COVID-19 no longer poses the urgent threat to public health that it once did. But recent research points to a good reason to keep the virus in mind: It can leave a lasting mark on your life.
Studies suggest that COVID-19 is associated possibly long-lasting changes in the brain, potentially contributing to cognitive problems such as brain fog, mental fatigue and memory loss, as well as neurological and mental health problems. The virus appears to be capable of damaging blood vessels and supporting cells in the brain and can trigger changes in the immune system that also affect brain function, says Dr. Wes Ely, co-director of the Center for Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction and Survivorship. Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
What does this mean for the average person as the virus circulates widely again?
Many people of all ages recover very well, mentally and physically, after a case of COVID-19. But lingering cognitive effects are a real risk, especially for the elderly, says Ely. Older adults are more likely to suffer from severe COVID-19, which has long been linked to a higher risk of long-term complications. And they may have had preexisting cognitive problems that worsened after infection.
“They don’t have to fall that far before they are clinically aware that they are having problems,” says Ely. Research has shown that a case of COVID-19 can accelerate mental decline in older people with dementia.
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The virus may also increase the chances of developing dementia for the first time, suggests a review of 11 previous studies that was posted online in February before being peer-reviewed. Adults over 60 who survived COVID-19 had a significantly higher risk of developing dementia a year later, compared to people of the same age who did not have a respiratory infection. Cognitive impairment was almost twice as likely among people who had COVID-19 compared to an uninfected control group.
Dan Shan, study co-author and former junior fellow at Columbia University, wrote in an email that more research is needed to confirm whether the virus is directly causing dementia, but his team is “pretty confident” there is a connection. .
This link may not be unique to the virus that causes COVID-19. “Numerous studies have shown that respiratory infections like the flu can lead to increased risks of cognitive deficits or dementia,” Shan wrote. “However, these findings have not captured the public’s attention as much as COVID-19.”
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Age can be an important risk factor for cognitive problems, but younger people shouldn’t feel immune to the effects of COVID-19 either. Ely says there are “people in their 30s and 40s [who] have neurocognitive deficits that resemble mild dementia.”
A big study published in New England Journal of Medicine in February confirms this warning. It suggests that COVID-19 may impair cognitive performance among adults of all ages, even those who appear to fully recover.
In this study, more than 100,000 adults in the United Kingdom took tests designed to measure cognitive skills. When researchers compared people who had COVID-19 with demographically similar people who had never had a confirmed case, they found that COVID-19 survivors, on average, performed worse “across the board, but particularly on measures of memory.” function, executive function – for example, your ability to make decisions and plan – and reasoning,” says study co-author Adam Hampshire, professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at King’s College London.
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The study did not measure differences in participants’ individual performance pre- and post-COVID, and the results do not necessarily mean that every person who contracts COVID-19 will experience cognitive decline, Hampshire says. But when looking at the study group as a whole, there were clear differences between those who had COVID-19 and those who did not. The results equated to a deficit of about three IQ points between people who fully recovered from COVID-19 versus those who never had it. Among people with unresolved Long COVID symptoms and those who were admitted to the ICU, deficits jumped to six and nine IQ points, respectively.
But there are some reasons for optimism. In the study, cognitive differences were not as pronounced among people who were vaccinated multiple times, nor among those who contracted COVID-19 later in the pandemic — suggesting the risks may be lower now than they were in 2020.
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The researchers also did not find a dramatic difference between people who were infected once and multiple times. (Other studies, however, have found that repeated infections carry heightened risks of brain complications as well as other serious health problems.) And people who had long COVID symptoms but eventually improved “did just as well.” [cognitive] at the same level as people who had short-term symptoms,” which suggests that some effects of Long COVID may be reversible, Hampshire says.
The data on COVID-19 and cognition are concerning, but more research is needed to fully assess the long-term effects of the virus. “These relationships need to be observed over a longer period, potentially 5 to 10 years, to fully understand the impact of COVID-19 on the development of new-onset dementia, a condition that progresses slowly,” Shan wrote.
Research into whether and how COVID-related brain damage can be reversed is ongoing and provides reason for hope, Ely says. But for now, the cognitive risks of COVID-19 are all the more reason to stay up to date on vaccines and avoid infection if possible.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
