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Medicine

Researchers Finally Link Long Covid 'Brain Fog' to Inflammation (thehill.com) 54

Posted by EditorDavid from the following-the-science dept.
An anonymous reader shared this report from The Hill: A new study indicates the debilitating "brain fog" suffered by millions of long COVID patients is linked to changes in the brain, including inflammation and an impaired ability to rewire itself following COVID-19 infection. United Press International reported this week that the small-scale study, conducted by researchers at Corewell Health in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Michigan State University, shows that altered levels of a pair of key brain chemicals could be the culprit.

The study marks the first time doctors have been able to provide scientific proof that validates the experiences of the approximately 12 million COVID "long-haulers" in the U.S. who have reported neurological symptoms. Researchers looked at biomarkers in study participants and found that those complaining of brain fog had higher levels of an anti-inflammatory protein that is crucial to regulating a person's immune system, UPI reported. They also showed lower serum levels of nerve growth factor, a protein vital to the brain's plasticity...

One of the biggest issues involving long COVID has been doctors' inability to find physical proof of the symptoms described by patients. The study has changed that, according to co-author Dr. Bengt Arnetz.

Researchers Finally Link Long Covid 'Brain Fog' to Inflammation More | Reply

Researchers Finally Link Long Covid 'Brain Fog' to Inflammation

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  • How about sense of smell? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TheMiddleRoad ( 1153113 ) on Saturday May 17, 2025 @03:36PM (#65383577)

    My nose has felt inflamed ever since the first time I caught COVID, and my sense of smell is only maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of what it used to be. At least I don't smell farts so much anymore.

    • Mine is severely impaired too. Thankfully, no brain fog in my case.

    • Nerve and brain damage, it comes from Covid travelling up the nerves to get into your brain. Was a series of papers on it in 2022.
    • I never noticed a change in my sense of smell, but my face went numb a couple times. A few days later I noticed the music I was listening to and the sunset I watched were both unusually euphoric, probably indicating regrowth in my brain.
    • I woke up with tinnitus while having Covid. Several days in without any severe symptoms and then just woke up with some solid ringing around 12khz sound that never ends and is made worse by loud sounds like wind, or a shower, or engine. That was two years ago and I have still had it every day since then but my brain has gotten better at tuning it out. Guess that was the last time I’ll hear quiet again but at least it’s only shot out my high range hearing over 10kHz which is normal at my age I

      • Look into hypnotism for the tinnitis. It doesn't necessarily make the tinnitis away. Rather it makes it so you just don't care at all. Its just background nonsense.

        The guitarist in my old band was going out of his mind with his, and the hypnotherapy worked amazingly. He still had it, but he just didnt notice it unless he was reminded.

      • Yeah, tinnitus is PITA. I found that having background noise helps distract me from noticing it as much. I use a sound machine at night to help me get to sleep without the constant ringing keeping me on edge. Either a dedicated sound machine or an MP3 player and a looping stream sound are helpful. Other people like the sound of rain or the sound of a fan.

        Because tinnitus is so common for military members, the VA put out an informative guide on managing tinnitus. The information helps everyone, not just

    • Actually had the opposite and my sense of smell is way more sensitive now. As an ex-smoker, it is truly awful now. The smell of tobacco smoke was bad before but it is gag inducing now.

    • The sense of smell loss isn't a covid-specific thing.

      We moved back to Europe from Japan a few years ago during one of those cold winters that are just a memory now and the whole family got sick with some "ordinary" flu.

      I had the usual symptoms - nothing serious - and recovered quickly. The family members that haven't lived here had it real bad though and on top of everything else all lost their sense of smell partly or completely.

      Medicine back then was very relaxed about it - "don't worry, you'll recover sm

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by CEC-P ( 10248912 )
      That just sounds like a secondary infection of bacteria causing that effect, possibly.
  • I wonder how many of these people still eat meat?
  • This is really only a very small pilot study, with groups of only 10 patients and 7 controls. There is still not a small chance that these results cannot be reproduced when looking at a larger group of people.

    • Re:A study on 17 people, 10 of which are symptomat (Score:4, Insightful)

      by smap77 ( 1022907 ) on Saturday May 17, 2025 @04:09PM (#65383663)

      Yes, and... that's the point of a pilot study--to see if it's worth it to make a larger study.

      Some details from the paper on that point:
      While formal power calculations are not required for pilot studies [38], it was important to have a sufficient sample size to examine the feasibility of recruiting participants with and without long COVID, and whether differences could be detected between groups [39].

      (Limitations:) First and foremost is the small sample size, which makes generalizability to other populations difficult, although we used a rigorous assessment scheme. Small sample sizes have reduced statistical power to detect true effects and results may be affected by outliers.

      Serum levels of nerve growth factor (NGF), a biomarker of brain plasticity, were significantly lower in the long COVID group, which was significantly more likely than controls to have serum levels of inflammatory marker (interleukin (IL)-10) values greater than or equal to the median (p=0.015).

      https://journals.plos.org/plos... [plos.org]

  • Send this article (Score:3)

    by hcs_$reboot ( 1536101 ) on Saturday May 17, 2025 @04:00PM (#65383641)
    to the COVID anti-vaccine people.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Why? They won't read it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by HiThere ( 15173 )

      Sorry, while COVID vaccine decreases the chance of getting COVID, and decreases the severity of the disease, there are indications that it doesn't decrease the prevalence of long COVID (among those who do catch the disease).

      So this isn't additional evidence that vaccination isn't desirable. If you weren't already convinced, this won't convince you.

      FWIW, I'm relying of articles from Science News to make the assertions in the first paragraph. And they WEREN'T and assertion that there is no effect, merely th

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        That is not how vaccines work. You still need to be exposed to the infection(s) for the antibodies to do their job.

        Stop talking to anti-vaxxers, they are making you stupid.

  • While the first finding of this particular type there have been numerous studies finding neural inflammation including glial cells as well as continued infection of the brain well after the acute infection has passed. Many have been much larger and more compelling than this small study. There are about 550,000 papers on Covid harms and Long Covid now, it's one of the most studied viruses of all time and it does a wide range of damage I know of no papers saying Covid is just a cold.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ffkom ( 3519199 )

      it's one of the most studied viruses of all time

      Which is certainly one reason why so many symptoms have been attributed to it, and why so many hypotheses exist on what it may cause. Just imagine infections with, for example, OC43, had been studied as intensely, accompanied by a big media campaign warning the population of all sorts of symptoms that might occur due to an OC43 infection. Then we would pretty likely have a similar number of people complaining about OC43 effects, and since infections with OC43 are currently considered a "common cold", that w

      • You are so unbelievably stupid, and as is typical it’s the idiots who think they’re the most intelligent.

  • The study marks the first time doctors have been able to provide scientific proof that validates the experiences of the approximately 12 million COVID “long-haulers” in the U.S. who have reported neurological symptoms.

    Where are all those people that kept saying, "it's just the flu" and therefore weren't going to abide safety guidelines or get vaccinated?

    • Re:Hold up! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Local ID10T ( 790134 ) <ID10T.L.USER@gmail.com> on Saturday May 17, 2025 @05:28PM (#65383789) Homepage

      Where are all those people that kept saying, "it's just the flu" and therefore weren't going to abide safety guidelines or get vaccinated?

      Dead.

      (...or they got vaccinated and/or sought medical assistance once infected while still complaining that it was all a hoax.)

      • Re:Hold up! (Score:4, Informative)

        by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Saturday May 17, 2025 @06:20PM (#65383845)

        Dead.

        I was in the ER a few months ago with an injury to a finger and was hallwayed because all the rooms were filled. While I was waiting for service, they wheeled this perhaps 60 year old lady in who had collapsed near her apartment and took an ambulance in eventually getting into the hallway parking stall next to me. She started to rage when she was coming to her senses and the hospital staff told her and that she had the symptoms of a severe infection. She started saying the hospital staff was poisoning her and by then her denial rate was so bad if her O2 reading wasn’t in the 60s on oxygen security would have been needed but just cussing and trying to lift an arm was winding her out. The nurse finally came, took one look at the charts with a furrowed brow and sent her off to a room and one of the assistants was talking about some concerning test results. After seeing it first hand I can say it’s not hyperbole.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by ffkom ( 3519199 )

        Where are all those people that kept saying, "it's just the flu" and therefore weren't going to abide safety guidelines or get vaccinated?

        Dead.

        (...or they got vaccinated and/or sought medical assistance once infected while still complaining that it was all a hoax.)

        I wonder who mods such a nonsense statement as "insightful", but the epidemiological numbers tell a different story. The majority of people infected with Sars-Cov-2 had no or mild symptoms, vaccinated or not. Just because vaccination has prevented severe outcomes in some patients does not change that fact.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by shess ( 31691 )

          Where are all those people that kept saying, "it's just the flu" and therefore weren't going to abide safety guidelines or get vaccinated?

          Dead.

          (...or they got vaccinated and/or sought medical assistance once infected while still complaining that it was all a hoax.)

          I wonder who mods such a nonsense statement as "insightful", but the epidemiological numbers tell a different story. The majority of people infected with Sars-Cov-2 had no or mild symptoms, vaccinated or not. Just because vaccination has prevented severe outcomes in some patients does not change that fact.

          The same applies to basically anything we use the healthcare system to address. Life expectency of the population mostly doesn't increase due to heroic measures, it increases due to minor measures applied consistently over long periods of time.

          When doctors don't wash their hands before surgery, most patients survive just fine with no consequences. That doesn't mean doctors shouldn't bother washing their hands.

    • Ha ha, "guidelines." Curious of your definition of "coercion?"

  • The protein and symptoms described could have occured from ANY viral infection. So is whole debacle REALLY unique to COVID, or are we just seeing more reporting of something already previously existing for certain individuals?

  • When the covid started and stories started coming out about people who got it *bad* I was willing to entertain the possibility.

    The fact that I'd just gotten over a daycare virus that knocked me flat on my back for over a week and left me coughing for nearly a month made it seem plausible in the visceral sense.

    But a year or two in, after everyone and their mother had gotten it, and they were claiming over ten million people were disabled by a condition that didn't even have a solid definition of symptoms...t

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