New Delhi, November 2 (IANS). A research has shown that infection with SARS-CoV-2, which is responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, can increase the risk of developing dyslipidemia or high cholesterol by about 30 percent.
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine included more than two lakh adults in this research. The investigation revealed that abnormal lipid levels in the blood could reveal the secret of increasing deaths from cardiovascular problems after the pandemic. Increased lipid levels are a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases like heart attack and stroke.
The research, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, showed that older adults and people with type 2 diabetes have nearly a twofold increased risk of developing dyslipidemia.
Gaetano, associate professor of medicine and molecular pharmacology at Einstein, said that the coronavirus related to severe acute respiratory syndrome can disrupt the function of endothelial cells (the inside layer of blood vessels).
He advised people to regularly monitor their lipid levels. He appealed to high cholesterol patients to get early treatment.
Professor Gaetano said this advice applies not only to people who have been formally treated for Covid-19, but also to those who did not realize they had been infected with the virus.
The research focused on the incidence of dyslipidemia in a group of more than two million adults living in Naples, Italy, during the three years before the start of the pandemic (2017-2019) and compared it with the same group between 2020-2022.
The findings showed that Covid increased the risk of developing dyslipidemia by an average of 29 percent across all participants.
The research showed that the risk was even higher in people over the age of 65 and those with chronic diseases, particularly diabetes and obesity, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and high blood pressure.
–IANS
MKS/AKJ
