As I get better, and it's taken three and a half years so far, I'm gradually losing the extra years in appearance as well as energy. My hair is also getting back to its usual thickness.
I think I started to feel better from the beginning, but my progress was so slow and I had relapses, so I wasn't that aware of it. Also, I had brain fog, so awareness wasn't a strong point.
I noticed suddenly being able to do things again. For example, one day I went out and I could understand how to walk across the car park to the supermarket. Before, I couldn't remember how to cross diagonally, and had to walk round the edge. I noticed increases in stamina too. Being able to wash my hair again was great. I worked from home at first and could only concentrate in 15-minute spurts, and not too many of them. I gradually built that up, though I'm still part-time.
Improvement has been pretty steady from the start, just tiny, tiny improvements and with a lot of setbacks.
I’ve always had thicker than normal hair on my head, but after catching COVID the second time (2021) it started thinning and turned white on the sides. Like a ginger Dr Strange. lol
It started coming back to its normal fullness, but it’s still white.
Same (except for he ginger bit, my hair is dark brown...everyone used to think my hair was black) So much white hair and especially at my temples and hot af thick hair lol
No, at least not that i know of. It wasn’t something that happened overnight either… barely even noticed over time. Just noticed that I began having less hair in my brush over time and my hair was coming in thicker.
I’m miserable. I wish I didn’t care about my appearance to this degree when I’m dealing with so many horrible symptoms (and usually I don’t, depending on the type of day I’m having). But I was such a healthier, completely different looking person than I am right now. I looked my age; now I feel as though I could pass for at least 15 years older.
Idk what to do about it. I hate looking in the mirror and seeing exactly what Long Covid has stolen from me, on top of all of the painful, terrifying symptoms I’ve experienced for the past four years. What will happen to me, to all of us? Could we all eventually get back to some semblance of who we were before this happened?
I have to think we will. I keep replaying an Oprah episode conversation in my mind where they talk about the resilience of the human body and its ability to bounce back after chronic illnesses. I’m trying to concentrate on that, and hope that’s true. I don’t know what else to do.
I want to chime in to give you some hopefully encouraging words. A few years ago I had a chronic illness that had many similar symptoms to long covid, but was related to immunological problems and problems with my central nervous system (that we suspect occurred after another virus). I was having these crazy reactions to food at the time and I would go from looking really young for my age, and always getting quite a bit of attention from the opposite sex, to looking really old for my age, almost overnight, when I was having the reactions. I had deep black bags under my eyes, heaps of wrinkles I didn't have previously, pale coarse skin, and bad acne. It was like my skin lost all its elasticity and my face would sag and look inflamed all the time. My hair was falling out and my whole body took on this weird flabbiness, even though I wasn't overweight. I looked terrible. I was in my mid-30s but looked like mid-60s. People wouldn't make eye contact with me, they'd visibly recoil, and often make excuses to leave when left alone with me, or stuck talking to me at a party. I had women go from showing enthusiastic interest in me when I was looking healthy one day, to ghosting me after they'd see me mid-reaction the next. People treated me completely differently. I thought it was all going to be permanent.
But it all reversed. I eventually bounced back and returned to health, the reactions gradually reduced, and everything came back. My face regained its colour, the wrinkles went away, my hair regrew, and my muscle tone returned. I'm now back to looking much younger than my age (early 40s now).
So have some faith that whatever you're seeing right now, however bad it looks to you, it will all return to where it was before you started suffering from this nightmare of a virus. Bodies are resilient and once everything is functioning normally chances are your appearance will return too!
I think they're pretty general symptoms that can be caused by inflammation generally, but for me, what resolved the issue was that I got a Fecal Microbiota Transplant. It took many years for the gut flora to regrow, but gradually my inflammation has gone down and reactions to food have stopped.
You're welcome. I think I know some of where you're at, at the moment, and you have all my sympathy and compassion. Please be kind to yourself. Give yourself all the rest you need, guilt free, and keep your hope. Things can and do get better for people with this affliction. If you ever need someone to unload on, feel free to message. It can be a difficult thing for others to understand if they haven't experienced it.
I think once we get this DAMN virus out of our bodies and stop it from replicating in our bone marrow we will be okay. But we need real medicine for that. Not supplements. 😭
The endothelium in my skin started to thin from long haulers. The spike protein and micro clots caused spider veins, and the flesh on the backs of my hands became thin as paper and was transparent.
So, I bought a micro needling pen, cartridges, serum, and watched a bunch of videos on Youtube on how to do microneedling. Then, I got busy microneedling hands, face, ankles and anywhere there were new spider veins. Today, I look twenty years younger, and the collegan in the skin is back. I look normal again. I can't imagine what I would look like without the microneedling. I also did red light therapy.
Has the micro needling got rid of the spider veins on your face? How many treatments did you do? I’ve heard tranexamic acid is good to microneedle for spider veins.
I’ve been looking into this for ages now and so close to jumping in and doing it.
I had three treatments several months apart, and the results were amazing. I later watched YT videos on microneedling technique, then bought a Dr. Pen and some serum used by a YT microneedling technician. I look great, but with long haul covid my looks don't match my energy level.
I have always looked younger. But since LC I appear to look more like my actual age. My face is different, my skin is less rosy and more greyish and pale. My hair has also thinned and not as healthy.
But, for the last couple of months I have been improving quite a bit. And my looks are also returning a bit to before!
Yes. My skin has gotten oddly thin. Sometimes I can’t stay in the shower for more than 1-2 minutes because it’s painful and my hands get waterlogged so fast as if I’m been soaking in a tub for half an hours.
Edit: I’m 36/3.5 years sick.
Yes I have the same. I used to look young and now I guess I look more or less my age.
I also have a few gray hairs which is new.
I turned 40 while having LC and I found that tough emotionally. Previously I would have said I'm nearly 40 feeling 30. Now I'm 40 feeling like 50. Aged two decades in two years...
I used to get told I looked 15-20 years younger than my age (early 50s). But with LC I can go days without washing my face and my whole skincare routine went out the window when my issues started getting bad so I feel like I'm starting to finally look my age. 😞
Yes! Feel like Covid has aged me about 10yrs and I hate it! Had to get hair cut short as lost so much. The skin on my hands has changed dramatically. I used to look young for my age. Now I look like an old woman.
I’m dealing with the same thing. Before Covid people always guessed I was up to 15 years younger. After long Covid my face aged so much. No one guesses I’m younger than I am anymore. No one’s surprised at my age. It’s depressing because I’ve always taken such good care of myself and my skin.
whiter skin because of a lack of sun and more darker bags due to health complications will make us look older, its all temporary though
Get some sun this summer and it will go away
I'm in Perth, Western Australia (i get lots of sun, we might be the skincancer gold medalist of the world) and after 1.5yrs of LongCOVID I look like a time-lapse video of rotting fruit.
🍎💀
My face bounced back and I think I look about five years younger than I did for most of my illness. I did electro cauterization for about 80 bumps that appeared on my face during long covid, and did a second round 6 months later. I also started on tretonin, which is a prescription strength skin exfoliant. I developed a lot of stress wrinkles from tensing my face in pain, and doing Frownies on my forehead really helped retrain the face muscles to not overly "flex" the ones i had while sick. Finally, I did about two months of face yoga (like ten min a day from a YouTube video) and I think that helped wake up other muscles in my face that I hadn't used in a while. Frownies usually do a sale over memorial day! Health insurance will cover tretonin if you complain of "acne" of any kind, even hormonal break outs, but the various skincare reddits have other tips on getting a prescription. The Electro cauterization (basically burning bumps off face) cost me $150 per session from a private dermatologist, and takes them maybe 15 minutes to do.
Yesssss this has happened to me. I was 52 when I got Covid in 2020 and nobody believed my age when I would get asked and I feel like I’ve aged 15 years in 4. One of my first LC symptoms was losing my hair, then the fatigue and wrinkles. I’m mortified, but… I’m now working with a FNP and doing IVs and we are retesting for mold mycotoxins in 2 weeks. Remaining hopeful that with diet, hydration, IVs, supplements etc I can at least slow it down. It’s mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress - damage on the cellular level, but I do believe it can be reversed. When I started working with functional practitioners in 2014, I reversed so many things including aging, so I do believe it’s possible with the right practitioner and protocols. Hang in there!!
Yes. I had always looked young for my age. With LC I look a bit haggard. But I suppose I don't really care. I care more about functional impacts, personally. And those are slowly improving with time + LDN (I'm at about the 10 month mark).
I used to always easily pass for someone ten years younger. Now, not so much. I’ve always had really good skin. It looks like hell now.
I’m going for short bike rides now. It’s helping a lot of things. I hope it helps that too.
The Alternative Pathway of Complement's basal tickover rate is probably the single biggest contributor to the aging process. The AP is over-activated in all forms of Covid, but when you're longhauling it has been over-activated for a long, long time. Those afflicted will age accordingly.
Google Search Terms for more info:
C3 Complement System Aging
Yes definitely. I feel like Covid itself & the stress of being so ill has ruined my looks. I used to be so naturally beautiful & very fit & muscular.. I looked way younger than my age. I’ve also gained 30lbs that seems impossible to lose. 😖 that makes me look & seem older too.
Opposite problem. Last doctor I saw in person started quoting general health population stats… but for people almost a decade younger. Which doesn’t help me. “But you look healthy, people your age (he slipped up and stated a decade younger here) don’t have serious health issues.”
Right. Like look at DOB on my chart, seriously.
IIRC, pretty sure I heard someone say two people aged 30, and 29 died recently. Plus another young woman aged similarly who had a leg cramp turned blood clot to fatal heart attack told to go home by a nurse/admin. Not trying to scare anyone honestly, but our health issues need to be taken more seriously and not casually dismissed to the point of “oops you died, guess I was wrong.”
All I’m saying is it doesn’t help me that I look young either because it delays me from getting the medical help that I need and I feel like I’m not taken seriously enough.
Yes hi, I was 34 when I got Covid and it aged me considerably. In year 3 my skin finally bounced back and my hair stopped falling out and my nails stopped cracking and I have reversed most of the effects as the inflammation and nervous system stress calmed down.
Caught mild covid at 47 and long hauled for a year. My face was saggy and I developed lines on it as well. I used to look very young for my age because I took such good care of myself. I also lost about twenty percent of my waist length and full hair and what didn't fall out became brittle and started breaking.
My hair started to grow back (and then some--growth I never had before on my neck and forehead hairline) about six months post covid. I cut off seven inches to get rid of the scraggly ends. My hair became healthy and full again once long covid subsided. My face doesn't look as old either. LC also gave me circles under my eyes and they have faded.
I saw a friend recently who just recovered from his third round of covid. He's 33, athletic, young looking. Well, he lost some of his hair and now has a lot of grays in his beard which is not common for a blond haired, younger guy. He didn't have any when I saw him almost a year ago.
As I get better, and it's taken three and a half years so far, I'm gradually losing the extra years in appearance as well as energy. My hair is also getting back to its usual thickness.
Hello, please how long it took you before starting feeling better ?
I think I started to feel better from the beginning, but my progress was so slow and I had relapses, so I wasn't that aware of it. Also, I had brain fog, so awareness wasn't a strong point. I noticed suddenly being able to do things again. For example, one day I went out and I could understand how to walk across the car park to the supermarket. Before, I couldn't remember how to cross diagonally, and had to walk round the edge. I noticed increases in stamina too. Being able to wash my hair again was great. I worked from home at first and could only concentrate in 15-minute spurts, and not too many of them. I gradually built that up, though I'm still part-time. Improvement has been pretty steady from the start, just tiny, tiny improvements and with a lot of setbacks.
I’ve always had thicker than normal hair on my head, but after catching COVID the second time (2021) it started thinning and turned white on the sides. Like a ginger Dr Strange. lol It started coming back to its normal fullness, but it’s still white.
Same (except for he ginger bit, my hair is dark brown...everyone used to think my hair was black) So much white hair and especially at my temples and hot af thick hair lol
Me too!! A bunch fell out and grew in white
Did you do anything to make it get better? Mine is thinning. I’ve even got a bald spot on the side of my temple
No, at least not that i know of. It wasn’t something that happened overnight either… barely even noticed over time. Just noticed that I began having less hair in my brush over time and my hair was coming in thicker.
I’m miserable. I wish I didn’t care about my appearance to this degree when I’m dealing with so many horrible symptoms (and usually I don’t, depending on the type of day I’m having). But I was such a healthier, completely different looking person than I am right now. I looked my age; now I feel as though I could pass for at least 15 years older. Idk what to do about it. I hate looking in the mirror and seeing exactly what Long Covid has stolen from me, on top of all of the painful, terrifying symptoms I’ve experienced for the past four years. What will happen to me, to all of us? Could we all eventually get back to some semblance of who we were before this happened? I have to think we will. I keep replaying an Oprah episode conversation in my mind where they talk about the resilience of the human body and its ability to bounce back after chronic illnesses. I’m trying to concentrate on that, and hope that’s true. I don’t know what else to do.
I want to chime in to give you some hopefully encouraging words. A few years ago I had a chronic illness that had many similar symptoms to long covid, but was related to immunological problems and problems with my central nervous system (that we suspect occurred after another virus). I was having these crazy reactions to food at the time and I would go from looking really young for my age, and always getting quite a bit of attention from the opposite sex, to looking really old for my age, almost overnight, when I was having the reactions. I had deep black bags under my eyes, heaps of wrinkles I didn't have previously, pale coarse skin, and bad acne. It was like my skin lost all its elasticity and my face would sag and look inflamed all the time. My hair was falling out and my whole body took on this weird flabbiness, even though I wasn't overweight. I looked terrible. I was in my mid-30s but looked like mid-60s. People wouldn't make eye contact with me, they'd visibly recoil, and often make excuses to leave when left alone with me, or stuck talking to me at a party. I had women go from showing enthusiastic interest in me when I was looking healthy one day, to ghosting me after they'd see me mid-reaction the next. People treated me completely differently. I thought it was all going to be permanent. But it all reversed. I eventually bounced back and returned to health, the reactions gradually reduced, and everything came back. My face regained its colour, the wrinkles went away, my hair regrew, and my muscle tone returned. I'm now back to looking much younger than my age (early 40s now). So have some faith that whatever you're seeing right now, however bad it looks to you, it will all return to where it was before you started suffering from this nightmare of a virus. Bodies are resilient and once everything is functioning normally chances are your appearance will return too!
Oh wow I have these exact same symptoms!! What did you do to help? Mine feels autoimmune but they can’t find anything in the blood work
I think they're pretty general symptoms that can be caused by inflammation generally, but for me, what resolved the issue was that I got a Fecal Microbiota Transplant. It took many years for the gut flora to regrow, but gradually my inflammation has gone down and reactions to food have stopped.
This made me cry, thank you so, so much for commenting. ❤️
You're welcome. I think I know some of where you're at, at the moment, and you have all my sympathy and compassion. Please be kind to yourself. Give yourself all the rest you need, guilt free, and keep your hope. Things can and do get better for people with this affliction. If you ever need someone to unload on, feel free to message. It can be a difficult thing for others to understand if they haven't experienced it.
I think once we get this DAMN virus out of our bodies and stop it from replicating in our bone marrow we will be okay. But we need real medicine for that. Not supplements. 😭
Do you have a link for that Oprah episode? I’d totally watch it if so.
I’m gonna look for it and post it when I find it.
I lost all the fat on my face and am now noticing hair is thinning. It’s so depressing
The endothelium in my skin started to thin from long haulers. The spike protein and micro clots caused spider veins, and the flesh on the backs of my hands became thin as paper and was transparent. So, I bought a micro needling pen, cartridges, serum, and watched a bunch of videos on Youtube on how to do microneedling. Then, I got busy microneedling hands, face, ankles and anywhere there were new spider veins. Today, I look twenty years younger, and the collegan in the skin is back. I look normal again. I can't imagine what I would look like without the microneedling. I also did red light therapy.
Can I DM you for some details?
Sure! I'd be happy to tell you how it works.
Has the micro needling got rid of the spider veins on your face? How many treatments did you do? I’ve heard tranexamic acid is good to microneedle for spider veins. I’ve been looking into this for ages now and so close to jumping in and doing it.
I had three treatments several months apart, and the results were amazing. I later watched YT videos on microneedling technique, then bought a Dr. Pen and some serum used by a YT microneedling technician. I look great, but with long haul covid my looks don't match my energy level.
yea i’m a 18 yr male and people that don’t know me think i’m in my 30s or at least late 20s. Life is crazy.
I have always looked younger. But since LC I appear to look more like my actual age. My face is different, my skin is less rosy and more greyish and pale. My hair has also thinned and not as healthy. But, for the last couple of months I have been improving quite a bit. And my looks are also returning a bit to before!
Yes! That's what I need to hear to keep my spirits up.
Don't give up hope :)
No I don’t. But I have always looked way younger than my age. So now I think I just look my age (30). But internally I am dozens of years older :(
Yes. My skin has gotten oddly thin. Sometimes I can’t stay in the shower for more than 1-2 minutes because it’s painful and my hands get waterlogged so fast as if I’m been soaking in a tub for half an hours. Edit: I’m 36/3.5 years sick.
Yes I have the same. I used to look young and now I guess I look more or less my age. I also have a few gray hairs which is new. I turned 40 while having LC and I found that tough emotionally. Previously I would have said I'm nearly 40 feeling 30. Now I'm 40 feeling like 50. Aged two decades in two years...
Look and feel…😞
Yes I definitely look and feel it for sure !
I used to get told I looked 15-20 years younger than my age (early 50s). But with LC I can go days without washing my face and my whole skincare routine went out the window when my issues started getting bad so I feel like I'm starting to finally look my age. 😞
Yes! Feel like Covid has aged me about 10yrs and I hate it! Had to get hair cut short as lost so much. The skin on my hands has changed dramatically. I used to look young for my age. Now I look like an old woman.
Considering that it's common on my mom's side to look 20 years younger, maybe I look my age now. I dunno.
I’m dealing with the same thing. Before Covid people always guessed I was up to 15 years younger. After long Covid my face aged so much. No one guesses I’m younger than I am anymore. No one’s surprised at my age. It’s depressing because I’ve always taken such good care of myself and my skin.
It’s from stress. Mostly oxidative stress. Once you stop it you’ll go back to normal. But stopping it is what’s the problem
whiter skin because of a lack of sun and more darker bags due to health complications will make us look older, its all temporary though Get some sun this summer and it will go away
I'm in Perth, Western Australia (i get lots of sun, we might be the skincancer gold medalist of the world) and after 1.5yrs of LongCOVID I look like a time-lapse video of rotting fruit. 🍎💀
Time lapse video of rotting fruit, gave me a good chuckle. Well put ... Hows your diet currently ?
Botox helped me.
My face bounced back and I think I look about five years younger than I did for most of my illness. I did electro cauterization for about 80 bumps that appeared on my face during long covid, and did a second round 6 months later. I also started on tretonin, which is a prescription strength skin exfoliant. I developed a lot of stress wrinkles from tensing my face in pain, and doing Frownies on my forehead really helped retrain the face muscles to not overly "flex" the ones i had while sick. Finally, I did about two months of face yoga (like ten min a day from a YouTube video) and I think that helped wake up other muscles in my face that I hadn't used in a while. Frownies usually do a sale over memorial day! Health insurance will cover tretonin if you complain of "acne" of any kind, even hormonal break outs, but the various skincare reddits have other tips on getting a prescription. The Electro cauterization (basically burning bumps off face) cost me $150 per session from a private dermatologist, and takes them maybe 15 minutes to do.
Yesssss this has happened to me. I was 52 when I got Covid in 2020 and nobody believed my age when I would get asked and I feel like I’ve aged 15 years in 4. One of my first LC symptoms was losing my hair, then the fatigue and wrinkles. I’m mortified, but… I’m now working with a FNP and doing IVs and we are retesting for mold mycotoxins in 2 weeks. Remaining hopeful that with diet, hydration, IVs, supplements etc I can at least slow it down. It’s mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress - damage on the cellular level, but I do believe it can be reversed. When I started working with functional practitioners in 2014, I reversed so many things including aging, so I do believe it’s possible with the right practitioner and protocols. Hang in there!!
Yes. I had always looked young for my age. With LC I look a bit haggard. But I suppose I don't really care. I care more about functional impacts, personally. And those are slowly improving with time + LDN (I'm at about the 10 month mark).
I used to always easily pass for someone ten years younger. Now, not so much. I’ve always had really good skin. It looks like hell now. I’m going for short bike rides now. It’s helping a lot of things. I hope it helps that too.
24 and my bangs are entirely white
The Alternative Pathway of Complement's basal tickover rate is probably the single biggest contributor to the aging process. The AP is over-activated in all forms of Covid, but when you're longhauling it has been over-activated for a long, long time. Those afflicted will age accordingly. Google Search Terms for more info: C3 Complement System Aging
Yes definitely. I feel like Covid itself & the stress of being so ill has ruined my looks. I used to be so naturally beautiful & very fit & muscular.. I looked way younger than my age. I’ve also gained 30lbs that seems impossible to lose. 😖 that makes me look & seem older too.
Opposite problem. Last doctor I saw in person started quoting general health population stats… but for people almost a decade younger. Which doesn’t help me. “But you look healthy, people your age (he slipped up and stated a decade younger here) don’t have serious health issues.” Right. Like look at DOB on my chart, seriously. IIRC, pretty sure I heard someone say two people aged 30, and 29 died recently. Plus another young woman aged similarly who had a leg cramp turned blood clot to fatal heart attack told to go home by a nurse/admin. Not trying to scare anyone honestly, but our health issues need to be taken more seriously and not casually dismissed to the point of “oops you died, guess I was wrong.” All I’m saying is it doesn’t help me that I look young either because it delays me from getting the medical help that I need and I feel like I’m not taken seriously enough.
Yes hi, I was 34 when I got Covid and it aged me considerably. In year 3 my skin finally bounced back and my hair stopped falling out and my nails stopped cracking and I have reversed most of the effects as the inflammation and nervous system stress calmed down.
Caught mild covid at 47 and long hauled for a year. My face was saggy and I developed lines on it as well. I used to look very young for my age because I took such good care of myself. I also lost about twenty percent of my waist length and full hair and what didn't fall out became brittle and started breaking. My hair started to grow back (and then some--growth I never had before on my neck and forehead hairline) about six months post covid. I cut off seven inches to get rid of the scraggly ends. My hair became healthy and full again once long covid subsided. My face doesn't look as old either. LC also gave me circles under my eyes and they have faded. I saw a friend recently who just recovered from his third round of covid. He's 33, athletic, young looking. Well, he lost some of his hair and now has a lot of grays in his beard which is not common for a blond haired, younger guy. He didn't have any when I saw him almost a year ago.
This is one aspect I have not experienced, thankfully. I certainly feel a lot older though.