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https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/update-on-long-covid/Founder and currently Executive Editor of Science-Based Medicine Steven Novella, MD is an academic clinical neurologist at the Yale University School of Medicine.
TLDR: Long-haul COVID is a real thing and it really sucks. The scariest part for me is that they can see changes on brain scans conducted before after contracting COVID.The technical term for long COVID is post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC). These are any of a long list of symptoms that persist after the acute infection has completely resolved. The symptoms are an indication that COVID is a systemic infection, not just a pulmonary infection. The largest study to date of PASC showed:
Among COVID-19 survivors (mean [SD] age: 46.3 [19.8], 55.6% female), 57.00% had one or more long-COVID feature recorded during the whole 6-month period (i.e., including the acute phase), and 36.55% between 3 and 6 months. The incidence of each feature was: abnormal breathing (18.71% in the 1- to 180-day period; 7.94% in the 90- to180-day period), fatigue/malaise (12.82%; 5.87%), chest/throat pain (12.60%; 5.71%), headache (8.67%; 4.63%), other pain (11.60%; 7.19%), abdominal symptoms (15.58%; 8.29%), myalgia (3.24%; 1.54%), cognitive symptoms (7.88%; 3.95%), and anxiety/depression (22.82%; 15.49%).
That's very informative. It's not yet known if the newer variants are causing similar damage.FiveAcres wrote: ↑Wed Mar 30, 2022 11:30 am Written by someone whose credentials would lead one to know what he is talking about:
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/update-on-long-covid/Founder and currently Executive Editor of Science-Based Medicine Steven Novella, MD is an academic clinical neurologist at the Yale University School of Medicine.
TLDR: Long-haul COVID is a real thing and it really sucks. The scariest part for me is that they can see changes on brain scans conducted before after contracting COVID.The technical term for long COVID is post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC). These are any of a long list of symptoms that persist after the acute infection has completely resolved. The symptoms are an indication that COVID is a systemic infection, not just a pulmonary infection. The largest study to date of PASC showed:
Among COVID-19 survivors (mean [SD] age: 46.3 [19.8], 55.6% female), 57.00% had one or more long-COVID feature recorded during the whole 6-month period (i.e., including the acute phase), and 36.55% between 3 and 6 months. The incidence of each feature was: abnormal breathing (18.71% in the 1- to 180-day period; 7.94% in the 90- to180-day period), fatigue/malaise (12.82%; 5.87%), chest/throat pain (12.60%; 5.71%), headache (8.67%; 4.63%), other pain (11.60%; 7.19%), abdominal symptoms (15.58%; 8.29%), myalgia (3.24%; 1.54%), cognitive symptoms (7.88%; 3.95%), and anxiety/depression (22.82%; 15.49%).
The list of symptoms is 200 and may increase further.It seems remarkable that a viral infection, even one that was brief and mild, can lead to debilitating symptoms that, for some people, can last for years.
There is no single unifying cause of all long Covid, but scientists are focusing on four main areas:
Blood-clots and damage to small blood vessels (micro-clotting)
A disturbed immune system
People are still infected with the coronavirus
Impaired metabolism
Doctors used to swear by the slow recovery period known as convalescence. Some experts say embracing it again could offer benefits for an array of long-term illnesses and injuries.
COVID-19 is primarily known as a respiratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. However, neurological symptoms such as memory loss, sensory confusion, severe headaches, and even stroke are reported in up to 30% of cases and can persist even after the infection is over (long COVID). These neurological symptoms are thought to be produced by the virus infecting the central nervous system, however we don’t understand the molecular mechanisms triggering them. The neurological effects of COVID-19 share similarities to neurodegenerative diseases in which the presence of cytotoxic aggregated amyloid protein or peptides is a common feature. Following the hypothesis that some neurological symptoms of COVID-19 may also follow an amyloid etiology we identified two peptides from the SARS-CoV-2 proteome that self-assemble into amyloid assemblies. Furthermore, these amyloids were shown to be highly toxic to neuronal cells. We suggest that cytotoxic aggregates of SARS-CoV-2 proteins may trigger neurological symptoms in COVID-19.
https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S00 ... 0713-9#%20Important pre-print now out in cell. Authors from Stanford, Yale, Mount Sinai, +. The authors found elevated CCL11 levels in people suffering from long COVID with cognitive symptoms compared to those with no cognitive symptoms:
Mild respiratory COVID can cause multi-lineage neural cell and myelin dysregulation
SUMMARY
COVID survivors frequently experience lingering neurological symptoms that resemble cancer therapy-related cognitive impairment, a syndrome for which white-matter microglial reactivity and consequent neural dysregulation is central. Here, we explored the neurobiological effects of respiratory SARS-CoV-2 infection and found white-matter-selective microglial reactivity in mice and humans. Following mild respiratory COVID in mice, persistently impaired hippocampal neurogenesis, decreased oligodendrocytes and myelin loss were evident together with elevated CSF cytokines/chemokines including CCL11. Systemic CCL11 administration specifically caused hippocampal microglial reactivity and impaired neurogenesis. Concordantly, humans with lasting cognitive symptoms post-COVID exhibit elevated CCL11 levels. Compared to SARS-CoV-2, mild respiratory influenza in mice caused similar patterns of white matter-selective microglial reactivity, oligodendrocyte loss, impaired neurogenesis and elevated CCL11 at early timepoints, but after influenza only elevated CCL11 and hippocampal pathology persisted. These findings illustrate similar neuropathophysiology after cancer therapy and respiratory SARS-CoV-2 infection which may contribute to cognitive impairment following even mild COVID.
More info: https://www.prevention.com/health/a3912 ... -symptoms/Long COVID is a health condition that’s puzzled patients and doctors for months. And, while people can agree that this is a thing, a proper treatment for the condition has been tough to come by. Now, a new case report has suggested that there may be an easily accessible solution for some symptoms caused by long COVID: antihistamines. The case report, which was published in The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, details how two women with long COVID took over-the-counter antihistamines and found out by accident that it seemed to improve their long COVID symptoms. While it’s small, the study is raising a lot of questions about the role of antihistamines in treating COVID-19. Here’s what you need to know.