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From simply swallowing food to critical diseases, Long COVID or post-COVID syndromes can affect us in more ways than we already know of it. World Health Organisation (WHO) last week pointed out long-term effects of the coronavirus can be critical, affecting every part of your body. Following this, several studies have also shown the virus can give us some life-threatening diseases, affecting organs including the heart, lungs, intestine etc. Read on to understand the critical symptoms of long COVID and how it can affect your body.
A recent study by the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases pointed out, long COVID could be linked to the effect of the virus on the vagus nerve – one of the most important multi-functional nerves in the body.
The Vagus nerve is one of the longest nerves in the body. It extends from brain down into the torso and into the heart, lungs, and intestines, controlling various bodily functions including heart rate, speech, the gag reflex, transferring food from the mouth to the stomach.
Symptoms of concern: Nerve thickening, trouble swallowing, impaired breathing, palpitations, night sweats and gastrointestinal disturbances
“It is important to caveat that not all symptoms of long Covid may be associated with the direct impact of vagal dysfunction and there are many other presentations that will need further investigation," authors suggest.
Another article published in the scientific publication Nature suggested, even a mild case of COVID-19 can increase a person’s risk of cardiovascular problems, including heart failure and stroke, for at least a year after diagnosis. What’s more, the risk was elevated even for those who were under 65 years of age and lacked risk factors, such as obesity or diabetes.
The authors also pointed the risk is also high even for the young population and the non-smokers.
“People who had recovered from COVID-19 showed stark increases in 20 cardiovascular problems over the year after infection. For example, they were 52% more likely to have had a stroke than the contemporary control group," the authors said. That is, out of every 1,000 people studied, there were around 4 more people in the COVID-19 group than in the control group who experienced stroke.
Last week, WHO officials revealed people usually think of COVID as an upper respiratory disease, but it is more of a systemic disease.
Literally, it was affecting every part of the cardiovascular system one year down and later, said WHO official Dr. Abdi Mahamud.
“The risk and complication from COVID, when we see it is not as a respiratory pathogen. Of course, that’s the way of entry, but it’s affecting every part of your body because of the vessels. It can cause vasculitis."
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