Review of the most popular strategies for healing Long Covid and Autoimmune Diseases in 2024

Hopefully, this can help some of the [new-sick] who are still navigating strategies. Understanding these strategies and why they are the most popular can speed up your healing journey.

• Dietary Modifications
• Supplements and Herbal Remedies
• Physical Therapies
• Stress Management and Mental Health Support
• Alternative and Complementary Therapies
• Sleep Hygiene
• Detoxification Practices
• Medical Cannabis (THC/CBD)
• Environmental Modifications (mold)
• Water Fasting

1. Dietary Modifications

Okay, so the most common dietary recommendations you'll find are anti-inflammatory diets, often exemplified by something like the Mediterranean diet. As people start to experiment, you begin hearing a lot about ketogenic diets as well. However, when these don't work for some people, they get desperate, and if they continue deteriorating, they start hearing about these so-called "magical" diets like the carnivore diet. They try it, and they feel so much better, and they start spreading the word. It's almost like a zombie virus that starts infecting everybody, and soon everyone is hearing about carnivore diets.

Although many people are scared of it—which probably leads to a low rate of experimentation—or they just can't handle the discipline required to eliminate carbs. It's not always their fault; it involves an element of discipline but also an understanding of how your body works, how the liver functions, and how your energy metabolism operates.

But in general, if you want to be able to walk away from this illness in the end, you'll most likely want to transition to an anti-inflammatory diet that emphasizes whole foods, lean proteins, and healthy fats. Let me rephrase that: the final goal is to get to this diet, but the carnivore and ketogenic diets can be an important quick solution to start the healing process.

2. Supplements and Herbal Remedies

Okay, so when it comes to supplements and herbal remedies, it's all over the place. But if we were to condense the most popular approaches that almost everybody has tried, it revolves around a mix of probiotics, omega-3s, magnesium, vitamin D, and herbal protocols. The herbal protocols are varied, and many of them are borrowed from Lyme disease treatments, which have been around for a really long time. People have been suffering similarly to long COVID, so it makes sense to dive into these things that have been experimented with and tested over the last 20 years, just to avoid making the same mistakes and to follow in the footsteps of giants.

The question here is that there are two camps. There's a camp that says we shouldn't take any supplements because they're bad for us, and there's some valid reasoning to this—for example, overloading or overburdening the liver and your detox pathways. A lot of these supplements come with additives (excipients) and extra stuff inside them that we may not want in the body or we may even be allergic to. So remember, in a perfect world, we wouldn't take supplements. However, it is ridiculous and childish to assume that all supplements are bad when there are supplements/medications that can literally turn around disease issues, especially if you're taking supplements that you're deficient in.

This means that blood tests and blood work are an important part of understanding this. For example, if your blood work tells you that you're deficient in something, supplementing it is probably the first and fastest step to actually help improve those numbers. That doesn't always mean that it's going to help, and sometimes you're so sick that your body will not even absorb it properly. There are so many anecdotal evidences and even some studies that show that people with chronic illness may have low vitamin D levels inside their cells, but even if they supplement with mega-dosing of vitamin D, their serum levels increase but their cells don't actually uptake it. So we've got an issue with cellular resistance, and that is a similar issue to insulin resistance—so these things go hand in hand.

What I have experimented with is tons of supplements. I've tried a lot of them. I've always been very sensitive to changes, and I believe that this allows me to intuitively and experimentally get really good data. But I also think that it's pretty common to have this hypersensitivity in a lot of chronic illness sufferers, and there's probably some genetic reason or correlation between people who are hypersensitive and are more prone to chronic illnesses—maybe something like a more dense nervous system that is more prone to injury and harder to heal, potentially. Are you hypersensitive?

But anyway, when it comes down to it, there are critical supplements that work, and you'll see them in the Scorch Protocol. However, over the last year of being healed and rewriting some of the protocol, I have gone through all of my experimentations, and there is definitely too much focus on supplements, so I have pulled back. I believe that if we were to eliminate all supplementation, we would still focus on medication or supplements that provide an antiviral strategy.

3. Physical Therapies

Physical therapy is an interesting aspect. Inside my Scorch Protocol, there's a sub-protocol called the Pacing and Exercise Protocol—or probably just the Pacing Protocol. It is so important to maintain some form of movement. I know that the most severe people here, for whom I am sort of trying to focus this whole protocol on, will yell and scream and say that they have PEM (Post-Exertional Malaise) and chronic fatigue, and there's more than enough research saying that rest is more important than pushing. And I agree—you never want to push. But you do need movement.

I've talked to so many people and read so many stories of those who go the radical rest route, and then their threshold for physical activities declines. Now, this could be due to multiple reasons. It could be because they got reinfected, or the virus and the issue continue to do damage even while they're resting, so their baseline continuously drops. Or it could be that the baseline drops simply because the body is now lowering its threshold and getting used to no exercise. And now, when you even introduce a little bit more than you could have done in the past, you have intense flare-ups, and this correlates to the nervous system just being completely dysregulated.

What is the solution? Well, it's very lightly maintaining exercise and being able to really gradually push it up. That requires something like tracking your steps, and I talk about this and the strategies that I used and have tailored towards pacing, specifically with the amount of steps. Walking is always going to be number one and why physical therapy is so important—because humans have always walked, always, always walked. Do you understand how important walking is? It's honestly one of the most important correlations to longevity. Look at any communities or Blue Zones that live the longest—the one thing that is correlated among everybody is a lot of walking. Walking moves lymph nodes; our whole body is designed to walk. There are acceleration and deceleration mechanics inside the cells; they know when they're moving. They've adapted and evolved to deal with and optimize health through movement. Don't sleep on this.

4. Stress Management and Mental Health Support

This is a controversial one in a way, because especially if people are new to this disease, they hear things like brain retraining, mindfulness, and meditation, and they literally just roll their eyes because it's so hard to understand something that science can't explain correctly. Our brains are these wondrous, miraculous systems that we can't explain fully. We do our best to understand what we can, but there is literally quantum mechanics when it comes to the brain.

A little side note about all of this: it's funny because the only way we can explain the brain is by linking it to computer systems and neural networks, assuming that's the way the brain works. Yet we have not been able to fully decipher the brain, and there's a good chance that it has nothing to do with neural networks and computers—more like quantum computers—but even then, that's just scratching the surface. My point being, the brain is insane; the nervous system is insane too.

And you've got to be some sort of idiot to think that you can be negative and live long. Show me the average centenarian and tell me that perspective and attitude are not an important aspect of all of this. It is simply an anecdotal fact that, for whatever reasons, a positive attitude leads to better whole-body system functioning. Meditation is also not something that you can just sit down and do right away; it can literally take months and years to start seeing benefits.

The vagus nerve is so important that we have to do everything we can to stimulate it and bring it back into balance. There are supplements and plant medicine that give you a shortcut into this. Shortcuts are never the full answer, but it would be ridiculous not to use them in this situation as well—which is why plant medicine is an incredibly powerful and important part of the Scorch Protocol.

When it comes to plant medicine, it's a focus on psilocybin and cannabis, and the right timings, the right amounts, and the right approaches to them. That's also why the Scorch Protocol and dry fasting in general—for the Dry Fasting Club—has a 25 and up requirement, because I simply cannot in good conscience recommend some of these strategies to anyone whose prefrontal cortex is still developing.

5. Alternative and Complementary Therapies

When it comes to alternative and complementary therapies, acupuncture is another option that has been developed and practiced for thousands of years. In Chinese medicine, acupuncture involves inserting needles to stimulate the nervous system. While we don't fully understand exactly how it works, we do know that it benefits many people and definitely helps those with chronic illnesses.

The problem is that many of these alternative therapies cost out-of-pocket money and aren't accessible to everyone. If you are fortunate enough to afford them, these are treatments you can experiment with, and they almost always have a positive response. So, the upside is much higher than the downside. My personal favorite is acupuncture. When you're experiencing severe flare-ups or things are deteriorating, adding acupuncture into the mix can definitely calm your body and bring you back to your baseline.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is also quite popular and has been hyped in the chronic illness community over the last few years. However, it's worth noting that some believe dry fasting may influence blood oxygen levels. This information comes from a research paper on a five-day dry fast and EPO (erythropoietin) levels, as well as from my own experimentation with tracking oxygen saturation using my Google Pixel watch during a dry fast. I noticed that my oxygen saturation seemed to increase, which correlates with the research indicating changes in EPO levels. However, more research is needed to fully understand these effects.

Infrared sauna therapy is interesting as well. In general, saunas and heat therapy can be beneficial. However, many people with chronic illnesses can't handle heat—they become heat intolerant. I still haven't completely understood why this is the case. There are a lot of theories, such as activation of viruses, weakening of the immune system, or nervous system dysregulation. But if you can handle sauna therapy, there are many benefits to it.

If you are really suffering and are scared of heat intolerance, you might find that when you are in a deeper fasted state, you can handle more nervous system stress because it's countered by improved immune function and a highly activated parasympathetic nervous system.

6. Sleep Hygiene

Now, coming to sleep—honestly, this should probably be in the first spot, and I think everybody understands this even though we don't really practice it properly: sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep hygiene. The fact that we can't begin to scratch the surface of how our brain and body function, and what these viruses are truly doing to us, means we also can't fully understand what sleep does for us. We just know for a fact that sleep is a miraculous healing modality. We go to sleep, we close our eyes, and insane healing occurs. The brain fixes memories, clears lymph, heals the nervous system—everything is related to sleep.

We know sleep deprivation is probably the most dangerous thing that we can do for our health, and with that, sleep is probably the most important thing we can do for our health. If there's one way to help, it is to fix sleep. People know this, and because of this, we also get strategies that abuse our body to get some sleep, like taking benzos. Dear God, I hate the topic of benzos and how scary they are on your liver, your health, tolerance, and dependence. I understand how horrible your life and your sleep must get before you run to benzos, but unfortunately, many people jump to them out of convenience—where the thought process is something like, "I just want to get back as soon as possible and go back to my anxious, chronic, stressful life and job. Give me something that works." They don't understand the damage it causes because the doctor gives it to them.

But benzos are so tough, and when someone wants to fast, benzos are also a terrible thing. The withdrawal is no joke, and it will mess you up. If you talk to some of these old-school dry fasting doctors, they'll mention that they don't even want to deal with benzos and that you need to detox your liver for months—first get off of them, and then detox before you go back.

But the point is, sleep is so important, and you need to do everything possible to improve your sleep. That means try some supplements, establish a sleep routine, create a restful environment, eat correctly, limit screen time, meditate, practice breath work—the works. But with this diabolical illness, you do everything right, and you may still flare up, deteriorate to a point where insomnia hits, and only a benzo is going to help. But what I'm trying to say here is, let's get away from the benzos. Look for things like cannabis, and we've got our magic bullet: dry fasting and water fasting. They will help reset the body, which will help you sleep better, give you a leg up so that all the other strategies start working better, and you can enter into a positive feedback loop cycle that actually improves you bit by bit instead of deteriorating bit by bit.

7. Detoxification Practices

When it comes to detoxification practices, of course this is important, but I think people go a little too crazy on this. You can really fall into some traps, listening to all these different people who use all sorts of herbs, and your head starts spinning. You're really just winding yourself up and stressing about detox. For example, I know people who are liver flushing every single month. Don't you think that's a little bit excessive? Do you really think there are no negative consequences to doing such aggressive liver flushing over and over?

I don't want to scare you because, obviously, mentality is an important part of this. If you believe what you're doing is good, it's better than doing something that you don't believe is good for you. Once again, this is another example of how the brain plays a role that we just cannot understand—and will not until we get AGI, lol.

You do have to practice lymph drainage, and the best way to do that is with movement. But fasting also helps here and is miraculous because, as the body enters the deepest levels of autophagy, it literally cleans out your cells—not yourself.

Hydration is also an important aspect that nobody talks about a lot, especially not in the dry fasting community, which sometimes becomes a little bit obsessive and over-focuses on dehydration—which is also not healthy. We use dehydration strategically as a tool here, but otherwise we focus on hydration. You need to get out of your head thinking that now you're in the dehydration camp and that you're going to intermittent fast every day.

Hydration is still super important. It is one of the most important ways to detox the body—one of the best ways to keep your liver clean. So in between dry fasts, hydration needs to be a priority, and that's why we want to do things like lemon water for the kidneys and focus on hydration in general for the liver.

8. Medical Cannabis (THC/CBD)

Now, coming to medical cannabis—it's funny because I included this in the protocol a little late. I think I could have had much faster breakthroughs if I had added it earlier. It's actually insane; somebody once said to me that THC is like a hundred times better as an anti-inflammatory compared to aspirin. While I doubt the validity of the 100x claim, it does intuitively feel like that, so there's something to it.

I introduced psilocybin earlier than medical cannabis, so that whole psychedelic approach was already being experimented with quite aggressively, and it was an important factor of the Scorch Protocol. When I brought cannabis in, it was the missing factor—the psychoactive/insulin resistance/sleep-help missing link in the whole protocol.

And it's funny because when you start diving into anecdotal data and, in general, what is seen most often in chronic illness communities, you see a ton of CBD use. Yes, you get the odd people who say, "Oh, CBD or THC wrecks me, so I can't actually use it." In this case, it just means that something has happened to your body—your endocannabinoid system is completely out of whack, and you can thank the chronic illness for messing with it.

Does that mean you shouldn't be using this? No, it just means that early on in the disease and with the severity, you have to start smaller or wait until you improve more with something like fasting and antiviral therapies.

Learn about medical cannabis because there's a lot to learn here. I will probably have an article about it in the future, and you'll see it in the Scorch Protocol. But there are differences between CBD, different types of THC that you want to use at different times of the day, and then there's even non-psychoactive forms like CBG. All of these can be part of a strategic approach to healing and alternative approaches to sleep hygiene, as well as digestion improvements and improvements in insulin sensitivity.

9. Environmental Modifications

Environmental factors like mold, toxins, and air purification make sense to consider, but sometimes it becomes an obsessive-compulsive (OCD) approach to the illness. Of course, your whole body is off-whack, and it's very common to see allergies and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) type symptoms. So naturally, you're going to be more allergic; your allergies are going to be exacerbated. Suddenly, you start finding newer and newer allergies to different foods and different stuff.

You'll eventually start freaking out and go to the doctor, and they'll say you have a mold allergy. Well, of course you have a mold allergy—mold is toxic, and everybody has a low level of mold allergy. Except this gets exacerbated when you're chronically ill. Then you start to go neurotic about this issue and start thinking, "I have to change houses; I have to move out." But you don't realize that most houses have moderate levels of mold, and unless you're living in one that is literally full of mold, you can most likely fix this through deep autophagy and fasting.

For most of you out there, I'm just going to go out on a limb and say: learn about fasting, get through it so that you don't have to add the additional burden and stress of thinking about selling your residence and moving—which is ranked as one of the most stressful things in a person's life!!

10. Water Fasting

And now we come to the last part, which is water fasting. Remember, these 10 points were basically the most popular strategies that you see on all forums and what most people say helped them the most with chronic illness. Water fasting comes in last place because a lot of people are still scared of fasting. A really long water fast is nearly as good as a long dry fast—when I talk about this, I mean comparatively: a 21-day water fast to a 7-day dry fast.

There are pros and cons to both of them. Water fasting is more gentle and less intimidating, and you can go for a longer time. You don't have to worry about the liver dehydrating as much. It potentially has a better impact on your nervous system and healing because you have such a long period for the vagus nerve to be continuously stimulated and healed. Dry fasting is a more aggressive approach that has the bonus of dehydration, which allows immune cells and autophagy to penetrate deeper and potentially unclog things that need unclogging—for example, kidney cells. You can read my other articles about this; I'm not going to go into crazy detail here.

Dry fasting isn't mentioned because it is 100 times—or even a million times—less used than water fasting. It's funny because water fasting is already controversial, so I'm not going to elaborate further since this whole channel is dedicated to dry fasting and water fasting. But it's quite interesting how fasting is in last place here, yet it's probably the most important healing modality among all of them. Fasting is the pillar!

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Yannick Wolfe

15 Years of Fasting Experience, Ex-ME/CFS, Ex-Long covid. Tech Consultant, Molecular biologist, Father, Researcher, Experimenter.