New Long Covid Study Offers Hope for Millions of Sufferers

Hello and a warm welcome to our live event today where we're talking about the Long Covid study that's just been published last week. I'm so very pleased that you could be with me today. My name is Ashok Gupta and I'm the founder and CEO of the Gupta Program. And we are a global neuroplasticity brain retraining program supporting people with chronic illnesses. And so the announcement that we're making today is that just last week our medical paper was published and this was an independent randomized control trial which was published in the Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Journal. And essentially this study found that after a three month intervention where they compared the Gupta program to a wellness program, that after just three months there was a four times reduction in fatigue, or rather the GUPS program was four times more effective at reducing fatigue than the wellness program and twice as effective at increasing levels of energy amongst people with Long Covid. So those are the headlines of this particular study and as far as we know, it's one of the first randomised controlled trials that has been published to show that there's a treatment that can consistently improve symptoms of Long Covid. And certainly in the area of neuroplasticity, this is one of the first or indeed the first that we know of. And so we're very excited that this has got published and most importantly, to offer hope to the millions out there who are suffering from Long Covid. So in the US, they estimate anything between 15 to 23 million people are still suffering the after effects of the COVID 19 infection. In the UK, they estimate around 2 million people and worldwide they estimate tens of millions actually are still suffering with those lingering symptoms. So there's a huge amount of suffering that's going on and with little opportunity for treatment or support. And certainly there are waiting lists for Long Covid clinics. So we're very pleased that we've been able to show in this clinical trial that there are some other ways, other ways in which patients can get that support in what we feel is a reasonably priced and easy to access treatment. So if you know anybody who's suffering from Long Covid or indeed yourself, please do share this video with others so you can share this video amongst Long Covid groups, amongst your own timeline, amongst family and friends, because I find this condition is so prevalent that we all know somebody who is suffering with Long Covid. And what is Long Covid? Well, between 10 to 30% of patients who experience COVID 19 go on to have lingering symptoms. Initially, for most people, it's a number of weeks, but there is a small percentage that go on to have it for at least two to three months. And therefore, this impacts on their ability to work, their ability to study, compromises their life chances. And, you know, some of these groups have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people on them. And so we know already that there are so many millions of people who suffer from it, from some of the surveys that have been done. So I want to talk more about this particular study. So this study was conducted before we had the new Gupta program app. So as many of you may know, we've just recently, last week we're celebrating the launch of the Gupta Program app, which makes it so much easier for people to access our treatments and begin training their brain on day one. So if this is something that you think is of interest to you or people that you know, you can go to the App store or Play Store, you can download our free app. And in the free trial, you get access to the videos from one to three of the Gupta Program. Lots of meditations and relaxation techniques, but most importantly, lots of information as to what may be causing your condition. Because that's it, isn't it? Just understanding what may be going on can itself provide a huge amount of relief. So a bit more about the study itself. So the study was conducted by Luther College in the US and essentially they took, they conducted the trial. So it's an independent trial. They took a group of people and then randomized them. So this is a group of people who were suffering from long Covid for at least three months. And they randomized them to two groups. One was a wellness program which incorporated things like the normal things we know can improve overall health. That's diet, sleep, you know, some of the mind stuff, as it were, relaxation techniques and exercise and those kinds of things which can support a generally good lifestyle. And then half of them were then attributed to the Gupta Program, which is our brain retraining neuroplasticity program. And, and this was at the stage where it was just web based. And then they followed them for three months and saw how they were affected in terms of levels of fatigue and then levels of energy. Those are the main criteria that we were monitoring. And as I mentioned, it showed that the GUPS program was four times more effective at reducing fatigue and twice as effective at increasing levels of energy. And many of the patients. So in terms of the average mean scores for patients with long Covid, actually in the Gupta program active group, their mean scores for fatigue started approaching standardized norms in the population, so many of them were actually going on to having full recoveries, which is very exciting news. And so it begs the question, what is neuroplasticity? What is brain retraining? And how does this impact on the symptoms of Long Covid? Because for those of you who are new to this, it may seem very mysterious and strange. So what I wanted to briefly do is talk about the causes of Long Covid. So you can put this into context if you're watching this or learning about this for the first time. First of all, I want you to know that there is hope that whether it's our program or another treatment, we've been treating patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia for over two decades now. And we've seen so many recoveries, hundreds if not thousands of recoveries. So whatever your doctor may say or specialist, people do recover every day from these chronic conditions, and therefore there is hope. So please never give up hope or feel that you are stuck with your condition. Secondly, when we understand what causes these type of conditions and how logical it really is, then that once again can relieve our fear and our anticipation that how long will this go on for? And really feel a sense of relief that there is hope. So, in terms of what causes Long Covid, I just want to briefly mention our hypothesis. And this hypothesis was published in a Medical Journal in 2002. Medical Hypotheses. And since then, we've published randomized controlled trials showing the effectiveness of our program for me, in chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and now obviously, Long Covid. So the Long Covid paper was published last week, but in terms of fibromyalgia, we also published a randomised control trial a couple of years ago in the Journal of Clinical Medicine. So let's look at the causes of it. So the place I like to start is the biggest question of all. Why are we here? So we are here from this pure scientific perspective, because our brains and bodies are what we call survival machines. We're designed to survive. Survival is the number one priority of our brains and our bodies. And we have an immune system that is designed to detect threats. So those might be viruses, bacterial infections. They may be foreign objects in the body or dirt or toxins, those impact on the body. And our body then recognizes those things and then looks to eliminate them from the body using a very intelligent system, our immune system, in coordination with our nervous system, which has the nerves that the information channels, electrical system that tells the cells and the body what to do. And both of those Systems once again are designed for survival. And imagine then that in the modern world that we live in, compared to our kind of genetic inheritance, we are living in a far more toxic world in terms of the amount of chemicals are exposed to toxins and then levels of stress, the lack of sleep, the diet that we have, which has some more kind of toxic elements to it. All of these things combined mean that our system is what we call inflamed. So I believe that our for most people, and that's why fatigue is such a common symptom in the population. Our bodies, so many of us are experiencing a pro inflammatory bias. So our bodies are slightly inflamed in the background, fighting off these various insults that impact on the body. And so we're already slightly weakened. Then along comes the COVID 19 infection. And for most people, the immune system switches on, it fights off the virus and then resets itself and goes to the off position. And when the immune system gets triggered, it actually uses up a lot of the body's energy. So for instance, when we have flu, how do we feel? We feel exhausted, tired. Yeah, we just want to stay in bed. And that's deliberate because our system wants us to rest so that we're not using up energy in other ways. And we're just focusing on using the body's energy to support healing, to support the immune system. And so when COVID 19 infection comes along, because it is quite an intense infection for the body and as we know it has a relatively high mortality rate compared to things like flu, therefore the body recognizes it as putting it in mortal danger almost. So its number one priority is survival, not your well being. So the body valiantly stimulates the immune system. But if the body's a little weak for whatever reason, it may not be able to fight off the virus effectively enough. And also combined with this, we believe that long Covid may, and this is a hypothesis, it may be related to the convalescence period in terms of how we support ourselves in the post viral phase. So let's say our immune system kicks in, it fights off the virus, and then most of us experience a little bit of what they call post viral fatigue, where our bodies feel a little tired for a while, that's perfectly normal, that can last a few days or a couple of weeks. And certainly many people that I know who had Covid went on to having a persistent cough for a few weeks afterwards. And so this shows us that there is still a persistent immune response that is going on. And sometimes if we don't Rest during that period of time. That can also impact on the way the brain is perceiving this particular illness. Then we believe what happens is that the brain goes into an altered state where the brain starts perceiving symptoms in the body, whatever their source, as reflective of the infection still being present. And in conditioning theory, this is called a conditioned stimulus. Many of you may have heard of Pavlov's dogs. Yep. So Pavlov was this scientist who recognized that he had a number of dogs, I think where he worked and when you would have give them their lunch, they would salivate, of course, they saw the meat, they would salivate, then he would ring a bell and the dogs would salivate just at hearing the bell, because the bell was representative of food being present. That's what we call a conditioned stimulus. So in the same way, because we have physical symptoms during the COVID 19 infection, we believe the brain now starts recognizing physical symptoms as meaning that we still have the COVID 19 infection present. So even once the COVID 19 infection has disappeared, the brain is hyper vigilant on the symptoms of the body. It recognizes those symptoms and thinks, aha, my number one priority is survival. Let me trigger the immune system and the nervous system so it triggers that, creating a cascade of symptoms in the body. Those symptoms then cause the fatigue, the tiredness, the exhaustion, and all the downstream symptoms we know related to long Covid, even cognitive issues, neurological symptoms, post exertional malaise, even certain aspects of anxiety and depression can come on. Muscle weakness. All of these symptoms can be caused by a hyperactive nervous system and immune system and inflammatory systems being triggered, even neuroinflammation. These symptoms then get detected by this hypervigilant brain. And the brain thinks, aha, I knew it, I knew we were still in danger. Then the brain once again triggers that cascade of immune and nervous system responses, which then triggers the symptoms and so on. So the brain and the body start playing a very vicious game of tennis where the brain hits the ball saying, we're in danger, we need to trigger these defense responses. The body then experiences symptoms, feeds that knowledge back to a hyper vigilant brain and so on. And there's a vicious cycle that goes on. A game of tennis that goes on. And that's why it can be chronic. And that's also why it's a wave. So many people notice that when they have these types of illnesses, there are good days and bad days. Now why is that there's good days and bad days? Because actually the wave function, the feedback loop gets More vicious or more virtuous, depending on a particular day or a particular week. So that's how that explains why there are lots of ups and downs in these types of conditions. And an analogy I like to use, which I think many people find useful, is imagine you are the king or queen, Your castle, your kingdom. All right, so we all imagine a fairy tale with a king or queen of our kingdom, and we have an army and a navy. So the army is the nervous system, the navy is the immune system to defend the kingdom. And along comes an invading army and the nervous system and the immune system. So our army and navy fight off valiantly this invading army, and everything goes back to normal. Then suddenly that particular kingdom experiences a drought. And now the army and navy aren't as powerful anymore. The kingdom is weak. There's not enough food and resources. And so another army comes over the hill. And the army and the navy fight it off valiantly, but they've been left traumatized by the experience because the kingdom nearly fell. And so now the army generals and the navy generals, they come to you, the king or queen, and they say, look, we need all the resources of the kingdom now. We need all the wheat, the flour, the iron, the metals, everything. All the resources need to be channeled to the army and navy because we ensure survival. And you, as the king or queen, think, right, that's the right thing to do. So all resources get channeled. And now the army and navy are so paranoid about the kingdom falling that even a man riding his horse over the hill triggers all the bows and the arrows and the war machines to defend the kingdom. And so now, once again, as we said, the kingdom's priority, or the general's priority is survival. Let's defend the kingdom against any potential threats. And that's why when people have things like long Covid or chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia, they then go on to having secondary sensitivities like mold illness, like food sensitivities, gut challenges. All of this is happening because when we go into that defense mode, the body's. All the body systems, including the gut, go into hyper defense mode, are constantly defending against this potential threat to ensure survival. So from an evolution perspective, it's an evolutionary advanced things to do. The issue is it's not making us feel, well, that's the issue, that's the challenge. Okay, and so what is brain retraining and neuroplasticity? Well, neuroplasticity is this idea that our brains aren't fixed, they're rewirable. They're changeable. And so the brain got trained when you had COVID 19 to believe that the symptoms in the body represent COVID 19 being present. But now we need to retrain or detrain actually the body out of that response. So when those army and navy generals are coming to you as the king or queen, instead of you saying, yes, of course, you can have all the resources of the kingdom, of course you should keep firing off your arrows and bows and your bows and arrows and your war machine. Instead. The instruction is, hey, I know that this feels bad, right? But actually, the war is over. You can go back to standby. You don't need to keep firing off your weapons. You know, relax. We're safe now. The kingdom is safe. And that is our brain retraining. And this is not psychological. It is not cbt. Okay? What this is, it's a very unique set of retraining processes. And the nearest analogy would be something like when stroke victims suffer a stroke, they sometimes lose ability to control a particular arm or a particular leg or a limb or something, and they go through a period of rehabilitation. And in that rehabilitation, they are rewiring the neurons in their brain to enable them to be able to walk again or regain function over a particular part of the body. And that's through repetition and time and space. And in the same way we retrain our brains with that commitment to train these army and navy generals, that we aren't in danger. And once again, it's not just thinking differently. It's a process, a repetitive process of retraining. And that's what makes this really stand out. And this hypothesis can be applied to a whole range of different conditions. So the first type of condition are immuno conditions, so specifically infections, so bacterial infections, viruses, and then also other threats. So we also know many people having post vax illness where they've had the vaccine and they've gone on to having symptoms, because once again, even a vaccine or inoculation or any kind of drug, if your system is weak and vulnerable, it may have a sensitivity reaction to that and then may become hypervigilant and hypersensitive to anything that remotely similar. So that's one type of condition is when there's a viral or bacterial threat. Another type of condition is when there's a sensitivity threat to a food mold. Once again, anything that represents a vaccine, anything that may stimulate the gut can be a threat. So that's another type of condition that potentially this type of approach treats a third type of condition. And we've done a randomized controlled trial on fibromyalgia can be pain syndromes. So we know that millions around the world, it's one of the most common conditions, experience some kind of chronic pain where the original organic cause of the pain has disappeared, but the body seems to have got stuck in some kind of cycle where there's persistent pain going on. But this isn't psychological. This is in our view, where the brain is magnifying signals from the body, recognizing, interpreting them as pain, and then is restimulating those very pain systems in the body in terms of the peripheral and central nerves that hypersensitivity, also inflammation. And all of these things can then become a vicious cycle causing cycles of chronic pain which once again can be retrained using brain retraining approaches. And indeed in the fibromyalgia randomized computing those very pain systems in the body in terms of the peripheral and central nerves, that hypersensitivity, also inflammation and all of these things can then become a vicious cycle causing cycles of chronic pain which once again can be retrained using brain retraining approaches. And indeed, in the fibromyalgia randomized control trial published a couple of years ago, once again in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, they compared the GUPS program to another type of wellness program focusing on relaxation. And that was just an eight week intervention. And after eight weeks there was a 40% drop in fibromyalgia scores for the GUPS program, but zero in the control group. There was a halving of anxiety, halving of depression, halving of pain and a 50% increase in functional capacity. And that was just in eight weeks. And we are a minimum, you know, three to six month program. You can read about that on our website. Now if you want more information about our long Covid study, I want to share this with others because this really is a message of hope. You can go to our website, guptaprogram. Com, Long hyphen, Covid study and there you'll be able to find the original medical paper and lots more information about the Gupta program, also the fibro study there and.