Long COVID and the brain: Global study links infection to memory loss, higher dementia risk in seniors
Shared By: Claire Kowalick
February 11, 2025 UT health San Antonio
SUMMARY:
Five years after the height of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, scientists are beginning to unveil the infection’s potential long-term effects on the brain. We now know that following an acute COVID-19 infection, between 10% and 35% of people suffer from lingering effects called long COVID. For some people, these effects can be mild and short-lived, but for others, there may be lasting issues that may trigger a chain reaction of cognitive impairment.Long COVID is a condition following an acute infection of COVID-19 with symptoms lasting a few weeks to several months. Its effects vary from person to person and there are more than 200 reported symptoms. Common symptoms include extreme fatigue, memory problems or “brain fog,” lightheadedness and smell or taste impairment. Along with these symptoms, scientists conjectured that other long COVID effects might impact older people differently.
LINK:
https://news.uthscsa.edu/long-covid-and-the-brain-global-study-links-infection-to-memory-loss-higher-dementia-risk-in-seniors/COMMENT:
In a relatively short time of five or six years many of us have seen firsthand people in the public eye catching covid and then exhibiting symptoms of appearing disoriented with memory loss, and brain fog... these studies are only confirming what we laypersons are observing and suspecting. The public has seen what appears to be some early onset dementia and brain fog occurring a lot since covid began.. and not just in 'really old' seniors. There are many studies besides this one that seem to point the seriousness of these long term repercussions of covid for the elderly as well as some of the not so elderly. And keep in mind this is the first five years of studying... who knows what another five years on top of these last five years shall bring!?
10, 20, 30, etc years from now People may discover problems popping up from having had caught covid. My grandfather's malaria was like that .. he had problems such as really bad arthritis and he was immunocompromised that popped up decades later as an older man because of the kind of malaria he had caught in WW2 when he was young. Young people should consider that they don't know for sure what even a mild covid case will do to them 20-50 years from now.
What my grandfather caught when he was in his mere twenties started whupping up on him when he hit 50, 60, and 70 years old.. The doctor said it was the malaria he got when he was a mere pup! Its why I mask.. I wouldn't dismiss the possibility of longterm repercussions even from mild cases..
This is an important study and also somewhere in this forum I read a study that stated some people developed long covid who were totally asymptomatic and had mild cases of covid.
In other words its only been 5 or 6 years now..we don't know what having caught covid will do to a youngster when he turns fifty .. only time will tell if the so-called 'mild' covid cases do damage to people 10-50 years down the road.
Don't
forget to mask,
The Masked Man
P.S.
I recently saw a story of some guy (on a YouTube show called "soft white underbellies") who was probably in his twenties who had caught covid and the doctor actually said to the guy he had early onset dementia from covid.. then later the doctor changed the diagnosis from early onset dementia to whatever football players or boxers get who suffer from massive hits to the head over and over.
While we hope people have fully recovered from 'mild cases' of covid we simply don't know if a generation of 20-30 year olds who think they are tough and keep catching covid over and over won't end up with dementia by the time they are 50. Only time will tell that. Its not looking good because if older people are more likely to get dementia from covid then it stands to reason younger people are also more prone to eventually succumb to the same thing as they too grow older. It just stands to reason: If something is intrinsically not good for older people then its probably not intrinsically good for younger ones either! Somethings are not good even in moderation.. methinks covid is not good even in moderation.
The younger ones might get hit with dementia sooner in life if they keep catching covid over and over simply because the younger have more years to catch many cases of covid. Think ten years from now we don't know what happens to people who catch 'mild' covid twice a year for ten years straight. we are only on the fifth and sixth years and counting. We might have tons of 50 year old dementia victims ahead of us currently in the making, for all we know.
I say this because I don't want us to underestimate how bad even a 'mild' case of covid might be or prove to be and I wanna give young people and incentive to not catch covid thinking covid won't hurt young people. I wanna see more people mask like myself...
...Just a reminder of at least two of the mistakes being made,
1)in the beginning the typical medical news and announcement failed us and still fall short of even alerting to the public that 'long covid' or long term repercussions from covid exist. The typical public medical covid news ya see on the big networks such as ABC or CBS never warn people about 'long covid an how serious it is even to this day its like a lot of people are in denial.
2) myths like 'covid only hurts really old people and doesn't harm tough little children' seems to be pushed by some media and common news when in fact many studies have come to surface giving us data at how much damage covid has really done to children. Children suffer horrible long term repercussions from having gotten covid.
...Now for new scary possibility: What if "Longer Covid" exists? Long covid exists so what about even longer term repercussions? ..something equivalent to the term "Longer Covid" which would be like maybe young people that gets covid might get dementia in life and sooner in life than those that don't get covid...maybe people who get covid or many bouts of covid open themselves up to dementia later on in life... they might develop a predisposition or a predisposition for it makes way or becomes enabled through covid ... some weird diseases are like that in which a person gets a disease and symptoms or something inside them lay dormant often for years.. a person has an illness and its true symptoms only emerge a couple decades later
... I'm not saying this is true but there is a likelihood of problems in the long term future considering how most people failed to have foreseen 'long covid' and have underestimated 'long covid' by a long shot. Furthermore people underestimated how bad it is for a young child to get covid.
..its just something to think about. Its good to know what we don't know..its good to think about things we can't be certain about... some things only time can tell for sure. Some things can only be proven by time.
Not to scare anybody but the real reason I mention these things is to encourage people to take precautions and Mask up so that I may thrive amongst a healthier masked generation or two! Try to prevent covid. Even a 'mild' case of covid might prove deadly in the long haul.
I'd like to have some masked friends out there that protect themselves! There's not enough people masking out there.'
