August 7, 2020

Hair loss and vertigo possibly long-term COVID-19 symptoms

There is so much we don't know about the long-term side effects of contracting COVID-19, which is why you should do everything you can possibly do to prevent getting infected.

Doctors are identifying more and more possible long-term side effects, including fatigue, headaches, vertigo, and even hair loss.

"We're really seeing a number of reports of people who report long-term fatigue, headaches, vertigo (and), interestingly enough, difficulties with cognition, hair loss, cardiac issues, and diminished cardiorespiratory fitness," said Dr. Gregory Poland, a COVID-19 expert at the Mayo Clinic.

According to Polland, even some mild or asymptomatic patients can experience long-term symptoms.

"People who are thinking, especially young people, '(It's a) mild disease, you know. I might not even have any symptoms, and I'm over it.' The data is suggesting otherwise. There's evidence of myocardial damage, cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias, decreased ejection fractions, pulmonary scarring, and strokes," Poland said. "We're going to see more and more of the longer-term consequences come out, and we're going to need to study those as vigorously as we did the acute symptoms. Catalog them, understand them, and then do clinical trials to figure out how best to treat them."

It is just now that the link between hair loss and COVID-19 is beginning to be reported and recognized in research.

Spanish Flu history lesson

The first wave of the 1918 pandemic occurred in the spring and was generally mild. The sick, who experienced such typical flu symptoms as chills, fever, and fatigue, usually recovered after several days, and the number of reported deaths was low.

However, a second, highly contagious wave of influenza appeared with a vengeance in the fall of that same year. Victims died within hours or days of developing symptoms, their skin turning blue and their lungs filling with fluid that caused them to suffocate. In just one year, 1918, the average life expectancy in America plummeted by a dozen years.

Wear a mask, please.