What Can Be Done About Long COVID?

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small 😎

❝Can anything be done about long covid at all?❞

The short answer is: yes!

The longer answer is…

For the sake of us being methodical, kindly pardon that we will start by saying that ideally, the best thing to do about it is to avoid getting COVID in the first place. We realize that if you’re asking this question though, that that ship has sailed already.

However, for readers who have thus far dodged it, then well, if you still haven’t had it by 5 years in, then you’re probably immune, or asymptomatic, or doing everything right. But as it’s hard to know which of those three scenarios you’re living, it’s good to check your lifestyle against: Why Some People Get Sick More (And How To Not Be One Of Them)

And of course: Beyond Supplements: The Real Immune-Boosters!

Now, about long COVID and the chronic fatigue that usually comes with it, then check out: How To Be 7.5x More Likely To Develop Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ← this isn’t just “if you get COVID you are >7.5x more likely to get chronic fatigue syndrome”, by the way. It is also that, but it additionally has practical advice too.

We previously advised, in answer to the question (that we posed ourselves as part of that article) “What if I do get (or already have) long COVID and/or ME/CFS?”, the following:

Well, that is definitely going to suck, but there are still some things that can be done.

Here’s a big one: How To Eat To Beat Chronic Fatigue ← this will not, of course, cure you, but it’s a way of getting maximum nutrition for minimum effort, given that for someone with chronic fatigue, effort is a very finite resource that must be used sparingly

Finally, here are some further resources:

Support For Long COVID & Chronic Fatigue

However! That was then and this is now, and science goes marching on, so…

Long COVID lives up your nose and can be removed from there

We are, for the second day in a row*, going to tell you about a serious illness that can be addressed by doing something to the part of you that lives just behind your nose**.

*after yesterday’s The Facial Massage That Keeps Dementia At Bay (it has to do with lymphatic clearance)

**You may be thinking: “but I am a brain in a body and therefore I live just behind my nose by default”, and well, yes, but today we’re not going that far behind your nose; actually just to the deepest part of it.

In few words: Japanese researchers (Dr. Kensuke Nishi et al.) earlier this year (2025, for posterity) did a study (published in March) and found (we’re summarizing and simplifying a lot here):

• Long COVID genetic fragments can, after the main infection battle has been fought and won (by the body), remain deep behind the nose, lodged in the epipharynx (please don’t do this, but just to explain where it is: if you were to poke something up both nostrils simultaneously, the epipharynx is where they would meet).
• These viral remnants are not the virus itself, and so cannot outright cause another infection, but they do consistently annoy the immune system, causing chronic inflammation in the upper respiratory tract, which in turn causes coughing, fatigue, dizziness, brain fog, etc.
• This chronic inflammation can, of course, leave you vulnerable to getting another infection from another source, but that is a separate matter. The point is that these fragments can’t reanimate into an actual virus.
• The researchers wondered if this could be treated with an old Japanese treatment, called epipharyngeal abrasive therapy (EAT), which involves swabbing the area once per week with a cotton swab soaked in 1% zinc chloride solution.
• They found that it could indeed; after 12 weeks the patients showed reduced markers in all relevant things, and significantly reduced symptoms.
• That doesn’t mean it can’t get rid of it entirely—it just means that after 12 weeks, the researchers had results to publish. The investigation itself is ongoing, and it’s likely (but not yet known for sure) that it’ll eliminate it entirely (or at least reduce things to undetectable levels, which is functionally the same in this case).

You can read the paper in full, here: Spatial transcriptomics of the epipharynx in long COVID identifies SARS-CoV-2 signalling pathways and the therapeutic potential of epipharyngeal abrasive therapy

You may be wondering: can I do this at home?

And the answer is: we’re not recommending that, because:

• swabbing that deeply should not be done without expertise; there are sensitive tissues up there
• zinc chloride is also not to be messed around with. As a 1% aqueous solution it’s harmless and even quite “friendly” to your innards, but dry zinc chloride (which includes: the precipitate from an aqueous solution) is corrosive, and you surely do not want that up your nose.

So, we’d recommend instead bringing the study to the attention of your normal healthcare provider, and asking if they can do that.

Meanwhile, for a gentler wash up there, one thing we would recommend (generally, but especially in light of the above) is using a neti pot to rinse (pouring warm saltwater into one nostril and out of the other, then switching sides with a second batch of warm salt water).

Take care!