In some long COVID patients, the mitochondria are 'just not working like they should be.'
. That was one thing that Irina Petrache, MD, chief of the Division of Pulmonary at National Jewish Health in Denver, noticed early on in the pandemic."As the first survivors of COVID emerged, it became clear that many of them suffered from prolonged illness," Dr. Petrache tells POPSUGAR.
In the study, researchers asked patients to undergo cardiopulmonary exercise testing, which involved exercising on either a stationary bike or a treadmill and slowly increasing the resistance or incline to the point of fatigue. As they exercised, researchers recorded"massive amounts of data," Dr. Petrache says, from heart rate and blood pressure to the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in their inhalations and exhalations.
"All these formulas and results pointed in the same direction: that there is something wrong with these little organelles," Dr. Petrache says."They're just not working like they should be."Researchers don't know the exact mechanism by which SARS-COV-2 affects the mitochondria, though this isto point out a connection.
Finding the exact mechanism of the mitochondria dysfunction is one of the next steps Dr. Petrache hopes to take."All these permutations or possibilities are subject to research now," she said."We really want to pinpoint it.
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