A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that infection with SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID — profoundly affects brain health in many ways.
Ziyad Al-Aly, a physician and clinical epidemiologist, wrote an essay for The Conversation — which he later republished Scientific American — detailing numerous studies that highlight what he describes as the “indelible mark” that COVID leaves on the brain and its functioning.
Al-Aly, who is the director of the Center for Clinical Epidemiology at the VA Saint Louis Health Care System in Missouri, wrote that he has long studied COVID since the early reports of the disease and before the medical community even coined the term.
A teenager from Colorado suffered from Covid for 4 years, celebrated his graduation in the hospital: ‘The virus just started to take over’ (exclusive)
In his essay, he explained that “large epidemiological analyses” showed that people who had COVID were at increased risk of cognitive deficits, including memory problems. A study in people with a mild to moderate form of the virus showed significant, long-term brain inflammation and changes “commensurate with seven years of brain aging.”
Al-Aly also cited imaging studies conducted on humans before and after their infection with COVID, which showed “decreased brain volume” and “changed brain structure” after infection. Other research finds that people who require hospitalization or intensive care due to a COVID infection can develop “cognitive deficits and other brain damage equivalent to 20 years of aging.”
In addition, Al-Aly highlighted a preliminary analysis pooling data from 11 studies that showed that COVID increased the risk of developing new dementia in people over 60.
He also noted that autopsies performed on people who died of COVID revealed “devastating damage” to their brains. Autopsies of people who had severe COVID-19 but died several months later from other causes showed that the virus was still present in brain tissue, suggesting that “SARS-CoV-2 is not just a respiratory virus.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Studies evaluating patients hospitalized with COVID who experienced brain fog show that the virus can disrupt the blood-brain barrier, “the shield that protects the nervous system, which is the control and command center of our body,” Al-Aly wrote.
Image of the COVID virus. Getty
Recently, Al-Aly said, a study published on February 29 in New England Journal of Medicineassessed cognitive abilities, including spatial reasoning, memory and planning in nearly 113,000 people who had previously had COVID. “The researchers found that those who were infected had significant deficits in memory and executive tasks,” he wrote.
Deficits are visible in people infected with the virus in the early phase of the pandemic, as well as when the delta and omicron variants predominated.
According to Al-Aly, the same study found that “those who had mild and resolved COVID-19 disease showed cognitive decline equivalent to a three-point IQ loss.” Those with unresolved persistent symptoms — such as fatigue and shortness of breath — had an IQ drop of six points, while people who had been admitted to intensive care due to COVID had a nine-point drop.
Man reportedly received more than 200 COVID-19 vaccines — and it didn’t negatively affect his immune system, researchers say
Another study in the same issue of the journal New England Journal of Medicineincluding 100,000 Norwegians, documented poorer memory function at several time points up to 36 months after testing positive for COVID.
“Taken together, these studies show that COVID-19 poses a serious risk to brain health, even in mild cases, and the effects are now being detected at the population level,” Al-Aly wrote in his essay.
“A growing body of research now confirms that COVID-19 should be considered a virus with a significant impact on the brain,” he added. “The implications are far-reaching, from individuals experiencing cognitive problems to the potential impact on populations and the economy.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education