First, diabetes. Now, brain fog?
Really? This COVID-19 infection is going to devastate our population.
And, these are not the folks who needed respirators and ventilators. These are the folks that felt that they had a mild infection, maybe even a cold.
But, Dr. Michelle Monje (Stanford) is reporting a significant finding.
Dr. Monje has determined that many COVID-19 recoverees suffer from “chemo brain”. That means the microglia, the brain cells that react to the chemotherapy or radiation provided cancer patients manifest malfunction. (They also malfunction in Alzheimer’s patients, which means they don’t work well in counteracting cellular wear and tear or aging.)
The good news is that means this condition is reversible. (And, those drugs that work to treat “chemo brain” might also work on COVID-19 recoverees.)
Other researchers (Dr. G. Douaud headed this project with 17 associates, published in Nature) mining the data in the UK Biobank project (long term study, some 500,000 subjects) examined the brain scans of 400 pre- and post- COVID-19 infections. The results indicated that gray matter in the subjects’ brains (related to smell) has shrunk with a fair number of abnormalities in those tissues. This was true- despite the fact that the subjects only had minor illnesses. But, the problem is that these subjects were primarily white and older (51 to 81), so we have no idea how pervasive these results will be for the population at large.
Back to Dr. Monje (and her group), along with her experiments. Her article describes their efforts that spanned nine folks who died of COVID-19 (and were autopsied), 48 folks with long-term COVID and cognitive impairment, and mice who were infected with SARS-CoV-2. All three groups manifested brain inflammation. And, those patients who suffered from long-term COVID had elevated levels among immunity markers (high levels of proteins that regulate the immune systems), as well as microglia changes (the primary immune cells that prevail in the brain).
(By the way, if you look at the above diagram, you can see that the microglia are related to diabetes. Curiouser and curiouser, huh?)
I’ve heard of this, so much about COVID that we probably don’t even know yet.
I fear you are correct, Martha!
It’s still a promising study, given that early in the pandemic, doctors thought that this was in sufferers’ imagination.
True enough, Alana. True enough.
There is going to be a lot more to learn about this disease and its aftermath moving forward. I wonder if chemo brain feels like CKD brain? My brain turned into mush while I was on dialysis…
I look forward to seeing what more the researchers figure out about COVID…
I think disequilibrium syndrome is fairly different from chemo brain, Dominique.
This is very interesting read. I will pass it on ….
Thank you so much, Hanna!
This was interesting. Both Covid-19 and the vaccines seem to require a lot more research. There’s still a lot to learn.
The vaccines are well studied. It;s the long term effects of COVid that we are still discerning.
Hi Roy, thank you for sharing. Very interesting as my husband has diabetes and I am continually worried about him and Covid 🙁 Thanks for sharing.
Folks with diabetes are the more likely to succumb to infection from COVID-19. You are wise to be apprehensive, Samantha.
Thank you for this information. We still have a lot to learn about not only the effects after having Covid itself but these vaccines as well. I am double vacced and boosted but I still worry. I have had a stroke and the findings that presented worry me.
Stay safe, Cheryl. Glad you got the booster, too!
The impact of COVID on people with pre-existing issues (like diabetes and other conditions) is certainly scary.. And that is why staying masked in indoor public places for a while more now
I’m with you 100% there, Vidya