How Covid could affect your brain

Scientists are starting to get a clearer picture of the ways Covid can affect the brain, and often those conditions can last longer than other symptoms.

Covid is largely thought of as an illness that mostly affects your lungs.

But the virus can also spark neurological symptoms, and these are the ones that tend to last longer, The Sun reports.

In what is traditionally a respiratory illness, medics were surprised when people began complaining of headaches, delirium, brain fog and loss of smell or taste at the start of the pandemic.

And in the more seriously ill, things like strokes and blocked blood vessels in the brain were soon being reported.

However, while initial studies show the Omicron variant is milder than other strains, around one in five Covid patients could suffer cerebral vascular events, according to Professor James Goodwin.

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The effects of Covid-19 on the brain are less known than the effect on the lungs and rest of the body. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Dan Peled

He explained in the Telegraph that infections send our immune system into overdrive, and in some people who have a huge viral load, it can cause an uncontrolled response.

Known as a cytokine storm, it is the release of a large amount of inflammatory molecules to the infected area.

It mainly affects the lungs, and can spark acute respiratory distress syndrome, failure and sometimes death.

But it’s not only the lungs that are hit by an immune system in overdrive – other organs such as the heart, liver and kidneys can be damaged due to low oxygen, inflammation and blood clotting.

The brain can also be hit by this, and become injured in the body’s attempt to fight back against the virus.

Prof Goodwin said doctors now know that Covid gets into the brain through tightly sealed blood vessels which surround the organ.

Spikes in the virus grab onto receptors, replicate inside them and then move into the brain.

With the body in panic-mode, an inflammation response tries to defeat the virus by breaking down the blood vessels, causing damage which also impacts the immune system.

One in five Covid patients could suffer with cerebral vascular events, Prof James Goodwin said. Picture: Jalaa Marey/AFP

Seven neurological events caused by Covid

• headaches

• brain fog

• delirium

• strokes

• blood clots

• loss of smell

• hallucinations

After recovering some people can then experience serious neurological, behavioural or psychiatric disorders, due to the (often temporary) scars left in the brain.

These can include hallucinations and hearing sounds that aren’t there, as the brain reconfigures itself after the virus.

And you don’t have to have been struck down terribly badly to experience mild neurological issues or brain fog while recovering from Covid.

In fact, the brain fog is probably quite a common feeling for people emerging back into the world after the illness, even with Omicron.

It is simply from the virus having invaded – or tried to invade – your brain, and the damage done to the cells in the subsequent battle.

However, research shows the cells repair quickly and efficiently, as well as being pretty resilient.

It might just mean a few days, weeks, or months in some unlucky cases, of feeling not quite as sharp as normal, as your brain bounces back.

However if you or a loved one starts to display unusual behaviour or hallucinations, get medical help as soon as possible.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced here with permission