Older adults recovering from COVID-19 face a 58% higher risk of developing dementia compared to those uninfected, with rates peaking 12 months post-infection.
Study reviewed 11 studies, 940k cases, 6.8M controls.
“The buddy from college I talk about every now and again.
He’s prolly 50 or so. He posted this a few days ago. He has already had a rough go of it, he has a daughter he is devoted to, and who loves him immensely.
I am as sad as I am angry. “
“Ugh. The more we learn about it, the uglier it looks.
This, again, speaks to my point about tail risk in an emergent situation: it’s at least as bad as it looks. It may be worse.
We are badly underestimating the consequences of delayed risk. It’s a reckless approach. (1/)”
“Worse, most people don’t even notice it has happened to themselves.
But I can tell you we who continue to mask and have many fewer COVID infections can see the growing cognitive damage in more and more people around us.
Memory problems, like recall and word finding delays. Weakness and fatigue and motor control impairment. Growing executive function and emotional regulation deficits.
More and more friends disables and forced out of work or school by Long COVID symptoms.
It’s scary to witness the broad societal decline, and dispiriting to see so many governments and Public Health agencies persist in minimizing the growing problem.”
“Can I reassert that with SARS-CoV-2 induced brain damage, it won’t be a lessening of intellect that you’ll be seeing first, but behavioural changes such as disinhibition, emotional lability, risk taking & impulsivity.
Frontal lobe damage impairs behavioural regulation.” Thread:
“COVID-19 survivors show signs of significant cognitive deficits which could become dementia even a year after having the virus.. The team [in India] found that more than 80% of people tested reported at least one of four symptoms – depression, anxiety, stress and insomnia – ranging from mild to severe.. At least 6.1% of the patients were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and 4% developed dementia. More than 60% of the patients experienced a loss of taste and smell during the active phase of the infection. This could alter the function of brain areas linked to cognitive ability and emotional well-being.."
A new paper in Cell, “Pioneering discovery and therapeutics at the brain-vascular-immune interface,” describes COVID-19 as a neurological disease alongside multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, stroke and traumatic brain injury.
“COVID-19 can accelerate progression of dementia and induce BBB disruption and inflammatory blood clots causally linked with neuroinflammation and neuronal loss.8 In neurodevelopmental disorders, prematurity and perinatal hypoxia that trigger brain hemorrhage and BBB disruption are risk factors for cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, and autism. Collectively, these risk factors highlight the interconnected vascular and immune triggers of neurological diseases.”
Whoopi Goldberg, who just had her 4th COVID infection, joked about her post infection brain damage on TV.
“I’m just getting over COVID – again – and I can barely remember anybody’s name. There are times when I go for a word and it’s not there.”
“An old friend reached out to me today.
He got an MRI showing that his brain aged 25 years. He went for an MRI because his ADHD meds weren’t doing the job and if he went off of them, he felt different, he felt had dementia.
Doc notes that given the facts, it’s Covid induced.”
“new study has added fuel to concerns that America could face a surge in dementias in coming years & decades due to COVID.”
“Changes in blood flow could cause frequent, small injuries to brain tissue, depriving oxygen often enough to cause.. dementia.”
“‘…there is evidence of fragments or an inflammatory kind of a massive inflammatory response that occurs triggered by COVID. And those inflammatory markers we tend to notice in the brain.’
And that could cause something called COVID-19 Cognitive Impairment.
‘And we are going to compare people with COVID cognitive impairment. To be clear on this, I think that COVID can cause cognitive impairment and maybe even dementia…’”
Thread on Twitter: New study documents the case of two previously healthy sisters - 11 and 13-years-old - with new-onset cognitive decline after mild covid. The ability of their brains to consume glucose had been impaired - an initiating factor for dementia, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease 🧵