Wellness coach hopes to help others after long Covid battle

What was meant to be a short trip to the UK for wellness coach Lee Holmes turned into three months of being unable to get out of bed in a foreign country. She shares her road to recovery.

Crawling up the 46 steps to her Northern Beaches home one chilly morning in the winter of 2022, Lee Holmes had never felt so exhausted – or like such a fraud.

The popular Sydney wellness coach is a qualified clinical nutritionist, yoga and meditation teacher, yet a bout of long Covid had left her struggling for breath, and ultimately battling with the simple daily tasks she’d once taken for granted.

The 56-year-old contracted the “C-bug” on what was meant to be a brief trip to the UK and initially saw her positive test result as “an inconvenience”. Yet prolonged and chronic symptoms left her bedridden overseas for three months, including a brief stint in hospital.

Wellness expert Lee Holmes was left bedridden for months after she tested positive for Covid-19.

Her initial flu-like symptoms had morphed into an array of ailments – heavy chest pains, shortness of breath, relentless fatigue, brain fog and more. Once super fit and healthy, a slow walk around the block would leave her hunched over, gasping for breath.

Holmes eventually dragged her aching body out of bed, and on to a long haul flight home, and she was elated to touch down on Australian soil. But first she had to conquer her front steps, and then her demons.

“It was a three-week trip that turned into three months. When I finally got home, I literally crawled up the steps to my Palm Beach home, dragging my bag behind me,” she says. “I was still really fatigued.

“And more than that, I was embarrassed, I felt like a fraud. Here I was, a clinical nutritionist handing out advice to clients, and I couldn’t even get out of bed.

“There were a lot of conspiracy theories around at the time – that Covid was just like any other virus, that long Covid was a myth – and I felt like a sham, a fraud.”

Lee Holmes felt like a fraud as she battled long Covid. PIC SUPPLIED.

Lee Holmes experienced fatigue, shortness of breath and cognitive dysfunction.

It’s estimated that at least 65 million people globally have struggled with long Covid, a debilitating post-infection, multi-system condition with common symptoms – like Holmes – of fatigue, shortness of breath, and cognitive dysfunction.

Australian statistics are hard to calculate – many people simply don’t test for Covid any more, let alone get diagnosed with long Covid.

The best estimate from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare is between five and 10 per cent of people who contract the virus go on to develop the chronic condition.

Associate Professor Anthony Byrne is a respiratory physician at the Post-Acute and Long Covid Clinic at St Vincent’s Hospital, and says while the political spotlight has moved off Covid to a certain extent, demand for services is only increasing.

The clinic – the only multi-disciplinary, specialist-run clinic in NSW (if not Australia) has diagnosed and treated over 1000 patients since it opened its doors in March 2022.

Currently there’s hundreds of people on the waitlist – which stretches out for six months or more. “There’s certainly no shortage of patients,” Byrne says. “And the ones we see are quite debilitated, they’ve battled symptoms for three to six months, leaving many of them unable to work.”

The term long Covid was first coined close to the start of the pandemic, when Dr Elisa Perego from the Institute of Archaeology at University College, London, first used the term #LongCovid on Twitter in May 2020. She was in hard-hit Lombardy, Italy, during the first Covid wave.

It’s estimated five and 10 per cent of people who contract Covid, will also experience prolonged symptoms.

Long Covid is, as the name suggests, drawn out. Some people’s ability to perform daily activities is impaired for several months or even years. “Mostly patients do improve over time, however progress can be slow and can take longer if it’s not identified and treated,” Byrne says. “There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to treatment as people have multiple symptoms, and will differ in the time they take to recover, in the severity of their illness.

“So we look at treatable traits – like breathlessness, or migraine, or sleep problems – and we treat those traits separately.”

Unfortunately for Holmes, there was no opening at the Sydney clinic when she returned home in mid 2022.And, at that point, no end in sight for her still-debilitating symptoms.

“I was suffering from post-exertional malaise due to the virus, I’d go for a walk and then spend two days in bed or else the palpitations, fatigue, brain fog and dizziness would return,” she says. “Long Covid was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with – the mental side of it was just as overwhelming as the physical side. I felt isolated, I couldn’t go out.

“I was no longer the adviser, I was the patient, and was struggling to use what I knew about health and healing to fix my own body – which felt alien to me.

“I found myself unable to practise what I had for so long preached.”

Covid, too, was “opportunistic” she says, reactivating her previous run-ins with chronic fatigue syndrome, which she’d had in her 20s, and her mast cell activation syndrome.

She broke out in hives and her immune system was rebelling.

“Any latent viruses, anything that’s dormant, it can reactivate that,” she says, “and that’s being borne out by research.”

Lee Holmes says long Covid is the “hardest” thing she has ever had to deal with.

Heart palpitations and tachycardia led her back to specialists and she was diagnosed with pericarditis (inflammation around the pericardium of the heart) as well as post-viral illness. Yet the self-proclaimed “science and nutrition nerd” wasn’t about to give in without a fight, deciding to do what she does best – get stuck into research in an effort to understand what was happening to her, and try to find a path to recovery.

Through that process, she’s been able to fully recover– even when struck down by a second, less debilitating bout of long Covid – with the path leading her back to what she’s always been passionate about: nutrition.

The author of the Supercharged Food series is hoping to help the many others in the same position – by revealing how she tackled long Covid in her latest book, Nature’s Way to Healing: A Long Covid Guide. How simple nutrition and lifestyle changes helped her back to good health.

“It’s important to seek medical help, but unfortunately GPs don’t have all the answers as research is still ongoing – and some don’t take it seriously,” Holmes says.

“Originally it was thought that long Covid was a respiratory issue, but we now know it’s a multi-system issue and can affect the lungs as well as the heart, nervous system, kidneys, liver and other organs.

“While the exact cause is still being studied, it is related to the body’s immune response to the virus. And one of my key discoveries through consulting with researchers worldwide was the role of mast cells and histamine in perpetuating long Covid symptoms. So, in line with my belief in the power of nutrition to help manage chronic conditions, I started to adopt a low-histamine, anti-inflammatory diet, and that helped me immensely.”

To help others, Lee Holmes has penned a book filled with nutrition and lifestyle changes that helped her.

Lee Holmes hopes Nature’s Way to Healing: A Long Covid Guide will help others who are also struggling.

There are many types of coronaviruses. Some give you the common cold. Covid-19 is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus which uses its spiky surface proteins to bind to a specific receptor called the ACE2 receptor in healthy human cells. Once attached, it can enter the cell and take control.

In looking at the available research, Holmes discovered that the gastrointestinal tract has many ACE2 receptors, enabling Covid to disrupt the balance of bacteria in the gut, leading to gut dysbiosis and inflammation.

“An antioxidant rich, brightly coloured rainbow diet can help you feel better, faster,” Holmes says.

“Physical and mental rest is also key – things like mindfulness are really helpful, and breathing and relaxation exercises.

“Pacing yourself, listening to your body and not overloading yourself is also so important.”

Holmes’ book, by Rockpool Publishing, outlines her experience, and what worked for her. It includes the latest research, as well as a low-histamine diet plan and recipes, plus a practical daily plan to combat the condition.

Through her long Covid journey she believes she’s learnt more about herself and is better able to understand the needs of her clients.

“It’s transformed me not just as a health practitioner, but a person.” ■