How Long COVID Patients Can Combat Exercise Exhaustion

How Long COVID Patients Can Combat Exercise Exhaustion
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How Long COVID Patients Can Combat Exercise Exhaustion

By Dr. Matt|2025-04-03T19:26:57-04:00April 3rd, 2025|Categories: Long Covid|Tags: BPC 157, COVID-19, Exercise, MOTS-c, Peptides, Post-Exertional Malaise|0 Comments

If you’ve had COVID-19 or the COVID vaccine and feel exhausted after brief periods of physical or mental exertion, you’re not alone. That’s according to a study entitled, “Prevalence and measurement of post-exertional malaise in post-acute COVID-19 syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis.”

This work, which was published in the October 20, 2024 version of the journal General Hospital Psychiatry, claims “Post-exertional malaise (PEM) is a common and debilitating symptom of post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS). . . . Over half of PACS patients experience post-exertional malaise (PEM) after COVID-19.”

The conventional approach to treating post-exertional malaise centers on “pacing” — carefully balancing activity and rest — in order to avoid overexertion. However, when you’re trying your best to remain healthy and fit, hold down a job, raise a family, and maintain a social life, pacing yourself isn’t practical and may not even be possible.

Here at PROVOKE Health^®, we believe we offer a better solution. But before we get into those details, it’s important to understand what post-exertional malaise (PEM), is and what causes its potentially debilitating symptoms.

What Is Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM)?

PEM is a worsening of symptoms following even mildly or moderately strenuous physical or mental activity that could have been tolerated previously. It is a hallmark symptom of certain chronic conditions, particularly myalgicencephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). People with PEM may feel an increase in fatigue, pain, cognitive impairment (sometimes called “brain fog”), and other symptoms following activities they would normally tolerate without a problem.

PEM can occur even after low levels of exertion and can last for hours, days, or even weeks, depending on the severity. Symptoms of PEM include the following: Continue reading…

Reclaiming Health at 69: A Testimony to Functional and Integrative Medicine
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Reclaiming Health at 69: A Testimony to Functional and Integrative Medicine

By Dr. Matt|2025-03-12T21:49:59-04:00March 12th, 2025|Categories: Chronic Illness|Tags: Case Study, LDN, Low-dose naltrexone, NAD+, Peptides|0 Comments

As a functional and integrative healthcare provider in Tampa, Florida, I have many experiences to share about the failures of conventional medicine in treating chronic health conditions, as well as the transformative success of our clinic’s personalized approach.

In this post, I tell the tale of Melinda, a 69-year-old woman who had been suffering from a number of chronic illnesses for more than two decades.

When Melinda arrived at PROVOKE Health, she was on prescription pain medication, thyroid hormone, cholesterol medication, blood pressure medication, metformin, and Mounjaro (GLP-1, in the same class as Ozempic), along with over-the-counter Tylenol. She was struggling with the following conditions:

Memory loss and impaired concentration and mental acuity
Osteoarthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
Chronic fatigue
Fungal (candida) overgrowth
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)

Melinda described her conditions as follows:

“I am severely bloated, in pain, cannot think clearly nor exercise due to both pain and fatigue. My quality of life has greatly diminished over the last few years, and I have been progressively gaining weight and losing mental acuity.

“I have lost motivation to exercise due to the lasting pain in my joints that is worsened with activity. I have a scheduled surgery for my hands in the upcoming year, but I am concerned about undergoing surgery in my current state.

“I feel inflamed all over and am worried about recovery. I have had previous hip and knee replacements and shoulder and foot surgery.”

Melinda’s Road to Recovery

Over the past six months, I met with Melinda nearly a dozen times, and she consulted with all the providers on our team. The visits were designed to first understand her health history, current concerns, and goals. From there, we created a starting point for care that included dietary interventions and supplements, along with the medication low-dose naltrexone (LDN) and anti-inflammatory peptides, which is a combination that’s helpful in calming the immune response and reducing inflammation.

By her third month in treatment, Melinda was clearly improving with respect to joint pain. She believed that the pain relief was primarily due to the LDN. (For more about LDN, see our previous post “Low-Dose Naltrexone (LDN) and Healthy Immune Function.”)

She wanted more energy, so we provided her with a combination of B12 injections and Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD). These are both associated with Continue reading…

BPC Provoke Plus Peptide Accelerates Healing and Reduces Inflammation
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BPC Provoke Plus Peptide Accelerates Healing and Reduces Inflammation

By PROVOKE Health|2025-03-07T17:56:13-05:00March 7th, 2025|Categories: Peptides|Tags: Body Protecting Compound-157, BPC 157, Sermorelin, Thymosin Beta 4|0 Comments

At PROVOKE Health, we encourage the use of prescription-strength therapeutic peptides for patients whose plans of care call for accelerated healing, injury avoidance, and optimization of their physical routines, including exercise and workouts.

Therapeutic peptides are also helpful for patients with chronic inflammatory conditions, including those effecting heart and lung function, joints, brain health, nerves, and even mental health.

And when it comes to such peptides, Body Protective Compound-157 (BPC-157), Thymosin Beta-4, and Sermorelin have strong anti-inflammatory effects. In addition, they may be safer for some patients than conventional aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and prescription anti-inflammatory medications, including corticosteroids, such as prednisone.

The added benefit of the administration of medically supervised peptides is that they often stimulate the body to repair cartilage, muscle, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels, collagen, and other tissues that are impacted by injury or chronic diseases.

So, if you’ve been hearing a lot about peptides and in your search to avoid conventional medication side effects — including gastrointestinal upset and liver disease — this post should prove of interest.

Today, we want to tell you about BPC Provoke Plus — a therapeutic blend of peptides that may be included in your PROVOKE Health plan of care. Here’s what you need to know.

Introducing BPC Provoke Plus

BPC Provoke Plus is our blend of three of the above-mentioned peptides, each accelerating the body’s self-healing mechanisms. Working closely with a trusted compounding pharmacy, BPC Provoke includes: Continue reading…

The 5 Pillars of Battling the Lingering Effects of COVID-19
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The 5 Pillars of Battling the Lingering Effects of COVID-19

By Dr. Matt|2025-02-20T19:32:20-05:00February 20th, 2025|Categories: Long Covid|Tags: Autonomic Nervous System, BPC 157, HGH, LDN, MOTS-c, NAD+, Peptides|0 Comments

Over the course of the past few years, I have noticed a startling and worrisome trend — the age range of my patients has declined from the early 40s to the early 30s. And they share many of the same symptoms, including brain fog, impaired concentration, post exertional fatigue, and day-to-day exhaustion.

I hesitate to attribute this trend to COVID-19, Long Covid, or Long Vax (Long post-COVID Vaccination Syndrome) based solely on my own clinical evidence. Too many variables exist, and too much has happened over the past five (5) years to draw such a hasty conclusion.

Emotional stress alone can cause many of these symptoms, and we have no shortage of that. Combine that with increased challenges to the immune system, toxins in our environment and in our diet, and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, and it should be no surprise that younger people are starting to show signs of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion.

To some degree, the problem matters less than the solution, and the cause matters less than the cure. Changes to my patient demographic may be the result of the above-mentioned symptoms. Or they may be due to anxiety over politics, personal finances, employment, relationships, or other issues. Whatever the cause, these patients are struggling with the same cluster of symptoms. And they respond positively to a similar treatment protocol personalized to each patient’s unique health history (and family health history), biology, and symptom profile.

In this post, I focus on solutions. Here I lay out the five (5) pillars that are key to recovering from Long Covid and other conditions that trigger chronic inflammation, deplete your reserves, and impair your body’s self-healing and self-repair mechanisms. What you will find is that these five pillars are familiar concepts for health, with added medicinal tools to push the body to reduce inflammation and build resilience.

Pillar No. 1: Use synthetic peptides from a trusted and reliable compounding pharmacy.

Synthetic peptides mimic the peptides often found in your body. They are small proteins that signal the release of hormones, reduce inflammation, and repair tissue naturally. Peptides are made in compounding pharmacies and require a prescription. Low side-effect profiles and the benefits they provide in healing inflammation are what make them a valuable tool in fighting Long Covid and similar conditions.

(If you’re unfamiliar with peptides, please read my post The Healing and Rejuvenating Power of Therapeutic Peptides here on the PROVOKE Health blog.)

At PROVOKE Health, we use a combination of peptides and cofactors from a trusted compounding pharmacy. Based on each patient’s unique history and symptom profile, we may prescribe one or more of the following peptides: Continue reading…

Restoring Immune Health and Function with Thymosin Alpha-1
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Restoring Immune Health and Function with Thymosin Alpha-1

By PROVOKE Health|2025-02-13T18:53:07-05:00February 13th, 2025|Categories: Peptides|Tags: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Immune System, Long Covid, Mold Illness, Thymosin Alpha-1, thyroiditis|0 Comments

Your immune system can act as a double-edged sword. When it’s functioning properly, it attacks and eliminates every alien invader that poses a threat to your health, be it a pathogenic bacteria, virus, fungus, or parasite.

When it’s underperforming, you’re at a greater risk of contracting infectious illnesses, including colds, flu, staph infections, e. coli infections, herpes, shingles, salmonella, pneumonia, and the list goes on.

When it’s overperforming, this active system can attack healthy tissues, causing autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and Graves’s disease. Then there are other immune disorders that often fly under the radar, triggering chronic inflammatory responses that can cause significant distress.

Modern medicine has provided us with numerous medications that can dial up or dial down the immune response. Medications most frequently used for dialing up the immune response are vaccines that trigger a response to specific pathogens that cause common illnesses such as measles, mumps, hepatitis, and polio. Other medications that prompt an immune response include interferon, colony-stimulating factors (CFSs), and monoclonal antibodies. Those medications that dial down the immune response include antihistamines and corticosteroids, among many others.

That being said, there are very few medications or supplements that are effective at both dialing up and dialing down the immune response to restore healthy immune function. Which is why we here at PROVOKE Health often recommend a peptide called Thymosin Alpha-1 (Tα1) to our patients who are struggling with immune system dysfunction or age-related immunosenescence (deterioration of the immune system).

What Is Thymosin Alpha-1

Thymosin Alpha-1 is a zinc-dependent thymus peptide primarily secreted by the thymus. If you’re unfamiliar with peptides, please read The Healing and Rejuvenating Power of Therapeutic Peptides by our founder, Dr. Matthew Lewis, D.C., DACBN, CFMP®, here on the PROVOKE Health blog.

Thymosin Alpha-1 plays a crucial role in modulating immune function, particularly in T-cell differentiation and immune response regulation. (T cells are a type of white blood cell that plays a key role in fighting infections.) Over the years, research into Thymosin Alpha-1 has uncovered its potential applications beyond immunomodulation, including neuroprotection and anti-inflammatory effects.

One of the beneficial applications of Thymosin Alpha-1 is its ability to Continue reading…

Using Tesamorelin and Glutathione to Treat Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
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Using Tesamorelin and Glutathione to Treat Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

By Dr. Matt|2025-02-06T16:09:26-05:00February 6th, 2025|Categories: Peptides|Tags: Glutathione, Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, Tesamorelin|0 Comments

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, healthcare bloggers will no doubt be focusing their content on heart health. I have no objection to that. The heart is certainly a vital organ worthy of admiration.

However, the liver is often overlooked and equally deserving of love. After all, it’s a veritable workhorse in terms of all the vital services it provides. This dark reddish-brown, wedge-shaped organ serves the body with everything from digestion to detoxification. It produces bile to help digest fats and absorb fat-soluble vitamins. It helps regulate metabolism. It manufactures essential proteins. It regulates cholesterol levels by producing, converting, and breaking them down. And it’s a crucial component of the body’s detox mechanisms.

This Valentine’s Day, start showing your liver a little love. In this post, I introduce you to two natural therapies that promote liver health and provide valuable support for combatting a common liver condition — nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

What Is Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease?

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a global health issue, affecting nearly a 32 percent of adults — 40 percent of men and 26 percent of women, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Characterized by excessive fat accumulation in the liver, NAFLD can progress to more severe conditions, including nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fibrosis, cirrhosis, and even liver cancer.

NAFLD happens when too much fat builds up in the liver, even without heavy alcohol use. It is closely connected to health problems like obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol. Too much fat in the liver can cause stress and swelling, which can damage liver cells and make the condition worse. Right now, there are no FDA-approved medicines to treat NAFLD, so making healthy lifestyle changes and using natural treatments is very important.

While healthy diet and lifestyle, along with exercise, remain the cornerstone of maintaining liver health and managing NAFLD, emerging research highlights the potential benefits of Tesamorelin and glutathione in mitigating liver damage and improving overall liver function.

Targeting the Excess Fat with Tesamorelin

Here at PROVOKE Health, we provide peptide therapies that include Tesamorelin, which human studies have shown to significantly reduce NAFLD in Continue reading…

Making Functional Medicine More Affordable with a Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
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Making Functional Medicine More Affordable with a Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Spending Account (FSA)

By PROVOKE Health|2025-01-24T22:45:28-05:00January 24th, 2025|Categories: Paying For Healthcare|Tags: Flexible Spending Account, Health Savings Account|0 Comments

It’s no secret that paying for healthcare in 2025 is a concern. While most traditional healthcare practices and doctors accept health insurance, many do not. These include those who practice functional medicine, integrative healthcare, or the type of complementary medicine that combines functional and integrative with conventional.

Here at PROVOKE Health, we combine the best of functional medicine, conventional healthcare, and complementary therapies with an emphasis on motivating patients to achieve their health goals and objectives. In this case, we’re a bit of a hybrid. We accept insurance for select treatments and therapies — but not all.

Regardless of the healthcare practice in which you place your trust, paying for that care can be a stressful proposition. You may have heard about using a health savings account (HSA) or flexible spending account (FSA) to cover the cost of medical expenses with pre-tax dollars. With HSAs and FSAs, you deposit money into an account before taxes are taken out of it and then use that money tax-free to pay for certain medical expenses, such as copays for doctor visits and dental care, prescription and over-the-counter medications, and eligible medical procedures.

In these challenging times, understanding your options is important, and that’s what this post is about, with a focus on HSAs and FSAs.

How Pre-Tax Dollars Reduce the Cost of Functional Medicine

An HSA or FSA can help address a common challenge many patients face when they pursue functional, integrative, and complementary healthcare options, such as care provided by practices like ours. Insurance companies often deny claims for testing or treatment that’s outside the scope of the traditional medical and pharmaceutical industries.

However, insurance companies have no say over what doctor or medical treatments you choose to use your HSA or FSA funds. As long as you’re paying for an eligible medical expense, such as a doctor’s visit, lab test, or medical procedure, you’re free to spend the money however you wish.

This opens the door to a useful strategy for making functional medicine and integrative healthcare more affordable — using an FSA or HSA to pay for it. By paying with pre-tax dollars, your expenses for non-traditional medical care are essentially reduced by the amount of money you would have paid in taxes on those contributions.

How Much Can You Save? Let’s Do the Math

For example, suppose you contribute $4,300 to an HSA over the course of the 2025 tax year, and you use the entire amount to cover out-of-pocket costs for functional medicine consultations, tests, and prescribed treatments.

Also suppose — based on your income tax bracket — you’re required to pay 24 percent in federal income taxes. You’re saving $4,300 x 0.24 = $1,032. So, instead of paying $4,300 for functional and integrative healthcare, you’re actually paying $4,300 – $1,032 = $3,268.

Eligible Medical Expenses

You can use the funds in your health savings account (HSA) and/or flexible spending account (FSA) to pay any eligible medical expenses, which include the following: Continue reading…

2024 in Review: A Year of Growth and Transformation for PROVOKE Health
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2024 in Review: A Year of Growth and Transformation for PROVOKE Health

By PROVOKE Health|2025-01-10T18:39:11-05:00January 10th, 2025|Categories: PROVOKE Health|Tags: Cara Palermo, Dr. Karalynne Blochberger, Dr. Matt Lewis, IV Therapy|0 Comments

As 2024 draws to a close, we’re looking back and reflecting on what has proven to be a most remarkable year here at PROVOKE Health. The past dozen months have been become a year full of growth, transformation, and groundbreaking initiatives. All of it driven by our mission of collaborating with patients to rekindle their confidence and improve their resiliency by creating and co-managing personalized treatment plans that address complex and often chronic health problems.

Here’s a look back at the milestones that made 2024 a pivotal year for both PROVOKE Health and more important, our patients.

Launching the PROVOKE Health Brand

In 2024, we unveiled the PROVOKE Health brand, marking a new chapter in our commitment to improving lives through a unique blend of allopathic, functional, and integrative medicine. Our name embodies our approach: provoking positive change in health, challenging outdated medical norms, and empowering patients to take control of their wellness journeys.

The launch of our new brand was further amplified by our website. Designed with you in mind, it serves as an educational hub and a gateway to our approach to healthcare, blending functional, integrative, and holistic medicine. With features like an online appointment scheduler, insights into the conditions we treat and our services, and highly informative blog posts, our website is an important component of the PROVOKE Health experience.

Welcoming our Medical Director: Dr. Karalynne Blochberger

This year, we expanded our leadership team by welcoming Dr. Karalynne Blochberger, MD as PROVOKE Health’s Medical Director. Affectionately known as Dr. B., she brings a wealth of experience and a shared passion for functional medicine. Her patient-focused approach and expertise in treating complex and chronic conditions have already made a significant impact on our practice. Under her guidance, we’re better equipped than ever to deliver transformative personalized healthcare.

Supporting Dr. B and our founder, Dr. Matt Lewis, are Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) Cara Palermo, Administrative Coordinator Margaret Palmer, and Lutz clinic Administrative Assistant Elizabeth “Liz” Russo. Suffice it to say, PROVOKE Health wouldn’t be where it is today without the extraordinary efforts and skills that Cara, Margaret, and Liz bring to the team!

Opening Our Lutz Clinic

In 2024, we officially opened the doors to our flagship functional medicine clinic in Lutz, Florida. This facility was thoughtfully conceived to provide Continue reading…

PROVOKE Health’s 2024 Holiday Hours
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PROVOKE Health’s 2024 Holiday Hours

By PROVOKE Health|2024-12-23T20:08:08-05:00December 23rd, 2024|Categories: PROVOKE Health|Tags: Cara Palermo, Dr. Karalynne Blochberger, Dr. Matt Lewis, Holiday Hours|0 Comments

As we approach the holiday season, you may be wondering about our clinic and virtual / telehealth hours and availability. While the holiday season is a time for rest and connection with family and loved ones, we also remain committed to supporting your health and well-being.

Below is our clinic and virtual / telehealth schedule for Dec. 23, 2024, through Jan. 3, 2025, followed by a full return to our normal hours starting Jan. 6, 2025.

If you have a medical emergency during any of dates below or at any other time during the holidays, do not call PROVOKE Health. Instead, call 911 or seek medical immediate medical treatment from the nearest emergency room or urgent care facility.

Monday, Dec. 23, 2024

Margaret Palmer, Administrative Coordinator, is available all day.

Tuesday, Dec. 24 & Wednesday, Dec. 25

CLOSED: PROVOKE Health is closed — everyone is off for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the first night of Hannukah.

Thursday, Dec. 26

Dr. Karalynne Blochberger, Medical Director: Available for virtual / telehealth appointments from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time
Margaret Palmer, Administrative Coordinator, is available all day.

Friday, Dec. 27th

Cara Palermo, Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP), and Elizabeth “Liz” Russo, Administrative Assistant: Available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern Time at the Lutz clinic.
Margaret Palmer, Administrative Coordinator, is available all day.

Saturday and Sunday — Dec. 28 & 29

CLOSED: Enjoy your weekend!

Monday, Dec. 30 Continue reading…

Plaquex and the Health Benefits of Intravenous Phosphatidylcholine
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Plaquex and the Health Benefits of Intravenous Phosphatidylcholine

By PROVOKE Health|2024-12-09T16:24:50-05:00December 9th, 2024|Categories: IV Therapy|Tags: Cardiovascular disease, cholesterol, Mold, Phosphatidylcholine, Plaquex|0 Comments

Recently here at PROVOKE Health, we began offering Plaquex to some of our patients as part of their personalized plan of care. Plaquex is a special formulation of phosphatidylcholine delivered intravenously. Phosphatidylcholine is an essential phospholipid found in cell membranes that is gaining traction in medical and wellness circles for its potential therapeutic benefits.

Administered intravenously, phosphatidylcholine has been used and studied widely for its role in cellular repair, detoxification, and cardiovascular health.

But let’s apply the brakes for a second. Before we go any further, you need to know that while some healthcare providers claim on their websites and in their marketing materials that Plaquex is FDA approved, it is not.

However, its primary ingredient is phosphatidylcholine, which is recognized as safe by the FDA for use in a number of areas, including in food and dietary supplements. That’s because phosphatidylcholine is a naturally occurring phospholipid found in many foods and is not subject to the same stringent approval process as a drug when used in this context.

For that reason, phosphatidylcholine has been used in nearly a quarter of all other countries around the world, primarily to reduce the buildup of plaque in the arteries.

In our clinical practice here at PROVOKE Health, we have found it useful in our treatment of the following conditions: Continue reading…

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