Scientists published last month in Elsevier Journal of Public Health findings that further linked symptoms of vagal nerve neuropathy to damage resulting directly from covid infection.
Some symptoms such as difficulty swallowing had been previously thought to be more likely triggered by a period of intubation. But this study found that such symptoms also typically occur even in patients who never go intubation.
SARS-CoV-2 is known to cause neurological effects in 36% of infected individuals. This can lead to a number of symptoms, from mild headaches to more severe cases of (though rare) meningitis, epilepsy or stroke.
Commenting on the findings, Prof Kevin Tracy MD, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, said that this new study combined with other evidence indicated that it was vagal nerve damage from covid that was interfering with the body’s normal inflammatory reflex, “which normally inhibits inflammation [and so] contributes to the onset of the cytokine storm in Covid19.”
Prof Kevin Tracy has in previous publications highlighted the anti-inflammatory potential of vagus nerve stimulation.
