What Research Shows About Covid's Relationship with Our Heart and Brain
Plus, how reinfections increase our odds of organ damage even in the young and healthy.
Hiya!
While researching for an article I wrote on Medium about overpopulation, I came upon some surprising studies about Covid’s effects on male and female fertility. I then realized that we’re into our third year now, which means experts have had three years to study the virus.
In the earlier days of the pandemic, Covid-19 was viewed as a respiratory virus infecting our lungs and air passages. But now researchers know that Covid infects far more than just our lungs — it can infect every organ and system in our body. I won’t get into everything, but I do want to discuss its effects on our hearts and brains.
Covid and the Heart
To me, the heart is grounding. Its beat is steady, consistent, and comforting when the world becomes too much. The heart is a signal of Life and the symbol of love. I know learning about how COVID impacts one of the most important parts of us is unnerving, but it’s also good knowledge to have. So forgive me, but I’m going to jump into it.
The effects Covid-19 has on the heart are extensive and include “cerebrovascular disorders, dysrhythmias, ischemic and non-ischemic heart disease, pericarditis, myocarditis, heart failure, and thromboembolic disease.” And the risk of developing any of these issues remains up to at least a year after the initial infection.
Chair of the department of physiology at Columbia University, Dr. Andrew Marks, and his colleagues conducted a small study involving the autopsies of ten COVID-19 patients who died from the virus — some of which also had histories of heart conditions — and presented their results at the annual meeting of the Biophysical Society — a multinational biophysics scientific group.
The team discovered several abnormalities, but of particular interest to the researchers was how the virus influences the way heart cells regulate calcium.
See, all muscles use calcium to contract, including our heart. Cells in our muscles store calcium and release it when needed via special channels inside the cells. During something like heart failure, these channels stay open to help the heart contract. Except, instead of helping, they deplete the calcium reserves, which weakens the heart further. In this way, the calcium systems in the hearts of the people who died from Covid-19 were similar to people who died from heart failure.
Other research has found that myocarditis, or heart inflammation, is far more likely to occur in unvaccinated teenage boys and young men than in vaccinated ones. Youth heart attacks have been on the rise, too, and have been since 2020 (before vaccines were created).
Additionally, when it comes to long COVID, many people are diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which includes symptoms such as bowel and bladder irregularities, fatigue, and a racing heart with minimal activity, especially when going from sitting to standing.
The good news is the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai analyzed the most comprehensive dataset in the United States and found that vaccination (even partial vaccination) against COVID-19 is linked to fewer heart attacks and other major adverse cardiac events (MACE), compared to unvaccinated people infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This was the first study to examine both full and partial vaccination.
Covid and the Brain
As you probably know, I had brain surgery a few years ago to correct a cavernous malformation. Everything is fine and dandy in my noggin now, but I’d like to dodge any future neurological issues—especially avoidable ones. It isn’t death that scares me when it comes to getting Covid. It’s the ever-growing list of neurological issues that I’m terrified of.
I know we talked about long COVID before, but I didn’t tell you that the most disabling, relentless, and commonly reported symptoms of long COVID are neurological. In fact, a growing number of scientists believe long COVID is mostly a neurological disease.
Even many symptoms seemingly rooted in the body result from nerve dysfunction, usually in the autonomic nervous system, which begins in the brain. If you don’t know, your autonomic nervous system is a network of nerves that begins in your brain, then branches to your spinal cord and throughout your body. This system works unconsciously and regulates involuntary bodily functions like digestion, blood vessel dilation, and heartbeat.
Take dysautonomia, for example. Rather than a disease in itself, dysautonomia is more of a general term for autonomic dysfunction or when the autonomic nervous system is impaired. Issues with the autonomic nervous system can cause heart and blood pressure problems, loss of bladder control, and trouble breathing.
So for people suffering from long COVID, dysautonomia often takes the form of POTS — which we discussed in the previous section. This means that even though some symptoms may feel like a problem with the body, the source may actually stem from a dysfunction in the autonomic nervous system, caused by the brain.
Think of it this way: When everything is functioning the way it’s supposed to, the brain and nervous system regulates the heart automatically. But POTS occurs when the brain and nervous system lose control of the heart so it begins to act out.
Researchers think inflammation is a primary culprit of neurological COVID symptoms, rather than the virus directly. Avindra Nath, who has long studied postviral neurological syndromes at the National Institutes of Health, also conducted an autopsy study of people who died of COVID. The results were published in Science in January 2022.
Nath discovered less of the virus in the brain than expected, but he did find a lot of immune activation—especially around blood vessels. More specifically, the research suggests macrophages, a type of immune cell, were stirred up. In an article by Scientific American about his finding, Nath explained:
“Macrophages are not that precise in their attack. They come and start chewing things up; they produce all kinds of free radicals, cytokines. It's almost like blanket bombing—it ends up causing a lot of damage. And they're very hard to shut down, so they persist for a long time. These are the unwelcome guests.”
And the result would be persistent inflammation in the brain. This is supported by other research reported in the journal Nature just a month before, in December 2022. The study involved the autopsy study of 44 people who died of COVID and discovered viral RNA throughout the body, including the brain, for over seven months (230 days) after infection.
Thankfully, scientists could likely develop some form of antiviral medications for if or when the virus does hang around, which may help with neurological symptoms in the long run.
Repeated Infections
I’ve lost count of how many people have told me they low-key hope they get Covid because “it’s not so bad,” or “Covid pay at work is good and I need a break,” and, of course, “besides my immunity will be stronger after I recover.”
While Covid pay might be great, and no doubt people need a break, the other two statements aren’t entirely accurate. Covid symptoms may be mild for many people — especially the young, healthy, and vaccinated — but research is beginning to show that things aren’t as benign as they seem.
A study by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis published in November 2022 in the journal Nature Medicine suggests multiple COVID infections result in a higher risk of organ failure—even for the young, healthy, and vaccinated.
The research, led by Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, a clinical epidemiologist at the School of Medicine, discovered that people who are reinfected with COVID are twice as likely to die and three times more likely to be hospitalized compared to people who have been infected only once.
Al-Aly and his colleagues also found that people with repeat infections were one and a half times more likely to experience neurological conditions, three times more like to develop heart conditions, and over three times more likely to suffer lung problems compared to people who were only infected once— regardless of their vaccination status.
In an article by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis about the study, Al-Aly, whose also the senior author, said:
“During the past few months, there’s been an air of invincibility among people who have had COVID-19 or their vaccinations and boosters, and especially among people who have had an infection and also received vaccines; some people started referring to these individuals as having a sort of superimmunity to the virus.
Without ambiguity, our research showed that getting an infection a second, third or fourth time contributes to additional health risks in the acute phase, meaning the first 30 days after infection, and in the months beyond, meaning the long COVID phase.”
So with every reinfection, even the young, healthy, and vaccinated are more at risk than many people likely realize. What happens when children, teens, or young adults feel invincible and toss aside precautions, then become infected multiple times a year? What will their health be like by the time they reach full adulthood? Unfortunately, I guess we’ll have to wait and find out.
Perspective Shift
I’ll admit, I’m one of the fortunate few who have managed to avoid getting infected — at least to my knowledge. I’m a rigorous tester and test when I feel even slightly under the weather, but they’ve all been negative. Every person in my household (which included three others at one point) was infected at one point or another, but I seem to have managed to avoid it.
No doubt, the fact that I’m fully vaccinated, still wear kn95 masks almost everywhere and am a single, childless introvert who works from home all contribute. Though I’m not a complete hermit, I travel and socialize some. I know I’ll catch Covid eventually, but I’m avoiding it as much as I can for as long as I can.
All anyone can do is all they can do. Exposure is unavoidable for many people, most people, in fact. Anyone with school-aged children or who work directly with the public knows it’s impossible to avoid Covid. Even multiple exposures are inevitable in most cases, and I’m not here to judge anyone.
Everyone struggles and has different limitations and opportunities. I know it’s terrifying to learn about Covid, but it’s good to remind ourselves of the reality of our situation. Perhaps we’ll be able to shift the narrative or, at the very least, begin treating the pandemic for what it is. Not a political pawn but a serious situation that will affect society for decades.
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