Covid-19, neurological issues, and Coffee: Need Help

[Blue Water]

Hey everyone,

Just recovering from Covid-19 but dealing with some neurological effects. I got weakness in my muscles and twitches, along with tinnitus, and generally still experience some problems here and there. What is weird is that I noticed my anxiety is through the roof lately, I get jittery when I go long periods without eating and I noticed that coffee makes my problems significantly worse. I actually did some research on this topic and found that many people have the same issue with coffee after Covid. They all report feeling jittery and terrible after caffeine. I love coffee and I used to drink several cups per day, so this is very sad for me. I am trying to figure out why this is the case, because it can give a clue to possibly alleviating my other neurological symptoms. What is it about Covid-19 that causes this? Does it affect something at the receptor level, does it modulate neurotransmitters, or is coffee just causing a histamine response?

Also, just a side note that is anecdotal but this is the second time I got covid and ivermectin did help me significantly, especially in preventing lung sequelae. First time I got covid I didn't treat it and I had lung pain for six months, and this time I have no lung pain. But we need something that crosses the BBB, because obviously, Covid does something to the brain and ivermectin does not reach the brain.

Thanks to all of you for the help!

 

[youngsinatra]

I‘ve read that thiamin (B1) is highly therapeutic for a wide range of all sort of neurological symptoms.

Hormones Matter (Case Stories)

 

[charlie]

Could be B1 deficiency.

 

[loess]

I had what I now believe to be COVID-19 in April, and have not been the same since. I had no respiratory symptoms whatsoever, but had severe back pain, fever/chills, palpitations, panic/anxiety and encephalitis. It got into my brain and did some kind of scorched-earth damage that brought about a litany of symptoms that continue to this day. Among other things it elevated my tinnitus to unmanageable levels, caused problems with the eustachian tube in my right ear and shifted my nervous system to be stuck permanently in panic, anxiety and fight/flight. It has caused the sleep issues that I was already experiencing in previous months/years to completely unravel and I only sleep in 1-3 hour blocks each night, waking up 5-6 times with nightmares and adrenaline spiking. Concurrently to all of this, my relationship of four years broke down in high-conflict and ended, and I lost my home and all connection to my former partner and two stepchildren. This pushed me further in derealization and was entirely too much for my mind to handle. It has all had catastrophic implications for me psychologically and physiologically. I live in a full-body state of severe depression, fatigue, despair and fear 95% of the time and have little control over the ways that my vagus nerve and nervous system overall seems to be stuck in hypervigilance. I believe that my condition is guaranteed to worsen unless a miracle happens and I am able to shift back into a reasonably healthy sleep cycle that gets me into REM.

Coffee seems to be one of the only substances that can reliably bring me back to my center, and I too used to drink several cups a day with success. I had to cut back. I only drink it in the morning now, usually with a few tabs of shilajit and milk. It is a trade-off however; every time I drink coffee it increases the clarity and intensity of the tinnitus, and causes my right eustachian tube to become stuck open for an hour or two...but it also gives my body energy and often can calm my anxiety down temporarily. If I overdo coffee I find that I am susceptible to crashing after it is metabolized and I've used up the energy that comes from it. I have also used green coffee for coffee enemas from time to time to deal with the slow transit time that has been an issue for me for years...

Some things that have helped me feel marginally better:

- vitamin B1 (TTFD or "allithiamine" although this has been very tricky to dose, some days it seems to increase panic/mania/anxiety and some days it feels like it helps give me energy)
- Idealabs' Energin
- Shilajit
- regularly consuming oysters and liver
- pregnenolone (Idealabs' Stressnon)
- topical progesterone + DHEA (3:1 ratio) at night sometimes helps with the night awakenings being less intense/panicked
- keeping up with magnesium via epsom salt baths and Idealabs' Magnoil
- sunlight
- cyproheptadine
- cascara sagrada
- NDT in very small doses (1 drop of Tyromax per day). Wondering if increasing dose or adding T3-only (Cynomel) might help, but I'm afraid of it increasing sensitivity to adrenaline and furthering the anxiety.

 

[Blue Water]

I had what I now believe to be COVID-19 in April, and have not been the same since. I had no respiratory symptoms whatsoever, but had severe back pain, fever/chills, palpitations, panic/anxiety and encephalitis. It got into my brain and did some kind of scorched-earth damage that brought about a litany of symptoms that continue to this day. Among other things it elevated my tinnitus to unmanageable levels, caused problems with the eustachian tube in my right ear and shifted my nervous system to be stuck permanently in panic, anxiety and fight/flight. It has caused the sleep issues that I was already experiencing in previous months/years to completely unravel and I only sleep in 1-3 hour blocks each night, waking up 5-6 times with nightmares and adrenaline spiking. Concurrently to all of this, my relationship of four years broke down in high-conflict and ended, and I lost my home and all connection to my former partner and two stepchildren. This pushed me further in derealization and was entirely too much for my mind to handle. It has all had catastrophic implications for me psychologically and physiologically. I live in a full-body state of severe depression, fatigue, despair and fear 95% of the time and have little control over the ways that my vagus nerve and nervous system overall seems to be stuck in hypervigilance. I believe that my condition is guaranteed to worsen unless a miracle happens and I am able to shift back into a reasonably healthy sleep cycle that gets me into REM.

Coffee seems to be one of the only substances that can reliably bring me back to my center, and I too used to drink several cups a day with success. I had to cut back. I only drink it in the morning now, usually with a few tabs of shilajit and milk. It is a trade-off however; every time I drink coffee it increases the clarity and intensity of the tinnitus, and causes my right eustachian tube to become stuck open for an hour or two...but it also gives my body energy and often can calm my anxiety down temporarily. If I overdo coffee I find that I am susceptible to crashing after it is metabolized and I've used up the energy that comes from it. I have also used green coffee for coffee enemas from time to time to deal with the slow transit time that has been an issue for me for years...

Some things that have helped me feel marginally better:

- vitamin B1 (TTFD or "allithiamine" although this has been very tricky to dose, some days it seems to increase panic/mania/anxiety and some days it feels like it helps give me energy)
- Idealabs' Energin
- Shilajit
- regularly consuming oysters and liver
- pregnenolone (Idealabs' Stressnon)
- topical progesterone + DHEA (3:1 ratio) at night sometimes helps with the night awakenings being less intense/panicked
- keeping up with magnesium via epsom salt baths and Idealabs' Magnoil
- sunlight
- cyproheptadine
- cascara sagrada
- NDT in very small doses (1 drop of Tyromax per day). Wondering if increasing dose or adding T3-only (Cynomel) might help, but I'm afraid of it increasing sensitivity to adrenaline and furthering the anxiety.

I'm not sure what's going on in the brain to be honest. We know that covid spike proteins damage the hypothalamus, pituitary, and thyroid glands, so obviously we could be suffering from endocrine malfunction (HPA axis disruption?). On the other hand, my odd symptoms after drinking coffee, and the insane effect it has on me, makes me wonder whether there is not something at the receptor level going on (adenosine receptor? ACE2 receptor?). If we have literal brain damage, there is nothing we can do besides wait it out and take anti-inflammatories that cross the BBB, but if it is receptor based we might have a chance of changing it. Another possibility is the monocyte hypothesis, which is that we have M2 deformed monocytes carrying the spike protein, constantly damaging the brains blood vessels, and possibly the nerves too.

So I want to address the receptor issue as well as the monocyte issue. For the receptor issue, I think Covid might persistently down regulate ACE2 receptors. So my goal would be to inhibit ACE2, in order to upregulate the receptors. There are ACE2 inhibitor drugs that can do this, but there are also over the counter supplements, such as vitamin C, D, zinc, taurine, B3, garlic, whey protein, nicotine, and many different flavonoids...

For the monocyte issue, ivermectin would help in the body but not in the CNS or brain. So we need to find something that will cross the BBB and get rid of the monocytes or repolarize them back to their normal state. So far, I found that vitamin C could help with that, as could nicotine (which kills monocytes directly), and niacin. Many people are swearing by the success of B3 from what I read. I want to experiment with sweet wormwood, curcumin, berberine, and other substances that might cross the BBB. If anyone has suggestions of something that could help in this regard, that would be great.

The final task would be, assuming we have some HPA dysregulation or dysautonomia, to try to restore that functionality. I think time is the number one thing here, but we could obviously do stuff to help it along. One thing that has always struck me as a very good HPA axis supplement is cordyceps.

Good luck, and thanks for the suggestions above. I hope people can help us further.

**EDIT: Regarding ACE inhibitors. Does anyone know if it's safe to take a short course of them for a few days and then stop immediately, or do we need to taper even if just doing such a short course? I know tapering is in order for longer courses but if we are just deploying it for a short term for experimental purposes, I wonder if anyone has done that on this forum before.

 

[lampofred]

If you buy sesame tahini made with hulled seeds and then pour off all the oil that floats to the top (so that you minimize the rancidity-prone PUFA), you will have dense paste that I think is very helpful for this brain condition. I had a very similar issue starting years ago that honestly I think might have been extremely early COVID or something (or maybe I got a vaccine with the aluminum adjuvant that leads to COVID-like systemic inflammation), and the paste helps a lot to lower anxiety and feels a lot like vitamin D (but is more effective than vitamin D for me). It feels like it balances/reconnects the two hemispheres of the brain, maybe because it's very anti-estrogenic or maybe because it contains some well-absorbable calcium compounds (calcium balances the two sides of the brain).

Nicotine may also help.

 

[Ben.]

Among other things it elevated my tinnitus to unmanageable levels, caused problems with the eustachian tube in my right ear and shifted my nervous system to be stuck permanently in panic, anxiety and fight/flight. It has caused the sleep issues that I was already experiencing in previous months/years to completely unravel and I only sleep in 1-3 hour blocks each night, waking up 5-6 times with nightmares and adrenaline spiking. Concurrently to all of this, my relationship of four years broke down in high-conflict and ended, and I lost my home and all connection to my former partner and two stepchildren. This pushed me further in derealization and was entirely too much for my mind to handle. It has all had catastrophic implications for me psychologically and physiologically. I live in a full-body state of severe depression, fatigue, despair and fear 95% of the time and have little control over the ways that my vagus nerve and nervous system overall seems to be stuck in hypervigilance. I believe that my condition is guaranteed to worsen unless a miracle happens and I am able to shift back into a reasonably healthy sleep cycle that gets me into REM.

Sounds 1:1 what i have/had, among other things, altough for me some symptoms "appeared" in managable levels, slowly years before, so its not like there werent warning signals there before.
I am so sorry you and the OP got these issue and had/have to endure it. I woudln't wish this upon my worst enemies. Daily life is but a struggle barely comprehensible to a normal person.

Can't say anything about curing this but i made good progress. The thingt that helped the best was reducing stress, especially the one induced trough relationships/friends/family (which is basicly just another necessary "believe in yourself" step), eating without obsessing over anything specific (but keeping endulging in bad/problematic food to a minimum) and trying different things that allowed me to understand my body better.

No idea why it is, or if it is even at all helpful for someone with similar symptoms but these things made me experience significant improvements:

• Breath work (the kind that relaxes and slows the body down - realy slow breaths )
• Eating to hunger/cravings
• Antihelmintics (both herbal and medications - this is a wierd one, still dont know if its a chemical reaction or indiciative off a infection)
• Shilajit (not to often, like 1-2 a week for 2 or 3 weeks and then making a break)
• Working on sport injury on my back (shoulderblade/rhomboids - probably thoracic nerve injury because i have severe scapula winging on the right)
• Working on my jaw problems induced trough bracers
• Sleeping/lying on the floor for a short time (5-30 minutes)
• Psoas Rest Release
• Liver flushes


No idea about cures but what i can assure you is that it is getting better eventually. I realy can say this because there where nights where i would be in so much dispair and being so tired of feeling and enduring this that i came to the conclusions like thoose aswell. Obviously the stress/trauma with your partner and stepchilds/loosing home is severe. I can see that being among the most effective things to work on as in finding a new place to live where you can ground yourself again, spending time with friends allowing you to see/experience that not all is over yet and there is still so much good relationships to be had, both platonic and romantic.

Neither high dosing b-vitamins nor supplementing vitamin d worked for me, so that was a bummer...

To be honest, if there was already tinnitus or some other issue, i doubt "covid" is solely responsible for it. But i ofcourse could be wrong about that.

Either way, i wish the two of you all the best in your healing journey. My recommendation is lowering stress and improving stress responses of all kinds first and foremost, w/e that means in your cases.

 

[Blue Water]

If you buy sesame tahini made with hulled seeds and then pour off all the oil that floats to the top (so that you minimize the rancidity-prone PUFA), you will have dense paste that I think is very helpful for this brain condition. I had a very similar issue starting years ago that honestly I think might have been extremely early COVID or something (or maybe I got a vaccine with the aluminum adjuvant that leads to COVID-like systemic inflammation), and the paste helps a lot to lower anxiety and feels a lot like vitamin D (but is more effective than vitamin D for me). It feels like it balances/reconnects the two hemispheres of the brain, maybe because it's very anti-estrogenic or maybe because it contains some well-absorbable calcium compounds (calcium balances the two sides of the brain).

Nicotine may also help.

Thanks for the suggestion. It feels like I am constantly on edge, with panic/anxiety. Like too much dopamine/norepinephrine is being released. I feel hyper-focused, as if I took a pre-workout or mega-dosed caffeine when in fact I have done nothing like that. It seems like Covid really threw something off either hormonally or on the receptor level, I just don't understand this stuff enough to put the pieces together...

 

[Tim Lundeen]

Lysine might help, to increase lysine:arginine ratio. Coffee raises arginine, so could exacerbate latent EBV or covid; see the attached.

YouTube interview:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmox2RbLKeo


Research papers:
(PDF) Lysine Therapy for SARS-CoV-2

(PDF) D, L-lysine acetylsalicylate + glycine Impairs Coronavirus Replication

 

[youngsinatra]

Thanks for the suggestion. It feels like I am constantly on edge, with panic/anxiety. Like too much dopamine/norepinephrine is being released. I feel hyper-focused, as if I took a pre-workout or mega-dosed caffeine when in fact I have done nothing like that. It seems like Covid really threw something off either hormonally or on the receptor level, I just don't understand this stuff enough to put the pieces together...

You might be overmethylating. I know exactly what it feels like. High dose niacinamide with high dietary zinc intake helps a lot + try to keep dietary copper on the low side.

 

[Blue Water]

You might be overmethylating. I know exactly what it feels like. High dose niacinamide with high dietary zinc intake helps a lot + try to keep dietary copper on the low side.

Good idea. Isn't glycine another way to absorb methyl groups?

 

[youngsinatra]

Good idea. Isn't glycine another way to absorb methyl groups?

Yes glycine is a methyl-buffer. I have tried to increase my collagen intake, but it seems unsustainable to me financially, because you really need a lot of it to get 5-10g of glycine.

Pure glycine powder is probably better.

 

[Tim Lundeen]

My concern with glycine and collagen is fluoride levels. I haven't found tested products.

 

[Blue Water]

I will go from manic, adrenaline-induced energy and anxiety to an insane crash and lethargy, where I can barely stand. It really feels like hormones or neurons are firing abnormally. Hopefully this self-corrects.

 

[youngsinatra]

I will go from manic, adrenaline-induced energy and anxiety to an insane crash and lethargy, where I can barely stand. It really feels like hormones or neurons are firing abnormally. Hopefully this self-corrects.

I fully understand that and feel with you. I‘ve gone through the same thing in the last months.

For me it was paranoia, anxiety, wired but tired, feeling on-edge and feeling like becoming psychotic, insomnia, dizziness, fatigue, low libido and inability to reach orgasm, low appetite.

Thankfully most of it went away since I started a orthomolecular treatment for overmethylation.

 

[redsun]

Thanks for the suggestion. It feels like I am constantly on edge, with panic/anxiety. Like too much dopamine/norepinephrine is being released. I feel hyper-focused, as if I took a pre-workout or mega-dosed caffeine when in fact I have done nothing like that. It seems like Covid really threw something off either hormonally or on the receptor level, I just don't understand this stuff enough to put the pieces together...

I agree with youngsinatra that zinc will probably help this as it promotes cholinergic activity (which antagonizes excess norepinephrine activity). Also look into choline supplements like alpha-GPC and getting more choline from food (eggs and meat especially). If you can also eat oysters that would be ideal for zinc, otherwise try supplementing zinc for a little while and see if it goes away. Sickness may lead to zinc deficiency. This is why people lose their sense of smell and taste due to covid, due to zinc being depleted. This may be the case for you. If it just happened due to covid I doubt its undermethylation though.

 

[RealNeat]

If you buy sesame tahini made with hulled seeds and then pour off all the oil that floats to the top (so that you minimize the rancidity-prone PUFA), you will have dense paste that I think is very helpful for this brain condition. I had a very similar issue starting years ago that honestly I think might have been extremely early COVID or something (or maybe I got a vaccine with the aluminum adjuvant that leads to COVID-like systemic inflammation), and the paste helps a lot to lower anxiety and feels a lot like vitamin D (but is more effective than vitamin D for me). It feels like it balances/reconnects the two hemispheres of the brain, maybe because it's very anti-estrogenic or maybe because it contains some well-absorbable calcium compounds (calcium balances the two sides of the brain).

Nicotine may also help.

Is there more info on this how did you come to this conclusion/ practice?

 

[lampofred]

Is there more info on this how did you come to this conclusion/ practice?

I can't put it well into words, as it was several things put together, but in Ayurveda sesame oil is said to be one of the best substances for lowering excess air/Vata in the body, which I think is related to estrogen and norepinephrine,

at this site (here: https://drlwilson.com/Articles/CALCIUM.COMPOUNDS.htm and here: PROTOCEL – HOW TO USE IT AND WHAT IT DOES) sesame is said to contain important calcium compounds and to be effective against breast/prostate cancer, which I think is related to high phosphate/estrogen,

and at oilscenter.com (Sesame Oil Unrefined), the description for sesame oil states that even small amounts raise blood calcium by a lot, which is the same as what vitamin D is supposed to do.

So it was several things put together which made me think it would be grounding and anti-estrogenic. The oil itself has a lot of PUFA, so I preferred to use tahini (made with only hulled seeds, as unhulled seeds contain phytic acid) after pouring off the lighter oil which rises to the top, which I think is the PUFA.

 

[RealNeat]

I can't put it well into words, as it was several things put together, but in Ayurveda sesame oil is said to be one of the best substances for lowering excess air/Vata in the body, which I think is related to estrogen and norepinephrine,

at this site (here: https://drlwilson.com/Articles/CALCIUM.COMPOUNDS.htm and here: PROTOCEL – HOW TO USE IT AND WHAT IT DOES) sesame is said to contain important calcium compounds and to be effective against breast/prostate cancer, which I think is related to high phosphate/estrogen,

and at oilscenter.com (Sesame Oil Unrefined), the description for sesame oil states that even small amounts raise blood calcium by a lot, which is the same as what vitamin D is supposed to do.

So it was several things put together which made me think it would be grounding and anti-estrogenic. The oil itself has a lot of PUFA, so I preferred to use tahini (made with only hulled seeds, as unhulled seeds contain phytic acid) after pouring off the lighter oil which rises to the top, which I think is the PUFA.

Interesting I'll look into this. I'm always intrigued by ancient healing systems like TCM and Ayurveda. I know they use sesame to cover their whole body for certain seasonal rituals/ transitions. Funny enough sesame almost never agrees with me, I'll have to pay attention if tahini fairs better on my digestion. In the Middle East it's common for parents to give their children tahini and molasses as a multivitamin to help development.

 

[Blue Water]

I agree with youngsinatra that zinc will probably help this as it promotes cholinergic activity (which antagonizes excess norepinephrine activity). Also look into choline supplements like alpha-GPC and getting more choline from food (eggs and meat especially). If you can also eat oysters that would be ideal for zinc, otherwise try supplementing zinc for a little while and see if it goes away. Sickness may lead to zinc deficiency. This is why people lose their sense of smell and taste due to covid, due to zinc being depleted. This may be the case for you. If it just happened due to covid I doubt its undermethylation though.

Interesting, thanks. I should increase zinc for sure. I think the anxiety is lessening now, so it may be resolving on its own.

Another odd symptom is excess lactic acid production on working out. I wonder if Covid somehow causes pH issues. I don't really understand much of that but I assume it would be impacted by interference with normal respiration.