Dr Tim Robinson is a medical doctor working in Southwest England. His medical degree in London University was followed by GP vocational training and MRCGP qualification in 1988. He worked as a GP in a rural practice for 30 years. During his time as a GP he combined conventional with complementary medicine – providing nutritional medicine (MSc 2014), acupuncture, homeopathy and allergy medicine within his routine GP consultations. He retired as planned at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. At then switched careers to Long Covid. He is currently GP clinical lead of three separate Long Covid Clinics across the Southwest England. He has presented on integrative medicine in UK, Europe, India, Australia, and on Long Covid in the UK and Spain. He delivers a rolling sessional Rehabilitation Program to patients with Long Covid in Southwest UK. He is medical advisor for Hope for Community CIC that delivers remote support programs for Long Covid. He is co-investigator in a MRC funded research project in Long Covid dysautonomic breathlessness

Presentation: Long COVID with A/Prof Karin Ried

This workshop is focused on the integrative approach to overcome Long COVID, to explain the underlying causality, as well as its management strategies. The combined approach is needed to tackle persisting inflammation, cell regeneration (to restore function and energy generation), gut dysbiosis and psycho-endo-neuro-immunological rebalance. Never has there been a greater need for an integrative medicine approach to aid recovery from the misery and complexity of the heterogenous condition that is Long COVID.

This workshop will also summarise the findings from the NIIM Long-COVID study. The multi-centre 12-week study aimed to explore underlying pathophysiologies, including viral reactivation, detectable by NIIM’s novel blood test, the NIIM Circulating Rare Cells (CRC) test. In the second part, the study assessed the effectiveness of selected treatments.

Key findings include:

1) 75% of participants with Long-COVID had viral reactivation, tested with the Circulating Rare Cell (CRC) blood test.

2) Viral clearance and reduced viral load was achieved in 75% of participants with either fortnightly IVC (intravenous vitamin C) or daily immune-supportive oral supplements over 6 weeks.

3) Viral clearance was significantly associated with symptom improvement, including fatigue, brain fog, post-exertional malaise, and improvements in daily functioning, work and exercise abilities.