Could a Dormant Virus Be Keeping You Sick? with Evan H. Hirsch, MD

Could a Dormant Virus Be Keeping You Sick? with Evan H. Hirsch, MD

00:00

Could a virus you've carried for years be part of why you're still sick? Welcome back to the EnergyMD podcast where we help you resolve your Long COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome naturally so that you can get back to living your best life. I'm Evan Hirsch. A lot of people with Long COVID have been told their symptoms are all in their head or that they just need to push through. If you've been told that I want you to know that it's not true.

00:28

Research keeps finding physical causes and a new study in Nature is the latest to point to something real going on inside the body. So what did the study actually find? Researchers followed 1,154 people hospitalized with COVID across 20 US hospitals tracking them for a year. They watched for viruses most of us already carry, viruses that have been dormant in our bodies for years.

00:56

Nearly half of these people had one or more of these dormant viruses wake up during their COVID infection. The study found reactivation in two separate virus families. The first is the herpesvirus family. When people hear the word herpes, most think of the sexually transmitted kind. That's not what the study is about. These are different members of the same family. So the ones most of us pick up in childhood through normal everyday contact, not through sex.

01:24

Epstein-Barr virus, the virus behind mono, cytomegalovirus, HHV6, these are all examples. More than 90% of adults carry at least one of these. Most of the time they just sit there quietly, but during a bad COVID infection, they get reactivated and they can cause brain fog, energy issues, et cetera. The second family is called anelloviruses. You've probably never heard of them and neither had I until I started digging into this work.

01:52

The main one is called Torque teno virus, and there are other small cousins called Torque teno mini virus and Torque teno midi virus. Most people have never heard of them and they're usually harmless, but in this study they also reactivated. And the timing mattered. These viruses did not all wake up at the same time. So Epstein-Barr and the anelloviruses surged early, right around the peak of the illness.

02:19

Cytomegalovirus and herpes simplex, which causes cold sores, came later, about three weeks in, mostly in the respiratory system. Each virus woke up on its own timeline. Now this study followed people sick enough to be hospitalized. So you might be thinking, I wasn't hospitalized. How does this apply to me? So here's the point. The study was really about what wakes up these viruses. And the answer was inflammation and an immune system under strain. That's not limited to people in the hospital.

02:49

The spike protein gets into your body no matter how sick you got. And in many people, it wakes these viruses up just the same. So why does this reactivation happen? You know, for a long time, scientists thought dormant viruses only reactivate in people with weakened immune systems, like someone on immune-suppressing drugs. This study and others have challenged that. The people in it were not immune-suppressed and their viruses reactivated anyway.

03:17

What the researchers found instead is that the reactivation lined up with inflammation. The more inflammation in the body, the more these viruses woke up. Okay. That's an important point. We'll get to more about that in a minute. So the spike protein is part of this. When it gets into your body, it does not just sit there. In many people, it seems to be the trigger that wakes these viruses up. That is why infections, including the spike protein, are one of the root causes that we look at and address.

03:46

So why does this matter if you're still sick? These viruses did not just flare up and go away. For some, especially the anelloviruses, the activity lasted well into the recovery period months after the initial infection. And that persistence was tied to Long COVID symptoms. So the strongest link to Long COVID was with the anelloviruses, the second family I mentioned. In this study, people who still had anellovirus activity months later were significantly more likely to develop Long COVID, especially the physical disability and fatigue that so many people describe.

04:15

This study does not prove that these viruses cause Long COVID. It shows that they're active, they persist, and they're tied to the people who stay sick. That matters because it offers a real physical reason. So many people are still exhausted, still foggy, still stuck. And these same viruses have shown up in Long COVID research for years.

04:44

This lines up with a lot of what we've been seeing in clinical practice. So can't you just take a medication to kill these viruses? Most people expect this to be the answer and a lot of people try it. But prescription antivirals run into real limits with these viruses. The first problem is that they only work on a virus that's actively multiplying. A latent virus hides inside your cells and mostly stays quiet.

05:12

So the drug does not have much to grab onto. It can calm an active flare the way it helps with a cold sore or with shingles, but it cannot reach a virus that has gone back into hiding and is waiting to wake up. The second problem is that there is no drug for all of these viruses. The anelloviruses, the family most tied to Long COVID, do not have an approved antiviral at all. And the virus that woke up was not the same in every person.

05:39

So a drug aimed at one virus misses the other. The third problem is the one that matters most. So these drugs treat the reactivation, not the reason the virus reactivated. In the study, the reactivation lined up with inflammation. So quieting the virus without dealing with the inflammation and the trigger means it tends to come back. So fortunately, this is not being ignored. A trial at Mount Sinai called SHIELD is combining an antiviral, an anti-inflammatory and a COVID drug because a single drug aimed at a single virus has not been enough.

06:07

It is still early, though, and the results are not in yet. The herbs we use in my practice are based on the same kind of research. We look for antiviral herbs that the evidence supports, and we use them in combination to support the body against reactivated virus. Now the beauty of herbs is that they're going to be acting in different ways in the body.

06:37

And when you combine them, you're going to be addressing viruses and other infections in a different way that really gets at some of these latent viruses. And that's really the bigger point. You know, this study only looked for a specific list of viruses. It did not test for Lyme disease or the infections that often travel with it, or for bacteria, yeast, or parasites.

07:05

Just because the study did not look for these infections does not mean they're not there. The same principle of reactivation applies. When the immune system is under strain, all kinds of dormant infections can wake up, not just the ones on a research panel. And this is really where that combination of herbs can do wonders because the herbs are doing double and triple duty to address all of the infections that you have. You know, a medication can be part of the plan, but on its own, it does not get to the root of the problem.

07:34

So what does all this mean for getting better? In my experience, and according to the research, people with Long COVID have all of the Toxic 5 to some degree, and we have to address all of them in order to get all of the way better. Those are heavy metals, chemicals, molds, infections, including the spike protein and nervous system dysfunction. This is when the nervous system gets stuck in survival mode and cannot reach the states it needs to heal.

08:02

The spike protein can wake up the dormant viruses. Treating one virus on its own is not enough. The viruses are only part of it and the whole picture needs to be addressed. And the Toxic 5 is part of what lets these reactivated infections keep going. The heavy metals, chemicals, molds and a nervous system stuck in survival mode all keep the immune system off balance so the reactivated viruses can stay active.

08:31

Clear those and the body is better able to shut the infections back down. It's like if you're addressing 99% of all the causes that you have, you're just going to be a lot more likely to get better. You know, so that's why in our process, our program, we address every infection along with the rest of the Toxic 5. If something is missed, in my experience, people just don't get all the way better. You know, if this is making sense and you want to learn more about how I address the Toxic 5, head over to fixyourfatigue.com and watch my latest masterclass.

09:01

The link is also in the description. So what does addressing all of this actually look like? So I worked with a client named Josh who had Long COVID. Before he came to us, his days were filled with exhaustion and brain fog. He spent more time on the couch than with his kids and he was afraid he would never really recover. He had seen doctors and tried things, but nothing had ever really looked at the whole picture.

09:31

That's really what told me that we could potentially help him. When no one has addressed all of the root causes at once, when the Toxic 5 have not been addressed fully, there's room to make a real difference. So we looked at all the root causes, every one of the Toxic 5, not just the infections and not just one piece, and we addressed all of them. His energy started to come back, the brain fog lifted, he got back to playing basketball with his daughter and hiking again.

10:00

How long does this kind of work take? You know, unfortunately, it's not a quick fix. We're talking about at least 12 months to address all of these causes. And people usually start to notice a significant difference around month nine. So where does that leave you? If you have Long COVID and you've been told it's all in your head or that nothing can be done, this study is more evidence that this is a real physical process. Viruses you've carried for years can wake up and they can keep going.

10:29

Now, when you address 99% of all the known causes of Long COVID or chronic fatigue syndrome, autoimmunity, neuropathies, success is a lot more likely. That means addressing all of the infections, including the ones already living inside you and the rest of the Toxic 5. So head on over to fixyourfatigue.com and watch my free masterclass. The link is in the description. I walk you through the real reasons you're still exhausted and how to address all of the Toxic 5, so the relief actually lasts.

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Thanks so much for watching and may you be blessed with true healing.

11:08

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