An astounding 475 million people around the world have had COVID-19. As you may know, COVID-19 doesn’t just affect your sense of smell and cause a little cough that you recover from quickly. It actually can attack any organ in the body, including the heart.
As many as 10% to 30% of those who have had COVID experience long-haul symptoms. You may also hear this referred to as long COVID, COVID long haulers, or long-haul syndrome. These long-term effects from COVID span a wide range, including fatigue, headaches, and digestive issues, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Experiencing COVID-19 also can cause changes to your heart, including:
- Tachycardia, or a faster heart rate.
- An abnormal heart rhythm.
- Blood clots.
- Heart failure.
- POTS, which is short for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. Although this is actually a neurological issue and not a heart issue, the symptoms appear as a heart issue because it causes a fast heartbeat when standing as well as fatigue and lightheadedness.
- The possibility for existing heart problems to become worse if you had a severe COVID-19 case.
- In children, multisystem inflammatory syndrome, which can cause heart damage and death.
The more serious effects to the heart, such as heart failure and blood clots, are more likely to occur in people who spent time in an intensive care unit due to COVID.
The heart effects from COVID can continue for an unidentified time period. Some people who had COVID in 2020 continue to experience heart changes in 2022. Researchers continue to examine the length of time that post-COVID heart issues occur and the exact effects of COVID on the heart.
Cardiovascular problems after COVID do not appear to target only older people or those already predispositioned for heart problems. They have affected those of a range of ages, with and without diabetes, and both those who have and haven’t smoked.
How Reveal Vitality Can Help If You Experience Heart Problems After COVID
If you have heart problems that have occurred post-COVID, Reveal Vitality can help. Reveal Vitality of Sarasota uses an approach called integrative cardiology to help heart patients. We bring together traditional medical treatments along with lifestyle medicine to get to the root of what is causing your symptoms.
In addition to traditional therapies and evaluations, we also will use:
- Nutrigenomics, or the study of nutrition and how it can affect gene expression
- Micronutrient, toxin, and gut assessments
- Nutritional therapy, which may include natural supplements such as fish oil and turmeric
- Novel heart and vascular assessments
- Neurologic assessment (stress resilience)
At Reveal Vitality, we believe in the power or our integrated approach to help you recover from your post-COVD heart effects. Contact us today to set an appointment.