{"id":1169,"date":"2022-02-04T13:39:04","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T18:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=1169"},"modified":"2022-02-04T13:39:04","modified_gmt":"2022-02-04T18:39:04","slug":"dear-dr-k-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=1169","title":{"rendered":"Dear Dr. K;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Thank you for keeping an open dialogue with me about Covid vaccines.&nbsp; As you know, I opted against vaccination.&nbsp; However, over Christmas I caught Covid, but luckily it was a mild flu like illness.&nbsp; So, I guess I should be OK from here on out.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m glad your illness was mild, but I\u2019m a little hesitant about predicting how things will play out in the future.&nbsp; First of all, just as vaccination doesn\u2019t provide iron-clad protection so too natural immunity via infection is not 100% effective in preventing re-infection.&nbsp; Therefore, with the extended nature of the pandemic, following Covid avoidance precautions still makes sense.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another concern I have is the frequency of post-Covid sequelae especially neurologic ones.&nbsp; By now, the general public is well aware of Covid illness\u2019 predilection to impact the sense of taste\/smell.&nbsp; As it turns out, this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.&nbsp; At this point in the pandemic, it seems that roughly 70% of infected individuals suffer some sort of extended neurological issue.&nbsp; For many it\u2019s the smell\/taste scenario and for others protracted headaches.&nbsp; Of much graver concern is research done by Oxford University on 45,000 people in the UK which showed loss of brain mass as measured by CT scanning.&nbsp; The loss was primarily in the frontal and temporal lobes which subserve the senses of taste and smell but also cognition.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this regard, the Oxford scientists conducted performance tests on some of the Covid patients and found they were slower in processing information than non-infected counterparts.&nbsp; Also, there was no correlation between the severity of the illness (hospitalized verses non-hospitalized) and the loss of brain matter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These facts set up a comparison with Alzheimer\u2019s disease where a common symptom is loss of sense of smell along with frontal\/temporal lobes pathology.&nbsp; In fact, some neuro scientists posit that Alzheimer\u2019s disease is caused by chronic inflammation in genetically susceptible individuals to a prior viral infection.&nbsp; What isn\u2019t known is the potential for brain mass recovery in these individuals.&nbsp; Neuroplasticity allows marked recovery of the brain from many insults.&nbsp; Perhaps this will still be true with \u201cCovid brain\u201d.&nbsp; But for now, I think it\u2019s still best to not catch the illness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thank you for keeping an open dialogue with me about Covid vaccines.&nbsp; As you know, I opted against vaccination.&nbsp; However, over Christmas I caught Covid, but luckily it was a mild flu like illness.&nbsp; So, I guess I should be OK from here on out.&nbsp; I\u2019m glad your illness was mild, but I\u2019m a little hesitant about predicting how things will play out in the future.&nbsp; First of all, just as vaccination doesn\u2019t provide iron-clad protection so too natural immunity&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=1169\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[401,563],"class_list":["post-1169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-covid-19","tag-vaccination"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1170,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169\/revisions\/1170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}