Becoming a covid could age your 5 -year -old body, shocking research discoveries
Vascular aging increases the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Five and a half years after the Pandemic COVID-19 has rolled up in the United States, scientists make significant breakthroughs in understanding the long-term implications of the virus. More recently, the researchers shared that they thought they had identified the first "quantifiable" Biomarker of Long Cavid . This could transform the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. And now, another team of researchers has announced a discovery that an infection covid could actually age your blood vessels up to five years, especially for women who have fallen sick.
In relation: Scientists find a shocking link between Covid and Alzheimer .
What happens when the blood vessels "age"?
As a 2006 study published in the Third cycle medical journal Explains that the aging of blood vessels is known as vascular aging.
When this happens, the walls of the arteries (the blood vessels which transport blood from the heart to the rest of the body) become more rigid and less flexible, which makes the flow of blood more difficult. This, in turn, increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (including heart attack and strokes), high blood pressure, diabetes or kidney failure.
What is the link between cocvid aging and vascular aging?
A new study published in the European Heart Journal Concluded that an infection coded, especially in women, can lead to aging blood vessels around five years.
To achieve their results, the researchers analyzed the health data of 2,390 people from 16 different countries who were invited to participate between September 2020 and February 2022. They were divided into four groups:
- Never had coche
- Had cochered but were not hospitalized
- Had cochered and was generally hospitalized
- Had a cochered and was hospitalized in an intensive care unit (USI)
The researchers then evaluated the vascular age of each participant six and 12 months after an infection covid. As the press release explains, they did it using a device "which measures the speed with which a wave of blood pressure moves between the carotid artery (in the neck) and the femoral arteries (in the legs), a measure called carotid-femoral pulse velocity (PWV) is high. More this measure.
After adjusting demographic and health factors, the team concluded the following:
- Women with mild covid cases had an increase in PWV of 0.55 meters per second
- The women hospitalized with COVVID had an increase in PWV of 0.60 meters per second
- Women admitted to intensive care with COVID had an increase in PWV of 1.09 meters per second
To put all this in perspective, the researchers explain that an increase in PWV of approximately 0.5 meters per second is "clinically relevant" and equivalent to aging about five years. In a 60 -year -old woman, this increases the risk of cardiovascular disease by 3%.
It should be noted that vascular aging was less pronounced in those who had been vaccinated against Covid.
In relation: These common drugs can help spread to the spread of your body, say scientists .
How can your blood vessels old age?
As of how The virus cocodes is aging your blood vessels, researchers have theories.
"The COVVI-19 virus acts on specific receptors in the body, called enzyme 2 receptors for angiotensin conversion, which are present on the mucosa of blood vessels", explains the main study author Rosa Maria Bruno , MD, PHD, professor at Paris Cité University, France. "The virus uses these receivers to enter and infect cells.
Bruno also addresses the fact that women have experienced greater vascular aging: “Women are riding a faster and robust immune response, which can protect them from infection. However, this same response may also increase damage to blood vessels after initial infection. ”
She and her team will continue to monitor participants in the study to better understand how their vascular aging progresses in the coming years.
"Vascular aging is easy to measure and can be discussed with widely available treatments, such as lifestyle changes, counterfeit drugs and anti-cholesterol drugs," concludes Bruno. "For people with accelerated vascular aging, it is important to do everything possible to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes."
