Another casual blogging event. This one is about farts. Wait, I’m being serious!
A few months ago, I had COVID for the first time. I never got it before, because I work remotely, don’t go outside, and I’m also very religious about getting my boosters. I finally caught it because my husband’s company’s RTO.
As I recall, I took a week off of work. At the tail end, it was in that liminal state of “am I really sick enough to take off work?” I could just give work 90%, and then I get to save my vacation day for when I actually feel better, you know? The symptoms I had at the end were constant burping, and globus sensation. “Globus sensation” is when you feel like something’s stuck at the back of your throat, I had to look that up. Also, farting.
The stomach symptoms didn’t entirely go away. And now, three months later, I’ve decided it’s because I’ve developed lactose intolerance. I have tested this empirically. Lactose intolerance can be treated with lactase enzyme, which you can buy over the counter. Try ice cream with and without lactase, observe the difference. Okay, so, I don’t get sick from lactose, not usually anyways. I just get gas.
Could COVID induce lactose intolerance? Maybe. Some people on the internet seem to think so, although that’s not worth much. I’m half Asian, various degrees of lactose intolerance runs in the family. Some people just suddenly develop lactose intolerance as adults, and the timing may well be a coincidence.
I’m currently working out how much I need to change my diet vs just taking a bunch of lactase all the time. It’s very nice that lactase is an option.
covid always hit me much harder in the bowels than in the lungs. i heard that’s how it affects cats and dogs, so maybe am carnivoran.
Well given how many systems of the body we already know show long term damage from Covid it wouldn’t surprise me. My understanding is that whatever system has been looked at damage has been found, for instance it’s thought to be the reason for the increase over normal rates of adult onset Type II diabetes, and also heart disease in people that have had Covid.
Interesting query. It would be interesting to know if that is long Covid symptom or just related to genetics/age. Perhaps Covid worked to accelerate the timeline for an inevitable outcome. Even with boosters, I’ve had Covid two times now. The second time I feel that I experienced mild long-covid symptoms on a cognitive level; it seems to have exacerbated my ADHD symptoms. My mom also got a bout of Covid this last spring which caused an arrhythmia. Interestingly, but unproven, we think that it also triggered a rare autoimmune disorder which has caused very painful blistering in her mouth after eating, so she is having to do some very extreme dietary changes. It is unfortunate that so much funding into long Covid has been cut.
Good luck with figuring out your dietary needs! I know it can be a bit of a frustrating experience.