After more than two years of research, scientists say recent data shows a dramatic change in human organs following COVID-19 infection.
Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, director of the Center for Clinical Epidemiology at Washington University in St. Louis, says contracting COVID-19 accelerates the aging process in people.
Al-Aly has collected data from millions of people across the country and says everything indicates that various human organs age faster after a COVID-19 infection. Most occur among people hospitalized, but also in some people with mild COVID symptoms, according to Al-Aly.
The doctor says organs age nearly three to four years in the space of just one after an infection. He also says that people are losing 3% to 4% of kidney function in the next year after infection.
Dr. Michael Peluso, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, says one of the theories as to why some organs may age after COVID includes the persistence of the virus in the body resulting in inflammation, autoimmune problems, and changes. in the microbiome, that is, the good bacteria found in our bodies.
Although more years of data are needed, Dr. Al-Aly believes this aging process will eventually stop.
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