It has been more than four years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, yet millions of people continue to suffer long-term effects from the virus. Despite thousands of studies, many clinicians remain unsure of how to evaluate and manage people with long COVID. Long COVID involves the long-term effects of having COVID-19.
It occurs when someone still has coronavirus symptoms or develops new symptoms three months or longer after their initial infection. To better understand long COVID, UC Davis Health critical care and emerging infectious diseases expert Christian Sandrock answered questions about the condition. What have we learned about long COVID in the last few years? The main thing we have learned is long COVID progresses slowly, improving at a glacial pace.
The cause of this disease appears to be related to an imbalance in serotonin levels due to the ongoing replication of COVID-19 virus in the gastrointestinal tract. This drives the neurocognitive symptoms (i.e.
, brain fog , memory loss or mood changes ), and the binding to ACE receptors (a protein on the surface of many cells) causes much of the other cardiovascular symptoms. Most importantly, we have learned that both vaccination and treatment with Paxlovid reduces the likelihood of long COVID. What are the most common symptoms of long COVID? They include: How does long COVID affect the body? We don't know the full effects, but there are some clear issues with lower serotonin, increased coagulability (blood clots) and gen.