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We Just Got More Evidence That Long COVID Is a Brain Injury (sciencealert.com)

submitted 1 day ago by just_another_person@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

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[-] walter_wiggles@lemmy.nz 77 points 1 day ago

Ooo interesting. The parallels with CFS are fascinating.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 50 points 1 day ago

I wasn't even aware of that. chronic fatigue syndrome was actually real.

I thought I was just like side- depression.

is there anything known about CFS?

what causes it or how long it lasts or anything?

I know nothing about it except for like a comedy sketch from the 2000s at some point.

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 21 points 19 hours ago

CFS is a syndrome rather than a disease because, until recently, it only presented as symptoms instead of as an identifiable problem with a person. I know that a some people who get diagnosed for CFS get later diagnoses as neurological disorders like multiple sclerosis.

It sounds like the more powerful MRI scanners are seeing inflammation in the rest of those suffering from CFS.

That would mean CFS is a lifelong degenerative condition.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 2 points 18 hours ago

this is the extent of what I knew about CFS, I never heard of ME, I thought CFE was still a collection of symptoms that didn't even indicate a single underlying syndrome.

I like the progress, clearly seeing brain stem inflammation sounds like comic book talk from 20 years ago.

they're going to see inflamed dendrites next.

oh but isn't clogged dendrites how they identify multiple sclerosis already?

clearly I have to read more about this. catch up a bit.

thanks for the explanation.

[-] lemonmelon@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago

A collection of symptoms is a syndrome. Once there is a known definite cause, reclassification as a disease can take place. Lay misuse of the terms and reluctance to adopt updated designations have aided in a loss of distinction in what they refer to.

There is something else entirely to be said for how quickly one can progress from the disbelief of a particular diagnosis as anything beyond a punchline to descanting over the marvels of modern medicine as they relate to futher study of the mechanisms. If nothing else, it's a great reminder of how much information is available to us on a whim.

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 5 points 18 hours ago

My understanding is that MS is usually defined by the deterioration of the myelin sheath in brain cells which can be detected through MRI's.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 2 points 17 hours ago

it is, and they can take pictures of the inflamed dendrites and axons showing where they're clogged, so I was wondering how much smaller these substructures in the brain stem are than dendrites and axons that neurons travel through, which are pretty freaking small and we've had pictures of for at least a couple decades now.

oh or maybe those were microscope slides and they're saying now we can microscopically look at this stuff without having to cut into it.