Doctors who treat ME/CFS have published testing and treatment recommendations that can be used for long COVID.
When asked about long COVID, many doctors say, “this is so new we don’t know much.” However, we have known about post viral-illnesses like ME/CFS for a very long time. The hallmark feature of ME/CFS is post-exertional malaise, which is also incredibly common in long COVID, so they can be treated
U.S. ME/CFS Clinician Coalition
A group of doctors who have treated ME/CFS patients for decades formed the U.S. ME/CFS Clinician Coalition and developed consensus testing and treatment recommendations based on their experience. They published these guidelines on their website: mecfscliniciancoalition.org
If you are interested in the consensus process, Dr. Lucenda Bateman from the Bateman Horne Center describes it in this 14 minute video.
The recommendations are very credible because they come from mainstream doctors with a lot of experience. They also have nothing to gain financially from releasing the recommendations. Their clinics have long waiting lists and they released the recommendations for free on a site with no advertisements.
I was able to take these recommendations to my PCP as a place to start. This was helpful because my PCP is much more available than the long COVID clinc. The website has many resources, but here are some I have found useful.
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Mayo Clinic Proceedings paper gives an overview of how to test and treat ME/CFS.
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Testing recommendations explains how a physican should verify a patient has ME/CFS.
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Treatment recommendations explains how to treat ME/CFS and many of the symptoms that come with long COVID. Pages 8-9 have non-drug treatments that you could try at home without even involving a doctor.
All of these documents are well-written and easy to read as a lay person.
Conclusion
If your primary long COVID symptoms are post-exertional malaise, orthostatic intolerance (like POTS), Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), sleep disturbance, or pain, then these concise recommendations may be useful to you.