Mistaken attribution (it's something else)
Symptoms actually caused by a separate, often treatable condition — and attributed to COVID by timing.
Fatigue, brain fog, breathlessness, and palpitations have many common causes. A meaningful share of presumed Long COVID is explained by a separate, treatable condition — thyroid disease, iron deficiency, B12 deficiency, sleep apnea, diabetes, depression, or a medication effect — that happened to surface around the same time. A cheap first-tier workup (TSH, ferritin, B12/folate, vitamin D, HbA1c, CBC, metabolic panel, ESR/CRP) plus a sleep-apnea screen catches most of these. This is the highest-yield, lowest-cost step in the whole assessment: rule out the mimics before attributing everything to COVID.
How it's tested
First-tier blood panel (alternative-diagnosis screen)
TSH, ferritin, B12/folate, vitamin D, HbA1c, CBC, metabolic panel, ESR/CRP. Catches the common, treatable conditions that masquerade as Long COVID.
Sleep-apnea screen (STOP-BANG → home sleep test)
A free questionnaire that, if positive, leads to an inexpensive home sleep apnea test. Sleep apnea is common, undiagnosed, treatable, and both mimics and worsens Long COVID.
Treatment options & their evidence
Graded honestly — including treatments that failed in good trials, which is worth knowing.
Treat the underlying condition
Strong evidenceWhen a separate condition (thyroid, iron deficiency, sleep apnea, B12, diabetes, depression) is found, treating it directly is well-established and can resolve the symptoms entirely.