{"id":425497,"date":"2024-11-27T05:05:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T05:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=425497"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Long-COVID-Brain-Fog-Could-the-Lungs-Hold-Clues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Long-COVID-Brain-Fog-Could-the-Lungs-Hold-Clues\/","title":{"rendered":"Long COVID Brain Fog: Could the Lungs Hold Clues?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><h2><strong>Key Takeaways<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Long COVID \u201cbrain fog\u201d might be caused by lung damage<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>People with brain fog had less gas exchange in the lungs<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>This could mean less oxygen reaching their brains<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>TUESDAY, Nov. 26, 2024 (HealthDay News) &#8212; The \u201cbrain fog\u201d of long COVID might be due to impaired lung function following a person\u2019s infection, a new small-scale study says.<\/p>\n<p>Reduced gas exchange in the lungs \u2013 oxygen coming in, carbon dioxide going out &#8212; appears to be associated with brain fog in long <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthday.com\/a-to-z-health\/public-health\/covid-2665435130.html\">COVID<\/a>, researchers will report in Chicago at next week\u2019s annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf these findings can be generalized to the long COVID population, the study suggests that there may be a causative relationship between cognitive dysfunction and lung dysfunction, suggesting a potential treatment strategy using methods that target improved gas exchange,\u201d senior researcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.i-clic.uihc.uiowa.edu\/members\/faculty\/sfain\/\">Sean Fain<\/a>, vice chair for research at the University of Iowa\u2019s Department of Radiology, said in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>For the study, researchers performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans on 10 women and 2 men with long COVID.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was a range of cognitive difficulties among the patients in the study,\u201d lead researcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/keegan-staab-b8698b212\/\">Keegan Staab<\/a>, a graduate research assistant with the University of Iowa, said in a news release. \u201cSome were mild and indicated slight dysfunction, while others were more serious and indicated that some patients have slow thinking and trouble concentrating several times per day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When people breathe, oxygen moves from the lungs into the bloodstream. At the same time, carbon dioxide is removed from the bloodstream and exhaled.<\/p>\n<p>MRI scans revealed that poor lung function was associated not only with brain fog, but also with changes in patients\u2019 brain structure, researchers said.<\/p>\n<p>The scans also found that blood flow to the brain increased in long COVID patients as gas exchange in the lungs decreased, researchers said.<\/p>\n<p>This could mean that the heart must pump more blood into the brain to compensate for carrying less oxygen captured and transferred by the lungs, Staab said.<\/p>\n<p>Based on these findings, researchers said MRI breathing tests might be used to identify people with lung damage that could lead to long COVID.<\/p>\n<p>Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More information<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/covid\/long-term-effects\/index.html?s_cid=SEM.MS:PAI:RG_AO_MS_TM_A18_C-CVD-AfterCOVID-Brd:long%20covid:SEM00039&amp;utm_id=SEM.MS:PAI:RG_AO_MS_TM_A18_C-CVD-AfterCOVID-Brd:long%20covid:SEM00039\">long COVID<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>SOURCE: Radiological Society of North America, news release, Nov. 26, 2024<\/p>\n<p><h2><strong>What This Means For You<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>People with long COVID should talk with their doctor about potential therapies.<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/4475ddefbd20bce975cbf9b571ca473d.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p>pain joint fatigue neck<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways Long COVID \u201cbrain fog\u201d might be caused by lung damage People with brain&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-425497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}