Post-COVID cognitive impairment, commonly known as "brain fog," is a new term that frequently appears in news reports and social media.
After many people "Yangkang", they find that their cognitive abilities such as memory, language ability, and executive ability have declined, what is going on?
In fact, in addition to the above cognitive impairments, patients with long new crowns may also produce other symptoms due to nervous system damage, which has a great impact on daily life and work.
Sensory impairment: loss of smell/taste or appearance of smell/taste hallucinations, increased sensitivity to light and noise, tinnitus, hearing loss, etc.;
Movement disorders: dizziness, decreased balance, etc.;
severe fatigue, post-exercise discomfort that cannot be relieved by rest;
Lack of sleep or insomnia;
Autonomic dysfunction such as orthostatic orthostatic tachycardia.
Scientific new discoveries
An authoritative study analysis in 2022 found that 12 weeks after the new crown infection, 22% of patients developed cognitive impairment. In addition, cognitive impairment occurred in 16% of patients at 2 months post-infection, compared with 26% at 12 months.
The cognitive impairment of the new crown is debilitating to the same extent as natural aging for up to 10 years, and it may continue to increase.
If objectively detected with neuropsychological scales, the incidence of cognitive impairment may be higher, indicating that some patients do not have the self-insight of the disease.
The incidence of cognitive impairment in non-hospitalized patients with the new crown is similar to that in hospitalized patients, indicating that ordinary new crown patients are also at risk of cognitive impairment.
Another report involving more than 1.3 million people with COVID showed that their mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression returned to normal over time, but the risk of cognitive impairment (brain fog), epilepsy, dementia, psychosis and other neurocognitive disorders increased for at least 2 years.
Long new crown and Alzheimer's disease:
Studies have found that there are Alzheimer's disease-like changes in the brains of patients with long new crowns, including amyloid deposition, extensive neuroinflammation, and low metabolism of the brain and brainstem.
Since most patients are not of advanced age, the nervous system still has some reserves, so that the onset of neurological symptoms is delayed for a period of time after the new crown infection.
The coronavirus may remain in the central nervous system for months. The inflammation-related microglia in the brain of new crown patients have a similar "chemotherapy brain" response after chemotherapy, a variety of nervous system cell disorders, myelin loss, kyinuning pathways associated with cognitive impairment are activated, neuronal damage apoptosis, vascular damage further causes cerebral microhemorrhage, chronic hypoxemia and cerebral hypoxia. These are directly related to cognitive impairment.
Doctor's summary:
To summarize simply, the symptoms are not serious when infected with the new crown, which does not mean that there will be no neurocognitive symptoms in the future; Just after being infected for more than a month, it does not mean that it will definitely be fine within the next year.
Possible causes of neuropathology include neuroinflammation, hypercoagulable states, and endothelial dysfunction causing damage to blood vessels and neurons.
If you want to regulate in advance, eliminating inflammation, removing tiny blood clots, improving endothelial function, neuronutrition, etc. are all more suitable directions.
(Edit ATU.) Image source network, invasion and deletion)
Hunan Medical Chat special author: Sun Xuan, Hunan Guangxiu Hospital