An effect of brain inflammation, or Intracellular Hypothyroidism?
On May 9, my esteemed “countryman”, Dr. Philip McMillan, whose posts I have enjoyed since I joined SUBSTACK and for whose opinions I have great respect, posted a report on “A new study out of Spain”, in which combined MRIs and neurocognitive testing showed clear evidence of brain inflammation, in Long – Covid subjects with deterioration of working memory, verbal fluency and executive function.
Dr. McMillan remarked (I quote) that “these changes were most prominent in areas with high blood flow, suggesting a link to microvascular damage” (possibly due to SpikeProtein’s effects on the endothelial lining of blood vessels).
Dr. McMillan’s illustration:
The observation is astute, as I would expect of Dr. McMillan, and I cannot argue with the MRI findings of brain inflammation, nor with the opinionthat the inflammation is due to Covid’s SpikeProtein.
Brain Fog: from inflammation, or (perhaps) from intracellular hypothyroidism?
However another aspect of the report interests me: the cognitive disabilities ascribed to “long Covid” precisely parallel those produced by deep hypothyroidism: I recall an article published online, by Runmei Zou et al, on October 7, 2020, entitled “Euthyroid Sick Syndrome (Functional Hypothyroidism) in Patients With COVID-19”.
DrZou reported a study of 149 Covid-19 patients, of whom 41 (27.52%) had clear evidence of ESS (euthyroid sick syndrome, a.k.a. “nonthyroidal illness”, “Low T3 Syndrome” and (my own term) “Intracellular (tissue) Hypothyroidism”. Notably, the patients with ESS had fever, dyspnea and stronger inflammatory responses, with higher CRP, ESR and Procalcitonin, but a lower lymphocyte count than those without.
I recall another article – a report from UCLA in April 2022: the researchers found that 30% of people treated for COVID-19 developed Post Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), most commonly known as “Long COVID”. Among people with a history of hospitalization, diabetes, and higher body mass index, those covered by commercial health insurance were most likely to develop the condition, as opposed to those (less stressed folk) covered by Medicaid, who were less likely to develop it…….
This is not surprising: since most of the symptoms of Long Covid are due to IH and since IH is a manifestation of stress-related hypercortisolemia, it can be demonstrated in a very high percentage of people with stress due to severe, and/or chronic, disease. What is interesting, is that UCLA’s “30%” is not much different from Runmei Zou’s “27.52%”.
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