Mini-strokes, gut problems: Scientists see links to an old bout of Covid

livemint.com:

Scientists suspect that one culprit behind your new illness might be the infection you got a couple of years ago. The link between new health problems and your past health history appears to be particularly prevalent with Covid. A new Nature Medicine study found that health problems stemming from even mild Covid infections can emerge as many as three years afterward.

The study found a greater risk three years later of problems in the gut, brain and lungs, including irritable bowel syndrome, mini-strokes and pulmonary scarring. This is different from what most people think of as “long Covid," the debilitating chronic condition that can include fatigue, brain fog and racing heartbeat. Instead, the latest study has found an increased risk of new health conditions—things you probably wouldn’t think of as related to a prior illness—developing years later.

This connection extends to other illnesses, too, doctors say. There’s some evidence of increased cases of Parkinson’s disease following the 1918 flu pandemic. More recent research has linked the Epstein-Barr virus, which causes mono, to multiple sclerosis years or even decades later.

Common illnesses like flu can have aftereffects, too. “Infections may be setting up things down the road that we’re not aware of," says Dr. Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, professor and chair of the department of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and director of its Covid recovery clinic.

The science is still emerging. It’s hard to know for sure whether an old illness is causing your new problem, so for now there are no hard and fast guidelines for patients. The latest Covid study didn’t identify a cause of later health problems, and scientists