Gwyneth Paltrow Reveals She Had COVID-19 ‘Early On,’ And She’s Still Dealing With Symptoms
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Gwyneth Paltrow, 48, said she had COVID-19 “early on” and still has symptoms.
The Goop founder said she’s dealing with brain fog and fatigue.
Research shows an increasing number of COVID-19 patients deal with lingering side effects months after their initial onset of coronavirus symptoms.
An increasing number of COVID-19 patients are dealing with lingering symptoms months after their initial bout with the coronavirus, and Gwyneth Paltrow just revealed she’s one of them. In a new post published on Goop, the 48-year-old actress revealed she had been diagnosed with COVID-19 “early on.”
“It left me with some long-tail fatigue and brain fog. In January, I had some tests done that showed really high levels of inflammation in my body,” she wrote, adding that she sought help from a functional medicine practitioner. “After he saw all my labs, he explained that this was a case where the road to healing was going to be longer than usual.”
While many people can expect to recover a within a couple of weeks after falling ill with COVID-19, one preprint study found that about 43% of 233 participants who mainly had a “mild” case of the virus had symptoms that lasted longer than 30 days, while nearly 25% still had at least one symptom after 90 days.
Studies suggest that people who experience symptoms for 12 weeks or more have what is now known as post-COVID syndrome (but many experts say anyone who has chronic symptoms for at least a month after a coronavirus infection should reach out to their doctor).
These people are commonly referred to as “long haulers,” and they can experience a vast array of symptoms and side effects, from debilitating fatigue and shortness of breath to memory problems and heart palpitations, according to a survey conducted by Survivor Corps, a Facebook group for coronavirus survivors, and Natalie Lambert, Ph.D., of Indiana University’s School of Medicine.
Among the reported lingering symptoms, fatigue and brain fog seem to be fairly common. In one preprint study, researchers examined 128 people who had COVID-19 and found that more than half of them experienced persistent fatigue 10 weeks after the initial onset of their symptoms.
Many patients who have post-COVID syndrome also show signs of dysautonomia, or a dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system (which helps keep your involuntary functions going, like your heart rate and breathing). “Dysautonomia affects blood flow, including blood flow to the brain, so it can cause fatigue, headaches, brain fog, and exercise intolerance,” Greg Vanichkachorn, M.D., medical director of Mayo Clinic’s COVID Activity Rehabilitation Program, recently told Prevention.
Researchers also believe that lingering COVID-19 symptoms may be linked to high levels of inflammation in the body, which Paltrow reported having in January. Thomas Russo, M.D., professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo, previously told Prevention that a novel coronavirus infection causes “inflammation in multiple organs—the heart, kidneys, gastrointestinal tract, and sometimes the central nervous system. It takes time to recover from that.”
Per the recommendation of her practitioner, Paltrow has made a few diet changes, including cutting back on sugar and alcohol and adding certain supplements into her daily routine. (Naturally, she plugged plenty of Goop products in her post.)
But above all, she is simply taking it easy so her body has time to rest. “Everything I’m doing feels good, like a gift to my body,” she wrote. “I have energy, I’m working out in the mornings, and I’m doing an infrared sauna as often as I can, all in service of healing.”
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