The quick answer is yes. You can use osteopathy to treat long Covid symptoms including general fatigue and muscle tension as well as more specific symptoms such as costochondritis. (Read more about costochondritis here.)
Watch this video to hear how osteopathy helped Simon to diagnose and treat the costochondritis he was left with after suffering with Covid.
Osteopathy treatments for long Covid are a combination of gentle soft tissue and mobilisation techniques which relax tense muscles. These same techniques can also reduce stress, ease respiratory effort and improve energy levels: all incredibly helpful to the recovery process.
Read more about osteopathy for long Covid here.
Wondering what Simon says but can’t watch the video right now? Here it is:
Hi there, my name is Simon and I want to share with you my long covid experience and how my osteopath really helped my symptoms and got me back on my feet after a year now with long Covid. I was really struggling about 5 months in.
I caught it in April last year in the first wave; not a severe case but left with really bad fatigue and chest pain in the left sternum that was really debilitating and agonising and causing a lot of shortness of breath. So, after getting the all-clear from the hospital and all my tests, I left with a lot of confusion and not much help from regular doctors and I took a guess that it might be a muscular skeletal issue so I went to see the team at GW osteopathy.
I saw a chap called Eugene who was very, very nice, very friendly; and he helped me diagnose costochondritis which was quite a common after effect of covid that we found. It is inflammation of the ribcage. He helped me unlock that by releasing the ribs from the back which spread all round to the front.
The difference was immediate: as soon as I had a session my whole ribcage lifted and I could breathe a lot more easily. I was a lot less anxious cos when you can’t breathe very well it makes you very tense and anxious. And he got me back on my feet so I could start functioning again. Instead of spending days at a time in bed in pain I was out and about and helping around the house and with the kids and so on and so forth. I mean, I’m not quite there yet, I still have lingering fatigue but my symptoms have much, much improved.
He also helped with giving me some medication recommendations: some turmeric pills were recommended, some cold water therapy (cold baths which were a shock to the system but I’m quite addicted to them now!) and they really helped with the inflammation. It’s been a great success so I see him every week and if I miss a week or am up to the 6 day marker I’m dying to see him again because it provides such relief for my long covid symptoms. I highly recommend it.
How to use osteopathy to treat long Covid symptoms
In this case Eugene was able to spot costochondritis which led to the treatment initially focusing on manipulating the back to ensure that the inflammation of the ribcages was released.
There are many different symptoms of long Covid including:
- Shortness of breath
- Chest pain or tightness
- Difficulty sleeping
- Heart palpitations
- Dizziness
- Pins and needles
- Depression and anxiety
- Feeling sick, diarrhoea, stomach aches, loss of appetite
- Rashes
The way that your osteopath uses osteopathy to treat long Covid symptoms will vary depending on the symptoms but will include gentle soft tissue and mobilisation techniques to relax tense muscles, reduce stress, ease respiratory effort and improve energy levels.
If you’d like to find out more get in touch with us or read the osteopathy for long Covid page here.
