Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1519088
76 m a s s a g e & b o d y wo r k m ay/ j u n e 2 0 24 Putting Us Through Our PAIS Postinfection Problems and Massage Therapy By Ruth Werner Critical Thinking | Pathology Perspectives A person goes through a bout of COVID. They survive, but weeks or months later, they develop mysterious symptoms they've never had: postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), dizziness and vertigo, or debilitating fatigue and mental fogginess. These symptoms may last months or longer. What is happening? Another person has mononucleosis or some other common viral infection, and after a long recuperation, they expect to be back at full pre-infection speed. Only they can't. Their body doesn't have the capacity to work at a job for eight hours, plus cook meals, go grocery shopping, clean the house, do laundry, and participate in family life. They live in exhaustion, plagued by fatigue and general pain. Their invisible disease isn't life-threatening, but it is definitely quality-of-life threatening. We've all heard about long COVID, and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is probably on our radar already. Here, we will look at postinfectious problems as a whole to see what they have in common and if what we currently understand about them gives any clues about the best role for massage therapy. WHAT IS PAIS? Until recently, the acronym PAIS was most commonly associated with a condition called partial androgen insensitivity syndrome—not the topic of this article. Now, PAIS also stands for postacute infection syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms that follow viral, bacterial, or parasitic infections. PAIS is a health challenge that follows a short-term infection, but the consequences of that infection may linger for months or longer. Long COVID is the PAIS that is most researched now, but this spectrum of postinfection problems has been documented since the 1918 flu pandemic. A recently published large-scale review looking at PAIS is getting the attention of many medical professionals, and a newly launched program—the Center for Infection and Immunity, within the Department of Immunology at Yale—won a substantial grant to study PAIS, so the discussion of these problems has entered mainstream medicine in ways we haven't seen before. The hope is this attention will help us recognize the causes of PAIS and prevent or cure them. It's a daunting task: Evidence of microbiome disruption, mitochondrial dysfunction, microscopic blood clotting, permanent tissue