Heart-disease risk soars after Covid, even with a mild case

COVID and the autoimmune response to it damages the endothelial layer of your cardiovascular systems. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ahajournals.org&#x2F;doi&#x2F;10.1161&#x2F;ATVBAHA.121.316101" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ahajournals.org&#x2F;doi&#x2F;10.1161&#x2F;ATVBAHA.121.316101</a> and <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41392-021-00819-6" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41392-021-00819-6</a><p>The big question is how quickly and completely can that layer restore itself? If damage accumulates over time and people are catching new variants every 3-4 months it is only a matter of time before mortality from cardiovascular issues in COVID negative formerly infected people goes much higher and much younger. We need studies on the cardiovascular recovery pace after COVID damage in different age groups, and after repeat COVID diagnosis from different variants.

Many of the &quot;Covid-19 increases risk of XYZ&quot; popular media articles lack baseline comparisons to other virus infections. (Disclaimer: Yes, we know Covid-19 isn&#x27;t the flu, and it&#x27;s more deadly.) My point is: how much does heart-disease risk increase post-Covid compared to say post-Influenza? Is it comparable or is the risk magnitudes larger than with other virus infections? This is an important benchmark, I understand scientific journals don&#x27;t cater to laypeople but popular media does.<p>From CDC website: &quot;Studies have shown that flu illness is associated with an increase in heart attacks and stroke. A 2018 study found that the risk of having a heart attack was 6 times higher within a week of a confirmed flu infection.&quot;

If I&#x27;m reading Figure 5 right in the original paper*, it looks like the biggest cardiac impact is on people who were hospitalized or went to the ICU for covid, and the effect on people who were not hospitalized is present but relatively small. Am I interpreting the data correctly?<p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41591-022-01689-3" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41591-022-01689-3</a> h&#x2F;t to @greenyoda for posting elsewhere in this thread.

These numbers are exceptionally high on aggregate. From the article: &quot;out of every 1,000 people studied, there were around 4 more people in the COVID-19 group than in the control group who experienced stroke.&quot;<p>This means that for every million people who got COVID-19, we would expect 4,000 more strokes. Using a lower-bound estimate that 50% of the population will get COVID-19 at some point, this would mean roughly 650,000 more cases in the US alone (~330 million people), and this is in addition to baseline. A totally devastating pandemic.

New Zealand has been basically isolated and Covid free for the past year. Their population is approaching 95% vaccinated. It would be interesting to see statistics on heart disease rates in their population over the past year, as we could then be certain any increase is vaccine related and not Covid related.

What I would like to know is, for young males (i.e. those who are most at risk of myocarditis after the vaccine), does the vaccine lessen cardiac risks in a subsequent infection or not?

This comment will probably get flagged, but I am genuinely curious from a scientific lens. What is the distribution of post-COVID heart disease conditional on having taken the vaccine?

It is important to note that given the timeline in the study (March 2020 to Jan 2021) most of the COVID-19 group was likely unvaccinated. It remains to be seen whether vaccination protects against these same risks.<p>Edit: This is confirmed in the supplementary data. Only 347 (0.23%) of the 162,690 people in the COVID-19 group were vaccinated prior to infection. That being said, a reasonably large percentage (61.93%) were vaccinated by the end of the follow up period, which would seemingly indicate that vaccination post-infection doesn&#x27;t help all that much against these risks.

This is interesting to contrast with the numerous studies mentioned here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.statnews.com&#x2F;2021&#x2F;05&#x2F;14&#x2F;setting-the-record-straight-there-is-no-covid-heart&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.statnews.com&#x2F;2021&#x2F;05&#x2F;14&#x2F;setting-the-record-strai...</a>

I find it weird that there&#x27;s no mentions of variants, but I assume based on the timeline it&#x27;s probably Delta and older.<p>Seems impossible to tell if this holds for omicron as well, given that it&#x27;s replication behavior and general outcome is a bit different and usually more mild.

Link to the original paper: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41591-022-01689-3" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41591-022-01689-3</a>

I am currently in bed, sick from covid, can you guys stop scaring me?

&gt; For example, people in the contemporary control group weren’t tested for COVID-19, so it’s possible that some of them actually had mild infections.<p>How doesn&#x27;t this completely invalidate the title? If we aren&#x27;t actually comparing between a group that provably <i>did not have COVID</i> and one that did, we can&#x27;t possibly draw any conclusions about the effect of having COVID compared to not having it at all.

Is it soaring after the illness or after the medical intervention?<p>These are 2 different things. The vaccines obviously have not had any long term testing.

Notable point from the actual paper, that adds clarity to the &quot;even with a mild case&quot; title: &quot;These risks and burdens were evident even among individuals who were not hospitalized during the acute phase of the infection and increased in a graded fashion according to the care setting during the acute phase (non-hospitalized, hospitalized and admitted to intensive care).&quot; You can see the effects of covid severity in this figure: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41591-022-01689-3&#x2F;figures&#x2F;5" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41591-022-01689-3&#x2F;figures&#x2F;5</a>

“Ardehali cautions that the study’s observational nature comes with some limitations. For example, people in the contemporary control group weren’t tested for COVID-19, so it’s possible that some of them actually had mild infections. And because the authors considered only VA patients — a group that’s predominantly white and male — their results might not translate to all populations.” This might sound like minor information, but it calls the conclusions and broad claims into question. In fact, it’s a very narrow study.

After recovering from covid, my resting heartbeat has gone up from 60-70 to 90-100 BPM. And I now cannot eat food without a glass of water because my throat gets so dry that I have the sensation of getting choked all the time.

“For example, people in the contemporary control group weren’t tested for COVID-19, so it’s possible that some of them actually had mild infections.”<p>I can’t believe such unthorough data but extremely alarmist headline is allowed in print.

I think I mentioned this before but I had the strangest Covid experience - for years I&#x27;ve struggled with Opiates&#x2F;Cocaine &amp; to a lesser degree Alcohol. I got Covid early on &amp; since recovering have little to no desire for that stuff - so I&#x27;ve stopped drinking, dont use anymore &amp; am (slowly) coming off my maintanence medication. I&#x27;m only one person of course but I find it the strangest thing..

&quot;it is important that those who are not vaccinated get their vaccine immediately.&quot;<p>Sounds like another biased article to promote experimental vaccines. Curiously right after so many studies about increased hear failures, myocarditis and pericarditis in healthy population and dying athletes in front of the cameras.<p>&gt; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;jamanetwork.com&#x2F;journals&#x2F;jama&#x2F;fullarticle&#x2F;2788346" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;jamanetwork.com&#x2F;journals&#x2F;jama&#x2F;fullarticle&#x2F;2788346</a> &gt; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;swprs.org&#x2F;covid-vaccines-a-reality-check&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;swprs.org&#x2F;covid-vaccines-a-reality-check&#x2F;</a> &gt; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.medrxiv.org&#x2F;content&#x2F;10.1101&#x2F;2021.12.21.21268209v1.full.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.medrxiv.org&#x2F;content&#x2F;10.1101&#x2F;2021.12.21.21268209v...</a> &gt; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41591-021-01630-0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41591-021-01630-0</a> &gt; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;goodsciencing.com&#x2F;covid&#x2F;athletes-suffer-cardiac-arrest-die-after-covid-shot&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;goodsciencing.com&#x2F;covid&#x2F;athletes-suffer-cardiac-arre...</a>

Vaxxed, unvaxxed, or both?

From the article:<p>&gt;Even a mild case of COVID-19 can increase a person’s risk of cardiovascular problems for at least a year after diagnosis, a new study shows.<p>&gt; “I am actually surprised by these findings that cardiovascular complications of COVID can last so long,”<p>Does this imply that the risk decreases with time as the body recovers? Or is the elevated risk permanent?

Looking at this comment section restores my faith in humanity and nuanced discourse. HN is way better than twitter.

&gt; Ardehali cautions that the study’s observational nature comes with some limitations. For example, people in the contemporary control group weren’t tested for COVID-19, so it’s possible that some of them actually had mild infections.<p>Let’s just say that there are some statistical issues with this study design.

I should presume you all enjoy hearing members of the public explain how easily [your domains of competence] can be understood through intuition and cursory &#x27;research&#x27;, and that you yourselves are more serious about [critical systems you are responsible for] largely due to some sort of amorphous nefarious evil or incompetence on your own parts?

Anecdotally, a friend of mine in his early 40s got covid, recovered fully, had a fatal heart attack a month later. Seems we will see an uptick in deaths from this for some time.

Every COVID story here is an interesting little glimpse into how a seemingly normal forum has their latent political views exploited into adopting a conspiracy theory, re: anti-vaccine rhetoric. It becomes a little more extreme every day.<p>This study has nothing to do with the vaccine, and yet this is what HN clamors for. I wonder how many people here understand what kind of ride they&#x27;re being taken for.

Heart decease comes from the vaccines but they will never admit that of course.

And lung cancer risk soars with a few cigarettes. Stop living in fear! Accept that you are going to die at some point! Make decisions rationally and then <i>move on and live!!!</i>

This blog post argues that the risk is even higher for COVID after vaccine.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dailysceptic.org&#x2F;2022&#x2F;02&#x2F;09&#x2F;heart-problems-after-covid-are-much-worse-for-the-vaccinated-nature-study-shows-but-its-hidden-in-the-appendix&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dailysceptic.org&#x2F;2022&#x2F;02&#x2F;09&#x2F;heart-problems-after-cov...</a><p><i>Heart Problems After Covid Are Much Worse for the Vaccinated, Nature Study Shows – But It’s Hidden in the Appendix*</i>