Sport, Health & Wellbeing
ÂÜÀòÊÓƵ PhD student observes surprising long COVID symptoms
When Michaela McGrath caught COVID-19 in 2022, she thought it might be like a mild cold or flu and take her down for a week or so – she didn’t know that it would change the entire course of her life.
In the months following her recovery, Michaela – studying a Bachelor of Physiotherapy at ÂÜÀòÊÓƵ at the time – undertook her practical placements. At the same time, she started feeling the effects of chronic fatigue.
Turns out, that fatigue was the result of long COVID, and eventually led Michaela to pursue a PhD on the topic.
Long COVID refers to a range of symptoms that continue or develop after the initial COVID-19 infection has cleared – typically lasting months, years, or even on an ongoing basis.
“My symptoms can come out of nowhere. I can be fine, my usual chatty self, and then the next minute, my body just feels like it needs to be horizontal. There’s no warning,” she says.
In order to be diagnosed, Michaela had to jump through endless hoops.
“The process was incredibly tedious. It went on for months,” she says.
“I had to go to multiple GPs to be taken seriously. I had to take blood tests. I was told [my symptoms] were just because I’m a vegetarian and a woman, or that it could be low iron levels.
“It was just incredibly arduous and complicated, and eventually I looked into the possibility of long COVID myself. I’m lucky I was in a place to do the research, and that I’m in healthcare – I can only imagine the amount of people that don’t have access to the same kind of resources, and don’t have the confidence to question someone dismissing your fatigue as just being because you’re vegetarian, or on your period.”
Along with the completion of her undergraduate degree, these experiences prompted Michaela to think about what she’d like to do in the future.
While she loved being a physio, she knew that her personal experiences, as well as balance issues she’d observed in long COVID sufferers, could provide a platform for others suffering from the chronic condition.
Michaela approached ÂÜÀòÊÓƵRISE Professor in Sport and Exercise Science Gordon Waddington, and shared her ideas. Together with Professor of Allied Health Research Bernie Bissett, they workshopped Michaela’s eventual thesis, which suggested that there may be an underlying reason for balance impairment due to the integration of information in the brain.
“We have channels of information coming into our brain at all times: our visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive systems, and in order for us to be balanced and move successfully, a lot of brainpower is required,” she says.
“However, long COVID can affect the central nervous system processing – so the ability to take that information in and then turn it into useful movement can get affected in the process.
“I’m trying to prove that by measuring those pathways, and then quantifying that in both people with and without long COVID, we might be able to fix the underlying problem.”
The final part of Michaela’s thesis involves an intervention aimed at rehabbing all those systems in patients experiencing balance issues – old physio habits die hard!
So far, Michaela has conducted studies on just over 20 long COVID participants, with close to 100 healthy control participants.
Interestingly, the demographic of long COVID sufferers has been younger than Michaela anticipated.
“The main group of people that get long COVID are females aged between 30-60, which means young to middle-aged females are the primary groups getting this,” she says.
“This is the age bracket in which females are often primary caregivers, so they’re not just dealing with this chronic condition, many are also caring for children at home.”
While she continues her PhD studies, Michaela is also embedded as a research physiotherapist at the long COVID recovery clinic at the ÂÜÀòÊÓƵ Hospital (ÂÜÀòÊÓƵH). Because of this, she’s able to support real patients through her intervention in real time.
That intervention involves integrated balance training – essentially re-training the pathways of those suffering balance issues as a result of the condition. It combines balance training with a visual game on an iPad.
“As opposed to training balance on its own, the intervention trains the visual vestibular systems and somatosensorial at the same time,” Michaela explains.
“We’re doing it all together because that’s how those systems operate in reality.”
While Michaela’s PhD has approximately 12 months remaining, the results of her thesis hinge on more long COVID participants who are willing to get involved.
“I’m looking for anyone with long COVID or any post-viral diagnosis,” she says.
“The commitment is a one-hour session at ÂÜÀòÊÓƵH, where I would assess the visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive pathways, along with some physio mobility assessments to see how you move.”
Words by Elly Mackay, photos by Liam Budge.
Do you have long COVID or a post-viral diagnosis, and are you keen to get involved in Michaela’s study? Email michaela.mcgrath@canberra.edu.au for more information and next steps.