The Guardian newspaper reports on the 4th of June that:

“The Office of National Statistics estimates 1 million people in private households in the UK were experiencing symptoms of long Covid in the four weeks to 2 May. About 650,000 people had their day-to-day activities affected by long Covid, with 192,000 of these saying this had been limited a lot”.

This is a significant number of people who may be experiencing a weird group of symptoms such as brain fog, fatigue, headaches, fibromyalgia, poor sleep etc.

As many of these symptoms are continuing for months, and in some cases over a year now, both researchers and individuals are exploring how to bring relief.

Some of the lessons learnt suggest that a holistic approach is important with both diet, exercise, lifestyle and a positive mental outlook all playing their part as aids to recovery.

In a recent talk on RMC’s YouTube channel  by Professor Tommy Wood on Metabolism in Long Covid he also highlighted the need for a holistic approach and suggested that social connection with others is important to a positive recovery. He goes on to suggest the importance of enhancing neuro plasticity by learning a new skill, particularly a balancing skill, to help with brain fog.

Adding these factors together it suggests to me that being part of a men’s shed could make a positive contribution to recovery from long Covid as it provides:

• An opportunity for social connection.
• Positive encouragement from other “shedders”.
• Distraction from worrying about the symptoms.
• Opportunities to learn a new skill to create neuro plasticity.

There are number of men’s sheds across Yorkshire for contact details of your nearest shed see: the UK Men’s Shed Association Find a Shed page.