People with brain fog long covid suffer from life-threatening conditions for which they are given toxic drugs or radiation. In contrast, many people with covid brain fog describe themselves as previously healthy people who have only contracted a relatively mild cold that feels like a cold.

In cancer patients undergoing treatment, these same cells, known as microglia, malfunction and are believed to be responsible for the blurred thinking that many describe. The scientists also speculate that in Alzheimer's disease, these cells may be hampered, making it difficult for them to counteract the cellular wear and tear caused by aging.

Monje's project is part of a significant and growing body of research showing that the mechanisms of cognitive change after COVID-19 have similarities to other long-studied brain conditions, including "chemobrain," Alzheimer's and Other postviral syndromes after influenza infection, Epstein-Barr, HIV or Ebola virus.

Before COVID-19, much medical research on the brain was bogged down by the disease. But during the pandemic, as different scientists joined forces to understand a complex, multi-organ disease, commonalities between these diseases began to emerge.

Understanding these similarities could provide a "real basis" for Long coexisting research fields. She is optimistic that some of the symptoms people experience post-covid are reversible, and there is already talk of testing drugs in clinical trials to treat "chemo brain" in people with severe covid brain fog.

Most studies are so small and preliminary that they raise more questions than they answer. But they also highlight the potential seriousness of covid-19 in terms of short- and Long brain effects, and offer hope that treatments that reverse or reduce these effects can be developed more quickly.

The most complex object in the known universe, the human brain is a roughly three-pound jelly-like mass made up of hundreds of billions of cells, connected in trillions of ways that we barely understand. Researchers are still in the early stages of defining post covid brain fog, with some describing a maddening feeling of sluggish thinking and confusion after infection, but a study published this month provides an overview of the biological changes so far following coronavirus infection. strongest evidence.

Gwenaëlle Douaud, a scientist at Oxford University's Wellcome Center for Integrative Neuroimaging, who led the study, said in an interview that she was "very surprised to see such a clear effect" on the pattern of damage, given that almost everyone has experienced it. disease. It is unclear what these biological changes might mean for a person's functioning, and whether they are temporary or Long.

In the long covid care center, we can learn more about the impact of the long covid brain fog on patients. A large proportion of Long COVID-19 symptoms are associated with neurologic symptoms, and some medical communities have used the colloquial term "brain fog" to facilitate a unified classification and description of brain-related post-COVID-19 symptoms. Brain fog was not previously considered a medical or scientific term, but rather a colloquial description of a state in which people cannot think clearly when they have the flu or other illnesses.

Ordinary people use the fog in the brain to describe problems that occur in ordinary cognition or thinking, such as dizziness, tinnitus, inability to concentrate, memory loss, slow thinking, inability to think sharply without creativity, and difficulty in making plans Wait. During recovery from COVID-19, many patients say they experience brain fog.

According to the figures given in the research report, about 10% of patients infected with COVID-19 will experience Long COVID. Currently, the medical community is accustomed to classifying the brain and neurological symptoms caused by COVID-19 infection as long covid brain damage. According to statistics in the research report, up to 60% of Long COVID patients experience some degree of brain fog.