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(CNN) --
As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its third year, scientists are discovering that the coronavirus has far-reaching health effects beyond the acute phase of the disease.
A recent study found that people with covid-19 have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in the long term, at least a year after recovery.
The study, published this month in the journal Nature Medicine, used data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' national health care databases to follow more than 153,000 veterans with a history of COVID-19 infection for up to a year. after his recovery.
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Compared with those who were never infected, people who had a coronavirus infection were more likely to have symptoms such as inflammatory heart disease, heart failure, arrhythmia, heart attacks, strokes and long-term clots.
People with previous covid-19 infections were more than 60% more likely to develop any heart problem.
Many of these conditions, such as pulmonary embolisms, are life-threatening.
"One thing that was sobering was that the risk was evident even in people who had very mild illness or who did not need hospitalization," said lead researcher Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, head of research and development at the Health System. Louis Health.
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As the severity of the disease increased, the risk of long-term cardiovascular complications also increased.
People who had been treated in an ICU had the highest risk of cardiovascular disease after recovery.
For example, people who weren't hospitalized were twice as likely to have a pulmonary embolism as people who hadn't had covid-19, and people treated in the ICU were more than 21 times more likely to have one.
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This risk of problems was also found across all ages, genders, races, and heart risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, and obesity.
People with a history of Covid-19 infection were more than five times more likely to develop myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) a year later.
Although studies have shown that myocarditis may be a rare reaction to an mRNA vaccine, this research found that the risk of myocarditis from COVID-19 infection was evident regardless of vaccination status.
Although the study had a solid sample size, most of the people in the research were white men.
Also, because the study enrollment period ended on January 15, 2021, before COVID-19 vaccines were widely available, almost none of the participants were vaccinated prior to infection.
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The long covid has an unusual "magnitude of the disease"
According to Al-Aly, arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation, were the most common heart problems after an infection.
"In my own practice, I was more likely to see people who had more arrhythmias or reported a rapid heartbeat after covid infection. Many times, over several months, the heart rate slowed down and got better," Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist at NYU Langone and medical director of Atria New York City.
She was not involved in the new study.
According to Goldberg, people who have had Covid-19 and other viral infections can develop a condition called postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, in which someone's heart rate spikes when they stand up.
With proper hydration, these symptoms will usually improve on their own.
Some people who continued to have symptoms required drug treatment, Goldberg said.
Still, "those viral infections did not have the magnitude of the disease that we are seeing in covid-19," he added.
Goldberg also said that while heart complications from COVID-19 would be expected in people who have certain risk factors, he's surprised that the study showed long-term complications even in people with no history of heart disease.
"I think this issue that these people are at low risk, except for those who had Covid-19, is an area that really should be explored," he said.
Al-Aly says the findings should change the way we think about Covid-19 and heart health.
"Physicians need to understand that Covid-19 is now a cardiovascular risk factor, like we talk about diabetes and high blood pressure and cholesterol as a risk factor for heart problems," he said.
It is still unclear why covid-19, a respiratory virus, can have such crucial effects on the cardiovascular system.
According to Al-Aly, one theory involves how the receptor the virus uses to enter cells is also commonly found on heart cells.
The Covid-19 spike protein acts like a "key to people's hearts" and can cause damage, she said.
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Testing the limits of an already overburdened health system
The findings add to a growing list of possible lingering consequences of Covid-19 infection, called prolonged Covid.
"The numbers that our study suggests is that there are probably millions of people in the United States who have heart problems now or will have heart problems in the near future ... And I think as a nation, we're not paying enough attention to the aftermath of the covid-19 pandemic," Al-Aly said.
“We decided to bury our heads in the sand and forget that this COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 itself can have long-lasting, long-term effects,” especially as the national conversation has shifted toward lifting mask mandates. and other preventive measures.
Coronavirus infections themselves are already testing the limits of America's health care system, and there are concerns about how prepared the nation is to deal with the long-term burden of disease.
"Our health care system, in many ways, was already overburdened before the pandemic, particularly with regard to caring for those who are most vulnerable and face the greatest barriers to care. I would hate to see these inequalities also perpetuated when it's about treating long-term consequences," said Dr. Leana Wen, a CNN medical analyst and professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health.
As doctors and patients grapple with the unknowns of long-running covid, there is one clear preventative measure to tackle the problem: vaccinations.
"Just saying you don't want to get Covid because you could get seriously ill in the short term isn't the whole answer," said Wen, who is also an ER doctor.
"Because there may be people who don't get sick enough to be hospitalized right away, but who can have multiple consequences. Again, that underscores the need to get vaccinated to reduce the chance of getting Covid in the first place."
Experts advise anyone who has had a COVID-19 infection to take any unexplained cardiovascular symptoms seriously and seek help immediately.
Although this study focuses on the impact of COVID-19 on the cardiovascular system, it is likely that other organ systems are affected as well.
The researchers plan to investigate the effects this virus may have on diabetes and the nervous system.
Covid-19
