It’s been more than two and a half years since the COVID-19 pandemic started and during this time, scientists have gathered enough data to prove human organs may experience a dramatic change after being infected by the virus.
The Director of the Clinical Epidemiology Center from Washington University, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly says that:
“You can start thinking about getting COVID-19 as almost as an accelerant to aging. This viral infection accelerates the aging process in people.”
The data was gathered from millions of American citizens all over the country, the studies on kidney, brain and heart outcomes after infection with long COVID, all presenting similar patterns.
More precisely, the results seem to show that organs age faster after infection with COVID.
Dr. Al-Aly explains that “Almost by 3 to 4 years in the span of just one. What we have seen is that people are losing about 3 to 4 percent kidney function in the year that follows that infection. That usually happens with aging. 3 to 4 years of aging.”
Infectious disease specialist at UCSF, Dr. Michael Peluso, who was not involved in the research, states that “Dr. Al-Aly group has been very important in trying to frame this issues of what people experience after they get COVID. Particularly all the effects on the organ system after someone has COVID. Now, what we’re trying to do is figure out what is the biology of what causes these long term effects.”
Dr. Peluso’s team was one of the very first in the U.S. that started to research long COVID way back in April of 2020.
At this point, many people just view COVID-19 like the common cold since it’s become so standard but this new data suggests the effects are much more concerning.
So why are organs experiencing injuries or aging faster after infection with COVID-19?
Dr. Peluso shared that “Some of the theories for what might be causing long COVID symptoms include persistence of the virus, so instead of the virus just coming and going – it sticks around, inflammation, auto immune problems. Changes in the microbiome. The good bacteria that are found in our bodies.”
The good news, according to Dr. Al Aly, is that it’s likely that this increased aging process will eventually flatten out.
