As cases of COVID-19 continue to rise some this summer according to California public health official, a recent study found that the pandemic that began more than five years ago now, may have had a greater impact than we first thought.
Researchers say their study of about 1,000 adults revealed that the pandemic accelerated aging in the brain by an average of about six months.
And interestingly, that held true even among people who didn’t actually contract the COVID virus.
They used artificial intelligence and brain imaging and found that brains looked significantly older than expected showing similar brain aging patterns to those who never had COVID during the pandemic.
The research published in Nature Communications shows that our experience during the pandemic, the lockdowns, social isolation, economic stress, and health anxiety — left a mark on our brain structure that mirrors the effects of aging.
In other words, just the stress of the pandemic on our lives may have aged us and our brains by a few months.
We know that stress can be a factor in a lot of health issues so this study suggests finding healthy ways to deal with the stresses of life is something to wrap our heads around.
(Photo Getty Images)
Photo: Getty Images