bookmark_borderCOVID: Hypertension, Heart-disease Risk Soars

by Daniel Brouse

There have been many documented cases of Sars-Cov-2 causing heart problems including Myocarditis (inflammation of the heart.) Johns Hopkins Medicine says, “Coronavirus infection also affects the inner surfaces of veins and arteries, which can cause blood vessel inflammation, damage to very small vessels and blood clots, all of which can compromise blood flow to the heart or other parts of the body.”

Long term studies have now shown a significant long term risk of heart disease. In the Nature article, Heart-disease risk soars after COVID — even with a mild case, the authors report:

Massive study shows a long-term, substantial rise in risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke, after a SARS-CoV-2 infection.

What’s more, the risk was elevated even for those who were under 65 years of age and lacked risk factors, such as obesity or diabetes.
“It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, it doesn’t matter if you smoked, or you didn’t,” says study co-author Ziyad Al-Aly at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and the chief of research and development for the Veterans Affairs (VA) St. Louis Health Care System. “The risk was there.”

“I am actually surprised by these findings that cardiovascular complications of COVID can last so long,” Hossein Ardehali, a cardiologist at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois.

Data from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai found that deaths from heart attacks rose significantly during pandemic surges. “The dramatic rise in heart attacks during the pandemic has reversed what was a prior decades-long steady improvement in cardiac deaths,” said Yee Hui Yeo, MD, first author of the study. “We are still learning the many ways by which COVID-19 affects the body, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or race.”

Post-COVID individuals should be on the lookout for heart related issues. Studies have shown an increase risk of hypertension. The study Does COVID-19 Cause Hypertension? concluded, “These findings suggest that COVID-19 increases systolic and diastolic BP and may cause new onset hypertension.”

The Journal Nature published the study Long COVID and hypertension-related disorders. “As a sequel to our previous report in 2020 which reviewed the association of COVID-19 and hypertension, we summarize the possible influences of long COVID on hypertension-related organs, including the cardiovascular system, kidney, and endocrine system, as well as the pathophysiological mechanisms associated with the disorders.” The study concludes, “Evidence suggests that long COVID affects the clinical course of hypertension-related disorders, such as CVD, kidney diseases, and endocrine diseases. Studies thus far also indicate that long COVID has greater impacts on older population and women.”

A niacin supplement (nicotinic acid) is recommended to help reduce the severity of long term complications.

ALSO SEE: COVID: Long COVID Update: Living With It

Insulin Reduction, Diabetes, High Cholesterol, Heart Disease and Stroke
COVID, Long-COVID, and Blood Clots

MORE Scientific Research on COVID-19 / SARS-CoV-2

bookmark_borderCOVID, Long-COVID, and Blood Clots

by Daniel Brouse

Originally, COVID-19 was thought to be a respiratory infection. It didn’t take long to discover that SARS-CoV-2 quickly enters the heart, blood stream, and can infect every organ.

Now we know that SARS-CoV-2 causes micro bloodclots that do not necessarily clear the system.

Resta Pretorius, a South African scientist, says, “When we speak about long COVID and microclots, I think we should just step back a second and speak about acute COVID. We have noted – we and others have noted that the vascular system and clotting is not working properly during acute COVID. So the dilemma with long COVID is that the percentage of individuals, up to 30%, never really get over the presence of these clotting abnormalities or physiological abnormalities when they are not infective anymore – so when they get over the normal five to 10 days of acute COVID. So during long COVID, these clots then just continue to be present.”

“Inside the microclots that are present in these individuals’ blood in circulation, there are various entrapped molecules, inflammatory molecules, that actually prevent the breakdown of the microclots. So although the body’s trying very hard to break down these clots with the normal physiological processes, molecules entrapped in the microclots actually prevent it from breaking down.”

“Now, that is a massive issue because if these microclots are in circulation, it damages the vasculature, or your blood vessels, and in that process, prevents the cells to receive enough oxygen, causing then a failure of the coagulation system of oxygen to your cells. And that can be linked to all of the lingering symptoms that have been noted in long COVID.”

The Results of Persistent clotting protein pathology in Long COVID/Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) is accompanied by increased levels of antiplasmin: We show that plasma samples from Long COVID/PASC still contain large anomalous (amyloid) deposits (microclots). We also show that these microclots in both acute COVID-19 and Long COVID/PASC plasma samples are resistant to fibrinolysis (compared to plasma from controls and T2DM), even after trypsinisation. After a second trypsinization, the persistent pellet deposits (microclots) were solubilized. We detected various inflammatory molecules that are substantially increased in both the supernatant and trapped in the solubilized pellet deposits of acute COVID-19 and Long COVID/PASC, versus the equivalent volume of fully digested fluid of the control samples and T2DM. Of particular interest was a substantial increase in α(2)-antiplasmin (α2AP), various fibrinogen chains, as well as Serum Amyloid A (SAA) that were trapped in the solubilized fibrinolytic-resistant pellet deposits.

ALSO SEE: COVID: Heart-disease Risk Soars

COVID-19: Chronic Conditions

MORE Scientific Research on COVID-19 / SARS-CoV-2

bookmark_borderCOVID-19: Chronic Conditions

COVID=19

By Daniel Brouse
help@membrane.com

“I describe it as a bit like somebody throwing a hand grenade into our immune system, that all the populations [of immune cells] are completely topsy turvy and unsettled for years. And, that’s a guess, but we’ve got the technology to look at that in quite a lot of detail,” said Professor Danny Altmann, from the Department of Immunology and Inflammation at Imperial.

In September of 2023, The Lancet Respiratory Medicine reported, “Long-standing multiorgan impairment following SARS-CoV-2 infection has been a major concern for individuals recovering from severe disease and is thought to be caused by a multitude of factors, including direct viral cytotoxicity, chronic inflammation, ischaemic injury, acute reactivation of other viruses, metabolic derangements, and acute treatment effects (especially invasive ventilation). Numerous reports of delayed organ complications such as myocarditis, stroke, and pulmonary emboli have led to speculations that the multiorgan dysfunction caused by COVID-19 might be responsible for impaired recovery and ongoing symptoms in individuals, a condition referred to as long COVID.”

We know COVID causes long term health and wellness impacts, such as:
* Permanent Organ Damage
* Persistent SARS-CoV-2 RNA in multiple organs and throughout the brain
* Destruction of Good Gut Bacteria Resulting in a Compromised Immune System
* Epigenetic Modifications (Changes to DNA)
* Change in Cell Fate
* Tryptophan Deficiency
* Dysfunctional Kynurenine Pathway
* Neurological Damage
* New-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease
* Exertional Intolerance, Oxygen Extraction, Reduced Exercise Capacity
* Down Regulating NAD+
* Up Regulating IDO
* Rogue Antibodies
* Insulin Reduction, Diabetes, High Cholesterol, Heart Disease and Stroke
* Increased Risk of Cancer
* Blood Clots
* Hypertension, Vascular Disorders, Myocarditis and Heart Disease
* Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C)
* Dysregulation of the innate immune system, i.e. “cytokine storm”

It is important to note that the severity of disease in humans is not determined only by virus replication but also by the host immune response to the infection, which may lead to dysregulation of the innate immune system, i.e. “cytokine storm” (Omicron SARS-CoV-2 can infect faster and better)

These are some of the causes of long-COVID symptoms that have been identified. There are likely many more.

Everybody’s response to COVID is unique; however, most people are likely to develop several of these disorders. For instance, the genetic abnormalities were found in 1-3% of the prepandemic population. In the population of COVID survivors, 50-75% of individuals exhibit these genetic abnormalities. Currently, there is no cure for any of these ailments. Another example is the loss of taste and/or smell. In the study UGT2A1/UGT2A2 locus is associated with COVID-19-related loss of smell or taste people that are genetically predisposed to have problems with taste and smell genes are more likely to lose their senses to COVID. Of those people that lose their sense of taste or smell, 20% will not recover their senses.

COVID causes negative feedback loops. COVID appears to cause the most damage to the weakest or most vulnerable parts of the body. If you were predisposed to a condition prior to COVID, you will likely develop the condition after COVID. An example would be people with type II diabetes. If you have diabetes prior to COVID, then you are at high risk of dying from COVID. If you are prediabetic, COVID will likely make you diabetic. If you are not inclined to develop diabetes, COVID will likely increase the probability of developing diabetes. The same holds true with NAD+, IDO, P53 tumor suppression genes, and all the other conditions listed above.

Vaccination is the best method for preventing all of these conditions. Unvaccinated people are 8x’s more likely to contract COVID. Vaccinated people that contract COVID are 50% less likely to develop long-COVID. Get vaccinated; however, vaccination alone is not enough. One should also wear an N95 mask and socially distance.