[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'One of Long COVID's Worst Symptoms Is Also Its Most Misunderstood

Brain fog isn't like a hangover or depression. It's a disorder of executive function that makes basic cognitive tasks absurdly hard.

[....] worked in artificial intelligence and analyzed complex systems without hesitation, but now "runs into a mental wall" when faced with tasks as simple as filling out forms. Her memory, once vivid, feels frayed and fleeting. Former mundanities—buying food, making meals, cleaning up—can be agonizingly difficult. Her inner world—what she calls "the extras of thinking, like daydreaming, making plans, imagining"—is gone. The fog "is so encompassing, [...] it affects every area of my life." For more than 900 days, while other long-COVID symptoms have waxed and waned, her brain fog has never really lifted.

Of long COVID's many possible symptoms, brain fog "is by far one of the most disabling and destructive," [...] from the University of Oxford, told me. It's also among the most misunderstood. [...]

20 to 30 percent of patients report brain fog three months after their initial infection, as do 65 to 85 percent of the long-haulers who stay sick for much longer. It can afflict people who were never ill enough to need a ventilator—or any hospital care. And it can affect young people in the prime of their mental lives.

Long-haulers with brain fog say that it's like none of the things that people—including many medical professionals—jeeringly compare it to. It is more profound than the clouded thinking that accompanies hangovers, stress, or fatigue. [...] distinct from and worse than her experience with ADHD. It is not psychosomatic, and involves real changes to the structure and chemistry of the brain. It is not a mood disorder: "If anyone is saying that this is due to depression and anxiety, they have no basis for that, and data suggest it might be the other direction," [...]

[...] brain often loses focus mid-sentence[...] “I forget what I’m saying[...] stopped [...] from driving, because she’d forget her destination en route. For more than a year, she couldn’t read, either, because making sense of a series of words had become too difficult.'

What Makes Brain Fog So Unforgiving

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 12 September 2022 - 04:27 PM

[QuickTidal]

77 year old stepfather is in hospital with full blown COVID Pneumonia. No other updates yet. Went by ambulance yesterday when no one could move him as they arrived home from a friends place.

[QuickTidal]

...and now of course my mom has COVID....complicated by her cancer I fear for her now as her immune system is really weak.

She sounds like she always does when she has a bad cold, but still.

I told her that if she spikes a fever or has trouble breathing to call 911 and go to the hospital.

I'm terrified for her.

[Mezla PigDog]

Good luck QT. You hear lots of stories about vulnerable people sailing through a bout of covid. Remember that the bad outcomes are the outliers. But of course you don't know for sure anyone will be ok until they are definitely ok. Rationalise the heck out of it to get you through until you know for certain she has a bad case.

[QuickTidal]

Mezla PigDog, on 20 September 2022 - 08:54 PM, said:

Good luck QT. You hear lots of stories about vulnerable people sailing through a bout of covid. Remember that the bad outcomes are the outliers. But of course you don't know for sure anyone will be ok until they are definitely ok. Rationalise the heck out of it to get you through until you know for certain she has a bad case.

Thanks Mez. It means a lot.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'COVID raises risk of long-term brain injury, large U.S. study finds

[...] Those who had COVID were 80% more likely to have seizures, 43% more likely to have mental health issues, such as anxiety or depression, 35% more likely to have headaches and 42% more likely to suffer movement disorders, such as tremors, compared with the control groups.'

COVID raises risk of long-term brain injury, large U.S. study finds

'even among those who were not hospitalized during the acute phase of COVID-19'

Long-term neurologic outcomes of COVID-19




'cerebrovascular disorders (ischemic stroke, TIA, hemorrhagic stroke, and cerebral venous thrombosis), cognition and memory (memory problems and Alzheimer’s disease), disorders of the peripheral nerves (peripheral neuropathy, paresthesia, dysautonomia, and Bell’s palsy), episodic disorders (migraine, epilepsy and seizures, and headache disorders), extrapyramidal and movement disorders (abnormal involuntary movements, tremor, Parkinson-like disease, dystonia, myoclonus), mental health disorders (major depressive disorders, stress and adjustment disorders, anxiety disorders, and psychotic disorders), musculoskeletal disorders (joint pain, myalgia, and myopathy), sensory disorders (Hearing abnormalities or tinnitus, vision abnormalities, loss of smell, and loss of taste), other neurologic or related disorders (dizziness, somnolence, Guillain-Barré syndrome, encephalitis or encephalopathy and transverse myelitis), and any neurologic outcome'

Risks and 12-month burdens of incident postacute COVID-19 composite neurologic outcomes by care setting of the acute infection compared with the historical control cohort

[worry]

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

In Science:

'Big COVID-19 waves may be coming, new Omicron strains suggest

Emerging subvariants have hit on a combination of mutations that makes them more immune evasive than ever

[...] Despite their different origins, several of the new strains have chanced upon a similar combination of mutations to help scale the wall of immunity—a striking example of convergent evolution. They all have changes at half a dozen key points in the viral genome that influence how well neutralizing antibodies from vaccination or previous infection bind to the virus[...]

[...] infections with the variants trigger proportionally more of the wrong types of antibodies—those that bind tightly to the virus but don’t blunt its ability to infect cells. [...] “The scale of immune evasion has never been seen before, and the virus is still rapidly evolving,” [...] “It’s very bad.”

[...] “I think we’re going to learn a lot this winter.”'

Big COVID-19 waves may be coming, new Omicron strains suggest

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

This new drug could end the pandemic:

'NMT5, described in Nature Chemical Biology [...] when the virus is near, its path into human cells via the ACE2 receptor is blocked; in the absence of the virus, however, ACE2 can function as usual.

[...] "We're arming it with little molecular warheads that end up preventing it from infecting our cells; it's our revenge on the virus."

[...] In cell culture experiments testing how well the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 can attach to human ACE2 receptors, the drug prevented 95% of viral binding. In hamsters with COVID-19, NMT5 decreased virus levels by 100-fold, eliminated blood vessel damage in the animals' lungs, and ameliorated inflammation. The drug also showed effectiveness against nearly a dozen other variants of COVID-19, including alpha, beta, gamma and delta strains.

[...] "We expect this compound would continue to be effective even as new variants emerge, because it doesn't rely on attacking parts of the virus that commonly mutate,"'

New drug has potential to turn SARS-CoV-2 virus against itself

But as with other new COVID-19 drug possibilities...

'Don't hold your breath. [...] Drugs get developed and approved fastest when there's strong government support behind them. [...] But that support has been dropping as much of the public, and many of their leaders, move on from COVID. [...] Two years ago, a new [...] drug might have been a no-brainer. Today it's a heavier lift. If a company takes a strong interest, a [...] therapy could go before federal regulators in a year or two.'

Scientists Identify Molecule That Can Kill COVID With 'Hugs' — but There's a Catch

... but if BA.2.75.2's ability to evade immunity from vaccines and infection with prior variants does cause a devastating late fall/winter surge, perhaps it will spur government support for the development and testing of these drugs (and intra-nasal and pan-coronavirus vaccines)....

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 30 September 2022 - 03:35 PM

[Cyphon]

Is there any set of reusable masks that are sufficient to protect you these days that are publicly available?

Conscious that they say the fabric ones are no good, and I don't like the disposable nature of the surgical masks.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Cyphon, on 01 October 2022 - 04:20 PM, said:

Is there any set of reusable masks that are sufficient to protect you these days that are publicly available?

Conscious that they say the fabric ones are no good, and I don't like the disposable nature of the surgical masks.

Elastomeric P100 masks:

Amazon.com: GVS SPR457 Elipse P100 Dust Half Mask Respirator with replaceable and reusable filters included, blue, m/l size

A Clunky, Reusable Mask May Be the Answer to N95 Waste - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Even with the valve, elastomeric P100 masks provide other people with protection similar to that of a surgical mask, while providing you with better protection than an N95 mask (provided it fits well enough---but elastomeric masks adapt more to the contours of your face, so they're more likely to fit; make sure your glasses don't fog up).

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

I may have been wrong about a gigantic BA.2.75.2 surge in the US this fall/winter---because new subvariants are even more immune evasive than BA.2.75.2... making a huge fall/winter surge even more likely:

'XBB is currently the most antibody-evasive strain tested, and BR.2, BM.1.1.1, CA.1 are more immune evasive than BA.2.75.2 and BQ.1.1.'

Yunlong Richard Cao on Twitter


'"The degree of immune escape and evasion is amazing right now, crazy," [...] Cao[...] told Nature [...] previous infections by BA.5 and antibody drugs, including Evusheld and Bebtelovimab, aren't enough to stop a BQ.1 infection.'

'BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are both spreading extremely fast in parts of Europe. [...] the number of BQ.1.1 infections has been doubling every week. That kind of exponential growth is sure to drive the variant to becoming dominant globally in short order.'

'XBB [...] combines two different omicron lineages (BJ.1 and BM.1.1.1) to make something so good at evading immunity (either from previous infections or vaccines) that it's close to SARS-CoV-1' '(known then simply as "SARS") that caused an outbreak in 2003. This could make the new vaccines relatively useless (but still better than nothing.)'

'Not only are variants changing, so are the symptoms. Recent reports from the U.K. suggest that a sore throat is now the dominant symptom of COVID infection, rather than fever or loss of smell.

"Fever and loss of smell are really rare now — so many old people may not think they've got COVID,"[...] "They'd say it's a cold and not be tested."'

Rising cases of variants BQ.1 and XBB could make COVID drugs all but useless, study finds

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 05 October 2022 - 05:50 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Strokes, heart attacks, sudden deaths: Does America understand the long-term risks of catching COVID?

A 35-year-old acquaintance drops dead from a hemorrhagic stroke. A friend in her 40s, and another in his 70s, experience recurrent spells of extreme dizziness, their hearts pounding in their chests when they stand. A 21-year-old student with no prior medical history is admitted to the ICU with heart failure, while a 48-year-old avid tennis player, previously healthy, suddenly suffers a heart attack. A relative is diagnosed with pericarditis, an inflammation of the protective sac surrounding the heart.

[...] A large international study [...] documented an increased incidence of ischemic strokes in young patients compared to pre-pandemic levels. More than a third were under the age of 55, and many lacked typical risk factors such as smoking, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

[...] Significantly, the risk of some of these complications is stronger in younger adults. At the other end of the spectrum, a huge study found that COVID-19 increased the risk of developing Alzheimer’s in those 65 and older by 50% to 80%–and that was in people with no previous diagnosis.

[...] A study that included data from over a million pediatric patients found that adolescents ages 18 and younger had a 72% increased risk of developing Type 1 diabetes in the six months following their COVID infection. That risk isn’t limited to children; it’s being seen in adults, too.

[...] estimates that 8% to 12% of vaccinated people with breakthrough infections may die due to long COVID.'

Strokes, heart attacks, sudden death: Does America understand the long-term risks of catching COVID?

[worry]

Dig in, Azath.

[QuickTidal]

Wife and I got our 4th booster today. Hopefully that will do us for the fall and winter season.

Mom got Covid AGAIN, right at Thanksgiving (the REAL thanksgiving) so we didn’t get to see her sadly. Only mild symptoms she said, so that’s good. I worried with her cancer making her body weaker.

[Tsundoku]

"Real" Thanksgiving? Do Canucks do Thanksgiving?

Anything I know about it is due to the plethora of "comedies" showing how dysfunctional families shouldn't get together. Ever.

All I know is it's something to do with early colonists, native Americans, turkeys and cranberry sauce. And lots of alcohol and angry shouing.

[Tiste Simeon]

Tsundoku, on 10 October 2022 - 06:03 AM, said:

"Real" Thanksgiving? Do Canucks do Thanksgiving?

Anything I know about it is due to the plethora of "comedies" showing how dysfunctional families shouldn't get together. Ever.

All I know is it's something to do with early colonists, native Americans, turkeys and cranberry sauce. And lots of alcohol and angry shouing.

Ooh don't forget genocide!

[QuickTidal]

Tsundoku, on 10 October 2022 - 06:03 AM, said:

"Real" Thanksgiving? Do Canucks do Thanksgiving?

Anything I know about it is due to the plethora of "comedies" showing how dysfunctional families shouldn't get together. Ever.

All I know is it's something to do with early colonists, native Americans, turkeys and cranberry sauce. And lots of alcohol and angry shouing.

Ours is from explorer Martin Frobisher…he’s gone to find the northwest passage, failed to find it but got his crew home after getting lost. So they had a grand meal to give thanks to surviving the trip.

And ours comes from 1578, so it was first when compared to the American one that was like 50 years later.

[QuickTidal]

Oh no Mathangi...no....(anyone thinking this was a one off, nope, she doubled down in the next tweet....jeezus)

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Number of downloads: 1

[worry]