Post-COVID ‘brain fog’ could be result of virus changing patients’ spinal fluid
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Cases of “brain fog” among COVID patients are becoming more and more common, even among people recovering from mild infections. Now, new research is finally providing some potential answers to why people have difficulty concentrating, thinking clearly, and completing easy daily tasks after battling COVID. A team from the University of California-San Francisco say brain fog may result from how the virus alters a person’s spinal fluid — just like other diseases which attack the brain.
Their study finds certain patients who develop cognitive symptoms following a mild case of COVID-19 display abnormalities in their cerebrospinal fluid, similar to the kinds which appear in patients with diseases
like Alzheimer’s. While this is only a start, study authors are optimistic this work is an important first step toward understanding what exactly SARS-CoV-2 can do to the human brain.
“They manifest as problems remembering recent events, coming up with names or words, staying focused, and issues with holding onto and manipulating information, as well as slowed processing speed,” explains senior study author Joanna Hellmuth, MD, MHS, of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, in a
university release.
Post-COVID brain fog is likely much more common than most people realize. One recently released study focusing on a post-COVID clinic in New York found that a staggering 67 percent of 156 recovered COVID-19 patients experienced some form of brain fog.
https://www.studyfinds.org/covid-brain-fog-spinal-fluid/
