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Cognitive Impairment From Severe COVID-19 Equivalent to 20 Years of Aging – Losing 10 IQ Points
According to a team of scientists, cognitive impairment as a result of severe COVID-19 is similar to that sustained from the 20 years of aging between 50 and 70 and is the equivalent of losing 10 IQ points.
Cognitive impairment as a result of severe
“Cognitive impairment is common to a wide range of neurological disorders, but the patterns we saw – the cognitive ‘fingerprint’ of COVID-19 – was distinct from all of these.” — David Menon
There is mounting evidence that COVID-19 can cause long-term cognitive and mental health issues, with recovered patients reporting symptoms including fatigue, “brain fog,” difficulty recalling words, sleep disturbances, anxiety, and even post-traumatic stress disorder (
The individuals underwent detailed computerized cognitive tests an average of six months after their acute illness using the Cognitron platform, which measures different aspects of mental faculties such as memory, attention, and reasoning. Scales measuring anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder were also assessed. Their data were compared against matched controls.
This is the first time that such rigorous assessment and comparison has been carried out in relation to the aftereffects of severe COVID-19.
COVID-19 survivors were less accurate and with slower response times than the matched control population – and these deficits were still detectable when the patients were following up six months later. The effects were strongest for those who required mechanical ventilation. By comparing the patients to 66,008 members of the general public, the researchers estimate that the magnitude of cognitive loss is similar on average to that sustained with 20 years aging, between 50 and 70 years of age, and that this is equivalent to losing 10 IQ points.
Survivors scored particularly poorly on tasks such as verbal analogical reasoning, a finding that supports the commonly-reported problem of difficulty finding words. They also showed slower processing speeds, which aligns with previous observations post COVID-19 of decreased brain glucose consumption within the frontoparietal network of the brain, responsible for attention, complex problem-solving and working memory, among other functions.
Professor David Menon from the Division of Anaesthesia at the University of Cambridge, the study’s senior author, said: “Cognitive impairment is common to a wide range of neurological disorders, including dementia, and even routine aging, but the patterns we saw – the cognitive ‘fingerprint’ of COVID-19 – was distinct from all of these.”
While it is now well established that people who have recovered from severe COVID-19 illness can have a broad spectrum of symptoms of poor mental health – depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, low motivation, fatigue, low mood, and disturbed sleep – the team found that acute illness severity was better at predicting the cognitive deficits.
The patients’ scores and reaction times began to improve over time, but the researchers say that any recovery in cognitive faculties was at best gradual and likely to be influenced by a number of factors including illness severity and its neurological or psychological impacts.
Professor Menon added: “We followed some patients up as late as ten months after their acute infection, so we’re able to see a very slow improvement. While this was not statistically significant, it is at least heading in the right direction, but it is very possible that some of these individuals will never fully recover.”
There are several factors that could cause the cognitive deficits, say the researchers. Direct viral infection is possible, but unlikely to be a major cause; instead, it is more likely that a combination of factors contribute, including inadequate oxygen or blood supply to the brain, blockage of large or small blood vessels due to clotting, and microscopic bleeds. However, emerging evidence suggests that the most important mechanism may be damage caused by the body’s own inflammatory response and immune system.
While this study looked at hospitalized cases, the team say that even those patients not sick enough to be admitted may also have tell-tale signs of mild impairment.
Professor Adam Hampshire from the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London, the study’s first author, said: “Around 40,000 people have been through intensive care with COVID-19 in England alone and many more will have been very sick, but not admitted to hospital. This means there is a large number of people out there still experiencing problems with cognition many months later. We urgently need to look at what can be done to help these people.”
Professor Menon and Professor Ed Bullmore from Cambridge’s Department of Psychiatry are co-leading working groups as part of the COVID-19 Clinical Neuroscience Study (COVID-CNS) that aim to identify biomarkers that relate to neurological impairments as a result of COVID-19, and the neuroimaging changes that are associated with these.
Reference: “Multivariate profile and acute-phase correlates of cognitive deficits in a COVID-19 hospitalised cohort” by Adam Hampshire, Doris A. Chatfield, Anne Manktelow MPhil, Amy Jolly, William Trender, Peter J. Hellyer, Martina Del Giovane, Virginia F.J. Newcombe, Joanne G. Outtrim, Ben Warne, Junaid Bhatti, Linda Pointon, Anne Elmer, Nyarie Sithole, John Bradley, Nathalie Kingston, Stephen J. Sawcer, Edward T. Bullmore, James B. Rowe, David K. Menon, the Cambridge NeuroCOVID Group, the NIHR COVID-19 BioResource, and Cambridge NIHR Clinical Research Facility, 28 April 2022, eClinicalMedicine.
DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101417
The research was funded by the NIHR BioResource, NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and the Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust, with support from the NIHR Cambridge Clinical Research Facility.
Cognitive Impact of Severe COVID Is Equivalent to 20 Years of Aging, Study Finds
We all know that COVID-19 can lead to lingering fatigue and brain fog. But one of the most rigorous examinations to date of the long-term cognitive impacts of severe infection has just yielded some pretty unsettling results.
In a study comparing 46 severe COVID-19 patients with 460 matched controls, researchers found the mental impacts of severe COVID-19 six months later can be the equivalent to aging 20 years – going from 50 to 70 years old – or losing 10 IQ points.
The specific mental changes were also distinct to those seen in early dementia or general aging.
“Cognitive impairment is common to a wide range of neurological disorders, including dementia, and even routine aging, but the patterns we saw – the cognitive ‘fingerprint’ of COVID-19 – was distinct from all of these,” says neuroscientist David Menon from the University of Cambridge in the UK, who was senior author of the study.
The new paper doesn’t set out to alarm the many of us who’ve already had COVID, but instead investigate more closely how serious the cognitive changes are following severe cases of the infection, so we can begin to understand how to mitigate them.
“Tens of thousands of people have been through intensive care with COVID-19 in England alone and many more will have been very sick, but not admitted to hospital,” says lead researcher and cognitive scientist Adam Hampshire from Imperial College London.
“This means there are a large number of people out there still experiencing problems with cognition many months later. We urgently need to look at what can be done to help these people.”
The experiment involved 46 people who’d gone to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge as a result of COVID-19 between March and July 2020. Sixteen of them were put on mechanical ventilation during their stay.
An average of six months after their infection, researchers supervised them using a testing tool called Cognitron to see how they were doing in areas such as memory, attention, reasoning, as well as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The researchers didn’t have test results from before these individuals fell ill with COVID to compare to. Instead they did the next best thing, and compared their results against a matched control group of 460 people.
These results were then mapped to see how far they deviated from expected scores for their age and demographic, based on 66,008 members of the general public.
The results showed that those who’d survived severe COVID were less accurate and had slower response times than the general public.
The magnitude of cognitive loss was similar to the effects of aging between 50 and 70 years of age – and equivalent to losing 10 IQ points.
Accuracy in verbal analogy tasks – where people are asked to find similarities between words – was most impacted. This mirrors anecdotal reports that suggest people post-infection are struggling to find the right word, and feeling like their brain is in slow motion.
Interestingly, even though patients reported varying levels of fatigue and depression, the severity of the initial infection, rather than the survivor’s current mental health, could best predict the cognitive outcome, the team found.
“These results indicate that although both fatigue and mental health are prominent chronic [consequences] of COVID-19, their severity is likely to be somewhat independent from the observed cognitive deficits,” the researchers write in their paper.
The somewhat good news is that, upon follow up, there were some signs of recovery – but it was gradual at best.
“We followed some patients up as late as ten months after their acute infection, so were able to see a very slow improvement,” says Menon.
“While this was not statistically significant, it is at least heading in the right direction, but it is very possible that some of these individuals will never fully recover.”
This study only looked at the more extreme end of hospitalized patients, but there are plenty of other studies showing that even ‘mild’ cases can cause similar cognitive impacts.
What’s still not fully understood is why and how the SARS-CoV-2 virus causes this cognitive decline.
Previous research has shown that during severe COVID, the brain decreases glucose consumption in the frontoparietal network, which is involved in attention, problem solving, and working memory. It’s also known that the virus can directly affect the brain.
But the researchers suggest the likely culprit isn’t direct infection, but a combination of factors: including reduced oxygen or blood supply to the brain; clotting of vessels; and microscopic bleeds.
There’s also mounting evidence that the body’s own immune and inflammatory response may be having a significant impact on the brain.
“Future work will be focused on mapping these cognitive deficits to underlying neural pathologies and inflammatory biomarkers, and to longitudinally track recovery into the chronic phase,” the researchers write.
Until then, take comfort in the fact that if you’re still feeling slow and foggy months after recovering from COVID-19, you are most certainly not alone.
The research has been published in eClinical Medicine.
MEMA: Fireball spotted over Vicksburg traveled at 55,000 mph, generated equivalent of 3 tons of TNT – The Vicksburg Post
- GLM image from the GOES 16
satellite. (Courtesy of MEMA)
Report courtesy of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
More than 30 eyewitnesses in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi reported seeing a bright fireball at 8:03 a.m. Wednesday morning.
The sighting was soon followed by numerous reports of loud booms heard in Claiborne and surrounding counties. 22,000 miles out in space, the Geostationary Lightning Mappers onboard the GOES 16 and 17 satellites detected several bright flashes associated with the fragmentations of this bolide, which was first spotted 54 miles above the Mississippi River near the Mississippi town of Alcorn.
The object — thought to be a piece of an asteroid about a foot in diameter with a weight of 90 pounds — moved southwest at a speed of 55,000 miles per hour, breaking into pieces as it descended deeper into Earth’s atmosphere.
It disintegrated approximately 34 miles above the swampy area north of Minorca in Louisiana. The fragmentation of this fireball generated an energy equivalent of 3 tons of TNT, which created shock waves that propagated to the ground, producing the booms and vibrations felt by individuals in the area.
At its peak, the fireball was over 10 times brighter than the Full Moon.
Anna Guizerix contributed to this report.
Journalist and Youtuber Tim Pool Believes 1 Bitcoin Will ‘Eventually Be Equivalent to $1 Million’ – Featured Bitcoin News
The American journalist, Youtuber, podcast host, and political commentator, Tim Pool, has talked about bitcoin on numerous occasions and even more so these days as the crypto asset crossed its all-time price high. After the Proshares exchange-traded fund (ETF) launched on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Pool asked his 897,700 Twitter followers if they thought bitcoin would hit $200K.
Tim Pool ‘Feels Bad’ for People Dismissing Bitcoin
Tim Pool is a well known person on various social media channels due to the work he’s done as a journalist, show host, and commentator. When it comes to living in these modern times, Pool always has something to say in order to spark meaningful debate. Pool is a former member of Vice Media and in 2014 he also participated in Fusion TV. The activist is also well known for his live-streamed recordings of the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011.
These days, Pool hosts a Youtube show and podcast called “Timcast IRL” and he discusses things like politics, government, finance, specific people making headlines and a number of other subjects society deals with every day. In Pool’s last Youtube video, he discussed the buckling supply chain that’s been hurting the American and global economy. Pool has a lot of fans because he adheres to being objective when he reports, which is something the public accuses mainstream media of abandoning.
Pool is also a fan of the leading crypto asset bitcoin (BTC) and has mentioned it on several occasions. Last year in October, Pool discussed bitcoin alongside the ‘Great Reset’ subject as well. As bitcoin smashed through its previous all-time price high captured in April, on October 20 Pool said he believes a single BTC could be worth a million dollars.
“People still sh** on bitcoin and I feel bad for them,” Pool tweeted. “A local guy out here told me he just became a millionaire off his investment, bought in several years ago and forgot about it.” The popular Youtuber added:
It’s the rise of a new financial technology and I believe 1 BTC will eventually be equivalent to $1M.
Youtube Host Thinks Cryptocurrency ‘Is a Positive Force’
On September 21, Pool’s show featured author Matt Palumbo and the Youtuber discussed cryptocurrencies at great length. The title of the video is called: “Cryptocurrency Is a Positive Force as the Establishment Loses Control, but They’ll Try to Control It.” In the video, Pool talks about how Max Keiser tried to convince him to buy bitcoin in the early days, but at the time he passed. Pool also revealed some of the crypto assets in his portfolio, which include dogecoin (DOGE), bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), and cardano (ADA).
Prior to that video, Pool discussed the subject in another Timcast IRL video dubbed: “Tim Gets Animated About Bitcoin, Insists It’s Good For Many Things And Allows Greater Freedom.” During the discussion with the co-publisher of Human Events, Will Chamberlain, Pool stressed that BTC is “used to store value outside of the Fed.” In 2018, Pool said that “crypto can save free speech,” and he argued that digital assets can circumvent third parties that partake in financial censorship.
What do you think about Tim Pool’s latest statements about bitcoin possibly reaching $1 million per unit? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
MLB playoffs 2021 – How a word with no English equivalent helped Astros get one win from World Series
BOSTON — Sisu.
It’s a Finnish word that, according to Finland’s tourism website, typifies the enduring spirit of all Finns: “stoic determination, hardiness, courage, bravery, willpower, tenacity and resilience.”
It’s also the word Houston Astros pitching coach Brent Strom used with his pitchers in a meeting before Game 4 of the American League Championship Series on Tuesday. The message he delivered might be the difference-maker in this series, because over the following two days, Astros pitchers held the previously red-hot Boston Red Sox offense to just three runs — and the Stros are returning to Houston with a 3-2 series lead.
“I talked to them about getting out of their comfort zone and taking it a step further,” Strom told ESPN after the Astros’ 9-1 win in Game 5 on Wednesday. “People laugh at me about this, but ‘sisu’ harkens back to when the Soviets invaded Finland and [the Finnish] were outnumbered in men, 3 to 1, 400 airplanes to 32, 600 tanks to 27. And they held them to a stalemate.”
Strom wanted his young pitchers to rise to the occasion, even when it seemed everything was working against them. The Astros had given up a whopping 21 runs in Games 2 and 3, and the series seemed to be slipping away.
“I’ve been very blessed with the [Justin] Verlanders and the [Gerrit] Coles and the [Dallas] Keuchels and all these guys that have been there, done it,” Strom said. “This is a whole new group right now, and I just asked them to dig a little deep.
“The bullpen was taxed. We were beat up a little. But they stepped up in a big way.”
Strom got 7⅔ innings of scoreless baseball from his pen in Game 4, then got the performance of the series in the form of lefty starter Framber Valdez, who went eight innings in Game 5. Valdez took “sisu” to heart after a bad start in Game 1, when he lasted just 2⅔ innings.
“I had a really ugly outing,” Valdez said through an interpreter. “I felt humiliated after that first outing, and I set my mind on not letting that happen again. I did everything I could to work as hard as I possibly could to come back and have success in this outing.”
Boston managed just three hits off of Valdez. Red Sox manager Alex Cora called Valdez’s sinker “unreal.”
“Walks have been an issue in the past, but we saw him throw a lot of strikes today,” Strom said of Valdez. “They had a tough time getting the ball out of the infield. When you throw ground balls, sometimes the cost of one out equals two.”
In Valdez’s only moment of trouble, it wasn’t Strom who went to the mound to talk to him; it was Astros manager Dusty Baker. With two on and no outs in the fifth inning and a 1-0 score, this would be the key moment.
“I didn’t say a whole bunch to him,” Baker recalled. “It was kind of like you call a 20-second timeout in basketball and try to take the air out of the game. That was a 20-second timeout that probably took 15 seconds.”
On the next pitch, Valdez threw a sinker to Hunter Renfroe to induce a 6-4-3 double play. A moment later, he got Alex Verdugo to ground out. The threat — and, soon enough, the game — was over.
Strom believed it was either just the “first or second time” all season Baker went to the mound without pulling his pitcher.
“Whatever Dusty said to him was better than what I could have done,” Strom said with a smile. “I just pray a lot.”
Strom reiterated to Valdez before the game, as he had in their pitchers meeting the night before, that he needed to get ahead in the count.
Through the first four games of the ALCS, the Astros averaged 40 pitches per game in hitter’s counts. On Wednesday, Valdez threw just 14.
“In the first game, even in our place, he was amped up,” Strom said of Valdez. “First time in a playoff game with [fans]. It was like spring training last year.”
Even Cora noticed the difference — although he didn’t mention “sisu.”
“They made some adjustments,” he said. “There’s a few things they’re doing that they didn’t do in the first three games, and we just got to be ready.”
Throwing strikes is No. 1 on that list. It was the one bit of technical advice Strom gave his pitchers after asking them to dig deep.
“This is a very good Red Sox offense, which controls the strike zone very well,” Strom said. “J.D Martinez is a great leader of them. We had to take the strike zone back.”
Strom pointed at one pitch, well before the Renfroe double play on Wednesday, which indicated to him they were in for a different night from their starter. In the bottom of the first, Valdez threw seven pitches to Red Sox leadoff man Enrique Hernandez. That seventh, on a full count, was a beauty of a sinker on the inside portion of the plate. Hernandez was caught looking.
In the dugout, Strom sighed in relief. The Red Sox had been scoring so much, so early in this series. He knew the last thing Houston needed was a free pass to the first Red Sox batter.
“A strikeout rather than a walk,” Strom said. “Maybe it’s just me, but sometimes you go, ‘Oh s—, here we go again.’ [But] that changed the narrative a little bit.”
Perhaps it changed in that meeting room, at a time when the Astros pitching staff had to reset itself or start making offseason vacation plans. The feeling in Fenway after Game 3 was that the series may not go back to Houston. Instead, the Astros are one win from another World Series appearance with two home games waiting for them.
Sisu.
“It’s just about determination and grit, going beyond your comfort zone,” Strom said. “That’s the word they used.”
“It’s undefinable.”