> Because other viral infections can cause brain inflammation, the researchers studied brain changes in mice after mild respiratory infection with H1N1 influenza, the viral strain that caused the 2009 “swine flu” and 1918 “Spanish flu” pandemics. The goal was to compare cognition-linked molecular changes after H1N1 to those seen after COVID-19. One week after infection, the H1N1 flu and SARS-CoV-2 infections caused similar patterns of cytokine elevation in the central nervous system, microglial reactivity and loss of oligodendrocytes in white matter. But seven weeks after infection, although the cytokine profiles had some overlap, including increased inflammatory chemokine CCL11, they differed. Effects on the hippocampus were similar in the two types of infections, but microglial reactivity and oligodendrocyte loss in white matter were not present after seven weeks following H1N1 infection.
It would be more interesting to compare SARS-CoV-2 with endemic common cold coronaviruses. In particular HCoV-OC43 appears to be quite similar in terms of genetics and typical symptoms.
When I was trying to dig through the chaff eventually I found the magic phrase viral tropism.
It's complicated.
You have the ability of the virus to infect particular tissues. Sometimes viruses have a primary and secondary attack.
What the viruses life cycle is in the host. Chicken pox's isn't influenza's.
There is the ability of the virus to evade and suppress the immune response.
And finally you have the point that viruses can trigger autoimmune responses.
I saw lots of back and forth about neurological stuff. Best response was from someone that studies neurology that pointed out that 'the brain' is made up of dozens of cell types. Viral damage or an autoimmune attack on any of those can be very ungood.
Also I think about 50-60 years ago the medical profession lost interest in respiratory viruses. So much information is absent, out dated, or the result of 50 years of telephone.
> Also I think about 50-60 years ago the medical profession lost interest in respiratory viruses. So much information is absent, out dated, or the result of 50 years of telephone.
I'd ask the same question to you. What's your angle? Why minimize when there's so much evidence of various harms? Why attack someone trying to point out that people underreacting/comparing it to less problematic viruses were probably wrong?
My thing is that I have a heart condition that is highly exacerbated by covid, so people treating it with no caution (sneezing in my face these days, no care at all anymore) is very worrying for people like me. A flu, however, I'm totally fine with catching.
Sorry to hear that. My mum's had noticeable cognitive decline from breast cancer chemo too, physically more frail from it too.
Fortunately, sort of, she mostly thinks it's my dad who's lost a few marbles and doesn't seem to realise it's her, or at least is still too stubborn to admit it. And her grandchildren not only still have their grandmother but they don't yet see (or understand) the decline which is perhaps the best blessing of all. But it's still sad to have to see.
Our culture puts such a strong emphasis on self-reliance that people who experience conditions that are "in their head," or even just poorly understood, are broadly perceived as lazy and dishonest. It's often only when it hits close to home that people are able to overcome this bias.
While you're undergoing cancer treatment, you're going to be too fatigued to worry much about your cognitive performance. I wouldn't expect to be able to distinguish lower productivity as a result of "chemo brain" from lower productivity as a result of all the non-cognitive side effects until several weeks after your active treatment is done.
Taking off as much time as you're able to rest on and after treatment days will go a long way to helping you feel better the rest of the time.
As others have said, it's impossible to say because every person and every treatment is different.
I received treatment for testicular cancer in late 2012 through early 2013. I tried so hard to WFH during chemo because I hadn't been at my job long enough to take FMLA and I needed to keep the health insurance to, you know, get the chemo, and I couldn't afford both COBRA and rent at the time.
There was no way I could actually concentrate on anything when I hurt so much that I couldn't sleep, let alone actually do my job. I ended up going so deep into negative PTO that for the following two years that I was at that place I was never able to take another day off.
You can't know until you start...
My wife was driving herself to the chemo and she was shopping afterwards. However the nurse said that her experience was quite exceptional, peoples are usually floored by Taxol. During radiations she was miserable, it was like a second degree burn all over her chest.
It depends. I had Hodgkin's Lymphoma and had chemo for about 5 months over a year ago. Everyone reacts differently as some have various symptoms that can be worse or better than others. Some people are miserable in bed while others it not so bad and tolerable. It can also vary on the type of chemo treatment you are receiving.
My father developed a bad rash approximately a year ago that won't go away. He also developed his first ever bloodclot. The rash could be from the eliquis, but his Dr thinks its from chemo. His lung cancer is successfully in remission for now, but the stage 4 COPD doesn't care. Anyhow, I learned recently that a rash is one of the more common side effects.
You won't know - Everyone reacts differently and there's different chemos.
I do know someone who had very few side effects from chemo and worked full time the entire time at an active job without any real issues - logics/scheduling was the biggest problem for him.
My boss will be fairly chill about letting me WFH and contribute fewer hours, so I'll hope for the best. Worst case I'll try figure out if/how I can go on short-term disability.
Everyone has a different experience. However, chemo just sucks.
My wife went through it all and asked at the beginning: "Should I take off work?" To which my response was "You can be miserable and bored, or you can be miserable and busy. Your choice." Staying busy, at least, gets your mind off of it if you can swing it.
On the other hand, my wife sailed through radiation with nary a problem while the other folks around her had terrible problems.
Not at all. If you'd rather do hobbies, you do you.
However, I do find that most people don't have hobbies that they can spend 8+ hours a day on and remain happy doing them. I do, but that's not very typical.
My wife loves her work and the people she works with. So, that was fine, too.
Work also serves as a slight "forcing function" so that you kinda have to get up and do something even if you're a little not up for it while you would just blow off a hobby.
I'll agree with the others that it really depends. I'm watching a family member who would like to work be unable to focus for long enough to get much work done. I suspect in his case it is pain mixed with the chemo and fatigue which makes good work difficult. Right now this is in the first couple weeks of treatment, I'm trying to be optimistic but also prepared for this to continue as treatment does. But now I have something else to watch out for I guess.
The problem with the concept of covid-induced brain fog is that the symptoms of brain fog are indistinguishable from general anxiety. I'm still not convinced that brain fog is a legitimate, medical outcome of having covid, as opposed to a culturally-conditioned response that's dependent on one's perception of the severity of covid. Anecdotally, among the people I know in real life, the only ones that have complained about post-covid brain fog are those that already tend to be hypochondriacs or doomers.
Long covid is very real and is not anxiety. There have been studies linking post covid fatigue and conditions to viral persistence and micro clotting. This type of post covid is just anxiety discourse is incredibly harmful.
This kind of discourse has been par for the course for as long as "mental illness" has existed. I don't know a single chronically ill person who hasn't gone through being undermined and treated this way.
Post viral syndrome has been been recognized for decades and linked to a wide variety of different viruses. So although the exact mechanisms aren't clearly understood there's no reason to think that SARS-CoV-2 couldn't cause similar effects.
But in terms of specific symptoms, a recent study found only a weak correlation between confirmed COVID-19 and brain fog. Other persistent symptoms such as anosmia are much more common.
This is just a case where the tools we have for examination are lacking and subjective symptom description barring specific indicators is pretty useless from a research standpoint.
This is a great point! In order to find out, perhaps we should engage some experts at a leading research institution to do some wider studies that are able to account for such factors. Maybe Stanford could do it?
I can't distinguish your comment from cognitive impairment either, but I do you the favour of assuming you're capable of evaluating and describing what's going in your head, and you'd do well to do the same for others.
Anecdotally, my brother developed long covid, with both physical (increased heart rate, increased recovery time from simple tasks like walking up stairs) and mental (only occasional brain fog). Never had these problems prior to covid. He's one of the most level-headed people I know, and is not prone to over-reacting to pretty much anything (his wife does that for him).
If he says he personally experiences a thing, I'll trust his word over an armchair therapist on the internet any day of the week.
nah but canada is expanding MAID to cover the homelessness you'll end up in due to not being able to work. kinda surprised they beat the US to that one but I'm sure we'll catch up.
So it's not just a flu.