00:00 In the wake of a global pandemic, the remnants of the novel coronavirus remain, namely in the form of long COVID.
00:06 Long COVID is marked by symptoms that exceed the normal infection period for the virus and are diverse.
00:12 Now a new study looking at some 203 patients who were hospitalized has revealed that these symptoms might not be related to the respiratory system,
00:20 where the infection occurred, but rather in the brain.
00:23 When compared to those who did not have the virus, the hospitalized patients showed elevated levels of what are considered brain injury biomarkers.
00:30 These levels were even present in the patient's blood months after having recovered from COVID,
00:35 with the researchers noting, "This suggests the possibility of ongoing inflammation and injury inside the brain itself,
00:41 which may not be detected by blood tests for inflammation."
00:44 They add that their best guess is that this has something to do with the body's immune system having an abnormal response to the illness.
00:50 The researchers say that some forms of long COVID effectively look a whole lot like a brain injury
00:55 and can carry symptoms from headaches all the way to seizures, strokes, and encephalitis.
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