https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-11-uk-covid-days.html

see three paths forward to ease the pain of long COVID. First, there is a burgeoning research program developing in academic and industry circles. From the National Institutes of Health’s Recover program to grass-roots nonprofit efforts like the Long COVID Research Initiative, we are designing robust studies to discover the truth about different medications, cognitive rehabilitation efforts, and more. Second, we must all determine our own risk tolerance. Indoor public exposure to COVID is much less risky if masked. Regarding vaccination, one in three people across the world remains unvaccinated. Remember that COVID-related deaths in 2022 are five times lower in vaccinated than in unvaccinated people. In addition, vaccination lowers the risk of long COVID by as much as 75 to 85 percent, and the new bivalent B5 booster vaccineis now available.

Let’s focus on just two major organs: the heart and brain. A new investigation of a selected group of 346 patients with documented mild COVIDfound diffuse swelling of the heart muscle on a cardiac MRI at 3 and 12 months after their infection — which was more pronounced in those with ongoing symptoms — as compared to 95 controls without COVID. None of these people had preexisting cardiac conditions and none was ever hospitalized, yet 73 percent had shortness of breath, palpitations, and chest pain at three months with 57 percent still experiencing these symptoms at one year. Perhaps more disturbing are the rising reports of profound cognitive impairment on par with clinical dementia. Neuroscience now shows that astrocyte and other glial cells are directly infected by the virus, which leads to indirect cell death of millions of neurons and ultimately a shrinking of our brain even after mild COVID. And children’s brains can be affected just like adult brains. COVID hijacks mitochondria in both heart muscle and brain cells, which may provide a link to the neck-up and neck-down disease plaguing long COVID patients. Our cells have hundreds of thousands of mitochondria that allow us to use food and oxygen to harness energy for everything we do in life from walking to talking. COVID is a form of viral sepsis, and there is an association between recovery from sepsis and mitochondrial dysfunction. Another disease people often compare to long COVID is myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, which some posit is at least in part due to diseased mitochondria. We are early in this line of research, with much to learn before specific therapies are available.

This article is in the Boston Globe. Even young people have it. But the vaxx does help. The usual. Dementia, heart, fatigue https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/09/12/opinion/landmines-long-covid-leaves-behind/?et_rid=885324108&s_campaign=globesmostpopular:newsletter&et_rid=885324108&s_campaign=globesmostpopular:newsletter