The World Health Organization (WHO) said that someone who recovered from COVID-19 and still experiences some symptoms could have a post-COVID condition, also referred to as "long COVID."
Although the major area of concern for someone infected with COVID-19 is the respiratory system, doctors found that coronavirus effects could extend beyond it. One of the deadly areas it could affect is the nervous system, in which a wide range of neurological manifestations has been reported, like dysautonomia.
: A Covid-19 pop-up testing sits stands on a Manhattan street on October 26, 2021 in New York City.
About 38 Million Americans With Long COVID Has Dysautonomia
Researchers from Stanford University, Stony Brook University, and Dysautonomia International conducted the most extensive study on autonomic nervous system dysfunction in people with long COVID, Newswires reported.
Dysautonomia International president Lauren Stiles, also a professor at Stony Brook University, said that their study demonstrated that 67% of those with long COVID are developing dysautonomia. That is equivalent to 38 million Americans and millions more worldwide with dysautonomia.
The condition is an umbrella term for autonomic nervous system disorders that cause heart rate and blood pressure regulation problems resulting in lightheadedness, tachycardia, palpitations, fainting, debilitating fatigue, exercise intolerance, headaches, and cognitive dysfunction, and more.
Associate Professor Dr. Mitchell Miglis from Stanford University explains that identifying long COVID dysautonomia is important because the autonomic nervous system plays a crucial role in regulating the immune function, coagulation pathways, inflammation, fatigue, cognition, exercise intolerance, and other factors in long COVID.
The average diagnostic delay of patients with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), the most common form of dysautonomia, before the COVID-19 pandemic was five years. However, the increasing numbers this time and lack of specialists, as well as dysautonomia facility centers in the US, are overwhelming the healthcare system leading them to turn away dysautonomia patients.
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Moderate to Severe Dysautonomia in Long COVID Patients
The recent study titled "Characterization of Autonomic Symptom Burden in Long COVID: A Global Survey of 2,314 Adults"
published to the preprint server medRxiv, showed that the most prevalent symptoms of dysautonomia in long COVID patients were brain fog, exhaustion, shortness of breath, headache, body pains, palpitations, lightheadedness, and tachycardia.
According to News Medical Life Sciences, POTS was the most often reported autonomic condition with a prevalence higher than the expected frequency in the US.
Meanwhile, the most often reported pre-existing illness are depression, anxiety, history of vaping or smoking, environmental food or allergies, hypertension, asthma, autoimmune disease history, and obesity.
The authors did not link the degree of the autonomic nervous system disorder to the severity of COVID-19. That means that even those who experienced mild COVID-19 can experience severe dysautonomia.
In conclusion, the team wrote in their study that the presence of moderate to severe autonomic dysfunction implies that it was frequent among people with long COVID regardless of hospitalization status and severity of acute COVID-19.
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