![]() "Now I can do basic math, addition and subtraction, I can read at a fifth-grade level. "Before this I was working on my master's," she says. "It was embarrassing."Įven so, Hernandez says she's improving - slowly. "We were at dinner and I forgot how to use a fork," she says. More than a year after getting sick, she says, her brain is still foggy. Meanwhile, people like Cassandra Hernandez, the nurse, are simply trying to get better. "If one understands how the immune response to this virus is accelerating disease, we may learn about the impact of other viruses," Seshadri says. Previous research has suggested that exposure to certain viruses, including herpes, can trigger an immune response in the brain that may set the stage for Alzheimer's. Studies of people who have had COVID-19 may help scientists understand the role infections play in Alzheimer's and other brain diseases. It may take a decade to know whether these people are more likely than uninfected people to develop Alzheimer's in their 60s and 70s, Seshadri says. alone, millions of people have developed persistent cognitive or mood problems after getting COVID-19. "Even if the effect is small, it's something we're going to have to factor in because the population is quite large," she says. ![]() ![]() The possibility that COVID-19 might increase the risk of Alzheimer's is alarming, Seshadri says. Sudha Seshadri, founding director of the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio. But the true answer is we don't know."Īnother scientist who will present research at the Alzheimer's conference is Dr. "And the expectation is that it may behave as Alzheimer's behaves, in a progressive fashion. "Those people look really bad right now," de Erausquin says. Short Wave How COVID-19 Affects The Brain "Persistent lack of smell, it's associated with brain changes not just in the olfactory bulb but those places that are connected one way or another to the smell sense," he says. A loss of smell can signal troubleĪnd de Erausquin and his colleagues have noticed that mental problems seem to be more common in COVID-19 patients who lose their sense of smell, perhaps because the disease has affected a brain area called the olfactory bulb. Gabriel de Erausquin, a professor of neurology at UT Health San Antonio. And genetic studies are finding that some of the same genes that increase a person's risk for getting severe COVID-19 also increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's.Īlzheimer's diagnoses also appear to be more common in patients in their 60s and 70s who have had severe COVID-19, says Dr. What scientists have found so far is concerning.įor example, PET scans taken before and after a person develops COVID-19 suggest that the infection can cause changes that overlap those seen in Alzheimer's. The San Antonio researchers are among the teams of scientists from around the world who will present their findings on how COVID-19 affects the brain at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference, which begins Monday in Denver. Now, researchers at UT Health San Antonio are studying patients like Hernandez, trying to understand why their cognitive problems persist and whether their brains have been changed in ways that elevate the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's researchers sharing findings on COVID-19 "I would literally fall asleep if I was having a conversation or doing anything that involved my brain," she says. Hernandez would go on to spend two weeks in the hospital and months at home disabled by symptoms including tremors, extreme fatigue and problems with memory and thinking. The loss of taste and smell can be an early sign that COVID-19 is affecting a brain area that helps us sense odors. ![]() "I went home after working a 12-hour shift and sat down to eat a pint of ice cream with my husband and I couldn't taste it," she says. Then, in June 2020, COVID-19 struck Hernandez and several others in her unit at a large hospital in San Antonio. "I work with surgeons and my memory was sharp." Doctors are now investigating whether people with lingering cognitive symptoms may be at risk for dementia.īefore she got COVID-19, Cassandra Hernandez, 38, was in great shape - both physically and mentally. Medical staff members check on a patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston last November. ![]()
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