Was I the First One to Identify the Pandemic of Chronic Stress–Related Multisystem Disorders?

By Boris Prilutsky

From the Author

Up front, my apologies. In my writing, I will not restrain myself from using sarcasm or from speaking my mind exactly as I see it.

But my purpose is not simply to release my emotions. I write this way because sometimes emotion, irony, and even sarcasm can make an uncomfortable truth impossible to ignore. I want to question what we have been told, challenge assumptions that have become accepted without enough scrutiny, and encourage the reader to look at the evidence from a different perspective.

I do not claim to have all the answers, and I am not asking the reader to agree with me. My goal is to provoke thought, raise questions, and start an honest conversation—even when the questions are uncomfortable.

So, consider this both an apology and a warning: if you are sensitive to sarcasm, sharp language, or strong opinions, this article may not be for you.

For everyone else, I ask only one thing: read it, question it, and make up your own mind.

Plain and fair.

Thank you for understanding.

A few times in my previous articles, I have told the story of how, five years ago, after a successful career of 46 years, I began experiencing difficulties achieving sustainable results in cases of different neuralgias, including sciatica, TOS, tension headaches, and other clinical conditions for which, for decades, excellent outcomes had been predictable.

More than this, in some cases, I observed an aggravation of the conditions.

It was the most difficult time of my career. I began thinking that perhaps it was time to stop practicing. Honestly, I did not know what to think.

Paying attention to the fact that, in addition to painful skeletal-muscular disorders and other complaints, most, if not all, patients were reporting combined multisystem symptoms such as sleep disorders, brain fog, headaches, cognitive decline, and others, I suddenly remembered the time when I worked with Olympians. Some of them used to develop similar multisystem symptoms, including, but not limited to, clinical depression and anxiety.

The similarity was obvious.

I immediately adjusted my protocols to address what I understood as chronic stress–related disorders, and again took full control of the outcomes.

Of course, the biomarker of all the above-mentioned multisystem symptoms and disorders was, and is, severe autonomic irregularity.

For the last five years, the main focus of my entire practice has been chronic stress–related multisystem disorders.

Seeing this massive phenomenon affecting and changing entire healthcare fields, I became convinced that I was the first one to recognize and identify a pandemic of chronic stress–related disorders.

More than this, when I was looking for an approach to address these massive numbers of cases, I became convinced that the medical community did not know what I knew.

I knocked on doors, talked to many leading physicians in Southern California, and wrote an endless number of articles on the subject, but I could not make a difference.

Honestly, until the day of today, I continue to write. I know many doctors—I mean dozens of them—who read my articles, know me personally, and refer patients to me. They see excellent outcomes, but still no one is ready to scream with me to change the approach.

Some time ago, I decided to offer very sharp, constructive criticism of the way the same doctors were treating patients.

Not much changed.

They continued to refer patients, but no one joined me, perhaps to conduct a pilot study, change protocols, or explore a different clinical approach.

It was considerable time ago when I wrote this article, thinking somebody would react, perhaps emotionally.

Nothing.

Multisystem Biological Mechanisms in Long COVID and Chronic Stress–Related Disorders

Again, I was convinced that I had discovered the pandemic of stress-related disorders, connected it to the massive explosion of chronic stress during the COVID-19 pandemic, and felt a great deal of pressure and responsibility.

If I knew what was going on, what else could I do, in addition to treating people who were suffering and were potentially in danger of developing dementia and other degenerative brain diseases?

I talked to a friend who is influential in healthcare fields and asked him, “Maybe you could acknowledge that I had this revelation and recognized what was going on. Then a lot of people might challenge my statements, and we could start discussing it. Somehow, the echo of this discussion might wake up clinical reality and lead to adjustments in protocols.”

Somehow, though, he was not excited to do it.

Then I asked myself: Maybe I am wrong. Maybe the healthcare community and medical field are already aware of what is going on—and of how dangerous it may be.

Dear readers, please consider that in my articles I have claimed that all multisystem chronic stress–related disorders, including the multiple cascades of developments I describe in my articles, are the result of brain inflammation secondary to stress-hormone overload.

I have also argued that low-grade brain inflammation may be a precondition for the development of dementia and other degenerative brain diseases.

I would like to draw attention to one important point: so far, no one has directly challenged my position, my claims and my arguments. Of course, the absence of criticism does not, by itself, establish that my conclusions are correct. However, given the professional scrutiny this subject invites, I recognize that making claims without a reasonable basis would expose me to substantial criticism, both constructive and otherwise. I therefore believe it is important to consider my arguments carefully and evaluate them on their scientific and clinical merits.

This inspired me to conduct my own research, including a selective meta-analysis, on the post-COVID-19 pandemic of chronic stress–related multisystem disorders.

Yes, the scientific and medical communities agreed with everything I had been talking about in my articles for almost two years.

And from my experience, all the Academy would say is the standard:

A Question That Deserves Further Investigation

Many studies support, and members of the medical community would agree:

Over the past five years, healthcare professionals have encountered a substantial and persistent burden of patients reporting combinations of multisystem symptoms, including brain fog, sleep disturbances, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, cognitive difficulties, fatigue, and muscular aches and pains.

Many of these symptoms are also reported among people experiencing Long COVID. The medical literature has extensively investigated biological mechanisms associated with post-COVID conditions, including inflammation, immune dysregulation, vascular abnormalities, and autonomic dysfunction.¹

At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the general population to an extraordinary combination of stressors: fear of infection and death, prolonged uncertainty, social isolation, school and workplace disruptions, lockdowns and other social restrictions, financial concerns, and repeated exposure to COVID-19-related news and information.

Research conducted during the pandemic documented substantial psychological distress in the general population. A systematic review of studies conducted during the early phase of the pandemic reported elevated levels of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms, psychological distress, and stress, and identified frequent exposure to COVID-19-related social media and news as one factor associated with psychological distress.²

There is also published literature specifically describing prolonged or chronic stress during the pandemic. For example, a 2021 study published in BMC Psychiatry examined pandemic-related long-term chronic stress and reported significant associations between pandemic-related factors, insomnia, and unfavorable mental-health outcomes.³

The existence of substantial pandemic-related psychological stress is therefore well documented.

What remains less clearly established is how prolonged pandemic-related stress may interact with the biological and physiological mechanisms underlying persistent multisystem symptoms. Really? Including symptoms experienced by some people with Long COVID.

This distinction is important.

I am not proposing that chronic stress explains Long COVID or that stress is the sole cause of persistent post-COVID symptoms. Long COVID is a heterogeneous condition with multiple proposed and potentially interacting mechanisms.

Rather, based on my clinical observations, I began developing and articulating a clinical hypothesis that chronic stress associated with the pandemic may be an important contributing factor in the broader multisystem symptom burden observed in some individuals, including some people experiencing Long COVID.

Calling it a hypothesis is acceptable to me.

But in my case, it is a clinically observed, clinically tested, and repeatedly reproduced hypothesis. This is what one professor of medicine told me.

This hypothesis deserves further investigation—not as a replacement for established biomedical explanations of Long COVID, but as a potentially complementary perspective that may help explain why some individuals develop or continue to experience combinations of neurological, autonomic, musculoskeletal, sleep-related, and fatigue-related symptoms.

My answer: Let’s do it.

Importantly, I found a 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis examining 113 studies involving more than 312,000 people. It found significant associations between Long COVID and depression and anxiety, while the pooled association for stress itself was not statistically significant.⁴

While the pooled association for stress itself was not statistically significant.⁴? Really?

It found significant associations between Long COVID and depression and anxiety?

I don’t know, judge by yourself.

Who paid for these studies? Could there have been special interests involved in producing research intended to cover up or minimize what the media and government did to us during the COVID-19 pandemic?

I realize this may sound like a conspiracy theory—and perhaps it is. I agree that we should be cautious about making such an assumption.

But then we have to ask a legitimate scientific question: How should we interpret the conclusions of such massive numbers of studies, particularly when their findings appear to conflict with what many clinicians observed in real-world practice?

Due to the scale of these phenomena, the conclusion should point toward massive psychotic episodes, if not chronic stress.

I have discussed this in my previously published articles.

https://www.medicalmassage-edu.com/blog/chronic-stress-related-psychiatric-disorders-vs-primary-psychiatric-disorders.htm

Yes, chronic stress is a major and well-recognized contributing factor to depression and anxiety, particularly when stress is prolonged, severe, or difficult to control, although the development of these disorders is multifactorial and also involves biological, genetic, psychological, and social factors.

A 2026 review in Molecular Psychiatry states explicitly that chronic stress is a well-established precipitant of depression and anxiety

References

1. Stefanou M-I, Palaiodimou L, Bakola E, et al. Neurological manifestations of long-COVID syndrome: a narrative review. Therapeutic Advances in Chronic Disease. 2022;13:20406223221076890.
   doi:10.1177/20406223221076890.
2. Xiong J, Lipsitz O, Nasri F, et al. Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in the general population: A systematic review. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2020;277:55–64.
   doi:10.1016/j.jad.2020.08.001.
3. Qi T, Hu T, Ge QQ, et al. COVID-19 pandemic related long-term chronic stress on the prevalence of depression and anxiety in the general population. BMC Psychiatry. 2021;21:380.
   doi:10.1186/s12888-021-03385-x.
4. Engelmann P, Reinke M, Stein C, et al. Psychological factors associated with Long COVID: a systematic review and meta-analysis. EClinicalMedicine. 2024;74:102756.
   doi:10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102756.

Part Two

In Part Two, I will provide an additional overview of the issues presented in my article:

Multisystem Biological Mechanisms in Long COVID and Chronic Stress–Related Disorders

Read: Multisystem Biological Mechanisms in Long COVID and Chronic Stress–Related Disorders

We are fighting the reality of massive dementia development. This statement should be challenged.

Maybe massage therapy associations have to step in.

My first attempt to talk to them about this was a big-time failure. More than this, my first attempt to communicate the concept of chronic stress–related disorders and the pandemic of multisystem symptoms was also a failure.

More than this, I came to the conclusion that the massage therapy associations with whom I have communicated are totally dysfunctional and do not care.

As you understood, I will not give up. I will stop only when I feel that I have done everything I can.

I am talking to research facilities. Some of them know me very well. The same old question remains:

Who will pay for this study? Maybe big Pharma will sponsor this research?

Shame on the system.

For the Curious Mind

Please read one of my previously published articles:

Chronic Stress: The Hidden Driver of the COVID-19 and Post-COVID Healthcare Crisis

Questions, agreements, and disagreements are welcome.

Best wishes,

Boris Prilutsky