Covid and Heart

How does Covid-19 affect heart and blood circulation?

European Society of Cardiology and American College of Cardiology, and World Heart Federation have summarized the interaction of Covid-19 and Heart

• Covid-19 Discovery:  First detected in Wuhan City, Hubei province, China in December 2019
• Pandemic: On 11 March, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic
• Heart and Covid-19: Heart and Cardiovascular disease top the list of co-morbidity associated with Covid-19 associated death.
• Direct effect on Heart: Covid-19 can affect heart along with lung infection, or directly heart and blood vessels alone

Demand Ischemia

• When Covid-19 affects your lungs, your oxygen supply is reduced. Heart has to work harder to supply oxygen to your body.
• When Covid-19 affects your heart directly, it reduces the pumping power of heart directly.
• Both conditions depend on how much cardiac reserve you have.
• In other words, more cardio-vascular fitness you have better is your odd against winning over Covid-19 heart.

Inflammation of Heart Muscle

• 1 in 5 patients with COVID-19 have signs of heart injury, regardless of whether they had respiratory symptoms
• Inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis) can be part of generalized hyper-inflammation syndrome or localized inflammation of the heart muscle.

Direct Viral Infection of Heart

• Coronavirus can directly infect heart and blood vessels by binding on ACE2 receptors
• Infection of the heart muscle or blood vessel can be part of generalized Covid-19 infection as well
• The result is poor pumping power of the heart (cardiomyopathy)

Micro-vascular Thrombus or Embolism

• Excess of blood clotting (thrombus) and clot spreading (embolism) can affect any organ in the body
• Direct injury to the inner lining (endothelium) of blood vessels, stasis, easy clotting tendency (hyper-coagulability) is three key factors.
• Cytokine storm is the medical word used to describe this perfect storm

How does Covid-19 Heart Condition Present?

The COVID-19 heart can lead to:

• Acute coronary syndrome: Acute chest pain and palpitation, or heart attack
• Heart Failure: Pumping power of the heart is reduced
• Cardiogenic shock: Low blood pressure and collapse
• Cardiac arrhythmia: Palpitations, skipped beats

Tests for Covid-19 Heart Markers

At our Jiva health clinics we track your cardiovascular reserve and inflammation

• Blood tests for pumping power of heart: NT-proBNP
• Blood tests for inflammatory markers: hsCRP, MPO, Fibrinogen, Lp-PLA2 (PLAC® Test)

• Blood tests for anti-inflammatory defense: Omega-3 index
• Stool test for gut biome anti-inflammatory defense: GI map stool test
• Sleep tests to reduce sleep apnea and insomnia related aggravation of inflammation

Summary of Action Plan for Covid-19 heart

• Anti-inflammatory diet and supplements
• Balancing gut biome with diet and specific Prebiotics and Probiotics
• Treating sleep apnea and other sleep disorders
• Treating pre-existing heart and cardio-vascular conditions
• Treating diabetes and obesity, which are major contributors to heart conditions