COVID-19 Irreversible Effect: Your Brain May Be Impaired After Even the Mildest Forms of the Virus

In dozens of studies, the brain has recently been shown to be impaired in even the mildest forms of COVID-19 illness.

A The Sun report said that survivors of COVID-19 have been cautioned that the virus could irreversibly harm the major organ. "Identified as "brain fog," or difficulty concentrating and memory problems, have all been reported with some encouraging research proposing most people are seeing improvements from six to nine months.

This new study by the University of Oxford researchers looked t people in the United Kingdom over 50 who had a mild COVID-19 case.

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(Photo: ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP via Getty Images)
As a COVID-19 effect, a person's brain may be damaged after even the mildest forms of infection.

Impacts of COVID-19 on the Brain

All 785 study volunteers were in the UK Biobank, a large database for medical studies, and had two brain scans at 38 months intervals.

A total of 401 participants had tested positive for COVID-19 in-between two scans. The study showed a number of impacts on the brain, on average four-and-a-half months after infection.

Survivors of COVID-19 had a greater decline in grey matter thickness and tissue impairment in areas of the brain linked to smell. They have a decrease in the entire brain size and, following the performance of a series of tests, exhibited a decline in cognitive function. The impacts ranged between 0.2 and 2 percent additional change compared with the volunteers who had not been infected.

Link to Abnormalities

The study's lead author, Professor Gwenaelle Douaud, said, despite the COVID-19 infection, being mild for 96 percent of the participants, greater loss of grey matter volume was seen and greater tissue impairment in the infected volunteers.

They showed a greater decline in their mental abilities to carry out complex tasks, and this mental worsening was in part linked to such brain abnormalities.

All these adverse effects were more marked in older years. A key question for future brain imaging research is whether this brain tissue impairment is resolving over the longer term.

It remains unclear if the impacts on the brain are reversible at this stage. According to Professor Stephen Smith, senior author of the study, having the pre-infection scan helps them differentiate brain changes associated with the infection from the differences "that may have preexisted in their brains."

Primates Examined

This new research, published in the Nature journal, echoes the outcomes of several others. Researchers at Tulane University reported results a week ago based on investigating primates, which are used in research for the likeliness of humans.

As a result, the study authors discovered severe brain swelling and injury associated with reduced blood flow or oxygen to the brain. They found evidence of small bleeds, neuron impairment, and death,  and even primates did not have a severe illness.

Dr. Tracy Fischer, the study's lead investigator, explained that because the subjects did not experience substantial respiratory, no one expected them to have the disease's severity found in the brain.

However, the findings were unique and profound, and the result of the infection is undeniable. Meanwhile, researchers from Imperial College London and Cambridge universities discovered that COVID-19 could cause a significant drop in intelligence, The World News specified in a similar report.

Meanwhile, according to a similar New York Times Post report, researchers - including from Imperial College London and Cambridge universities - found that Covid can cause a "substantial drop" in intelligence.

Related information about COVID-19 and brain damage is shown on BBC News's YouTube video below:

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