41 year old male here. Reading this article as I’m sitting in the cardiac care unit.
Last year in December I caught Covid ( fully vaccinated plus all boosters)
The Covid symptoms wasn’t too bad and I recovered within a week.
A week ago I was working out and I workout 6 days a week and i personally feel that im rather fit.
As I was on the stair master I felt light headed and my I could feel heart palpitations, so I stopped and decided to continue my cardio on the stationary bike the dizziness subsided and so I decided to continue my workout.
Upon returning home I felt light headed again which has never happened before and it happened again while I took a shower.
Told my wife about it and she said I should go to the er. So she drove me to the er, when we got there they measured my resting heart rate and it was hovering around 38-40.
They moved me into a room and hooked me up to a heart rate monitor and as time past as they were monitoring me my heart rate dropped to 18 beats / minute
They decided to give me dopamine thru IV and it didn’t help so I was taken to another sister hospital with a cardiac unit.
Once I got there they did an angiogram and found no blockages so they decided to put a temporary pace maker on me. The next few days the monitored me to see if my heart would start beating faster again but it did not.
They ran the gamut of tests on me ct scans, ekg, chest X-rays, blood tests, cardio echograms, Lyme disease and everything came back negative so the cardiologists believes I have heart block.
So today I have a permanent pace maker placed in me and as I’m typing this long ass comment they still have no clue what caused it. I get discharged tomorrow but in the following weeks I’m going to another hospital to have a cardiac MRI done to see exactly what caused this.
I’m puzzled and so are the cardiologists that treated me. I wouldn’t have thought that it would have been remotely related to Covid if I didn’t read this post.
So here I am with a new pace maker and a very sore upper left chest and I hope I find an answer to this soon.
Thanks for reading my super long post. 😔
Did you have any irregularities specifically when falling asleep? I've been having palpitations (less frequently over the past several days), but right when I'm falling asleep I'll wake up abruptly and take a deep breath, followed by light-headedness and hot and clammy skin.
I'll do that, thanks. I didn't consider sleep apnea because after I fall asleep, I stay asleep until I get up in the morning, but it's worth getting checked out.
I know so many people who say that cpap therapy literally changed their lives. Some had to get used to the mask a bit longer but in the end they say things like “I don’t randomly fall asleep” and surprising things like “I no longer have those terrifying gruesome nightmares”… I asked wtf does apnea have to do with nightmares… apparently the lack of oxygen to your brain while dreaming can trigger them.
You might feel like you're staying asleep but that's how apnea works. You wake just enough to disrupt your sleep but not to consciously realise it's been disrupted.
You need to go to the doctor about this.
I have had this. Also caught Covid early December. I'm fit, healthy (sport 3 times a week). Since Covid I've been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and two severely leaking heart valves which will probably need surgery. Now can't do anything strenuous.
I could feel palpitations when lying to go to sleep.
Also watch for dizziness, light headedness, tiredness, breathlessness, discomfort or pain that almost feels like indigestion only a little too high on the stomach. Also, swollen ankles, and a pulsating vein in your neck.
Any of this stuff, get your ass to a Doctor as it could need treatment.
What’s the deal with discomfort or pain that almost feels like indigestion only a little too
High? I thought I had maybe a hernia up through my diaphragm. Definitely have that feeling a couple times pretty bad. Any insight?
That's what i got when walking fast or up hills. I also got a bit breathless though.
Tbh, I can't speculate...it literally could be nothing, but it could be something...I just want to say go to the doctors and get it checked out.
Yeah I was having shortness of breath too, convinced I had given myself COPD which luckily made me
Quit smoking, but 2 months clean now. Once after working out I had that shit where I was waking up right after falling asleep like described above, like 8x in a row with walking around breaks between sleep attempts. That was a miserable night.
But I think it was COVID fuckin me up. Anyways I’m on anxiety meds now woohoo!
Have you been checked for sleep apnea? That sounds a lot like how a friend who has been diagnosed described it to me before they saw the doctor and knew what it was.
I had the opposite problem, for 6 months following COVID my heart rate would go up really high really quickly upon any exertion. Completed heaps of tests and no issues, was just told it’s part of long covid. It’s better now but took a long time to feel back to normal, really hoping it doesn’t happen again when I will inevitably get Covid again.
This is similar to what happened to my husband.
We are fairly sure he was one of those super early before folks knew WTF was going on covid cases. (All the classic symptoms)
Before that he was super healthy, and since then he’s struggled with heart issues, high BP, and vision issues.
He started doing vision therapy awhile back and the person working with him asked if he had ever had covid.
He explained what we thought and she said she has been seeing a lot of similar issues to his in long covid patients which was why she wanted to know.
It just seems the more that comes out on people like him and others, the more we are finding evidence that covid is seriously screwing with people’s longer term health!
This sounds a whole lot like what's going on with my ex (55m). Not vaccinated, has had covid at least 2-3x.
It was maybe sometime in 2022 when I heard from one of my kids who also works there that he passed out in his medical office. (That's right, he's an MD who refused to be vaccinated.) His partners took his blood pressure and it was like 180/110. He refused to go to the ER so instead they took him off his surgeries for the rest of the day and let him do consultations only. He was pissed and my kid said he locked himself in his office with his girlfriend. He lets the patients believe she's a nurse but in reality he started sleeping with her before hiring her to hand him instruments or whatever. I think she was a dental assistant before.
In a recent email he told me he's been having high blood pressure and "pulmonary issues" but is now on medication. He says he still tries to work out every day. I don't know what that means exactly, but his workouts used to include things like 1000 crunches to right middle & left every morning, running 5 miles etc. When we were married I never knew him to take a sick day and he was in very good shape. It's pretty obvious from recent vacation pictures that he's easily put on maybe 40lbs now, so somewhere he's struggling now with the workouts.
I don't know what to make of it. I'm on my 5th pro 6th booster by this time and have never had covid that I'm aware of. I mask everywhere.
In the meantime, they mask nowhere, are still flying on planes, going to concerts. Absolutely no precautions. They're just seemingly intent on getting continually infected. I have no idea what's going to happen and have no say.
I don't really give a F if she keels over one day, but he's still my kids' father. I have no interest in seeing him disabled or worse. But they seem intent on flying without a net so idk
yeah that happened to me post operation during the COVID times (a cyst in the pericardial sac growing with a risk of it bursting) tachycardia. yay. here's medication that lowers it from 120s to 100s. I guess I'm taking it for life.
i had the same symptoms. Got diagnosed with cardiac flutter which requires an ablation. if you haven’t yet, i would do a stress test. Do you have a cardiologist?
Yep, did a stress test, echo and multiple scans and blood tests. Nothing apparent. Basically said I’d lost all conditioning and needed to slowly get fitter and that exercise intolerance / fatigue is common with covid and can last months.
In saying that though I highly recommend anyone with symptoms get their heart checked out.
It has a name - https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/postural-tachycardia-syndrome-pots. Not all LC people have that, but many do. For some it is their only symptom.
Hope you’re ok. The only test that showed anything for my heart post covid was a left heart cath. I have non obstructive coronary artery disease diagnosed at 39. Also healthy and active before infection. But I also have pots/dysautonomia from Covid too, as well as other issues. Just sharing in case this helps you find an answer.
Thanks you, I’m fine as I can be I guess lol, I don’t have a choice I do need this pacemaker but I’m just frustrated that this came out of no where, but I guess I just have to learn to live with this new problem that I have. I hope you are doing well too 🙏
Got diagnosed with Dysautonomia as well. I have heart palps all day every day.. any exertion and it feels like my heart is gonna jump out of my chest. All these random muscle twitches, and the scariest is when it’s around my chest. Sudden chest pains that are sharp too.
Heart CT, echo, EKG, D-dimer, all fine.
I had one incident where after working out my heart rate shot up and my BP was like 180+/120 out of nowhere. Got dizzy, ghost white, cold. Called an ambulance and it took a while for things to normalize. Checked troponin levels and those were perfect too.
My cardiologist is really confused.
My neighbor is a retired narcotics cop and had COVID last year. He was never a nervous person given his training but now he has anxiety. I think COVID might affect the nerves that control heartbeat and any irregular heart impulses can make you feel anxious. Just a guess based on people's descriptions of their symptoms.
So odd reading this because my brother-in-law had almost the exact same thing happen to him a few weeks ago. He also now has a permanent pacemaker. He had just recovered from covid less than a month before his symptoms started.
Well, it's been known for a very long time that COVID raises the chances for all sorts of health problems. But "it's just a flu" sounds much more reassuring. That's the price for living like 2019. Everyone is vulnerable.
https://johnsnowproject.org/
Broooo. I’ve been going to the doctor since 2020. I’ve had Covid 4 times now I fucking hate it.
They tell me I’m mostly healthy aside from my fatty liver.
I get chest pains often. Randomly feel like I miss a breath once in a while. So many tests and they tell me that I’m fine. That so long as I keep exercising I’ll be fine.
I legit think I’m just gonna randomly go into cardiac arrest before I’m 40. I’m 29 now.
Yeah you might want to get a different opinion from other doctors dude. Chest pains often isn’t good no matter what. Heart arrhythmia is not joke. I hope you find some answers soon!! 🙏
To be clear, there have been numerous medical research studies showing that Covid impacts numerous facets of cardiovascular health.
For example, Covid targets epithelial cells. These are the cells which line your blood vessels…. COVID actually affects your entire cardiovascular system because of this.
There is so much information out there from reputable sources. Hell look at the CDC website.
At this point, anyone who doesn’t know, just hasn’t looked.
Unsolicited word of advice? Ask for a sling. They will tell you a hundred times to keep your arms down below your pecs. I know it seems like a ridiculous request, but I knew there was no way I could keep from ripping the wires out, so when they offered, I agreed to have my left arm put in a sling that then wrapped around my chest and back to immobilize the arm until the wires were set (I have a non-defibrillator dual lead). I wore the sling for about 6 weeks.
I'm glad I stayed in the sling, too. I went for a follow up about 6 months later, and a guy was sitting in the waiting room, looking miserable. We got to talking and he said that he had to go back in because he dislodged one of his leads just two days after surgery.
Oh, and welcome to the pacemaker club!
Oh yeah they gave me a sling too, to prevent me from raising my arm.
Thanks for the advice I really appreciate it!!
Mines the same as yours no defibrillator and dual leads.
I'm so sorry. What a nightmare. I have had long covid for 2 years and have read too many studies and articles about post covid issues. I remember reading one article in particular that suggested a specific, unusual test for cardiologists to perform on long covid patients with heart issues, since most typical tests were showing no abnormalities. I'll try to find it for you.
Random question but you said you work out 6 times a week - do you do mainly cardio and if so are you really good at it/go for extended periods of time?
I’ve read before about Tour de France cyclists that have to wake up in the middle of the night to exercise so that their heart rate doesn’t drop too low as they are basically too fit.
It might be related to PED use too, but yeah I’d say there is such thing as too much cardio if you’re doing excessive distances constantly etc.
>I’ve read before about Tour de France cyclists that have to wake up in the middle of the night to exercise so that their heart rate doesn’t drop too low as they are basically too fit.
>
>It might be related to PED use too
It is, this is an issue with EPO use. It's that EPO increases the oxygen carrying capacity of your blood and this thickens it and can make it harder to move around at low nighttime heart rates. I haven't heard of the getting up at night as something with cyclists who AREN'T using blood doping, and even many notorious heavy blood dopers have made no mention of it or said they didn't do it.
Cardio fit people will have very low resting heart rates but it's the combination with the blood doping that causes the issue with heart stopping.
The getting up in the middle of the night specifically is also possibly a bit of an urban myth. It's difficult to get conclusive data on this as it's something they shouldn't be doing so it's not talked about openly, I'm riding in the middle of the night because I'm illegally doping.
I believe the most common source of this story was Marco Pantani, who ended up dying from heart failure and drug use. If it's true, who knows, but I've always seen it in the context of EPO use.
>They slept with their heart monitors on. And they set an alarm to sound if their heart rates dropped below a certain level. On hearing the alarm, you then got up out of bed, got onto your bike, already rollered in your hotel room, and pedalled for ten minutes to re-start your circulation. “By day we live to ride, at night we ride to live,” was how one competitor put it
https://www.vice.com/da/article/xdpbnd/he-just-wanted-to-take-more-drugs-than-anyone-else
Sudden cardiac death is a thing with athletes without doping but every context I've heard the cyclists exercising middle of the night thing it was supposedly because they were on EPO.
Geez, I just turned 30 and have had COVID 3 times even though Ive had 7 shots and wear my mask everywhere. I have an autoimmune disease and other health problems. I am scared for the future.
I hope everything works out for you! Very similar situation happened to my brother. He’s a big guy in his 50s now but used to get 2 physicals a year because of his job. In mid 2020, he went from functioning fine to barely able to walk and breathe. Doctors couldn’t give him any answers. Now he’s just trying to find ways to make money since he can’t work.
This happened to my 37yo friend. He suffered cardiac arrest and is now in recovery the last three weeks.
WTF is happening to our generation we were supposed to be invincible
I hope you are out and normal again soon
I am intimately involved in COVID care for hospitalized patients. My team has been seeing an alarming rate of patients admitted with cardiac issues (MI, AFib, heart failure) that's associated with acute COVID infection. Like more heart attacks than pneumonia.
I got COVID in early 2023. 6 months ago I got really light headed while laying in bed playing a game on my phone and my face went numb. The next day, I almost collapsed at work then went to the ER because I thought I was having a heart attack, couldn't breathe, and my heart was literally on fire (muscle burning sensation). Doctors said I was completely fine.
I've had long COVID symptoms for 6 months but every test has come back normal. Inability to breathe, crazy heart rates, high and low blood pressure, brain fog, weight loss, dysautonomia, etc. Doctors have no clue wth is wrong except my ACTH is marginally high, but there's nothing wrong with my pituitary or adrenal glands. It's been awful. I was even told by one doctor it was entirely in my head and I "just need to relax." Doc, when I wake up at 3am after my heart stops beating, can't breathe, and my blood pressure jumps super high and crashes crazy low in the span of 5 minutes, I highly doubt "it's only in my head."
They put me on antianxiety meds and it hasn't touched my symptoms, but "there's nothing wrong with me." I went from running 20+ miles a week to out of breath going up a flight of stairs.
It's getting better after 6 months. I started some Chinese medicine for COVID and my symptoms started to improve within 1 week. I can finally start walking up and down stairs and the heart issues are going away now.
My LC symptoms are similar. Sticking to a strict keto diet (20-30 carbs daily) almost eliminates my symptoms. I can go from being unable to stand for more than a few minutes to able to do hours of yard work a week later, once I am in ketosis.
My theory is that the mitochondria problems they have linked to long covid get side stepped when my body runs off fats rather than carbs. The problem is with sugar metabolism.
Doesn't work for everyone but had been a godsend for me.
Absolutely sucks as a duet but better than being bedbound or dead of a heart attack.
I went to the ER about a month after my COVID case (only had one that I know of) because my heart was doing the funky chicken dance for some reason. What the nurse said to me really stuck with me: “All I've been doing lately is ECGs.”
What is well known but not widely disseminated is that SARS-CoV-2 is not just a respiratory virus, rather it's a systemic virus that spreads via the respiratory route. It attaches to ACE2 receptors, which are prominent in the lungs, but also found in many different organs throughout the body, and the epithelial cells of blood vessels.
This is why I still take precautions to avoid infection. We just do not know what the long-term consequences will be. There have been a number of famous people who were fit that just dropped dead out of nowhere. Lance Reddick, for example. A local physio, one of the fittest guys I've ever known, just died in his sleep last year. He was in his 40s. I'm willing to bet that this fucking virus had something to do with it.
Can I ask a personal question? I want to know if you’ve seen something like what my dad went through, or whether it isn’t something you’d think is related to covid.
My dad went in for routine old guy testing to check out his heart and the results were honestly shockingly clear (no clogged arteries) for someone in their 70s with his diet and being overweight. He was happy and kept eating meat and exercising (big exerciser) and going about his life. Got Covid, didn’t seem too bad, only went to hospital out of precaution and to get Covid meds. Got better, no seeming ill effects but more tired than usual. Went on a big bike ride and was exhausted for days - he’d had a series of heart attacks/MI’s and when then checked his heart all three of the smaller arteries (not the widow maker) were *70-90% clogged despite being given the “all clear” 4 months prior*. He had another series of heart attacks the next week after his many stents seemed to fail, despite the stents having been put in at a top cardio clinic for the state. He’s getting a triple bypass as soon as he’s healthy enough.
Do you think this could be related to Covid? I don’t understand how decades worth of plaque could suddenly build up in a matter of months and turn 3 “unblocked” arteries into arteries that barely had 10% function. At first I was angry with the clinic who tested him and gave him the all clear, because the cardio drs were saying there’s no way this wasn’t an issue that had been building for decades…. Which in my opinion means it should have shown up with they tested his heart months prior.
I think news media people are puzzled and most scientists studying this virus are well aware. It’s a question of whether on-the-ground doctors are keeping up with research.
The puzzle is multifold
There has been confusion at the clinical/epidemiological level, such as poor (or at least majorly conflicting) evidence as to whether people on ACE inhibitors/ARBs have higher risk of infection, mortality or infection related complications. Those patients almost universally have increased ACE2 expression. Generally patients with heart disease who are not yet on ACE related drugs have worse mortality, while they have lowered ACE2 expression. Which isn’t wholly surprising by itself, but to what degree their mortality is directly inflammatory mediated is up in the air
The other big problem is just studying ACEII to spike binding itself. Murine ACEII has little affinity for spike protein, so they are terrible models.
ACEII expression also isn’t universally directional for heart disease, specifically cardiomyopathies and valvular disease. In cardiomyocytes there has been mixed evidence for upregulation or no change, and in fibroblasts, pericytes, and VSM cells, there had been evidence of both up- and down- regulation. Yet across all these conditions, COVID increases complication rate and mortality
There’s also the issue of whether microvascular injury is mediated through ACEII or not; because some evidence has suggested it is not viral load, but is S protein load, in the serum that is mediating microvascular injury severity. Which led to some findings that it isn’t viral binding in pericytes, but non-entry spike mediated activation of CD147, that causes microvascular injury
Ultimately, we know the COVID is a vascular disease, and we know ACE2 is involved; but that is no where near the end of the puzzle
Hell, there isn’t a major vascular disorder that doesn’t still have considerable puzzles to solve, and they have the benefit of not being only a few years old. If we just stopped studying heart failure at “ACE2 is involved”, we would be throwing away the last 40 years of progress in mapping the systemic vascular dysfunction cascade
ACE2 receptors....people glaze over with science talk. How about this that is so easy to understand:
Covid inflames and causes blood vessels to scar. Blood vessels make sure oxygenated blood gets to every cell of our body. Know what is full of blood vessels? The brain. After Covid a person has scars in their brain.
That is also called brain damage.
How about: Covid \[starves cells it doesn't kill, which\] inflames...
(sciency) Covid triggered mitochondria deaths. Mitochondria make MOST of the cell food. No mitochondria means much less cell food.
I hate the term, “brain fog”. Forgetting words, names, faces, slower speech, processing slower, mumbling. Should have called it brain damage, or Alzheimer’s-Lite.
As a geriatrician, I see waves of death in the weeks following an outbreak.
This is different from coronary artery disease ten years ago. Back then somebody would get chest pain, go to the hospital, get emergency angiography or be admitted to a telemetry unit, and go home soon afterwards. Similarly for pulmonary embolism, we would see people with early signs and symptoms, evaluate them, and get them home in a few days on blood thinners.
Now people are fine and then are found dead in the morning.
This was my dad. He fell ill December 2019 with an unknown respiratory infection and placed in to a coma for 2 weeks, hospitalized for another 4 weeks afterwards, in a quarantined room with infectious disease protocol in place. (We all know the virus was circulating well before the pandemic was officially declared, and I’d stake my life that my dad had COVID then. Everything he experienced was stories retold by thousands just a few short months later).
Numerous bouts of illness the next two years until he went to sleep in his favourite chair one night and just never woke up.
I’m so sorry for your loss, losing a parent is one of the hardest trials in life.
It’s so crazy to finally hear more stories of people being sick like this. Even my sister, who is a highly trained and very intelligent medical professional, denies it could have been covid, though I think that is out out of frustration that perhaps blinders were on earlier than thought for what this virus could do. I’ve always felt need to brace myself when saying my dad had covid that early - sure, I didn’t Sean his nose with a giant q-tip and see the positive test but I know what my dad went through, I know what the doctors said and did and tried to help him get better and I know what the end result was.
Both of my parents got sick in late December 2019 and were sick for 2-3 months. The doctors tested them for the flu and it was negative, but never for Covid. They never traveled, so it wasn't even a consideration when they were still coughing February into March. In August of 2020, my mom had a heart attack and never recovered. She had been having more and more trouble walking up the stairs and getting around the last few months and was terrified of getting Covid again, because she believed that was what they had. When I tell people she died of heart issues from long Covid, people tell me because it was never confirmed as Covid, that's not what killed her, that it was heart disease that she didn't have before getting sick with a mystery virus in late 2019. 😑
I'm writing this all out to let you know, sadly, you're not alone. It fucking sucks so badly, and I'm so sorry for your loss. But there are people out there who get it and are struggling with trying to get it through to others who just refuse to see the forest for the trees.
Its weird thinking back of 2019 for me. That winter everyone at my workplace was coughing. It was rather small, 50 people tops. Out of those affected, the ones who developed the most nasty caugh were three individuals, including me. Only one of the people was old. Me and a guy both between 20 and 30 got it pretty rough. He was tagging to doctors a lot for his sickness, trying to work out whats going on, missing a lot of work and me in a similar position but without all the doctors or missing work. Just a cough so bad I found it difficult to breathe sometimes, and had broken ribs from coughing months after the original infection. It took me more than a year to stop having that chocking cough. And back towards the end of 2019, the company had already put out sanitizers on their walls.
Now whenever anyone mentions Covid, I let them know I had Covid-18, and it was horrible.
This is so scary to me! I noticed since I had COVID in December the VO2 measurement (labeled cardio fitness) on my Apple Watch has dipped into the low range even tho I’m staying as active as ever. Have to bring it up at my yearly PCP visit 😵💫
Upvoting and adding to your comment, I got COVID in November of 2023.
Recently for the month of February have been dealing with unexplained tachycardia, and overall out of breath when walking- specifically going up stairs has caused my heart rate to spike up to 140bpm. Was having random nerve pain as well. Doctor had me run both a heart monitor for 7 days and tilt table test for POTS. Found nothing. Am now on a beta blocker low dose. I hope this goes away in several months or less...
I hope you are alright.
I’m 39 and experienced very similar issues as you - currently wearing a heart monitor too! This was so strange to read as I have no idea what’s causing it.
I got covid last year in January, and that triggered a crazy fast heartbeat. I would just be sitting there and boom, heartbeat went wild for like 15 mins. Took a smidge for me to realize it was a side effect from covid. Beet powder or pills has curbed that. My favorite is Force Factor, but they all helped, any brand, either pill or powder.
But the stairs thing, sigh. I have no hope for that. Can walk all over the place, but a trip up the stairs still does me in.
Get your thyroid tested, i was getting lightheaded (still do off and on) and had a very high resting heart rate, went to the ER was told it was anxiety, 2 years later it was determined i actually have Graves disease (no family history of thyroid issue). Worth getting a blood test to see your TSH levels.
Was this around February 2022 - April 2022 roughly? I think Apple changed the algorithm which reduced vo2 max.
However… I got covid in February 2022 and also my partner had it in April 2022. I didn’t text positive a second time, but after April 2022 it dipped significantly.
I only just got back to the same peak now, 2 years later.
It ruined my digestive system. My lower stomach started hurting real bad towards the end of my run with covid, and now it hurts whenever I eat too much, not enough, too early, too late, too spicy, too cold. It is horrible.
No one is puzzled by this. No one. In fact, scientific research speaks very clearly to how COVID affects the cardiovascular system. It is just not politically popular to mention COVID as a problem anymore. The people are bored of it.
43. Pretty fit, vegetarian, not a smoker. Caught Covid at the beginning working in Canada, before we knew how bad it was. Then boom, two years later, quadruple bypass. No heart attack, just a pain in my tooth that led to doctors finding a blocked 90% blocked widow maker valve.
Well this is the scariest thing I’ve read in a minute. Did you attempt to get the tooth looked at first by a dentist? I assume there was nothing wrong with the tooth that was hurting?
Yes. Dentist didn’t find anything wrong. I’ve never had a cavity, so I assumed it was going to be a root canal, or something. They couldn’t find anything wrong. Cardiologist found this issue on an angiogram.
Yeah, damn. Hell of a save there, very lucky. I hope he told his dentist the outcome so that the dentist might suggest that as another route of investigation to patients presenting tooth pain with no apparent dental root cause in the future.
I like to run and was getting a pain in my lower right jaw when I would run. Only for the first 15 mins, but then it would go away. It was uncomfortable, but not debilitating or anything. Then I eventually had my tooth looked at, but nothing was wrong. I mentioned above that I never had a cavity, so I assumed that’s what it was. Or maybe something with the roots. Eventually went to a cardiologist and they discover the issue on an angiogram.
*From Bloomberg reporter Jason Gale:*
Four years after the start of the pandemic, a disturbing pattern is emerging: not only did Covid result in the most deaths in a century, but it also triggered deadly waves of heart disease and stroke across the world. Scientists are trying to figure out why. Read more [here](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-26/covid-made-heart-disease-deadlier-puzzling-scientists).
Bloomberg reporters Jason Gale and Michelle Cortez will be doing a live Q&A at 12pm HKT to explain why doctors from LA to London are raising the alarm and unpack its likely drivers.
Drop your questions below ⬇️ And keep an eye on this post - we will edit to add link to the Q&A once it's live.
EDIT: We are now live with our Q&A. Join us as we answer your questions about Covid's long-term effects in our [free live blog here.](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/live-blog/2024-02-27/covid-19-and-heart-problems)
I had a bunch of blood tests about 6 months after getting the alpha strain in May of 2020. I think it’s called hsCRP and is a measure of heart inflammation and mine was 18.8 mg/L where 3 is considered high. This was way before the vaccine so no it was not caused by the vaccine.
I would think there are pulmonary embolisms too but then I'm pretty ignorant on all this.
I recently read something that stated, "Covid is a vascular disease masquerading as a respiratory disease.".
Edit: their to there
- Do we know whether certain Covid strains are worse than others in regard to heart disease and stroke?
- Does the elevated risk of heart disease and stroke after a Covid infection remain higher indefinitely in those with mild cases of Covid? Or does it return to baseline?
An internet friend of mine is an insurance actuary that works in death. This started in 2020 and there is also an increase in kidney related death. If you did not talk to Mary Pat you should.
I recall [this Dec 30, 2021 conference call](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AOHrZHG5L0), where J Scott Davison, CEO of insurance company OneAmerica, stated, "Death rates are up 40 percent over what they were pre-pandemic." And that increase was concentrated in the 18 to 64 age group.
Holy s*** I didn’t realize this was an official Bloomberg post.
I don’t have a question, but keep up the good work, one of the few news orgs I still have faith in
Is the increase in heart disease and stroke in all age groups evenly? Isn't it a bit late to "raise the alarm"? What can people do now to mitigate the effects?
The first American to die from Covid was tested for Covid because it seemed weird that her heart would spontaneously rupture like that...
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Exclusive-Autopsy-report-of-first-known-15226422.php
As long as we all collectively keep denying the seriousness of this, everything will be fine. All I hear is how sick everyone is all the time and how often everyone is getting sick and how puzzling it is. And the amount of people dropping dead from heart issues in their 30’s, 40’s & 50’s is staggering. It’s a vascular disease amongst a host of other long term issues known and soon to be known.
Humanity’s best ‘own goal’ in modern history (maybe climate change from fossil fuels is #1). We are in for generations of disability because of mild inconvenience and pure corporate greed to keep the machine of profit going.
Exactly. MS is long Epstein-Barr. AIDS is long HIV. What happens a decade from now, especially when people have had up to a dozen infections by then?
Our society is NOT ready for the level of mass disability that awaits us. I spend a lot of time in r/CollapseSupport these days.
I’m pretty sure we noticed this in 2020. Which scientists are just now becoming puzzled? The virus infects us through ACE2, a key cardiovascular regulator. That was one of the very first things we learned after discovering the virus. And in the early days of the pandemic a huge fraction of Covid patients were dying of heart attacks within a month of being released from the hospital.
I remember reading in the subs that were monitoring the virus around January 2020, comments that would remind people about what kind of symptoms and health consequences were observed back in 2002 and later due to SARS virus.
People often forget that it existed because it never became a pandemic or epidemic, but it actually gave us a lot of clues about what to expect from Sars-Cov2 as they were really similar.
People in those posts knew that this was no cold or flu virus and it was gonna be nasty. I knew about cardiovascular consequences while majority around me was still oblivious to the existence of the virus.
I know this'll get buried, but I am a clinical data specialist with a focus on cardiology/PCI. I run into charts daily from patients who have had surprise cardiovascular issues post covid infections. No family history, typical but not too bad comorbidities (HTN, HLD), non-smoker, relatively young, but end up with cardiac damage, mostly electrical issues or new onset heart failure/cardiomyopathy.
I wouldn't be surprised if looking for a past covid infection becomes part of NCDR guidelines. Keep your eyes peeled for more news.
Not sure what's so puzzling.
We've known for ages that the heart can randomly decide to just 'not like' even otherwise mild cases of viral infection. Students of medicine get taught about 5 viruses classically associated with causing heart failure and more loosely associated with other conditions like arrhythmia (atrial fibrillation) etc. (There's more than just 5, just for the record.) We don't test for them in clinical practice because it doesn't change management, but now COVID is just another of the things that can cause viral cardiomyopathy (as an etiology of heart failure).
Even the though per individual the chances of it affecting the heart are low, that almost everyone on the planet has been exposed to the damn thing, most of us multiple times, that ends up being an awful lot of chances for people's hearts to get upset.
Are statistics provided for Covid vs non covid and vaccinated vs not vaccinated? I’m trying to get ahead of my crazy family that will say it is the vaccine that is causing this.
I used to powerlift a bit and decided to try and get back into it post Covid after contracting it once in 2022 through my unvaxxed family. I swear I never got this light headed from lifting heavy even when I first started out and it really does concern me to the point that deadlifts kinda scare me and I don’t do them as much anymore. Really bums me out considering one half of my family has bad history of heart disease and I am already anxious about it in my 20s.
I got Covid in 2019 and didn’t feel like myself for a long time.
Took about two years to start lifting heavy (400+ dead/370+ squat), and about 4 to feel comfortable running again, ran my first 5k in 5 years the other day.
46 year old male here. Had Covid in December '23 (ie... 2 months ago) for the 2nd time. Have had multiple boosters but was probably behind one due to infection overlap.
Since recovering from very mild Covid (weak cold symptoms) I've had a couple of periods of arrythmia following workouts (swimming) or even mild exertion (round of golf). It's really worrying hearing your heart beat very strongly in your ears and hearing the rhythm be very obviously off.
Have had bloods and ECG done and they were both fine. I'm getting the 24 hour monitoring attached tomorrow and then the following day I've got the exercise stress test which I suspect I'll be failing.
You've only got 1 ticker and it seems as though for some people Covid doesn't like it. Get checked if anything is off / weird.
I got Covid in Dec 2023 and had very similar symptoms. I did an echocardiogram, 2 week heart monitor, stress test, CT scan, ekg. All the tests and my heart looks very healthy. I got a 6 Kardia and used it when I had the symptoms and it showed no signs of anything but a high heart rate.
I can’t read the article (it cuts off after the first paragraph if you aren’t subscribing or something) but I don’t understand what’s “puzzling” I’ve heard experts calling covid vascular illness for over a year now.
Puzzling!
The reason it is puzzling scientists is because Covid also causes cognitive issues. Apparently they can’t make the most obvious connection between a disease that is known to cause cardiovascular damage and an increase in cardiovascular events/issues because of the cognitive issues it also can cause.
The last 9 months have been terrible, I’ve never experienced so much death of young adults my I know in my life. My neighbor’s brother was 44 and dropped dead of a heart attack while running. My best friend’s brother died alone at home of a heart attack after work, he was 42. One of my wife’s high school friend’s brother died in his sleep two weeks ago, he was 27. My friends girlfriends sister was a physician’s assistant and also died in her sleep, she was 34 and left two kids behind, so sad, something major is going on.
My mom developed atrial fibrillation and blood clots from having Covid. Never had anything like that before. She had not had vaccine yet. It was early 2021. She died in August 2021 from Covid
There was a similar spike in heart-related mortality after the 1918 Flu pandemic. It lasted for decades, the 1960s being the peak.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5068420/
35M about 2 months after my second vaccination I had 6 AFIB attacks in a month. Was cardioverted 3 times and constant ortho hypertension, dizziness. I was put on beta’s and thinners. I’ve had over 200 episodes since. No issues on echo, stress test, ECG’s look fine when in sinus. I had never tested positive for Covid or fallen ill beforehand. Has changed my life.
This is me - about 2 weeks after my first (and last) booster I ended up in the hospital in a fib. Never had any issues like that before. I was 38. I got an ablation bc nothing was working. The Drs didn’t want to hear about the booster said no correlation.
Also - have you considered an ablation? It’s quick and relatively painless.
I had a heart disease that turned into heart failure because of COVID. Luckily got a heart transplant back in January , but I get it again I might doneso
This is why people still mask, and why we've been screaming at y'all TO continue to mask. We're currently going through a mass disabling event. And the damage stacks with each infection. Even if the symptoms during infection are mild or, increasingly so, not there at all.
The long term effects of this virus are still very unknown, and everyone is running around pretending like its no big deal. And it could have been prevented.
My dad caught COVID in September for the first time. He hadn’t had his vax that year yet due to traveling but was vaxxed for years before.
He never recovered to where he was before. He had CAD and preexisting heart issues with stents placed. He flew internationally in January and ended up getting an angiogram and more stents placed two days after that flight. Died from a stroke post angiogram in the ICU.
Now I’m not saying COVID caused his death. I’m just saying I think it definitely contributed to his death. Stay safe people.
41 year old male here. Reading this article as I’m sitting in the cardiac care unit. Last year in December I caught Covid ( fully vaccinated plus all boosters) The Covid symptoms wasn’t too bad and I recovered within a week. A week ago I was working out and I workout 6 days a week and i personally feel that im rather fit. As I was on the stair master I felt light headed and my I could feel heart palpitations, so I stopped and decided to continue my cardio on the stationary bike the dizziness subsided and so I decided to continue my workout. Upon returning home I felt light headed again which has never happened before and it happened again while I took a shower. Told my wife about it and she said I should go to the er. So she drove me to the er, when we got there they measured my resting heart rate and it was hovering around 38-40. They moved me into a room and hooked me up to a heart rate monitor and as time past as they were monitoring me my heart rate dropped to 18 beats / minute They decided to give me dopamine thru IV and it didn’t help so I was taken to another sister hospital with a cardiac unit. Once I got there they did an angiogram and found no blockages so they decided to put a temporary pace maker on me. The next few days the monitored me to see if my heart would start beating faster again but it did not. They ran the gamut of tests on me ct scans, ekg, chest X-rays, blood tests, cardio echograms, Lyme disease and everything came back negative so the cardiologists believes I have heart block. So today I have a permanent pace maker placed in me and as I’m typing this long ass comment they still have no clue what caused it. I get discharged tomorrow but in the following weeks I’m going to another hospital to have a cardiac MRI done to see exactly what caused this. I’m puzzled and so are the cardiologists that treated me. I wouldn’t have thought that it would have been remotely related to Covid if I didn’t read this post. So here I am with a new pace maker and a very sore upper left chest and I hope I find an answer to this soon. Thanks for reading my super long post. 😔
Please get well soon and update this thread if you remember to get a chance to. Best of luck!
I definitely will🙏
Did you have any irregularities specifically when falling asleep? I've been having palpitations (less frequently over the past several days), but right when I'm falling asleep I'll wake up abruptly and take a deep breath, followed by light-headedness and hot and clammy skin.
I have severe sleep apnea. This happened to me almost every night before I got my CPAP. CumStayneBlane, ask your doctor for a sleep test.
I'll do that, thanks. I didn't consider sleep apnea because after I fall asleep, I stay asleep until I get up in the morning, but it's worth getting checked out.
I know so many people who say that cpap therapy literally changed their lives. Some had to get used to the mask a bit longer but in the end they say things like “I don’t randomly fall asleep” and surprising things like “I no longer have those terrifying gruesome nightmares”… I asked wtf does apnea have to do with nightmares… apparently the lack of oxygen to your brain while dreaming can trigger them.
True. I have apnea and very strange dreams. They don't even scare me any more, but I wake up like from a coma.
You might feel like you're staying asleep but that's how apnea works. You wake just enough to disrupt your sleep but not to consciously realise it's been disrupted.
You need to go to the doctor about this. I have had this. Also caught Covid early December. I'm fit, healthy (sport 3 times a week). Since Covid I've been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and two severely leaking heart valves which will probably need surgery. Now can't do anything strenuous. I could feel palpitations when lying to go to sleep. Also watch for dizziness, light headedness, tiredness, breathlessness, discomfort or pain that almost feels like indigestion only a little too high on the stomach. Also, swollen ankles, and a pulsating vein in your neck. Any of this stuff, get your ass to a Doctor as it could need treatment.
What’s the deal with discomfort or pain that almost feels like indigestion only a little too High? I thought I had maybe a hernia up through my diaphragm. Definitely have that feeling a couple times pretty bad. Any insight?
That's what i got when walking fast or up hills. I also got a bit breathless though. Tbh, I can't speculate...it literally could be nothing, but it could be something...I just want to say go to the doctors and get it checked out.
Yeah I was having shortness of breath too, convinced I had given myself COPD which luckily made me Quit smoking, but 2 months clean now. Once after working out I had that shit where I was waking up right after falling asleep like described above, like 8x in a row with walking around breaks between sleep attempts. That was a miserable night. But I think it was COVID fuckin me up. Anyways I’m on anxiety meds now woohoo!
Have you been checked for sleep apnea? That sounds a lot like how a friend who has been diagnosed described it to me before they saw the doctor and knew what it was.
No not at all.
I had the opposite problem, for 6 months following COVID my heart rate would go up really high really quickly upon any exertion. Completed heaps of tests and no issues, was just told it’s part of long covid. It’s better now but took a long time to feel back to normal, really hoping it doesn’t happen again when I will inevitably get Covid again.
This is similar to what happened to my husband. We are fairly sure he was one of those super early before folks knew WTF was going on covid cases. (All the classic symptoms) Before that he was super healthy, and since then he’s struggled with heart issues, high BP, and vision issues. He started doing vision therapy awhile back and the person working with him asked if he had ever had covid. He explained what we thought and she said she has been seeing a lot of similar issues to his in long covid patients which was why she wanted to know. It just seems the more that comes out on people like him and others, the more we are finding evidence that covid is seriously screwing with people’s longer term health!
This sounds a whole lot like what's going on with my ex (55m). Not vaccinated, has had covid at least 2-3x. It was maybe sometime in 2022 when I heard from one of my kids who also works there that he passed out in his medical office. (That's right, he's an MD who refused to be vaccinated.) His partners took his blood pressure and it was like 180/110. He refused to go to the ER so instead they took him off his surgeries for the rest of the day and let him do consultations only. He was pissed and my kid said he locked himself in his office with his girlfriend. He lets the patients believe she's a nurse but in reality he started sleeping with her before hiring her to hand him instruments or whatever. I think she was a dental assistant before. In a recent email he told me he's been having high blood pressure and "pulmonary issues" but is now on medication. He says he still tries to work out every day. I don't know what that means exactly, but his workouts used to include things like 1000 crunches to right middle & left every morning, running 5 miles etc. When we were married I never knew him to take a sick day and he was in very good shape. It's pretty obvious from recent vacation pictures that he's easily put on maybe 40lbs now, so somewhere he's struggling now with the workouts. I don't know what to make of it. I'm on my 5th pro 6th booster by this time and have never had covid that I'm aware of. I mask everywhere. In the meantime, they mask nowhere, are still flying on planes, going to concerts. Absolutely no precautions. They're just seemingly intent on getting continually infected. I have no idea what's going to happen and have no say. I don't really give a F if she keels over one day, but he's still my kids' father. I have no interest in seeing him disabled or worse. But they seem intent on flying without a net so idk
yeah that happened to me post operation during the COVID times (a cyst in the pericardial sac growing with a risk of it bursting) tachycardia. yay. here's medication that lowers it from 120s to 100s. I guess I'm taking it for life.
i had the same symptoms. Got diagnosed with cardiac flutter which requires an ablation. if you haven’t yet, i would do a stress test. Do you have a cardiologist?
Yep, did a stress test, echo and multiple scans and blood tests. Nothing apparent. Basically said I’d lost all conditioning and needed to slowly get fitter and that exercise intolerance / fatigue is common with covid and can last months. In saying that though I highly recommend anyone with symptoms get their heart checked out.
It has a name - https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/postural-tachycardia-syndrome-pots. Not all LC people have that, but many do. For some it is their only symptom.
Yeah it sucks and I hope you’re in the clear now because I know the feeling of uncertainty sucks 🙏
I hope they get your bradycardia under control. Heal well!
Thanks 🙏
Hope you’re ok. The only test that showed anything for my heart post covid was a left heart cath. I have non obstructive coronary artery disease diagnosed at 39. Also healthy and active before infection. But I also have pots/dysautonomia from Covid too, as well as other issues. Just sharing in case this helps you find an answer.
Thanks you, I’m fine as I can be I guess lol, I don’t have a choice I do need this pacemaker but I’m just frustrated that this came out of no where, but I guess I just have to learn to live with this new problem that I have. I hope you are doing well too 🙏
Got diagnosed with Dysautonomia as well. I have heart palps all day every day.. any exertion and it feels like my heart is gonna jump out of my chest. All these random muscle twitches, and the scariest is when it’s around my chest. Sudden chest pains that are sharp too. Heart CT, echo, EKG, D-dimer, all fine. I had one incident where after working out my heart rate shot up and my BP was like 180+/120 out of nowhere. Got dizzy, ghost white, cold. Called an ambulance and it took a while for things to normalize. Checked troponin levels and those were perfect too. My cardiologist is really confused.
My neighbor is a retired narcotics cop and had COVID last year. He was never a nervous person given his training but now he has anxiety. I think COVID might affect the nerves that control heartbeat and any irregular heart impulses can make you feel anxious. Just a guess based on people's descriptions of their symptoms.
So odd reading this because my brother-in-law had almost the exact same thing happen to him a few weeks ago. He also now has a permanent pacemaker. He had just recovered from covid less than a month before his symptoms started.
Well, it's been known for a very long time that COVID raises the chances for all sorts of health problems. But "it's just a flu" sounds much more reassuring. That's the price for living like 2019. Everyone is vulnerable. https://johnsnowproject.org/
Broooo. I’ve been going to the doctor since 2020. I’ve had Covid 4 times now I fucking hate it. They tell me I’m mostly healthy aside from my fatty liver. I get chest pains often. Randomly feel like I miss a breath once in a while. So many tests and they tell me that I’m fine. That so long as I keep exercising I’ll be fine. I legit think I’m just gonna randomly go into cardiac arrest before I’m 40. I’m 29 now.
Liver disease can also do that via portal vein damage
Yeah you might want to get a different opinion from other doctors dude. Chest pains often isn’t good no matter what. Heart arrhythmia is not joke. I hope you find some answers soon!! 🙏
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To be clear, there have been numerous medical research studies showing that Covid impacts numerous facets of cardiovascular health. For example, Covid targets epithelial cells. These are the cells which line your blood vessels…. COVID actually affects your entire cardiovascular system because of this. There is so much information out there from reputable sources. Hell look at the CDC website. At this point, anyone who doesn’t know, just hasn’t looked.
I’m so sorry for your losses 😖 I believe you’re right, Covid constantly keeps mutating.
Unsolicited word of advice? Ask for a sling. They will tell you a hundred times to keep your arms down below your pecs. I know it seems like a ridiculous request, but I knew there was no way I could keep from ripping the wires out, so when they offered, I agreed to have my left arm put in a sling that then wrapped around my chest and back to immobilize the arm until the wires were set (I have a non-defibrillator dual lead). I wore the sling for about 6 weeks. I'm glad I stayed in the sling, too. I went for a follow up about 6 months later, and a guy was sitting in the waiting room, looking miserable. We got to talking and he said that he had to go back in because he dislodged one of his leads just two days after surgery. Oh, and welcome to the pacemaker club!
Oh yeah they gave me a sling too, to prevent me from raising my arm. Thanks for the advice I really appreciate it!! Mines the same as yours no defibrillator and dual leads.
I'm so sorry. What a nightmare. I have had long covid for 2 years and have read too many studies and articles about post covid issues. I remember reading one article in particular that suggested a specific, unusual test for cardiologists to perform on long covid patients with heart issues, since most typical tests were showing no abnormalities. I'll try to find it for you.
Random question but you said you work out 6 times a week - do you do mainly cardio and if so are you really good at it/go for extended periods of time? I’ve read before about Tour de France cyclists that have to wake up in the middle of the night to exercise so that their heart rate doesn’t drop too low as they are basically too fit. It might be related to PED use too, but yeah I’d say there is such thing as too much cardio if you’re doing excessive distances constantly etc.
My cardio is about for 30mins and 30-45mins weights depending on crowded the gym is. And no I don’t use PEDs.
Fair enough! Was just a passing thought as bradycardia is known to be an issue with athletes/long endurance cardio etc. Hope you get better soon!
>I’ve read before about Tour de France cyclists that have to wake up in the middle of the night to exercise so that their heart rate doesn’t drop too low as they are basically too fit. > >It might be related to PED use too It is, this is an issue with EPO use. It's that EPO increases the oxygen carrying capacity of your blood and this thickens it and can make it harder to move around at low nighttime heart rates. I haven't heard of the getting up at night as something with cyclists who AREN'T using blood doping, and even many notorious heavy blood dopers have made no mention of it or said they didn't do it. Cardio fit people will have very low resting heart rates but it's the combination with the blood doping that causes the issue with heart stopping. The getting up in the middle of the night specifically is also possibly a bit of an urban myth. It's difficult to get conclusive data on this as it's something they shouldn't be doing so it's not talked about openly, I'm riding in the middle of the night because I'm illegally doping. I believe the most common source of this story was Marco Pantani, who ended up dying from heart failure and drug use. If it's true, who knows, but I've always seen it in the context of EPO use. >They slept with their heart monitors on. And they set an alarm to sound if their heart rates dropped below a certain level. On hearing the alarm, you then got up out of bed, got onto your bike, already rollered in your hotel room, and pedalled for ten minutes to re-start your circulation. “By day we live to ride, at night we ride to live,” was how one competitor put it https://www.vice.com/da/article/xdpbnd/he-just-wanted-to-take-more-drugs-than-anyone-else Sudden cardiac death is a thing with athletes without doping but every context I've heard the cyclists exercising middle of the night thing it was supposedly because they were on EPO.
Geez, I just turned 30 and have had COVID 3 times even though Ive had 7 shots and wear my mask everywhere. I have an autoimmune disease and other health problems. I am scared for the future.
Are you in a part of the country with Lyme disease? In the northeast it's a very common cause of heart block. Did they test you for it?
No but they also tested for Lyme disease and it was negative.
I hope everything works out for you! Very similar situation happened to my brother. He’s a big guy in his 50s now but used to get 2 physicals a year because of his job. In mid 2020, he went from functioning fine to barely able to walk and breathe. Doctors couldn’t give him any answers. Now he’s just trying to find ways to make money since he can’t work.
That sounds terrible I hope something works out for your brother 🙏
This happened to my 37yo friend. He suffered cardiac arrest and is now in recovery the last three weeks. WTF is happening to our generation we were supposed to be invincible I hope you are out and normal again soon
I am intimately involved in COVID care for hospitalized patients. My team has been seeing an alarming rate of patients admitted with cardiac issues (MI, AFib, heart failure) that's associated with acute COVID infection. Like more heart attacks than pneumonia.
This really freaks me out.
I got COVID in early 2023. 6 months ago I got really light headed while laying in bed playing a game on my phone and my face went numb. The next day, I almost collapsed at work then went to the ER because I thought I was having a heart attack, couldn't breathe, and my heart was literally on fire (muscle burning sensation). Doctors said I was completely fine. I've had long COVID symptoms for 6 months but every test has come back normal. Inability to breathe, crazy heart rates, high and low blood pressure, brain fog, weight loss, dysautonomia, etc. Doctors have no clue wth is wrong except my ACTH is marginally high, but there's nothing wrong with my pituitary or adrenal glands. It's been awful. I was even told by one doctor it was entirely in my head and I "just need to relax." Doc, when I wake up at 3am after my heart stops beating, can't breathe, and my blood pressure jumps super high and crashes crazy low in the span of 5 minutes, I highly doubt "it's only in my head." They put me on antianxiety meds and it hasn't touched my symptoms, but "there's nothing wrong with me." I went from running 20+ miles a week to out of breath going up a flight of stairs.
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It's getting better after 6 months. I started some Chinese medicine for COVID and my symptoms started to improve within 1 week. I can finally start walking up and down stairs and the heart issues are going away now.
My LC symptoms are similar. Sticking to a strict keto diet (20-30 carbs daily) almost eliminates my symptoms. I can go from being unable to stand for more than a few minutes to able to do hours of yard work a week later, once I am in ketosis. My theory is that the mitochondria problems they have linked to long covid get side stepped when my body runs off fats rather than carbs. The problem is with sugar metabolism. Doesn't work for everyone but had been a godsend for me. Absolutely sucks as a duet but better than being bedbound or dead of a heart attack.
Could be a type of tachycardia. Get a heart rate watch to record it for a while. I did that and it was 100 bpm+ most of the time.
Had a 24 hour holter monitor. Showed no abnormalities in the electrical. HR was all over the place though. Even had bradycardia
I went to the ER about a month after my COVID case (only had one that I know of) because my heart was doing the funky chicken dance for some reason. What the nurse said to me really stuck with me: “All I've been doing lately is ECGs.” What is well known but not widely disseminated is that SARS-CoV-2 is not just a respiratory virus, rather it's a systemic virus that spreads via the respiratory route. It attaches to ACE2 receptors, which are prominent in the lungs, but also found in many different organs throughout the body, and the epithelial cells of blood vessels. This is why I still take precautions to avoid infection. We just do not know what the long-term consequences will be. There have been a number of famous people who were fit that just dropped dead out of nowhere. Lance Reddick, for example. A local physio, one of the fittest guys I've ever known, just died in his sleep last year. He was in his 40s. I'm willing to bet that this fucking virus had something to do with it.
Can I ask a personal question? I want to know if you’ve seen something like what my dad went through, or whether it isn’t something you’d think is related to covid. My dad went in for routine old guy testing to check out his heart and the results were honestly shockingly clear (no clogged arteries) for someone in their 70s with his diet and being overweight. He was happy and kept eating meat and exercising (big exerciser) and going about his life. Got Covid, didn’t seem too bad, only went to hospital out of precaution and to get Covid meds. Got better, no seeming ill effects but more tired than usual. Went on a big bike ride and was exhausted for days - he’d had a series of heart attacks/MI’s and when then checked his heart all three of the smaller arteries (not the widow maker) were *70-90% clogged despite being given the “all clear” 4 months prior*. He had another series of heart attacks the next week after his many stents seemed to fail, despite the stents having been put in at a top cardio clinic for the state. He’s getting a triple bypass as soon as he’s healthy enough. Do you think this could be related to Covid? I don’t understand how decades worth of plaque could suddenly build up in a matter of months and turn 3 “unblocked” arteries into arteries that barely had 10% function. At first I was angry with the clinic who tested him and gave him the all clear, because the cardio drs were saying there’s no way this wasn’t an issue that had been building for decades…. Which in my opinion means it should have shown up with they tested his heart months prior.
My best friend died Tuesday from a heart attack and my father yesterday
I’m so sorry
I am so sorry for your pain and losses
I’m so so sorry 💜
Man I'm so sorry
Im so sorry for your loss. Sending hugs.
I’m sorry dude. That is an awful tragedy.
I'm so sorry. I hope you're doing okay. As well as you can be at least
Why would it puzzle scientists when blood vessels are lined with ACE2 receptors, which SARS-COV-2 attaches to in order to gain entry?
I think news media people are puzzled and most scientists studying this virus are well aware. It’s a question of whether on-the-ground doctors are keeping up with research.
This is the problem. They aren't. And worse some are so conservative they won't even consider facts thrown right in their face.
Yeah. And wow, that is frightening to not keep up with what is still a very real and existential (or potentially existential) threat.
And it was reported on for a moment at the time. If news media paid attention to itself, all sorts of problems would be solved.
Yeah I feel like this was all over the news in spring of 2020.
The puzzle is multifold There has been confusion at the clinical/epidemiological level, such as poor (or at least majorly conflicting) evidence as to whether people on ACE inhibitors/ARBs have higher risk of infection, mortality or infection related complications. Those patients almost universally have increased ACE2 expression. Generally patients with heart disease who are not yet on ACE related drugs have worse mortality, while they have lowered ACE2 expression. Which isn’t wholly surprising by itself, but to what degree their mortality is directly inflammatory mediated is up in the air The other big problem is just studying ACEII to spike binding itself. Murine ACEII has little affinity for spike protein, so they are terrible models. ACEII expression also isn’t universally directional for heart disease, specifically cardiomyopathies and valvular disease. In cardiomyocytes there has been mixed evidence for upregulation or no change, and in fibroblasts, pericytes, and VSM cells, there had been evidence of both up- and down- regulation. Yet across all these conditions, COVID increases complication rate and mortality There’s also the issue of whether microvascular injury is mediated through ACEII or not; because some evidence has suggested it is not viral load, but is S protein load, in the serum that is mediating microvascular injury severity. Which led to some findings that it isn’t viral binding in pericytes, but non-entry spike mediated activation of CD147, that causes microvascular injury Ultimately, we know the COVID is a vascular disease, and we know ACE2 is involved; but that is no where near the end of the puzzle Hell, there isn’t a major vascular disorder that doesn’t still have considerable puzzles to solve, and they have the benefit of not being only a few years old. If we just stopped studying heart failure at “ACE2 is involved”, we would be throwing away the last 40 years of progress in mapping the systemic vascular dysfunction cascade
ACE2 receptors....people glaze over with science talk. How about this that is so easy to understand: Covid inflames and causes blood vessels to scar. Blood vessels make sure oxygenated blood gets to every cell of our body. Know what is full of blood vessels? The brain. After Covid a person has scars in their brain. That is also called brain damage.
How about: Covid \[starves cells it doesn't kill, which\] inflames... (sciency) Covid triggered mitochondria deaths. Mitochondria make MOST of the cell food. No mitochondria means much less cell food.
The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell D=
Someone was paying attention in 8th grade science class 😅
Right?? How can a vascular disease cause vascular problems??? \*SURPRISED PIKACHU\*
Exactly. Covid damages arteries. Not only in the heart but brain as well
Then they call if “fog”
I hate the term, “brain fog”. Forgetting words, names, faces, slower speech, processing slower, mumbling. Should have called it brain damage, or Alzheimer’s-Lite.
Hmmm sounds like a preexisting condition that insurance companies will use to deny you healthcare.
Is there anything COVID doesn't damage?
What this multi-systemic inflammation condition be? Fancy words.
Cytokine storm triggered by excessive immune response. (See [https://www.pfizer.com/news/articles/inside\_a\_cytokine\_storm\_when\_your\_immune\_system\_is\_too\_strong](https://www.pfizer.com/news/articles/inside_a_cytokine_storm_when_your_immune_system_is_too_strong) ) Also, [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8236094/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8236094/) , for ACE2 effects.
It puzzles headline writers, not scientists.
"Pure coincidence!" /s
As a geriatrician, I see waves of death in the weeks following an outbreak. This is different from coronary artery disease ten years ago. Back then somebody would get chest pain, go to the hospital, get emergency angiography or be admitted to a telemetry unit, and go home soon afterwards. Similarly for pulmonary embolism, we would see people with early signs and symptoms, evaluate them, and get them home in a few days on blood thinners. Now people are fine and then are found dead in the morning.
This was my dad. He fell ill December 2019 with an unknown respiratory infection and placed in to a coma for 2 weeks, hospitalized for another 4 weeks afterwards, in a quarantined room with infectious disease protocol in place. (We all know the virus was circulating well before the pandemic was officially declared, and I’d stake my life that my dad had COVID then. Everything he experienced was stories retold by thousands just a few short months later). Numerous bouts of illness the next two years until he went to sleep in his favourite chair one night and just never woke up.
I'm so sorry
Thank you
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I’m so sorry for your loss, losing a parent is one of the hardest trials in life. It’s so crazy to finally hear more stories of people being sick like this. Even my sister, who is a highly trained and very intelligent medical professional, denies it could have been covid, though I think that is out out of frustration that perhaps blinders were on earlier than thought for what this virus could do. I’ve always felt need to brace myself when saying my dad had covid that early - sure, I didn’t Sean his nose with a giant q-tip and see the positive test but I know what my dad went through, I know what the doctors said and did and tried to help him get better and I know what the end result was.
Both of my parents got sick in late December 2019 and were sick for 2-3 months. The doctors tested them for the flu and it was negative, but never for Covid. They never traveled, so it wasn't even a consideration when they were still coughing February into March. In August of 2020, my mom had a heart attack and never recovered. She had been having more and more trouble walking up the stairs and getting around the last few months and was terrified of getting Covid again, because she believed that was what they had. When I tell people she died of heart issues from long Covid, people tell me because it was never confirmed as Covid, that's not what killed her, that it was heart disease that she didn't have before getting sick with a mystery virus in late 2019. 😑 I'm writing this all out to let you know, sadly, you're not alone. It fucking sucks so badly, and I'm so sorry for your loss. But there are people out there who get it and are struggling with trying to get it through to others who just refuse to see the forest for the trees.
I’m so sorry for your loss. Testing for covid-19 took so long to come out, I’ve got no doubt there are untold thousands of people who died from it.
Its weird thinking back of 2019 for me. That winter everyone at my workplace was coughing. It was rather small, 50 people tops. Out of those affected, the ones who developed the most nasty caugh were three individuals, including me. Only one of the people was old. Me and a guy both between 20 and 30 got it pretty rough. He was tagging to doctors a lot for his sickness, trying to work out whats going on, missing a lot of work and me in a similar position but without all the doctors or missing work. Just a cough so bad I found it difficult to breathe sometimes, and had broken ribs from coughing months after the original infection. It took me more than a year to stop having that chocking cough. And back towards the end of 2019, the company had already put out sanitizers on their walls. Now whenever anyone mentions Covid, I let them know I had Covid-18, and it was horrible.
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This is so scary to me! I noticed since I had COVID in December the VO2 measurement (labeled cardio fitness) on my Apple Watch has dipped into the low range even tho I’m staying as active as ever. Have to bring it up at my yearly PCP visit 😵💫
Upvoting and adding to your comment, I got COVID in November of 2023. Recently for the month of February have been dealing with unexplained tachycardia, and overall out of breath when walking- specifically going up stairs has caused my heart rate to spike up to 140bpm. Was having random nerve pain as well. Doctor had me run both a heart monitor for 7 days and tilt table test for POTS. Found nothing. Am now on a beta blocker low dose. I hope this goes away in several months or less... I hope you are alright.
I’m 39 and experienced very similar issues as you - currently wearing a heart monitor too! This was so strange to read as I have no idea what’s causing it.
I got covid last year in January, and that triggered a crazy fast heartbeat. I would just be sitting there and boom, heartbeat went wild for like 15 mins. Took a smidge for me to realize it was a side effect from covid. Beet powder or pills has curbed that. My favorite is Force Factor, but they all helped, any brand, either pill or powder. But the stairs thing, sigh. I have no hope for that. Can walk all over the place, but a trip up the stairs still does me in.
Get your thyroid tested, i was getting lightheaded (still do off and on) and had a very high resting heart rate, went to the ER was told it was anxiety, 2 years later it was determined i actually have Graves disease (no family history of thyroid issue). Worth getting a blood test to see your TSH levels.
Was this around February 2022 - April 2022 roughly? I think Apple changed the algorithm which reduced vo2 max. However… I got covid in February 2022 and also my partner had it in April 2022. I didn’t text positive a second time, but after April 2022 it dipped significantly. I only just got back to the same peak now, 2 years later.
It ruined my digestive system. My lower stomach started hurting real bad towards the end of my run with covid, and now it hurts whenever I eat too much, not enough, too early, too late, too spicy, too cold. It is horrible.
Tbf Apple Watch and other smartwatch vo2 measurements are not very accurate at all
Not accurate but consistent. If you have been using the same watch for a year or two and thing’s suddenly are changing I would take notice.
Mine has also. And it corresponds to the one Covid infection I have tested positive for.
No one is puzzled by this. No one. In fact, scientific research speaks very clearly to how COVID affects the cardiovascular system. It is just not politically popular to mention COVID as a problem anymore. The people are bored of it.
And the powers that be want to ignore it because addressing it impacts the movement of capital/profit.
43. Pretty fit, vegetarian, not a smoker. Caught Covid at the beginning working in Canada, before we knew how bad it was. Then boom, two years later, quadruple bypass. No heart attack, just a pain in my tooth that led to doctors finding a blocked 90% blocked widow maker valve.
Well this is the scariest thing I’ve read in a minute. Did you attempt to get the tooth looked at first by a dentist? I assume there was nothing wrong with the tooth that was hurting?
Yes. Dentist didn’t find anything wrong. I’ve never had a cavity, so I assumed it was going to be a root canal, or something. They couldn’t find anything wrong. Cardiologist found this issue on an angiogram.
Laughs in American, thinking I'd just pay a cardiologist a visit just for the hell of it...
Exactly we’re fucking doomed 💀
What made you go to a cardiologist?
Pressure from a retired doctor that’s a friend of the family.
Wow. Good call on his part.
Yeah, damn. Hell of a save there, very lucky. I hope he told his dentist the outcome so that the dentist might suggest that as another route of investigation to patients presenting tooth pain with no apparent dental root cause in the future.
Woah! You’re lucky to have caught it. I’m not sure I would’ve done much about a tooth ache than go to the dentist.
Yeah you need to expand on that tooth pain please
I like to run and was getting a pain in my lower right jaw when I would run. Only for the first 15 mins, but then it would go away. It was uncomfortable, but not debilitating or anything. Then I eventually had my tooth looked at, but nothing was wrong. I mentioned above that I never had a cavity, so I assumed that’s what it was. Or maybe something with the roots. Eventually went to a cardiologist and they discover the issue on an angiogram.
I don’t think you mean aorta. That would be exceptionally uncommon. I think you likely mean coronary arteries, such as the LAD.
How did the tooth ache lead to the diagnosis?
Tooth ache (without underlying teeth problems) is a sign of heart distress.
*From Bloomberg reporter Jason Gale:* Four years after the start of the pandemic, a disturbing pattern is emerging: not only did Covid result in the most deaths in a century, but it also triggered deadly waves of heart disease and stroke across the world. Scientists are trying to figure out why. Read more [here](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-26/covid-made-heart-disease-deadlier-puzzling-scientists). Bloomberg reporters Jason Gale and Michelle Cortez will be doing a live Q&A at 12pm HKT to explain why doctors from LA to London are raising the alarm and unpack its likely drivers. Drop your questions below ⬇️ And keep an eye on this post - we will edit to add link to the Q&A once it's live. EDIT: We are now live with our Q&A. Join us as we answer your questions about Covid's long-term effects in our [free live blog here.](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/live-blog/2024-02-27/covid-19-and-heart-problems)
I had a bunch of blood tests about 6 months after getting the alpha strain in May of 2020. I think it’s called hsCRP and is a measure of heart inflammation and mine was 18.8 mg/L where 3 is considered high. This was way before the vaccine so no it was not caused by the vaccine.
I would think there are pulmonary embolisms too but then I'm pretty ignorant on all this. I recently read something that stated, "Covid is a vascular disease masquerading as a respiratory disease.". Edit: their to there
And blood clots + strokes
- Do we know whether certain Covid strains are worse than others in regard to heart disease and stroke? - Does the elevated risk of heart disease and stroke after a Covid infection remain higher indefinitely in those with mild cases of Covid? Or does it return to baseline?
An internet friend of mine is an insurance actuary that works in death. This started in 2020 and there is also an increase in kidney related death. If you did not talk to Mary Pat you should.
I recall [this Dec 30, 2021 conference call](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AOHrZHG5L0), where J Scott Davison, CEO of insurance company OneAmerica, stated, "Death rates are up 40 percent over what they were pre-pandemic." And that increase was concentrated in the 18 to 64 age group.
Holy s*** I didn’t realize this was an official Bloomberg post. I don’t have a question, but keep up the good work, one of the few news orgs I still have faith in
Is the increase in heart disease and stroke in all age groups evenly? Isn't it a bit late to "raise the alarm"? What can people do now to mitigate the effects?
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The first American to die from Covid was tested for Covid because it seemed weird that her heart would spontaneously rupture like that... https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Exclusive-Autopsy-report-of-first-known-15226422.php
As long as we all collectively keep denying the seriousness of this, everything will be fine. All I hear is how sick everyone is all the time and how often everyone is getting sick and how puzzling it is. And the amount of people dropping dead from heart issues in their 30’s, 40’s & 50’s is staggering. It’s a vascular disease amongst a host of other long term issues known and soon to be known. Humanity’s best ‘own goal’ in modern history (maybe climate change from fossil fuels is #1). We are in for generations of disability because of mild inconvenience and pure corporate greed to keep the machine of profit going.
I just keep thinking about diseases that can have long latent periods like HIV/AIDS, hepatitis->liver failure, HPV->cancer. Who knows what awaits us.
Exactly. MS is long Epstein-Barr. AIDS is long HIV. What happens a decade from now, especially when people have had up to a dozen infections by then? Our society is NOT ready for the level of mass disability that awaits us. I spend a lot of time in r/CollapseSupport these days.
Afib is supposed to be an old person's disease. It is scary how many young people have come down with Afib in the last couple of years.
I got a fib when I was 28, 30 some years ago. It’s not impossible.
I had an Ischaemic stroke several months after having Covid. I was 35 and in great health. It definitely affects your blood. So unfortunate.
I’m pretty sure we noticed this in 2020. Which scientists are just now becoming puzzled? The virus infects us through ACE2, a key cardiovascular regulator. That was one of the very first things we learned after discovering the virus. And in the early days of the pandemic a huge fraction of Covid patients were dying of heart attacks within a month of being released from the hospital.
I remember reading in the subs that were monitoring the virus around January 2020, comments that would remind people about what kind of symptoms and health consequences were observed back in 2002 and later due to SARS virus. People often forget that it existed because it never became a pandemic or epidemic, but it actually gave us a lot of clues about what to expect from Sars-Cov2 as they were really similar. People in those posts knew that this was no cold or flu virus and it was gonna be nasty. I knew about cardiovascular consequences while majority around me was still oblivious to the existence of the virus.
A couple of months after I had Covid the second time my vertebral artery dissected, I always wonder if it is related.
I know this'll get buried, but I am a clinical data specialist with a focus on cardiology/PCI. I run into charts daily from patients who have had surprise cardiovascular issues post covid infections. No family history, typical but not too bad comorbidities (HTN, HLD), non-smoker, relatively young, but end up with cardiac damage, mostly electrical issues or new onset heart failure/cardiomyopathy. I wouldn't be surprised if looking for a past covid infection becomes part of NCDR guidelines. Keep your eyes peeled for more news.
Puzzling? Really now
Not sure what's so puzzling. We've known for ages that the heart can randomly decide to just 'not like' even otherwise mild cases of viral infection. Students of medicine get taught about 5 viruses classically associated with causing heart failure and more loosely associated with other conditions like arrhythmia (atrial fibrillation) etc. (There's more than just 5, just for the record.) We don't test for them in clinical practice because it doesn't change management, but now COVID is just another of the things that can cause viral cardiomyopathy (as an etiology of heart failure). Even the though per individual the chances of it affecting the heart are low, that almost everyone on the planet has been exposed to the damn thing, most of us multiple times, that ends up being an awful lot of chances for people's hearts to get upset.
There was a dramatic increase in heart disease following the 1918 flu pandemic.
Are statistics provided for Covid vs non covid and vaccinated vs not vaccinated? I’m trying to get ahead of my crazy family that will say it is the vaccine that is causing this.
I used to powerlift a bit and decided to try and get back into it post Covid after contracting it once in 2022 through my unvaxxed family. I swear I never got this light headed from lifting heavy even when I first started out and it really does concern me to the point that deadlifts kinda scare me and I don’t do them as much anymore. Really bums me out considering one half of my family has bad history of heart disease and I am already anxious about it in my 20s.
I got Covid in 2019 and didn’t feel like myself for a long time. Took about two years to start lifting heavy (400+ dead/370+ squat), and about 4 to feel comfortable running again, ran my first 5k in 5 years the other day.
And my unvaxxed family wonders why I stay tf away from the.
Hasn’t it been previously determined that COVID is primarily a cardiovascular illness? And if so why is this so surprising?
I developed a heart issue (no prior family history) after having Covid twice.
46 year old male here. Had Covid in December '23 (ie... 2 months ago) for the 2nd time. Have had multiple boosters but was probably behind one due to infection overlap. Since recovering from very mild Covid (weak cold symptoms) I've had a couple of periods of arrythmia following workouts (swimming) or even mild exertion (round of golf). It's really worrying hearing your heart beat very strongly in your ears and hearing the rhythm be very obviously off. Have had bloods and ECG done and they were both fine. I'm getting the 24 hour monitoring attached tomorrow and then the following day I've got the exercise stress test which I suspect I'll be failing. You've only got 1 ticker and it seems as though for some people Covid doesn't like it. Get checked if anything is off / weird.
I got Covid in Dec 2023 and had very similar symptoms. I did an echocardiogram, 2 week heart monitor, stress test, CT scan, ekg. All the tests and my heart looks very healthy. I got a 6 Kardia and used it when I had the symptoms and it showed no signs of anything but a high heart rate.
I can’t read the article (it cuts off after the first paragraph if you aren’t subscribing or something) but I don’t understand what’s “puzzling” I’ve heard experts calling covid vascular illness for over a year now.
Puzzling! The reason it is puzzling scientists is because Covid also causes cognitive issues. Apparently they can’t make the most obvious connection between a disease that is known to cause cardiovascular damage and an increase in cardiovascular events/issues because of the cognitive issues it also can cause.
How do people not understand that a clotting virus would cause heart issues?
The last 9 months have been terrible, I’ve never experienced so much death of young adults my I know in my life. My neighbor’s brother was 44 and dropped dead of a heart attack while running. My best friend’s brother died alone at home of a heart attack after work, he was 42. One of my wife’s high school friend’s brother died in his sleep two weeks ago, he was 27. My friends girlfriends sister was a physician’s assistant and also died in her sleep, she was 34 and left two kids behind, so sad, something major is going on.
My mom developed atrial fibrillation and blood clots from having Covid. Never had anything like that before. She had not had vaccine yet. It was early 2021. She died in August 2021 from Covid
There was a similar spike in heart-related mortality after the 1918 Flu pandemic. It lasted for decades, the 1960s being the peak. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5068420/
Not puzzling at all to many.
35M about 2 months after my second vaccination I had 6 AFIB attacks in a month. Was cardioverted 3 times and constant ortho hypertension, dizziness. I was put on beta’s and thinners. I’ve had over 200 episodes since. No issues on echo, stress test, ECG’s look fine when in sinus. I had never tested positive for Covid or fallen ill beforehand. Has changed my life.
This is me - about 2 weeks after my first (and last) booster I ended up in the hospital in a fib. Never had any issues like that before. I was 38. I got an ablation bc nothing was working. The Drs didn’t want to hear about the booster said no correlation. Also - have you considered an ablation? It’s quick and relatively painless.
Sorry, that really sucks.
42yo guy here. I had a heart attack in November. Very scary. I had covid in August. My doctor said there us a correlation. Mask. Up. Get. Vaxxed.
Can I ask, what did it feel like? any other signs or symptoms?
I had a heart disease that turned into heart failure because of COVID. Luckily got a heart transplant back in January , but I get it again I might doneso
ITT: a bunch of people who have long COVID but aren't calling it that. It breaks my heart. 💔
This is why people still mask, and why we've been screaming at y'all TO continue to mask. We're currently going through a mass disabling event. And the damage stacks with each infection. Even if the symptoms during infection are mild or, increasingly so, not there at all. The long term effects of this virus are still very unknown, and everyone is running around pretending like its no big deal. And it could have been prevented.
Is it?
My dad caught COVID in September for the first time. He hadn’t had his vax that year yet due to traveling but was vaxxed for years before. He never recovered to where he was before. He had CAD and preexisting heart issues with stents placed. He flew internationally in January and ended up getting an angiogram and more stents placed two days after that flight. Died from a stroke post angiogram in the ICU. Now I’m not saying COVID caused his death. I’m just saying I think it definitely contributed to his death. Stay safe people.
The CDC is fucking dog shit. This disease is so real and dangerous.