Fatigue in long COVID patients has a physical cause: Study

(NewsNation) — New research is shedding light on the near-constant fatigue experienced by those who are suffering from long COVID.

Published in Nature Communications, researchers from Amsterdam UMC and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam discovered the persistent fatigue in patients with long COVID has a biological cause: mitochondria in muscle cells that produce less energy than in healthy patients.

For the study, 25 long-COVID patients and 21 healthy participants were asked to ride a stationary bicycle for fifteen minutes. Those with long COVID experienced long-term worsening of their symptoms.

“We saw various abnormalities in the muscle tissue of the patients. At the cellular level, we saw that the mitochondria of the muscle, also known as the energy factories of the cell, function less well and that they produce less energy,” says Rob Wüst, Assistant Professor at the Department of Human Movement Sciences at the VU University. “So, the cause of the fatigue is really biological.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in August began a handful of studies to test possible treatments for the mysterious condition that afflicts millions.

Scientists don’t yet know what causes long COVID, the catchall term for about 200 widely varying symptoms. Between 10% and 30% of people are estimated to have experienced some form of long COVID after recovering from a coronavirus infection, a risk that has dropped somewhat since early in the pandemic.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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