- 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
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.
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 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
