Inflammation, Mental Health and Covid Outcomes

Inflammation is one of the body’s reponses to a threat.

Inflammation is literally a flood of fluids containing immune system cells. They get released from the blood into body tissues to help clear infections. This is why infected areas of the body get swollen.(1)

Inflammation occurs when the body is invaded by a virus like SARS-CoV-2, the Covid virus.

Short term inflammation is necessary for survival. Chronic or extreme inflammation on the other hand is a threat to survival.

Chronic inflammation is a companion to mental health issues, with the severity of inflammation apparently proportional to the severity of the mental illness. Schizophrenics, for example, tend to have extensive inflammation. High levels of stress and poor sleeping habits also contribute to chronic inflammation.

An existing chronic inflammation can become an excessive response when a new threat such as Covid enters the body. The new threat can drive the immune system response to the point at which antibodies start to attack critical organs such as the heart. This may explain why, over the past year, schizophrenics have been more than twice as likely as other to die from Covid.

We know that Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C) has been an issue with Covid.

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a serious condition that appears to be linked to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Most children who become infected with the COVID-19 virus have only a mild illness. But in children who go on to develop MIS-C, some organs and tissues — such as the heart, lungs, blood vessels, kidneys, digestive system, brain, skin or eyes — become severely inflamed.

Mayo Clinic website(2)

We aren’t close to a consensus on why some people get MIS-C and others don’t. The mental health angle might provide much needed insight.

The state of knowledge regarding inflammation and mental health is summarized in a well written albeit somewhat dense article by Brian Resnick of Vox.com. There remains a lot we don’t know about the physiology of mental illness, although it is increasingly clear that there is a link between the health of the body and the mind:

1. Can mental illness cause inflammation, or does inflammation contribute to the onset of mental illness?
2. Is an underlying mental health condition a possible explanation for the still poorly understood MIS-C?
3. Is there a possible explanation for breakthrough infections here (Infections among people who have been vaccinated)?

There’s a lot yet to learn, but the pieces are starting to come together.

Sources:

1. https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/22783685/covid-19-depression-mental-health-risks-immunology
2. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/mis-c-in-kids-covid-19/symptoms-causes/syc-20502550

Found online