(I'm copying this from LinkedIn, from Sean Mullen, an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois. I'll link to Sean if it turns out he's also in the Fediverse. I've asked him.)
Two years later—and the cardiovascular damage from Long COVID is still measurable.
A new study tracked people with Long COVID two years after their initial infection. These weren’t isolated anecdotes. Researchers used gold-standard physiological tools—microneurography, echocardiography, vascular imaging, and cardiopulmonary exercise testing—to quantify what many patients have been describing all along.
The findings are not subtle:
1. Sympathetic Nervous System Overdrive
Participants with Long COVID had 77% more sympathetic nerve bursts than matched controls. That’s not “just anxiety”—that’s measurable autonomic dysregulation.
2. Vascular Dysfunction
Their arteries showed 26% lower flow-mediated dilation, a well-established marker of endothelial dysfunction and cardiovascular risk.
3. Subclinical Heart Damage
Strain imaging revealed subtle impairments in cardiac function—often missed by routine exams but consistent with early-stage heart failure patterns.
4. Impaired Exercise Capacity
On a maximal effort test, Long COVID patients reached *21% lower oxygen uptake*, despite comparable effort. It wasn’t deconditioning. It was systemic impairment.
5. Cellular Markers of Injury and Stress
Blood tests revealed increased oxidative stress, lower antioxidant activity, and higher levels of extracellular vesicles from damaged endothelial cells.
Yes, the study had limitations:
* Small sample (18 Long COVID, 19 controls)
* Cross-sectional design (not causal)
* Focused only on those with severe acute COVID
* Did not include pulmonary function or key inflammatory mediators
But even with these limitations, the findings are consistent with a growing body of evidence:
Long COVID is not just about fatigue—it’s a multi-system condition with real, measurable physiological consequences.
Why does this matter?
Because the world continues to downplay or ignore this. And yet, the biological signals are loud. We cannot “walk this off.” We need research. We need scalable interventions.
One promising candidate?
IMST (Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training)
Just 5 minutes a day of breathing against resistance has shown promising results in reducing sympathetic overdrive and improving vascular health. It’s currently being tested in randomized trials for Long COVID.
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If you’re a clinician, researcher, or policy leader: This is your call to engage.
Let’s stop debating whether Long COVID is “real,” and start directing our attention—and funding—toward understanding and treating it.
I’m happy to connect with others working in this space. Thanks to Nathaniel Jenkins, PhD, FAHA for pointing out this important paper.
#LongCovid #CardiovascularHealth #PublicHealth #COVID19 #ExerciseScience #HealthTech #VascularHealth
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/ajpregu.00055.2025
