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Terry Bell was infected with covid-19 and had a hard time putting on his shirt and trousers after washing, about 18 months after spending a few weeks in the hospital.
Lifting clothes, raising arms, or placing objects in the closet often causes shortness of breath and severe fatigue. He walks with a cane, but the distance is short. He is 50 pounds lighter than when the virus struck.
Bell, 70, is one of the millions of seniors who have been working on Covid for a long time. Studies show that older people are more likely to be incomprehensible than younger or middle-aged adults, but they receive little attention.
Long covid refers to at least an ongoing or new health problem that occurs 4 weeks after covid infectionAccording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Much about the condition is confusing: there is no diagnostic test to confirm it, a standard definition of the disease, and no way to predict who will be affected. Common symptomsMay last months or years, fatigue, shortness of breath, increased heart rate, muscle and joint pain, sleep disorders, attention, concentration, language, memory problems, etc. There is a series of problems that can occur.
An ongoing inflammatory or dysfunctional immune response is a viral reservoir, a small blood clot, or a small clot that remains in the body. Residual damage For the heart, lungs, vascular system, brain, kidneys, or other organs.
Only now is the impact on the elderly beginning to be documented.In The greatest study of its kindA researcher recently published in the journal BMJ estimates that 32% of older people in the United States who survived the Covid infection exhibited long-term Covid symptoms up to 4 months after the infection. 14% rate Early studies of adults aged 18-64 years (other studies suggest that symptoms can last for more than a year).
The BMJ survey used billing data from the UnitedHealth Group’s Medicare Advantage program to survey more than 87,000 adults aged 65 and over who had a Covid infection in 2020. This included symptoms that lasted more than 21 days after infection, which was shorter than the CDC used in the long covid definition. The data include both elderly people who were hospitalized for covid (27%) and those who were not (73%).
The high incidence of post-covid symptoms in the elderly may be due to the high incidence of chronic disease and physical fragility in this population. Greater burden Of serious illness, hospitalization, and death in the elderly throughout the pandemic.
“On average, older people are less resilient. They don’t have the same ability to recover from serious illness,” said Dr. Kenkoen, co-author of the study and executive director of translational research at Optum Care. rice field. Optum Care is a network of physician practice owned by UnitedHealth Group.
Research results Latest data from CDC It suggests that up to 2.5 million older people may have been affected by long covids. For those individuals, the consequences can be devastating: the onset of disability, the inability to work, the inability to carry out activities of daily living, and the deterioration of quality of life.
However, it is difficult for many older people to recognize long covids.
“The challenge is that non-specific symptoms such as fatigue, weakness, pain, confusion, and increased frailty are common symptoms in the severely ill elderly, or people say,” It’s one of aging. You might think, “It’s just a department,” said Dr. Charles Thomas. Alexander Semerka, Postdoctoral Fellow of Geriatrics at Wake Forest University.
Ann Morse, 72, from Nashville, Tennessee, was diagnosed with Covid in November 2020 and recovered at home after going to the emergency room and visiting her home every few days. She soon began to have problems with her memory, attention, and conversation, as well as her sleep problems and severe fatigue. She has improved somewhat, but some cognitive problems and fatigue continue to this day.
“I was frustrated when I told people about my symptoms and they said,’Oh, we too,’ as if they were old,” she told me. “I do, but this suddenly happened to me almost overnight.”
Bell, a Nashville singer-songwriter, struggled to get enough follow-up attention after spending two weeks on intensive care and another five weeks in a nursing home receiving rehab therapy.
“I didn’t get answers from my regular doctors about my breathing and other problems. They said they would take over-the-counter medications, such as in your sinuses,” he said. Bell said his true recovery had begun after being recommended by an expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
James Jackson, director of Vanderbild’s serious illness, brain dysfunction, and long-term outcomes at the Survivalship Center, runs several long covid support groups with Morse and Bell, with hundreds of similar patients. I have cooperated. He estimates that about one-third of older people have some degree of cognitive impairment.
“We know that there is a big difference between young and old brains. Younger brains are more plastic and effective in reconstitution, and our younger patients regain cognitive function faster. It seems that we can do it, “he said.
In extreme cases, covid infections can lead to dementia.This may be due to the high risk of severely ill elderly people with covid Onset of delirium — Sudden and sudden changes in mental state — this is the subsequent Onset of dementiaSaid Dr. Lilon SinvaniGeriatrics and Associate Professor at the Feinstein Institute of Medicine in Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY.
The brains of older patients can also be injured by oxygen deficiency or inflammation. Alternatively, the underlying illness process of dementia may already be underway, and Covid infection may act as a turning point, accelerating the onset of symptoms.
Survey conducted According to Sinvani and colleagues announced in March, 13% of covid patients aged 65 and over who were admitted to Northwell Health in March 2020 or April 2020 had evidence of dementia one year later. I understand.
Dr. Thomas Gut, vice chairman of Staten Island University Hospital, which opened one of the first long covid clinics in the United States, said that getting sick with covid could push up older people with existing conditions such as heart failure and lung disease. I observed that. Edge to more serious obstacles “.
“It’s difficult to identify what is directly related to Covid and what the progression of the condition they already have,” he said, especially in the elderly.
This was not the case for Richard Guard, 67, who lives just outside New Haven, Connecticut. The first covid patients treated at Yale New Haven Hospital were severely ill for two and a half weeks, including five days in intensive care and three days in a ventilator.
Over the next two years, Guard was hospitalized for more than two months, usually with symptoms similar to a heart attack. “When I try to climb the stairs or 10 feet, I almost faint with fatigue and the symptoms begin. Extreme chest pain radiates from my arms to my neck, causing dyspnea and sweating,” he said. ..
dr Erica spatsThe director of the Preventive Cardiovascular Health Program at Yale University is one of Guard’s doctors. “The more severe the Covid infection and the older it is, the more likely it is that cardiovascular complications will occur,” she said. Complications include myocardial weakness, blood clots, arrhythmias, vascular damage, and high blood pressure.
Guard’s life changed in a way he never imagined. He can’t work, he takes 22 medicines and still can only walk for 10 minutes on level ground. Post-traumatic stress disorder is often an unwanted companion.
“It’s often difficult to keep going, but I tell myself I need to get up and try again,” he told me. “Every day I get a little better, I tell myself that I’m adding another day or week to my life.”
