Scientists Offer a New Explanation for Long Covid

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nytimes.com/2023/10/16/heal...

“A team of scientists is proposing a new explanation for some cases of long Covid, based on their findings that serotonin levels were lower in people with the complex condition.

In their study, published on Monday in the journal Cell, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania suggest that serotonin reduction is triggered by remnants of the virus lingering in the gut. Depleted serotonin could especially explain memory problems and some neurological and cognitive symptoms of long Covid, they say.”

Could a similar mechanism with a past virus lead to a deficiency in dopamine?

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another interesting one today.

Skeletons of 1918 Flu Victims Reveal Clues About Who Was Likely to Die

nytimes.com/2023/10/09/heal...

“Doctors of the time reported that, among those in the prime of their lives, good health and youth were no protection: The virus was indiscriminate, killing at least 50 million people, or between 1.3 and 3 percent of the world’s population. Covid, in contrast, killed 0.09 percent of the population.

But a paper published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences challenges that persistent narrative. Using evidence in skeletons of people who died in the 1918 outbreak, researchers reported that people who suffered from chronic diseases or nutritional deficiencies were more than twice as likely to die as those who did not have such conditions, no matter their age.

The 1918 virus did kill young people, but, the paper suggests, it was no exception to the observation that infectious diseases kill frail and sicker people most readily.”

“Dr. Wissler and Dr. DeWitte, who have done similar research on the Black Death, saw a way to test the hypothesis about young people. When people have had lingering illnesses like tuberculosis or cancer, or other stressors like nutritional deficiencies, their shin bones develop tiny bumps.

Assessing frailty by looking for those bumps “is quite legitimate” as a method, said Peter Palese, a flu expert at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.”

Who has bumps on their shins? Perhaps it could also be an indicator that a person is susceptible to eg PD if it indicates an infection or nutritional deficiency?