An animal study published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity found that a COVID-19 infection may leave behind certain proteins, which can trigger the process that causes cortisol levels to drop. This results in increased inflammation and immune overreaction to stress.
The effect on cortisol may underlie many changes associated with long COVID, which has many neurological and neuropsychological symptoms, such as brain fog, anxiety, sleep disturbances, fatigue, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Our study suggests that low cortisol could be playing a key role in driving many of these physiological changes that people are experiencing with long COVID,” lead author Matthew Frank, a senior research associate with the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said in a press release....
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