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Vipin M. Vashishtha

@vipintukur

Feb 6

New study suggests #LongCOVID may involve disrupted cortisol rhythms, not just inflammation.

Patients showed:
• Reduced morning cortisol
• Elevated evening levels
• Flattened daily cortisol cycle

➡️ Indicating hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction. 1/

Prospective study of post-COVID patients:

➡️ Compared with healthy controls,
✔ Long COVID patients had blunted morning cortisol peaks
✔ Higher evening cortisol
✔ Loss of normal circadian pattern

Blood cortisol alone failed to detect these changes. 2/

Key insight:

➡️ Salivary cortisol profiling may be a more sensitive marker of stress-system dysfunction in LongCOVID than standard blood tests.

➡️ HPA axis disruption could underlie:
• Fatigue
• Brain fog
• Sleep disturbance
• Dysautonomia. 3/

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Vipin M. Vashishtha

@vipintukur

Jan 24

Post-COVID fatigue isn’t just subjective.
Using advanced MRI, researchers found real changes in brain blood flow and oxygen metabolism in people with Post-COVID-19 Syndrome (PCS) after mild infection.

➡️ Key finding:

PCS patients showed increased oxygen metabolism in the hippocampus (memory hub) but reduced metabolism in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) — despite no visible brain atrophy. 1/

Why this matters:

➡️ Higher hippocampal metabolism was linked to better cognitive performance, suggesting a compensatory response to maintain thinking and memory in PCS. 2/

In contrast, lower anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) metabolism correlated with:

• depressive symptoms
• reduced motivation
• higher inflammatory & glial markers (TNF-α, GFAP)
➡️ pointing to immune-driven neurovascular uncoupling. 3/

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Vipin M. Vashishtha

@vipintukur

Jan 22

Why do some people feel exhausted long after COVID-19?

➡️ New brain-imaging research shows that even after mild COVID, people with persistent fatigue can have subtle but real changes in brain structure.

➡️ These changes are not large or widespread, but tend to appear in connected brain networks, especially areas involved in attention, decision-making, and sensory processing. 1/

Importantly, the brain regions affected overlap with areas that naturally express TMPRSS2, a protein that helps SARS-CoV-2 enter cells — suggesting certain brain circuits may be more vulnerable to the virus. 2/

The study also links these changes to brain chemical systems involved in mood, energy, and cognition (serotonin, acetylcholine, glutamate, and cannabinoids). 3/

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Vipin M. Vashishtha

@vipintukur

Jan 19

COVID-19 doesn’t just affect the lungs — it can disrupt how cells produce energy. New research shows that COVID-19 alters the genetic “switches” that control mitochondria, the structures that power our cells. 1/

By comparing people who died from severe COVID-19, those who recovered, and healthy individuals, researchers found lasting changes in how mitochondrial genes are regulated. These changes were most prominent in genes involved in energy production and metabolism. 2/

Importantly, people with COVID-19 showed abnormally high levels of proteins that control mitochondrial structure and stress responses, suggesting long-term damage to the cell’s energy system. 3/

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Vipin M. Vashishtha

@vipintukur

Dec 26, 2025

#LongCOVID (LC) shares striking symptom overlap with hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD/hEDS): fatigue, brain fog, dysautonomia, pain—especially in women.

➡️ A new case series explores whether some “intractable” LC may reflect undiagnosed hypermobility disorders.

➡️ Five women with persistent LC symptoms were evaluated at an hEDS/HSD clinic.
All met Beighton score criteria for hypermobility.

➡️ 4 diagnosed with hEDS, 1 with HSD
➡️ 3 had dysautonomia

None had prior hypermobility diagnoses. 1/

All patients carried MTHFR polymorphisms (C677T or A1298C)—recently linked to hEDS/HSD.

➡️ Several also showed features of mast cell activation, suggesting immune dysregulation may unmask latent connective tissue disorders after SARS-CoV-2 infection.

➡️ Targeted management (physical therapy, methylfolate/B12, mast cell stabilization, pain interventions) led to clinical improvement in all cases.

🔑 Takeaway: Consider hEDS/HSD in women with refractory Long COVID, especially with multisystem pain and dysautonomia. 2/

This case series suggests that some patients with severe, persistent #LongCOVID—especially women—may have previously undiagnosed hypermobility disorders (hEDS/HSD).

➡️ Five women with refractory LongCOVID symptoms were found to meet criteria for hypermobility, often with dysautonomia, mast cell–related features, and MTHFR polymorphisms.

➡️ Targeted management led to clinical improvement, highlighting the need to consider hEDS/HSD in patients with intractable Long COVID symptoms. 3/

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Vipin M. Vashishtha

@vipintukur

Dec 26, 2025

🔥 A landmark study challenges the long-held belief that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is irreversible.

➡️ Using advanced mouse models that mimic human AD pathology, researchers found that restoring and maintaining healthy levels of NAD⁺, a key cellular energy molecule, can not only prevent but also reverse advanced Alzheimer’s pathology and fully restore cognitive function in mice. 1/

The team showed that NAD⁺ deficiency is a central driver of AD pathology—leading to blood-brain barrier breakdown, neuroinflammation, oxidative damage, and impaired neurogenesis. 2/

➡️ By administering a compound that rebalances NAD⁺ (P7C3-A20), all these pathological features were reversed, and memory and cognitive function were recovered.

➡️ These effects were seen in both amyloid-driven and tau-driven models, with supporting evidence from human AD brain samples suggesting disrupted NAD⁺ homeostasis in patients. 3/

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