Recognizing changes in the brain In 1906 psychiatrist and neuroanatomist Alois Alzheimer detailed the results of a brain autopsy on a 55-year-old woman named Auguste D. In the years before her death, she’d progressively lost her connection to reality, becoming an aggressive insomniac beset by increasing paranoia and suspicions about her family. She’d also suffered profound loss of memory. Upon examination, Alzheimer observed that her brain had shrunk dramatically. It was riddled with sticky clumps of plaque, abnormal deposits that nearly 80 years later would become the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. These jumbles of beta-amyloid protein had accumulated between neurons in the brain. We now know that they block electrical signals from reaching other parts of the brain, muscles, and organs. Alzheimer also found tangles of another protein, tau, that also disrupted communication between neurons. As neurons stop functioning and die, the brain shrinks and a person’s behavior becomes more erratic. With fewer neurons in the brain’s learning and memory regions, these functions begin to suffer, Boldrini says. People with Alzheimer’s disease forget where they put things and become disoriented. They become easily upset, confused, angered, belligerent, or lash out at loved ones or caregivers, whom they may not recognize. Damage to the cerebral cortex then impacts language, reasoning, and social behavior; it ultimately spreads and destroys much of the brain. The dementia becomes debilitating, and the disease eventually proves fatal, says Antonio Terracciano, a professor in the department of geriatrics at Florida State University. Alois Alzheimer’s discovery was a milestone in neurological research, linking changes in behavior to changes in the brain. Since Alzheimer’s seminal observations, researchers have recognized that many diseases can spark shifts in personality or mood disorders. Huntington’s, an inherited disease that breaks down neurons in a brain region called the basal ganglia, can cause people to lose their inhibitions or become more impulsive. It’s part of the reason why suicide rates among people with Huntington’s are up to 10 times the national average. In Parkinson's disease, which is likely caused by a combination of genetics and environmental factors, neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine break down or die. Without enough dopamine, the disease’s hallmark tremors appear, and movements become slow. Parkinson’s also lowers levels of a neurotransmitter called serotonin, which regulates mood, appetite, and sleep. These changes in brain chemistry can cause neurological symptoms that frequently manifest years before the tremors begin, says Jeff Bronstein, who directs the Movement Disorders Program at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles. Patients may grow anxious, struggle to concentrate or shift between tasks. About half of patients grow depressed, Bronstein says. He has also seen patients slump into apathy, pulling into themselves. As their speech suffers or they grow forgetful, they avoid conversations with family and friends, becoming more withdrawn as depression deepens. Uncharacteristic irritability or mood swings can also signal Lyme disease. This bacterial infection from a tick bite causes inflammation that can set off swelling of the brain or its lining, inducing short-term memory loss, difficulty focusing, and symptoms such as anxiety and depression. Many viruses are already known to wreak havoc in the brain. Boldrini recounted what happened in the early days of the HIV epidemic, before antiviral medications were available that blocked replication of the pathogen and reduced viral load. “We used to see people who had HIV-AIDS with paranoia, hallucinations, but also cognitive symptoms, memory problems, concentration problems,” Boldrini says. As the viral infection spread through the brain, the membranes of the brain and spinal column swelled, and this AIDS dementia complex worsened. Many of the changes in behavior seen in COVID long-haulers also mirror those from traumatic brain injuries incurred in a car crash, a concussion from a contact sport like football or rugby, or from wartime military service. Damage to the frontal lobes, which sit behind the forehead, can impair executive functioning: organizing, planning, and multitasking. Memory and self-awareness may slip, and patients may not be aware of what they’ve lost. Some head injury survivors lose emotional control, says Boston University’s McKee, including young, previously easy-going people. She’s seen cognitive changes in athletes as young as 17 who play contact sports, and playing football before the age of 12 increases the odds. continued...
The COVID connection One common theme among these conditions is a sustained inflammatory process. It’s been implicated in head injuries and in neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s, where it causes additional loss of brain cells and exacerbates the formation of plaques. When the immune system launches an attack against a virus or another invader, waves of inflammatory cells circulate through the bloodstream like foot soldiers. With COVID-19 and other conditions, those immune cells may permeate the normally protective blood-brain barrier. If inflammation gets out of hand, the process may kill neurons, Bronstein says. Kriegstein notes that “most of the neurological manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infection appear to be the result of indirect effects likely mediated through inflammation or immune responses.” Inflammation also seems to interfere with brain metabolism. Researchers suspect that the process interrupts the flow of serotonin and prompts the body to instead produce a cascade of substances that are toxic to neurons. Boldrini was among the first to examine the brains of humans and research animals who’d died of COVID-19 to see what was happening on a cellular level. Under a microscope, Boldrini and her team examined brain samples stained with brightly colored dyes to characterize different types of cells. They observed changes to the hippocampus, a brain region that is embedded deep in the temporal lobe and plays a major role in learning and memory. She and her team counted about a tenth as many new neurons as are normally present in the hippocampus. “The brain fog made a lot of sense to me when I saw that there is loss of these neurons from COVID,” Boldrini says. The team also found damage to the medulla, which controls respiration and movement. Boldrini notes that they will continue to examine other brain regions for possible damage. Other researchers using brain imaging data from the U.K. recently discovered evidence of tissue damage, a thinner cortex, and loss of gray matter in people who had tested positive for the virus. The authors noted that there was “significantly greater cognitive decline” in patients who had been hospitalized. In addition to causing inflammation, the virus may be able to directly infect brain cells. “We discovered evidence that certain cells within the brain are capable of being infected with SARS-CoV-2, where the virus can replicate and infect other cell types,” says Joseph G. Gleeson, a neurologist at the University of California, San Diego. Other researchers have found that key support cells in the brain called astrocytes were the main cell types vulnerable to infection, says Madeline Andrews, a postdoctoral neuroscience scholar at the University of California, San Francisco. These star-shaped cells, abundant in the brain and spinal cord, regulate how neurons communicate, ensure that the barrier between the brain and the rest of the body is intact, and more. “Infected astrocytes may function differently and might not be able to maintain their typical roles in healthy brain homeostasis,” says Andrews. The virus that causes COVID-19 may also reduce blood flow to neurons by constricting capillaries—tiny blood vessels—or by interfering with their function. This may explain why the virus induces strokes: by starving the brain of oxygen. “The brain is very delicate, and alterations to blood flow or cellular health can lead to permanent changes to brain function,” Gleeson says. Many questions remain, though, including how to prevent the virus from causing significant cognitive damage. The key, Boldrini says, is to not let the immune system fight too long or too aggressively. Various treatments are being used to prevent the immune system from overreacting. Remdesivir, an intravenous antiviral treatment is approved for hospitalized patients; two new oral antivirals, Merck’s molnupiravir andPfizer's Paxlovid, have been shown to reduce hospitalizations and death in patients at risk of serious illness. These drugs prevent the virus from reproducing, which may prevent an overactive immune response. Other drugs are used specifically to modulate the response: corticosteroids, Interleukin-6 inhibitors, and Janus kinase inhibitors. Understanding how COVID-19 affects the brain may have far broader implications. Boldrini has preserved a few dozen brains from patients who died of the virus. By comparing tissues from patients who had experienced neurological symptoms with those who hadn’t, she hopes to shed light on the role of inflammation in a wide swath of neurodegenerative diseases. “As devastating as this disease is,” she says, “maybe it will help us better understand how the brain works.”
That's cute and all but so many of the politicians mocking the hospitalizations of their own base have been vaxxed and boosted, like rubio. It's so f''ing pathetic and disturbing that the party of 'life' just doesn't give a damn other than to keep trolling while of course being protected against it.
There have been a ton of reports on brain and nerve involvement. Keeping yourself in top shape metabolically and mentally is really important to combat covid. It's why I think as part of this pandemic we should ban all alcohol consumption.
The US isn't alone in these things. https://metro.co.uk/2021/12/30/robi...omist-who-refused-jab-dies-of-covid-15839651/ Vaccine sceptic economist dies of Covid after refusing jab A Dutch economist who spread misinformation about Covid vaccines while refusing to get jabbed has died from the virus aged 53. Robin Fransman revealed on December 3 he had tested positive and succumbed to coronavirus in Amsterdam’s OLVG hospital on Tuesday, local media reported. Fransman, a former banker and member of the Dutch financial regulator who rose to prominence as an anti-austerity commentator, founded Herstel-NL, a controversial organisation lobbying against lockdown, in April 2020. The group argued instead for keeping clinically vulnerable people confined in designated ‘safe zones’ while others gained natural immunity, prompting several well-known supporters to cut ties with the 53-year-old. Using his growing social media presence,he became an outspoken vaccine-sceptic, as well as denouncing Long Covid as a myth and claiming restrictions were a deliberate tool of social control. He said it was ‘fine for vulnerable people’ to get vaccinated and had advised his elderly parents to do so, but refused to get a jab himself. He claimed jabs carry an ‘unknown risk’, rejecting findings that they carry an extremely low risk of serious side effects from independently-assessed vaccine trials bolstered by post-vaccine studies evaluating millions of recipients around the world. Fransman also shared posts comparing coronavirus restrictions to ‘concentration camps’ and ‘segregation’ in Nazi Germany. Announcing his diagnosis to his 12,000 Twitter followers, he said it was ‘about time’ he caught the virus. Fransman’s tweet about his unvaccinated status proved to be he last, and was written exactly a month before his death. A healthcare worker commented: ‘How intensely sad and unnecessary. Strength to those surviving him. Another user wrote: ‘Unnecessary certainly, but a personal choice; by not wanting to vaccinate, it may be a lesson for others. And he’s not the first to rely on his natural immunity.’ Figures from the Netherlands’ economics community paid tribute to Fransman as an ‘inspiring thinker’ on money matters whose work on welfare had been discussed by ministers. Jasper Lukkezen, editor-in-chief of economists magazine ESB, said: ‘He tackled topics in an inspired and creative way, with a combination of figures and research-based arguments.’ Kees Vendrik, chief economist of Triodos Bank, wrote: ‘For more than ten years, Robin, a gentle man and razor-sharp economist, participated with dedication in our discussions about the major issues of our time. ‘Liberal, progressive and radical. We will miss his unique voice.’
It's interesting how Commodore is skeptical of thousands of scientists around the world who have spent their lives trying to fight infectious disease, but is not at all skeptical of Joe Rogan or a guy who lies about inventing mRNA and has been caught lying many other times. And as you said, now suddenly believes capitalism is not the ideal form of health care.
Biden should Trump him and say, "Screw you guys, states should have been better prepared. You're spending all that money illegally executing immigration policy on your own anyways. Now kiss my ass before the national government gives you anything." For real, Biden needs more spite. It's easier to relate to people with an unhealthy amount of spite.
It's all cries of socialism when Democrats want to fund those in need or provide free healthcare, but the moment those same Republicans need help they stick their bloody hands out for support.
