Covid-19 impact on lymphedema

[Hrush]

Hello everyone, hope you all are doing great! I have a question regarding the latest mess with Covid-19, my lymphedema became worse during the lockdown, I have a doubt that I have experienced the virus, even though I never did the test and will never do. However, I heard that Covid-19 is also influencing the veins functionality and may worsen the situation for those who have lymphedema. Anyone knows or heard anything about this? I appreciate your responses and wish you all good health.

[Lynora]

I haven't read anything about this research - do you have a link?

[Hrush in reply to Lynora]

Unfortunately I have no link and cannot provide with any source with this. This is my personal experience and I was wondering if anyone has had the same worsening scenario with lymphedema due to Covid-19. I wanted to have others opinions on this.

[CCT67 in reply to Lynora]

There is increasing research bearing out the vascular nature of the disease as opposed to it being a respiratory disease. I‘ve responded to Hrush including a link.

Catherine

[CCT67]

Covid is increasingly thought to be a disease of the vascular system due to it causing breakdown of the endothelial cells in the lining of blood vessels. It is no longer thought to be a respiratory disease as initially hypothesised.

There are many scientific research articles that are now being published about this. The medical journal articles contain very scientifically presented information. This article explains it in lay terms.

bhf.org.uk/informationsuppo...

If you want to read the scientific and medical journal articles google ‘Covid and endothelial’

How Covid msy impact on those with Lymphoedema has yet to researched. there is now a new initiative out of Europe looking at the experiences of Lymphoedema patients who have had diagnosed Covid

Catherine x

[Hrush in reply to CCT67]

Thank you so much for your response and God Bless you!

[Perido in reply to CCT67]

Thankyou for this information and the link - this is very interesting. If it's OK to pick your brains a bit more - could you recommend any links for the European initiative you mention?

[bigleg]

From what I understand is that blood glucose/insulin results in poor outcomes if anyone has COVID-19. I put COVID-19 into the search engine of dietdoctor.com web site. These are a few articles that came up with the links:

- BMJ editorial: Endorse low carb for COVID-19 prevention

- Elevated blood sugar increases COVID-19 risk even without a diabetes diagnosis

- Six tips for low-carb COVID-19 preparedness

- Boosting your immune system to fight the coronavirus: what you need to know

- Coronavirus: are you at higher risk of complications?

- Ketones and low carb in the time of Covid-19: Helpful or harmful speculation?

- Coronavirus: are you at higher risk of complications?

There are a number more, but I think these articles explain why high blood sugar/insulin levels do seem to put people at greater risk contracting COVID-19.

My lymphoedema was a result of damage from poor bandaging when a teenager. It requires heavy compression and I am fortunate to have experienced no challenges getting my garments through lockdown . However I started the low carb way of life around 2003, manual lymphatic massage which resulted in significant reduction in fluid and since changing low carb absolutely no issues. Many on this list may have lymphoedema as a result of cancer operations. Cancers are 'sugar junkies' - they require sugar to survive - so the low carb way of life helps keep any cancer cells starved of the fuel they love!! Infections are also more frequent when blood sugar levels are high.

[Hrush in reply to bigleg]

Wow, thank you so much for this valuable information. I appreciate your time for posting this, I took a lot of nice advice from your response. Many many thanks everyone for all your replies, I wish everyone good health and all the best as we keep on and live with lymphedema and Covid-19.

[tea1]

I’m not an expert, but I have seen papers discussing cutaneous manifestations associated with covid-19. It seems to me that having lymphoedema as well as the skin issues they are discussing would increase the likelihood of poorer outcomes. So, personally I’m doing everything I can to try not to catch covid-19. See:

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi... (“Classification of the cutaneous manifestations of COVID ‐19: a rapid prospective nationwide consensus study in Spain with 375 cases”),

jaadcasereports.org/article... (“Reticular skin eruption as the initial sign of coronavirus disease 2019 infection“),

jamanetwork.com/journals/ja... (“Livedoid and Purpuric Skin Eruptions Associated With Coagulopathy in Severe COVID-19”)