Long- and Post-Covid: Alzheimer’s Dementia Risk Doubled

Large US study shows corona infections also have long-term neurologic effects

People who present to our practices with the neurological effects of COVID-19 infection also present frequently. A separate term has now been created for this type of long-covid and post-covid disease: Neuro-Covid is the name given to those syndromes that are associated with neurodegenerative symptomatology. The main symptoms are mainly post-viral fatigue, i.e. pathological exhaustion, dyspnea and neurocognitive disorders in the sense of concentration and memory disorders, and also a pronounced physical and mental stress intolerance. However, Alzheimer’s dementia and other forms of dementia can also be the result of a corona infection, as more and more studies are showing. People older than 65 are particularly affected, a large U.S. study has now found:

Elderly people aged 65 and older have a significantly higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease after COVID-19 infection – by 50% to 80%. This is reported by researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, in a new study now published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Large-scale study: 6.2 million health records analyzed

In their study, the researchers:examined anonymous electronic health records of 6.2 million Americans:aged 65 and older who had received medical treatment between February 2020 and May 2021. All of these individuals did not previously suffer from dementia. The researchers then split this population into two groups: one group consisted of individuals who had contracted Corona during this period (400,000 affected individuals), and the other group had not been affected by COVID-19 (5.8 million participants).

The results now show that the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease almost doubles on average (from 0.35% to 0.68%) within one year of Corona infection. According to the study, the risk increases with years of life: From 65 years one must assume now of a approx. double illness risk, with the over 85-year old the increase lies even with 80%.

“Since infection with SARS-CoV2 is associated with central nervous system abnormalities, including inflammation, we wanted to find out if COVID-19 could also lead to increased Alzheimer’s diagnoses in the short term,” said study co-author Prof. Pamela Davis, at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, adding, “”Alzheimer’s disease is a serious and difficult disease that we thought we had some control over by reducing common risk factors such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and physical inactivity.””

New Challenges for Research and Delivery of Effective Therapeutic Interventions

According to Prof. Davis and colleagues, the fear is that the wave of new Alzheimer’s cases will continue to rise substantially. “If this rise in new Alzheimer’s diagnoses continues, it could put further strain on our long-term care resources for this disease for which there is no cure,” Davis said.

Rong Xu, corresponding author of the study, professor of biomedical informatics at the School of Medicine and director of the Center for A.I. in Drug Discovery, said the team now plans to further investigate the effects of COVID-19 on Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders – specifically, which subpopulations may be more susceptible – as well as the potential to repurpose FDA-approved drugs to treat the long-term effects of COVID-19.

Also consider other options – Transcranial Pulse Stimulation as an opportunity

Adding to this, Transcranial Pulse Stimulation (TPS) is poised to become a cardinal opportunity to effectively confront Alzheimer’s dementia. The function and efficacy of the physical shock wave therapy TPS are further substantiated in more and more studies, the increasing treatment case numbers with TPS document its benefit and its – also long-term – support of the regenerative capacity of the Human Brain. Thus, a combination of drug and physical treatment will sooner or later be the constructive way forward in therapy.

Neuro-Covid and Transcranial Pulse Stimulation in the Practices of Prof. Citak

Within the framework of our “off-label” therapy offer (see also: https://www.tps-therapie.de/en/tps-therapy/tps-therapy-indications), we now also treat patients with neuro-covid symptoms, because as a symptomatic form of treatment, TPS, in view of its function and mode of action, is also ideally suited to contribute as a regenerative instrument to finding a way out of the long-covid and post-covid cycle in these diseases.

Please feel free to contact us if you suffer from the consequences of a corona infection in the form of neurodegenerative disorders.

 

Source for study:

“Association of COVID-19 with New-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease” by Pamela Davis et al. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad220717