During the Thanksgiving weekend, shoppers have ordered trending items from DoorDash and other delivery service apps: potatoes, pie, and cold relief medication. This year, health professionals worry that holiday travel might exacerbate public health concerns. “We’re facing an onslaught of three viruses — Covid, RSV and influenza. All simultaneously. We’re calling this a tripledemic,” infectious disease expert Dr. William Schaffner told NPR.
These fears of a tripledemic are bringing Covid-19 back into public attention. Researchers suggest that the virus can still cause long-term damage to your brain.
Bringing Home Brain Fog For the Holidays
Sandra G. is a middle school teacher, and she contracted Covid-19 after she and her family took a road trip in 2021. A year after Sandra was diagnosed with the virus, she still struggles with symptoms like confusion, distraction, and exhaustion. “I feel like my brain’s aged faster than my body — like my body recovered from the fever and cough, but my brain is still recuperating from Covid,” Sandra explains.
Brain fog can inhibit your memory and your concentration. Researchers from Oxford University found that Covid-19 patients may experience brain fog for up to two years after being diagnosed with the virus.
Sandra is not alone. A study published in Nature Medicine provides further evidence for this worrying connection between brain health and the virus. Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine analyzed the health records for 154,000 veterans. Each of these veterans had tested positive for Covid-19 between 2020 and 2021. These patients had a 7% higher risk of developing a neurological impairment than people who had never been diagnosed with Covid-19.
Memory impairments, seizures, and strokes are some of the most common neurological conditions associated with Covid-19. In fact, the Nature Medicine study indicates that Covid-19 patients are 77% more likely to experience memory problems like brain fog.
Protecting Elders from Covid-19 and its Potential Cognitive Side-Effects
Nearly half of Americans report that they plan to travel during the winter season. Millennials have the most wanderlust this year, and as many as 83% of millennials indicate that they want to travel alongside their parents or grandparents or take a trip to spend time with their aging relatives.
Why do these travel statistics worry epidemiologists? Holiday travelers may expose their elderly loved ones to contagious illnesses.
Older individuals are more likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19. But these hospitalizations can trigger serious cognitive health complications. As many as a third of elderly patients experience hospital delirium. Covid-19 might raise the risk for this dangerous condition.
Since the pandemic began, patients who have developed pneumonia from Covid-19 have been hit especially hard with hospital delirium. During these cases, patients may suddenly dementia-like symptoms: confusion, memory issues, and emotional outbursts or fear. Many cases of hospital delirium clear up when a patient returns to a familiar environment. But elders who get sick from a holiday tripledemic could spend weeks or months in a hospital if they developed pneumonia, organ damage, or COPD as a result of Covid-19.
Unresolved or extended cases of hospital delirium leave their mark. This delirium can accelerate dementia, and elderly patients who have had hospital delirium face shorter lifespans and worse mental functioning than patients who did not experience this delirium.
With the threat of brain fog and hospital delirium, Covid-19 poses a lasting risk to geriatric health.
Safeguarding Your Brain Health
Health professionals continue to study the long-term impacts of Covid-19. Much remains uncertain, like the exact duration and severity of these cognitive and neurological impacts. However, you can take steps to maintain your brain health. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic state that a healthy diet and regular exercise can benefit your entire body, including your brain. You can strengthen your brain by regularly engaging in intellectually-challenging activities like reading, doing puzzles, learning a new language, or practicing an instrument.
If you plan to travel during the winter holidays, you can protect yourself and others from Covid-19 and its potential cognitive impacts. Depending on your doctor’s advice, you might consider getting vaccinated, wearing face masks, and social distancing when possible.
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Published on The Perfect Enemy at https://bit.ly/3Uk2uZp.
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