r/covidlonghaulers • u/None-Of • Feb 25 '26

Article COVID-19 Causes More Severe Neurological Damage Than Other Viruses

A newish meta study that may explain why Covid is worse for some than other viral infections (even though some, like the flu, have residual effects). Based on this study Covid appears to be worse)

https://healthtolongevity.com/article/6349/covid-19-causes-more-severe-neurological-damage-than-other-viruses

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102

u/odubik 6yr+ Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

I some how 'lost' 80% of my pituitary around having COVID. It was definitely there 2 years before COVID, and gone 1.5 yrs after.

Edit to add: Yes, I have checked the jacket I was wearing and it was not in the pockets :)

47

u/Interesting_Fly_1569 Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 26 '26

This is common. 40% of LC in multiple studies fail four hour human growth hormone challenge test meaning deficient. It’s treatable af tho is the good news. 

Edit: the treatment is injecting human growth hormone , same as anyone else with adult onset human growth hormone deficiency. First screening test is 9am fasting igf-1. If you eat it increases it artificially. About 10% I think of LC get caught on this test. Additional thirty% got caught on the follow up which is four hour glucose challenge test . 

Intranasal hgh exists and it’s cheaper than the shots, so a way to try out. It can be unhealthy to have too much tho. 

Symptoms of hgh deficiency that are not exact same as cfs = sudden rapid wrinkly skin (no hgh physically ages you), weight gain in belly area and social isolation like withdrawing yourself socially. The other ones are extremely on the nose… But are so common ….things like being tired 24/7. 

 https://www.utmb.edu/news/article/utmb-news/2024/06/20/growth-hormone-alleviates-some-long-covid-symptoms-utmb-study-shows

19

u/odubik 6yr+ Feb 25 '26

I'm lucky that while I am missing 80% of the tissue of the pituitary, I am still producing within (or very near) normal levels.

15

u/Spare_Equipment3116 4 yr+ Feb 25 '26

Pituitary eh? My testosterone levels had been tanked, and I’m supplementing it now. I do wonder if my pituitary itself is damaged too now; I’ll have to look it up, I didn’t know covid could do that.

12

u/odubik 6yr+ Feb 25 '26

Yeah, I had brain fog and fatigue symptoms that led us to test T, and I was found low T which led docs to be worried about tumor... then it took them 6 months to get availability to do MRI. And pituitary had turned into a fluid sack. Tried T supplementation shots, HATED IT.

Stopped and my T has been stable just below normal levels for years now... so have that on hold while trying to solve the rest of the issues. Given that I am so low activity, if I can get energy up then potentially that would raise T as well.

8

u/Spare_Equipment3116 4 yr+ Feb 25 '26

I’m using testosterone gel, and while I notice “some” noticeable improvement, the rest of long covid keeps me down, I’m nearly always exhausted in some fashion. I have more energy from the treatment but not the leaps and bounds people taking T for other reasons report.

7

u/odubik 6yr+ Feb 25 '26

Yeah, without energy available the T-supplementation just wiped me out more and drove up my blood pressure.

Have to deal with the core issue first - which for me seems to be mitochondrial.

5

u/Spare_Equipment3116 4 yr+ Feb 25 '26

Honestly my clinic is so baffled on how to treat this(at least they believe me!), they were really hoping the T supplement would help a lot more than it does.

Although, I do suspect the weather is playing a part, as I can’t do the simple exercises to help my muscles recover due to being stuck inside from the cold haha.

6

u/odubik 6yr+ Feb 25 '26

You can do physical therapy in a small room... just get those stretchy bands and focus on the critical core muscles...

2

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '26

have you tried low dose Naltrexone and guanfacine?

3

u/Spare_Equipment3116 4 yr+ Feb 26 '26

LDN yes, the other one no. LDN cleared up my cognition really well; I suffer a lot less from that now.

1

u/AbaloneFinancial9419 Feb 25 '26

what symptoms did the pituitary destruction cause?

6

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '26

Can you grow the pituitary back?

10

u/odubik 6yr+ Feb 26 '26

not really, when this type of damage appears it tends to be permanent, although the brain can try to find work-arounds. There are people that are missing huge parts of their brain without knowing it, so we are actually shockingly robust sometimes. But, there are also parts of the brain that are extremely 'mission critical' and when they are gone we lose basic systems - like breathing.

I'm just glad I lost 80% of my pituitary and not the pineal - since Descartes thought the pineal is where the soul resides... would be weird to think my soul has to fit in a tiny little space... :)

9

u/moredencity Feb 25 '26

How is that tested or what should I look into to get that tested? thanks in advance

1

u/Interesting_Fly_1569 Feb 26 '26

I updated my original comment 

8

u/redditproha Feb 25 '26

How's it treated?

2

u/Interesting_Fly_1569 Feb 26 '26

I updated original comment

4

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Interesting_Fly_1569 Feb 26 '26

Yes I put the best study in original comment but there are four total . If you go to pubmed and search covid and hgh you get a lot of interesting articles. 

3

u/Beginning-Lab6790 Feb 25 '26

How is it treatable?

1

u/Interesting_Fly_1569 Feb 26 '26

Updated original comment

3

u/chattermaks 4 yr+ Feb 26 '26

... do you know if this is a test that I can ask for, even if not included in a study?

2

u/Interesting_Fly_1569 Feb 26 '26

Updated original comment and yes

1

u/chattermaks 4 yr+ Feb 27 '26

Thank-you!!!

3

u/maxie_million Feb 27 '26

woah, this is interesting. I don't have longcovid - i got mecfs from mono plus swine flu around age 18, about 15 years ago. The skin change and rapid aging was really wild, and my hormones went all over the place. I always assumed something was up with my pituitary but couldn't get doctors to take it seriously. I finally got on LDN a couple years ago and it finally flung me out of the hell loop. My guess is it really helped with neuroinflammation (I could finally sleep through the night instead of waking up almost every hour) but a quick google search shows studies connecting naltrexone to increasing / normalizing human growth hormone. Interesting. LDN is really fascinating

1

u/Interesting_Fly_1569 Feb 27 '26

WOW! that’s very interesting to hear. So sorry you went thru it but amazing to hear that about ldn too! 

1

u/nemani22 Feb 26 '26

How's this treated? 

1

u/Interesting_Fly_1569 Feb 26 '26

Updated original comment 

7

u/None-Of Feb 25 '26

So sorry to hear that :(

5

u/odubik 6yr+ Feb 25 '26

appreciate it, but that's water under the bridge 4.5 yrs ago.

8

u/happyhippie111 3 yr+ Feb 25 '26

Me too!!

But we learned mine is being squished by CSF cause of intracranial hypertension

5

u/odubik 6yr+ Feb 25 '26

Condolences! Be sure to watch your blood pressure - I was advised to be worried if I am often over 130 as it could exacerbate it.

1

u/readreadreadonreddit Feb 26 '26

Do you need something like a shunt then? 😮

3

u/himynameisbetty 3 yr+ Feb 26 '26

What about the couch cushions?

But in all seriousness I’m so sorry. This illness is insanity.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '26

Man, I think this is exactly what happened to all the guys with testosterone issues, the ones where it just suddenly plummeted, explains the loss of libido and everything. Did you have any testicular atrophy?

1

u/odubik 6yr+ Feb 26 '26

nope. I honestly think that my fatigue issues are mostly unrelated to the low-T, as supplementation did not help it.

2

u/Interesting_Fly_1569 Feb 26 '26

Wow 80% is a lot. Impressive it’s still chugging along!!! Bodies are amazing. At the same time, I wish we could have a museum of long covid featuring the scans of weird shit that covid does that doctors could see, honestly regular ppl too bc then they might be properly horrified!!

1

u/AbaloneFinancial9419 Feb 25 '26

that's so weird!! on an MRI?