - Consultant Neurologist Steven Allder of Re:Cognition Health discusses the way that injury to the brain causes anxiety and depression in Traumatic Brain Injury and could explain some of the mental health impact of Long Covid. Living with Long Covid? How was your week? Website - https://www.tlcsessions.net/ Twitter - @SessionsTlc https://twitter.com/sessionstlc Insta - @tlcsessions https://www.instagram.com/tlcsessions

Consultant Neurologist Steven Allder of Re:Cognition Health has applied his wealth of experience investigating Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) to understanding the impact of Long Covid on the brain. In this week’s conversation we discuss inflammation of the brain of Long Covid patients which is visible using PET imaging; Allder believes this inflammation could be driving the neurological symptoms, and beyond, in a similar way to the impact of a bl...

Professor Andrew Shaw, University of Exeter, believes that he has devised a diagnostic test for Long Covid. His company, Attomarker, have developed a test which can reveal a gap in a patient’s antibody spectrum – their response to acute SARS-COV2 from a finger prick of blood. This gap, he says, has lead to a viral residue that causes the chronic symptoms of Long Covid. Their hypothesis is that the gap can then be filled, either with monoclonal antibodies, or with an appropriate va...

Imperial College Professor of Immunology, Danny Altmann recently published “The immunology of long COVID”, a fantastically comprehensive overview in Nature Reviews Immunology. In this week’s episode Altmann, to whom we first spoke in the summer of 2021, talks us through some of the highlights of the work he's reviewed - serotonin depletion, gut biopsy findings, anti-virals, monoclonal antibodies and T cell depletion, along with his impression of a wide range of issues facing Long ...

Dr. Amy Proal is the President and Research Director of PolyBio Research Foundation, a non-profit organisation that brings together some of the brightest scientific minds to research how infection-associated chronic conditions are studied, diagnosed and treated. Their work into Long Covid is bringing together some of the leaders in the field to accelerate studies and clinical trials to further develop understanding and treatment strategies for the condition. In this week’s episode...

Michael Peluso M.D., an HIV and infectious disease specialist at UCSF, has been studying Long Covid patients since April 2020 (LIINC Study). This, along with his history of working with HIV and other viruses, has given him the knowledge and methods to make some break-throughs into Long Covid pathogenesis, effects and, potentially, treatments. He, along with his team, has established that Long Covid causes T-cell and immune dysregulation and he has used multimodal molecul...

Eric Topol must be one of the leading voices in Long Covid advocacy. Cardiologist, scientist, author, editor-in-chief of Medscape, and founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, Topol has written about Long Covid in publications from The Lancet and Nature, to The Washington Post. As a clinician a large proportion of his patients are now Long Covid sufferers and he spends a huge amount of his time pushing for advancements in Long Covid treatment and prevention. ...

Harlan Krumholtz, cardiologist and Professor of Medicine at Yale University, is attempting to move the needle when it comes to patient-centric care in Long Covid and beyond. Working closely with immunologist Akiko Iwasaki, Krumholz not only looks at the heart when it comes to his research into Long Covid. Together this Long Covid power couple are trying to design studies and trials considering the patient first and foremost. In this week’s episode we discuss his latest studies: the LIST...

Credited as being the founder of functional medicine, Dr Leo Galland has spent the past 40 years trying to create a patient-centred version of healthcare. Using pharmaceuticals, supplements, lifestyle and complimentary therapies he has drawn on his vast knowledge of patients and holistic healing, to create a comprehensive protocol for Long Covid patients. Designed to remove any active virus, rebuild our natural stores and repair the misfiring of our cells, Dr Galland’s method has been e...