By Molly Smith – Loma Linda University Health
Danilo Vitorovic, MD, a neurologist at Loma Linda University Health, supports claims that severe COVID-19 may age the brain by decades.
Brain fog, anxiety, and sleep disturbances are some long-haul COVID-19 symptoms, but recent studies have found that severe COVID-19 can cause lasting cognitive and mental health problems. Vitorovic says it’s important to understand that the virus is not in the brain, but instead, the brain is reaping the consequences of severe COVID-19-associated whole-body inflammation.
It’s quite devastating to see these effects on the younger population.
Danilo Vitorovic, MD
The brain aging process is driven at the cellular level by molecular changes that slowly accumulates with age.. The changes are associated with increased inflammation, the tendency of neurons to die, and decreased ability to form new connections between neurons in the brain. Although cells possess mechanisms to repair or remove damage, they are not 100% efficient, and their efficiency declines with age. The detrimental effects of severe COVID-19 infection can induce the same molecular signatures of the natural aging process in the frontal cortex and on cognitive function.
