Worldwide, it is estimated that between 10% and 25% of people who have had Covid have persistent symptoms 4-5 weeks after the infection has resolved. The most common are persistent tiredness, attention deficit disorder (so-called ‘brain fog’), persistent headache, taste and smell disorders. Added to these are anxiety disorders, persistent cough, heart rhythm disorders and balance problems. Important news on this last symptom could come from an international study in which the Italian Arianna Di Stadio is participating, who works on the research project with the Santa Lucia Irccs Foundation in Rome and is a professor at the University of Catania and a researcher at UCL Queen Square Neurology in London (UK).
“We are studying the effects of neuroinflammation on balance disorders in the post-Covid era and we are conducting an international study involving Italy, the United Kingdom and the USA to understand how Covid-19 infection may be responsible for chronic balance disorders, in particular ‘Postural Persistent Perceptual Dizziness’ (Pppd) – explains Di Stadio – With this term, simplified to ‘3PD’, we define a condition of persistent balance disorder generally negative to all diagnostic balance tests, which induces a feeling of instability in the patient with a significant limitation of normal daily activity. The disorder is linked to a deficit in central compensation after one or more episodes of vertigo, generally benign paroxysmal vertigo (those caused by the anomalous movement of the otoliths)”.
“Currently – reports the neuroscientist – the preliminary data extracted from 17 patients show that in 2 of them (11.8%) the Covid-19 infection caused PPPD, while in 6 cases (35.3%) the infection worsened the symptoms. It can therefore be assumed that in 8 of the 17 patients observed (47%) the infection has a role in this condition. If we consider this balance disorder among the disorders of Long Covid, these data, although preliminary, identify 11% of PPPD linked to Sars-CoV2 infection, a percentage that is in line with the data relating to Long Covid”.
‘Neurorehabilitation can help, even better if associated with an anti-neuroinflammation molecule’
“The origin of the lack of compensation following vertigo is the subject of extensive study and neuroinflammation is certainly implicated in the non-recovery process – adds Di Stadio – The preliminary results of the multicenter study we are conducting, which in Italy sees the Santa Lucia Irccs of Rome as the leader (a hospital that recently won a Pnrr with a project on Pppd) demonstrate that neurorehabilitation can help solve the problem, even better if associated with an anti-neuroinflammation molecule”.
“Since we have experience in the successful use of the molecule ‘Pealut'”, formed by palmitoylethanolamide (Pea) and the antioxidant flavonoid luteolin (Lut), “ultra micronized for the treatment of ‘brain fog’ and olfactory disorders, we are also testing it in Pppd”, concludes the researcher.
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