Researchers have found that contamination with Covid-19 can accelerate the aging of certain organs by three to four years.
As of October 19, 63,031 new positive cases in Covid-19 have been detected in France in the last 24 hours. If Covid-19 causes more or less significant symptoms, the virus might leave traces in the long term. According to a study reported by abc7, the presence of the virus has a lasting impact on the organs. Perhaps more than previously thought.
“You can start thinking of Covid-19 as an aging accelerator. Viral infection accelerates the aging process in people“, warns Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, director of the Center for Clinical Epidemiology at Washington University in Saint Louis (USA) and head of the research and education service at the health system of the veterans of St. Louis.As part of this study, the scientist analyzed the data of millions of people around the world.
Accelerated aging
Thanks to this analysis, the team found that several organs of the human body aged more quickly following contamination with Covid-19. A phenomenon that occurs mainly in hospitalized patients but also in some people who suffer from mild signs of the disease.
“What we’ve seen is that people lose regarding 3-4% of kidney function within a year of getting this infection. This usually happens with aging, three to four years of aging“, says Dr. Al-Aly and added. Further studies are needed to better understand how these effects occur in the long term. Dr. Michael Peluso, specialist in infectious diseases, hypothesizes to explain this phenomenon : “Some of the theories on what can cause long symptoms of Covid-19 include the persistence of the virus, so instead of the virus coming and going – it stays and causes inflammation, autoimmune issues. It causes changes in the microbiome, the good bacteria that are in our body“.
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