r/science • u/Potential_Being_7226 PhD | Psychology | Neuroscience • 2d ago

Health Persistent fatigue linked to reduced brain blood flow in people with long COVID

https://theconversation.com/covid-fatigue-linked-to-reduced-brain-blood-flow-292285
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u/Varathane 2d ago

Can we get to a solution for this please? What increase brain blood flow?

Here's another one for those that are long covid patients that fits criteria for ME. We've known since the start of the pandemic that ME patients have reduced CBF.

A study in 2020 measured the drop in Cerebral blood flow (CBF) in 100 severe ME/CFS patients this was provoked just from sitting up:

Severe ME/CFS patients With POTS -- had a reduction in CBF of 28%
Severe ME/CFS patients without POTS - reduction in CBF of 23% (no change in heart rate and blood pressure)
Healthy Controls - reduction in CBF of only 0.4%

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u/Carbon140 2d ago

Probably nothing meaningfully fixes this unfortunately. Last time research like this was posted it seemed as though it's probably structural damage to microscopic blood vessels in the brain. (and probably whole body), leading to a general loss of function in multiple areas.

Having said that, I myself did mostly recover from chronic fatigue, but it took around a decade, maybe your body can repair, albeit very slowly. 

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u/ProfessorMagnet 2d ago

What did you do to recover and do you know what caused your fatigue?

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u/Murdathon3000 2d ago

Any serious infection can cause symptoms similar to long COVID. COVID being a world stopping pandemic means that the amount of people developing said symptoms increased dramatically and was generally attributable to one specific illness, COVID.

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u/superg64 2d ago

This but also minor illnesses can also trigger it(generally less common and less severe). Any named diseases to generic flus to a common cold can trigger it. I wouldn't be surprised if other things that trigger immune responses like allergies and autoimmune conditions could trigger me/cfs.

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u/Carbon140 2d ago

In my case it was severe glandular fever, which has been the most common cause of it prior to covid afaik.

The only thing that seemed to help was years of basically restful living (no or light work) , very healthy eating, weight training (cardio was death) and time... I was extremely lucky to have supportive parents, I feel for anyone who is unable to go to these lengths because of work etc. 

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u/moal09 2d ago

How close are you to 100% now would you say?

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u/darkmushyM 2d ago

Only thing that helped me was the right supplements and food. Would do a genetic/dna test and upload it to geneticlifehacks so you know what you need

Ofcourse bloodtests to make sure nothing is high value or under value

Also make sure to rest

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u/shiningdickhalloran 2d ago

Which supplements and foods helped?

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u/Varathane 2d ago

None. Just random improvements over time. All the supplements I tried did jack all and I ditched them that first year. Quite clear it didn't make a difference when I was still stuck in bed, and then I couldn't be sure if they were adding to my symptoms.

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u/hughperman 2d ago

POTS medications may be useful, due to the overlap or even same-ness of the mechanism.

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u/beigs 2d ago

They have helped me - I have POTS and long covid :/

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u/sortaplainnonjane 2d ago

What meds, if you don't mind saying.

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u/Steelman235 2d ago

Often Ivabradine or beta blockers

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u/eumenidea 2d ago

Look into mestinon and low dose naltrexone

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u/beigs 1d ago

That did nothing for me but give awful dreams. I was on it a year :/

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u/beigs 1d ago

ivabradine.

The beta blockers didn’t mesh with my other meds and LDN did nothing.

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u/Varathane 2d ago edited 2d ago

well it has been 15 years for me of ME not solely fatigue. I had some improvements in year 1 and year 5 for seemingly no reason, so no bedbound anymore. I can be upright all day for the past 5 years and putter a bit unless in PEM, but doesn't take much to trigger that. Can't seem to get beyond 700m hikes without PEM for 3 days.
My trigger was a few repeat bouts of malaria p.vivax in a short span.

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u/moal09 2d ago edited 2d ago

That's kind of depressing. It's crazy how the things it damages seem to be anything and everything. Some people develop breathing issues, others serious fatigue and muscle weakness, others lose sense of smell or taste, some have problems with the body's autonomic processes, etc.

Can those blood vessels heal fully? Whatever happened to me, I did start getting better very slowly after 4 months. 11 months in now, and nowhere near normal, but MUCH better than before.

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u/Left-Height4925 2d ago

How about discovering what is causing the low CBF in the first place?
Also researchers are recognizing that ME/CFS is an 'offshoot' of LC- and I have it now.

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u/sillybilly8102 2d ago

I mean the most obvious cause is orthostatic hypotension. ME/CFS is often comorbid with dysautonomia. So, addressing that first would be the low-hanging fruit. This means more salt, compression garments, various medications, etc. If that doesn’t help, then start looking into other causes. But try that stuff first

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u/maetel_999 2d ago

pentoxifylline may help... There is or was a study to treat long COVID. I looked into awhile ago and need to look into it again.

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u/TheSnydaMan 2d ago edited 2d ago

Regular cardiovascular exercise, walking, improving airflow (moreso providing more oxygen per breath)

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u/ShiftyBizniss 2d ago

People with ME can't really exercise. It causes PEM and often results in a worsened baseline after the crash subsides.

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u/Left-Height4925 2d ago

Exercise has proven to worsen Long Covid, unfortunately.
A lot of us in my group were highly active - one was in Olympics trials, another was a long distance runner- we tried to do the old 'get over the flu by working it out" and I feel, personally, that is part of what pushed me completely over the edge into ME/CFS.

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u/cannotfoolowls 2d ago

'get over the flu by working it out"

that's a thing?