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UK study says even mild COVID-19 can reduce brain size
The Arab News reported, according to scientists in the UK that even mild forms of COVID-19 can cause a reduction in brain size.
It said that they scanned the brains of over 400 people who had previously had COVID-19, most of them mild cases.
They found that the overall brain size in infected participants had shrunk between 0.2 and 2 percent, and patients experienced losses in grey matter in the olfactory areas, linked to smell, and regions linked to memory.
The apparent effect of this was that those who had recently recovered from COVID-19 found it a bit harder to perform complex mental tasks.
The study was published on Monday in the science journal Nature. Lead author of the study Professor Gwenaelle Douaud, from Oxford University’s Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging said: “We were looking at essentially mild infection, so to see that we could really see some differences in their brain and how much their brain had changed compared with those who had not been infected was quite a surprise.”
The study used biological information from a separate project, the UK Biobank, which has followed the health of 500,000 people for about 15 years and has a database of scans recorded before the pandemic — providing a unique opportunity to study the long-term health impacts of the virus.
Scientists also do not know whether there is any variation in the effect that COVID-19 variants have on the brain — the research was carried out when the original virus and alpha variant were most common.
Study says long COVID hits children far less than adults
Researchers also do not know yet whether these changes are permanent, but Douaud said: “We need to bear in mind that the brain is really plastic — by that we mean it can heal itself — so there is a really good chance that, over time, the harmful effects of infection will ease.”
Source: arabnews
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- November 7, 2024
Amid growing anxiety among several European countries participating in NATO over Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte stated he looks forward to sitting down with Trump.
Upon arriving to participate in the summit of the European Political Community, which includes around forty heads of state in Budapest, he said, "I look forward to sitting with the elected U.S. president and seeing how we will collectively ensure we meet challenges, including the threats from Russia and North Korea." He also noted that the strengthening of ties between Russia and North Korea poses a threat to the United States as well, according to reports from Agence France-Presse.
Before Trump's victory, Rutte expressed confidence that a united Washington would remain part of the defensive alliance, even if Trump became the 47th president of the United States. In an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF last Monday night, he stated that both Republicans and Democrats understand that NATO serves not only the security of Europe but also that of America. He added that both candidates are aware that the security of the United States is closely tied to NATO.
On Wednesday, NATO congratulated Trump on his victory but did not address the Ukrainian issue.
It is noteworthy that the relationship between the elected U.S. president and the defense alliance was not the best during his first term in the White House. Trump criticized NATO member states multiple times and even hinted at withdrawing from the alliance unless they increased their financial contributions.
Additionally, the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian war is one of the matters that complicate relations between the two sides, especially since Trump has repeatedly stated that he can end this ongoing conflict, which began in 2022, quickly. He implied that he had a peace plan between Kyiv and Moscow, while his vice president, JD Vance, revealed aspects of that plan, which stipulated Ukraine's commitment not to join NATO, thereby sending reassuring signals to the Russians.
Furthermore, many NATO member states in Europe fear that Trump might halt military aid to Ukraine after he previously criticized the U.S. for pouring funds into supporting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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