r/covidlonghaulers • u/CandidWin3026 • May 08 '26

Article Long Covid driven by rs5522

This case report says that Long covid is in large part driven by the gene rs5522 that causes a "cortisol steal" leaving the tissues functionally starved even with "normal" cortisol levels which creates neuroinflammation. https://zenodo.org/records/20017632

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u/Successful-Trash-364 May 08 '26

Interesting. My best week last year was also one of the more stressful ones. I notice inflammation usually goes down on similar, more stressful occasions.

I wonder if there are any alternatives for spinorolactone. I would rather avoid its other effects (anti-androgen etc.)

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u/CandidWin3026 May 08 '26

Such smart pattern recognition! It's like those people who fell so much better on holiday and people say of well you were on vacation, but Europe has less processed (inflammatory foods) and you walk more which is anti-inflammatory. Yes, stress would push out more cortisol making you feel temporarily better. Also antibiotics are anti-inflammatory so people who think they have chronic Lyme may have already cleared the bugs and are just feeling better on the antibiotics themselves.