Two new high-profile studies add to the increasingly worrisome picture of how even mild cases of COVID-19 can have detrimental effects on brain health.

From the article:

“…two new studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine shed further light on the profound toll of COVID-19 on cognitive health.” And in other studies cases “with mild to moderate COVID-19 showed significant prolonged inflammation of the brain and changes that are commensurate with seven years of brain aging.”

  • asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world
    1·
    9 months ago

    Not a doctor so may be a stupid question, but wouldn’t the blood brain barrier protection stuff degrade or shut down when you die? Could it have leaked in after death?

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
      3·
      9 months ago

      One of the studies cited in the article found that COVID-19 damages (or can damage) the blood-brain barrier.

      • COVID-19 can also disrupt the blood brain barrier, the shield that protects the nervous system – which is the control and command center of our bodies – making it “leaky.” Studies using imaging to assess the brains of people hospitalized with COVID-19 showed disrupted or leaky blood brain barriers in those who experienced brain fog.

      Considering the number of people who end up with “brain fog” this seems a likely way for it to enter the brain.