Researchers who work in treatments and priests for Long Covid are watching the newly signed Winnipe Jets Jonathan Toews Transing Journey, and their return to the NHL after two years away.
“I am delighted to be returning and a return,” said Dr. Kieran Quinn, internal medicine doctor and palliative care in Sinai Health in Toronto. Teach and investigate at the University of Toronto, looking for treatments to help patients with long COVID to feel better. Quinn is also a hockey fan who has followed Toews’s career for years.
“It is really great to see someone at the best moment of their life to return to the sport they love. It is also, I think, really important for the hundreds of thousands or possibly even millions of Canadians who live with a lot of Covid to see that there is hope. People can return and people can improve this disease.”
Toews has had a career as close to a dream race in hockey as you can get.
The third general selection of the Draft in 2006, appointed Captain of Chicago, with only 20 years, the toews born in Winnipeg took the team to three Stanley glasses, accumulating a pair of Olympic gold medals and a trophy box full of individual awards along the way.
Toews has been named one of the 100 best NHL players. It is a first -so -time hockey fame.
But in December 2020, Toews announced that it was sitting indefinitely with an unleashed disease. He later revealed that it was chronic inflammatory response syndrome, connected with a COVID-19 infection in early 2020.
“My approach is to give me the time and space to cure and enjoy life to the fullest once again. On the way, I have met several people who have fought with health problems related to chronic immune response syndrome, and other similar cases that are quite complex,” he published on social networks.
Toews lost the 2021 season of the entire NHL pandemic, fighting Covid Long symptoms, including fatigue and inflammation.
He returned to the Hawks for two other seasons. But then, in August 2023, he moved away from the game to control his health.
His treatments included an Ayurveda five -week detoxification program in India last fall.
“I think that when he tests enough different things and then they don’t work, it’s quite frustrating,” he told reporters at a press conference in Winnipeg on Friday. “And I decided, I’m like, why not give this a chance? … I was very happy to have done it.”
The man nicknamed “Serious Captain” for his intensity has not played professional hockey for two years, but he will be on the ice this fall as a Winnipeg plane after signing a one-year contract for the 2025-26 season.
Return from a hometown hero
“One of the most decorated hockey players in Manitoba’s history is to return home, and that is something exciting,” said the general manager of the Jets Kevin Cheveldayoff on Friday, before introducing Toews with a T -shirt No. 19 Winnipeg Jets.
Toews, who was born in Winnipeg and played youth hockey in the city, has a Sportsplex appointed in his honor in the neighborhood of St. vital where he grew up.
The 37 -year -old said he loved his time in Chicago, but that he will always be a Winnipegger.
“Obviously, I have not played in a couple of years. Actually, I really feel blessed to have the opportunity to play the hockey game on this level again, but much less for Winnipeg’s jets,” he said.
Quinn does not know the details of Toews’s medical condition, but says that his symptoms are typical.
“In Long Covid, we have learned that there may be deposits in the body where the Sars-Cov-2 virus, or the virus that causes COVID-19, entire fragments or pieces can be stored in several organs of our body, such as the intestine.
“And that could be the biotoxin that gives Jonathan chronic inflammation, which is leading to all these different symptoms such as fatigue, such as cerebral fog, joint pain,” he said.
“Long Covid still exists. There are still millions of Canadians who suffer with him. And if Jonathan Toews can serve as a lighthouse of hope for all of us, I think it’s great.”
According to Statistics Canada, by June 2023, about 12 percent of the total adult population reported having experienced long-term symptoms, defined as the presence of symptoms three or more months after a COVID-19 infection that could not be explained by anything else. This represents 3.5 million Canadians, and almost one in five Canadian adults who had been infected at least once.
When it comes to alternative treatments, Quinn says that doctors and patients should maintain an open mind and try things that believe they could help.
“There is some evidence to support the biological connection between treatments [Toews] Received and Long Covid, “he said.
Realistic expectations
Quinn expects the jets to ensure that the return to Toews’s work is gradual so that he can avoid a weakening accident.
“You must monitor your energy levels, your heart rate, your resting heart rate. And those can be indicators that you have an imminent shock, if this is the case of Jonathan. And I think that your coaches and doctors and the team will be supportive and will help you return to play at an elite level so.”
Toews, and jet fans must also make sure the pressure does not pushing it to do more than your body can handle, said Quinn.
Dr. Angela M. Cheung agrees. She is a clinical scientist in the Health Network at the University of Toronto, where she is a level 1 research president in Canada, leading a project of research projects of the Canadian health research of Level 1, which leads a project of Canadian health research projects of $ 20 million that prove new treatments and ideally a cure, for a long COVID.
“We are all looking for that Holy Grail,” he said. “We have seen people 100 percent recovered … but for those who are still suffering, we really don’t have a cure.”
And although there are long and covid clinics throughout the country, they are “few and far for the large number of patients,” said Cheung, adding that part of their work is to teach family doctors and other specialists how to diagnose and treat patients.
Your advice for Toews?
“We do not suggest moving from zero to 100 percent. We suggest doing it a little at the same time. And just make sure not to pass its threshold. And everyone’s threshold is a bit different,” he said, adding that he will observe how to see how the toews in an exhausting regular season of 82 games.
“What a slow and stable. And I would also say, you know, we always think of having a pot of energy … stress will also take energy from that pot.”
‘That’s what healing is … trying to find balance’
Toews says he feels great, but that he is trying to be honest and realistic about the challenges he faces.
“There is still that little splinter of thought there that is alone, as, ‘Why did this have to happen?’ or ‘could it have been different?’
“And at the end of the day, you just have to accept what it is. You learn your lessons and try to improve from him as a person and as a player on the ice.”
He is ready to give his body, and the NHL, another attempt.
“It’s easy to play the victim’s letter, “he said.
“Just try to maintain that mentality, or at least that attitude, which is not happening to me, is happening to me … I think that when you have a health problem, that is what healing is, just take a look at your life and try to find balance within everything.”
