The development of memory loss and cognitive problems, often referred to as “brain fog” as a result of infection with the “Covid virus,” can be linked to the way it affects a person’s spine.
A research team from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), analyzed the cerebrospinal fluid of Covid survivors to determine whether the causes of brain fog are similar to those of other cognitive states.
They found elevated levels of proteins in the fluid of some Covid survivors, which indicates some inflammation as a result of an immune response to the virus.
While “long-term Covid” is a mysterious condition that can manifest itself in many ways, researchers are slowly working to piece the pieces together, linking many of the long-term side effects that a person feels from the virus to inflammation of various organs as an immune response.
“It is possible that the immune system, which is stimulated by the virus, is operating in an unintended pathological way,” Dr. Joanna Hellmuth, lead study author and researcher at the Center for Memory and Aging at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a statement.
The researchers, who published their findings Wednesday in the Annals of Clinical and Editorial Neuroscience, recruited 32 COVID-19 survivors for the study. None of them had a severe enough case of the virus to require hospitalization.
From the study group, 22 patients reported cognitive problems after injury, while the other 10 served as a control group.
A needle was inserted into the spinal column to collect fluid from 17 participants, 13 of whom had cognitive symptoms.
Ten of the 13 patients in the brain fog group showed abnormalities in cerebrospinal fluid, including elevated protein levels and a proliferation of antibodies they did not expect.
The research team hopes that their findings will help doctors and scientists better understand exactly why people experience brain fog as a result of Covid infection.
“It manifests as problems remembering recent events, coming up with names or words, concentrating on problems, problems holding on and processing information, as well as slowed processing speed,” Helmuth said of people with brain fog.
A healthy young person with a fully functional mind may have trouble with basic memory and cognition.
It can affect them in their daily lives, and affect their job performance. In the most serious cases, it can prevent a person from participating in daily activities.
Brain fog is not the only common symptom associated with “long-term Covid”, as some people report extreme fatigue, leaving them in bed for months in the most severe cases.
Others have also reported long-term loss of sense of smell, body aches, headaches, and even psychiatric symptoms in rare cases. It’s also a condition that appears to be more likely to develop in people with mild cases of Covid, which means that younger, healthier people are actually more at risk.