How to Help Your Body and Immune System Recover From Covid-19

It can take a while to feel like yourself again. Here’s how to encourage healing.

Danielle Kosecki
Elemental

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An aerial photo of a sick woman lying on a mattress on the floor. A laptop, books, tissues, etc. are strewn on ground.
Photo: Westend61/Getty Images

Covid-19 has become infamous for its unpredictability. People who get it experience a wide range of symptoms (or none at all) that can vary greatly in severity. The same seems to be true of recovery.

It’s virtually impossible to know how many people have recovered from Covid-19 because of inadequate testing, but one estimate is 18% of those who’ve contracted the disease, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. That number doesn’t take into account the countless people who weren’t tested and recovered at home, so it may be much higher. It’s also complicated by how the CDC classifies “recovery.”

According to the CDC, a person is considered recovered from Covid-19 when they test negative on two FDA-authorized tests spaced at least 24 hours apart, or if three days have passed since their fever broke without the use of fever-reducing medications, their respiratory symptoms improved, and it’s been at least 10 days since their symptoms first appeared.

The problem is, “improved” does not equal resolved, and fever and respiratory symptoms are only the tip of the iceberg of what many Covid-19 patients experience. “This…

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Danielle Kosecki
Elemental

Former magazine editor and current freelance reporter who spends way too much time on PubMed. Let’s hang out: @dkos07. (she/her)