Thumbnail Photo by CDC on Unsplash
Hi everyone,
Welcome to everyone who subscribed this week! Happy to announce that the newsletter has reached 500 subscribers this week. I am excited to see where we can take the newsletter.
I have some ideas for new segments to add on to the newsletter but willing to take suggestions. I am extremely open to feedback, feel free to leave a comment, message me on Twitter or email me at longcovidweekly@gmail.com.
I have some new ideas for sections within the newsletter, including:
Meme section to make the newsletter more lighthearted
Section interviewing people currently with Long Covid
Without further ado, let’s jump into the news of the week.
Research
!really interesting piece
TL;DR:
‘Physiological functions of the endothelium include fine control of vascular tone, tissue hemostasis, barrier integrity, inflammation, oxidative stress, vascular permeability, and structural and functional integrity’
‘To date, growing evidence supports endothelial dysfunction as a unified key mechanism in the pathogenesis of COVID-19’
‘It has been reported that the secretion of multiple markers of endothelial activation/dysfunction is elevated in COVID-19 patients’
‘Collectively, based on the multifaceted nature of endothelial dysfunction and complex patho-mechanisms of COVID-19, it warrants to be evaluated whether directly targeting endothelial dysfunction could result in a clinically significant improvement in outcome of COVID-19 patients.’
TL;DR:
‘The symptom characteristics of long-haul COVID resemble those of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) [1,9]. One of the overlapping symptoms is orthostatic intolerance [10]. Orthostatic intolerance is defined as a clinical syndrome in which complaints increase while standing and are relieved by lying down’
‘The main finding is that in long-haul COVID patients, the decrease in cerebral blood flow during a tilt table test is similar to that of ME/CFS patients with a post-viral trigger and is similar to that of patients with an insidious onset. In addition, the complaint pattern of orthostatic intolerance during the tilt is also similar for the three groups.’
!was having trouble grabbing quotes from the article so only used stuff from the abstract
TL;DR:
‘The goal of this study was to look into the underlying cause of long-term dyspnoea in patients who were "clinically and radiologically recovered" from COVID pneumonia by assessing DLCO(Carbon Monoxide diffusing capacity) and DLNO(nitric oxide (NO) diffusing capacity) at the same time.’
‘The single-breath, simultaneous measurement of DLCO, DLNO, and Vc demonstrated that problems with blood gas exchange can persist even after parenchymal lesions have healed completely. Regardless of the normality of spirometric volumes, there was a significant reduction in lung capillary blood volume.’
TL;DR:
‘Reactivation of latent viruses occurs frequently in healthy individuals upon physical or mental stress or traumatic events. However, this is balanced by the counteractive action of a functional immune system. SARS-CoV-2 infection is a potential risk factor for sustained latent virus reactivation (13–15)’
‘We first found that in systemic-ME, VCA IgG, HHV6A IgG, and HERV-K IgG levels, were significantly higher compared to the systemic-HDs (Figures 3A, G, J, Table S3). Also, in the saliva-responder groups, HSV1 IgG and HSV2 IgG titers were significantly higher in the local-ME than in local-HDs (Figure 4D, Table S3). However, after adjusting for age and gender as confounding factors, there was no statistical differences detected for HSV1 IgG and HSV2 IgG’
‘Our findings demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 infection even in its mild/asymptomatic form is a potent trigger for reactivation of latent herpesviruses and endogenous retroviruses. This is particularly relevant for individuals suffering from ME/CFS, since they have elevated immune responses against latent viruses.’
Media
What we know and don’t know about long COVID
TL;DR:
‘“What do we mean when we say long COVID? We’re still figuring it out,” said Dr. Josh Fessel, a senior clinical adviser and COVID-19 specialist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Along the way, he said, “we’re learning a lot about what recovery looks like after a significant illness.” ‘
‘For many Americans, long COVID now looms as a larger worry than acute COVID-19, the first round of disease triggered by the viral invader. Vaccinations and weakening variants have vastly lowered the odds that people without underlying conditions will wind up hospitalized or dead from the acute version of the ailment. ‘
‘“We talk about long COVID like it’s a thing,” said Fessel of NIH. “And I think the truth is that what we’re learning, and what we’ve had a sense of for a while, is that there are different flavors of long COVID. It seems like there are some people who really have a lot of the fatigue, the cognitive changes. … There are people who don’t have much of that, but they’re really short of breath with activity levels that never used to bother them, and that persists for months. There are people with real high heart rates. All of these fall under the umbrella of long COVID.” ‘
Feeling Stressed Before You Get COVID May Increase Your Odds of Developing Long COVID
TL;DR:
‘These stressors include depression, anxiety, and types of distress usually overlooked, including loneliness, perceived stress, and specific worry about COVID.
Surprisingly, these stressors were a stronger predictor of long COVID than physical comorbidities, including a history of hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, asthma, and cancer.‘
Anecdotally, the time i was initially sick was also during an extremely stressful period in my life.
Remote work opened some doors to workers with disabilities. But others remain shut
TL;DR:
‘More organizations are now offering workplace accommodations, according to a survey by researchers from the University of New Hampshire's Institute on Disability and the Kessler Foundation, a U.S. charity supporting people with disabilities. That's largely because employers have been made to confront another new normal: an influx of workers experiencing lasting health issues associated with COVID-19‘
‘Forty percent of respondents said they had supervised someone with lasting physical or mental challenges associated with COVID-19. And 78% of supervisors said their workplace established or changed the way they provide accommodations because of challenges created by the pandemic.‘
‘"There's an entire hidden army of disabled people who refuse to reveal that they have hidden disabilities in the office,"‘