How does coronavirus affect the brain?

!--webeditor:page title" -- July 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The COVID-19 pandemic has been going on for six months, and we are still learning about the power of the diseasenow have detailed reports showing that people with relatively mild lung disease, those at critical risk, and those recovering have developed brain diseaseone of the key things we see is that the severity of lung disease is not always related to the severity of neurological diseaseonly mild lung disease does not prevent potentially serious complicationsWhen it comes to the brain and nerves, the virus appears to have four main effects: a chaotic state (called delirium or encephalopathy), sometimes accompanied by mental illness and memory disorders, and inflammation of the brain (called encephalitis)one of these manifestations is inflammatory injury, i.eacute diffuse encephalomyelitis (ADEM), and the effects of low oxygen in the brain; thrombosis, which causes stroke (including young patients); and potential damage to the body's nerves, leading to pain and numbness (such as post-infection Glyn-Bali syndrome, in which your body's immune system attacks your nerves)so far, patterns of these effects have been similar around the worldsome of these diseases are fatal, and for survivors, many have long-term consequencesthis raises an important question: is COVID-19 associated with a massive brain disease epidemic, as was the case with the 1918 influenza pandemic (which, certainly, is uncertain) and the sleeping encephalitis epidemic that lasted until the 1930s? It's hard to say yet, but here's what we know so far about the effects of viruses on the brainPicture Source: What happened to ni-what?? First, some PATIENTS WITH COVID-19 EXPERIENCE CONFUSION AND LOSS OF DIRECTIONthankfully, in many cases, it's short-livedwe still don't know the long-term effects of delirium caused by COVID-19, or whether it can cause long-term memory problems or even dementia in some peopledelirium studies have focused on older people, where it is associated with an accelerated decline in cognitive ability that exceeds the expectations of people already with dementiathe virus can also directly infect the brainHowever, most of the physical effects we see in survivors look like the secondary effects of viruses appearing in the brain, rather than direct infectionsfor example, our immune system can properly fight the virus, but may start attacking our own cells -- including our brain cells and nerves this may be through the role of immune cells and antibodies, through an inflammatory mechanism called cytokine storms, or through mechanisms we don't yet know about some COVID-19 patients suffer from ischemic stroke, where blood clots block blood and oxygen flowing to the brain some of these patients have risk factors for stroke (such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or obesity) this appears to be because the blood in PATIENTs with COVID-19 rapidly thickens, and in these patients, there are multiple blood clots in the arteries that supply blood to the brain, even in patients who have received blood thinners In other cases, , brain haemorrhage due to weak blood vessels, possibly due to the effects of the virus when coronavirus infection is associated with inflammation or damage to the nerve endings themselves, patients may experience burning sensations, numbness, and weakness and paralysis it is often difficult to know whether these are the effects of serious diseases on the nerves themselves, or whether the brain and spine are affected all these effects on the brain and nervous system have the potential for long-term damage to the human body But before we can accurately predict any long-term effects, we need to know more about what happens to people's nervous systems to learn more, one way to use brain imaging techniques, such as MRI, to see what's inside a patient's brain brain imaging has so far revealed a pattern of previously unseen discoveries, but it's still too early to use it in this pandemic in a study, patterns found included signs of inflammation and small spots of bleeding, usually in the deepest part of the brain some of the found similar to divers or plateau reactions in the brains of some PATIENTs with COVID-19, they may represent severe hypoxia so far, brain imaging and autopsy studies have been limited on people who died from COVID-19 1918 flu pandemic could kill 50-100 million people - one in 50, three to six times as many as the world war however, it has disappeared from our collective memory few mention that the epidemic is associated with an outbreak of brain disease, sleeping sickness encephalitis and sleeping sickness were associated with flu outbreaks in the 1580s and 1890s but the sleepy encephalitis of the 20th century began in 1915, before the flu pandemic and continued into the 1930s, so the direct link between the two is still hard to prove photo source: An autopsy of the deceased showed an inflammation of their brain parts, the brain stem patients with movement-related damage were locked in the body for decades and were inactive (post-cerebral paraplegic) and only "waked up" in the 1960s after Oliver Sacks was treated with a de-rotationdopa, a naturally occurring chemical in the body it is too early to tell whether a similar outbreak will occur in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, although early reports suggest that the characteristics of encephalitis in COVID-19 are similar to those of narcolepsy encephalitis the consequences of this global event have many lessons for us in our COVID-19 era one of them is that with the spread of the virus, we may see widespread brain damage but importantly, it is also a reminder of the political and social impact of a pandemic and the need to help vulnerable people who are sick COVID-19 has exposed differences in access to health care people will still judge society by how to protect and treat the people most at risk from the virus and how to maintain its health consequences this will include patients with neurological disorders caused by COVID-19 (!--/ewebeditor: page- !--ewebeditor: page title"-source: Coronavirus affects the brain-posts of the ischaemic stroke-stroke-with COVID-19 Brain BRAIN-MRI Findings in COVid-19: A-Observation The Extreme Mortality Risk in Young Adults The Origin of "Awakenings" The emerging spectrum of the covid-19y: clinical, radioc and laboratory findings !--/ewebeditor: page.