Core Temperatures. Long COVID.

[mallorys_camera]

Temps were above freezing yesterday, so I went out tromping.

It’s so interesting the way one acclimatizes to low temps after a while!

My extremities were cold, but my core was quite toasty—as though cowering inside this last month had somehow taught my core how to conserve heat-energy more efficiently. How does that happen? Osmosis?

The world was covered with Horrible White Stuff.

Many people find Horrible White Stuff beautiful.

I am not one of those many people.





Not much else to report.

Chatted with the #1 son for a while this morning. He filled my brain with all sorts of scare stories about—ugh—Long COVID. The fellow attorney who is now out on indefinite medical leave because her heart is apparently only pumping at 60% capacity… The Madeleine pal, in her 20s, and before COVID, the picture of cardiovascular health, who actually had a heart attack…

Long COVID is going to have a far more dramatic effect on the utilization of healthcare and social services in the upcoming 40 years than COVID itself ever did.

###

I suppose I will go out tromping today, too.

It’s rather awful and grey out there, but temps are supposed to flirt with the 40° F mark.

Then we are scheduled for another SNOWPOCALYPSE.

Comments

[pritkiy_kaban]

>> How does that happen?

Is not it normal, though? Adrenaline/epinephrine is released, and it is supposed to command the whole system to alter blood flow so that most important parts (heart, lungs, muscles) are well-supplied. But the way particular body complies is highly individual. The trunk being "hot to touch" while hands and feet are cold are not uncommon in vigorously playing children, for example.

>> Long COVID

C19's ability to do cardiac damage via immune response (akin to streptococcal pharyngitis triggering rheumatic fever) is probably scariest part of the story. But considering how little is reliably known about C19's autoimmune mechanics, what can we do?

It certainly sucks if mild Covid19 is more likely to result in adverse heart damage than, say, flu, or sever sinusitis, or whatever. But I believe very little could be done about that, apart from improving particular person's cardiovascular health - which, I might add, quite a few people scared by C19 neglect to do.

[mallorys_camera]

This blog entry has a pretty good explanation of adaptive homeostasis for cold:

https://therunnerdad.com/what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-adapt-to-the-cold/

I'm mystified because it happened to me while I was spending time inside! 😀

Long COVID

Personally, I think it has to do with the micro-clotting phenomenon: It's long been known that elevated levels of inflammatory molecules promote abnormal clotting.

But who knows?

[gale_storm]

I very much agree with you on your view of the white stuff.

[mallorys_camera]

The Hideous White Stuff sucks. 😀

[adoptedwriter]

Covid is scary and just plain sux!

White Plague is good for one day and then it needs to disappear.

It was 50 here yesterday and sunny...Today rain is currently turning to sleet and ice...then snow. Schools here have already called off for tomorrow.

[pritkiy_kaban]

Oh, having cold extremities while inside and at rest is probably even more normal. There are healthy young people wearing wool socks indoors :)

Clotting certainly plays big part in C19's damage. In last four months, two of my circle have suffered what amounts to relatively low-damage stroke. A man in early 50s and a woman barely past 40, the latter particularly disturbing (she is enviably thin, and the last person cholesterol-loaded pear-shape like me would suspect to have a cardioascular problem).

ed: on the other hand, docs here already complain about people self-medicating with antiaggregants.

[mallorys_camera]

antiaggregants

The English word is "anticoagulants."

But that is very interesting. I wonder if long COVID would disappear if all people who've had COVID began popping an aspirin a day? 😀

[mallorys_camera]

Yah. We have the same weather forecast here—pushed ahead one day.

[pritkiy_kaban]

I am kind of confused then. What we refer to as anticoagulants are drugs like rivaroxaban (xarelto etc.) or good old heparin. I believe that's what you'd call blood thinner. What we refer to as antiaggregant are what you'd call antiplatelet drugs, or aggregation inhibitor.

>> I wonder if long COVID would disappear if all people who've had COVID began popping an aspirin a day?

It very well may, in a sense that people would stop being bothered by COVID and start worrying about effect stemming from prolonged consumption of aspirin! (and gastroscopy is such fun, too)

[mallorys_camera]

What we refer to as anticoagulants are drugs like rivaroxaban (xarelto etc.) or good old heparin. I believe that's what you'd call blood thinner. What we refer to as antiaggregant are what you'd call antiplatelet drugs, or aggregation inhibitor.

Oh, okay. Antithrombotics but not blood thinners. 😀

worrying about effect stemming from prolonged consumption of aspirin!

Doctors here go back and forth on advising all people above a certain age to take 100mg of aspirin a day for its anticoagulant effects. Not a huge dose. 😀

[pritkiy_kaban]

Same here. A few popular "Cardiosomething" pills are actually just 80-90mg aspirin.

The dose is certainly moderate - under doc's supervision. Which is, unfortunately, what's lacking so much currently. There are (admittedly rare) anecdotal cases of low-dose aspiring triggering nasty events. An LJ user sovenok101 (she's an ER doc) described a case of ~30y old fellow (iron pumper, steroids, 2 months of 85mg aspirin + some indometocin), who got his otherwise aymptomatic duodenum ulcer to the point of fainting after blood vomit.

On the other hand, it is kind of extreme occurance, and lowering probability of clots certainly tips risk vs reward scales here.