An Update on Dianna's Health (Physics Girl) [video]
This is very sad to see and I wish Dianna and her family the very best for her recovery. I&#x27;m into year three of long COVID (ME&#x2F;CFS) and was fortunate to not reach this level of severity, and to have improved slowly with time to mostly housebound rather than bedbound, but it is a remarkable disease.<p>The name does it little justice, and fatigue - while certainly pathological and disabling - is not the primary feature. The disease appears unique in terms of an abnormal response to exertion. This has been characterised via two-day cardiopulmonary exercise testing. Healthy controls and even those with other severely limiting diseases will show improvement on day 2, but ME&#x2F;CFS uniquely shows a reduction on the second day.<p>Other key features are orthostatic intolerance with demonstration of reduction in cerebral blood flow in the majority on sitting&#x2F;standing.  Neurological symptoms including extreme sensitivity to light and sound explain her blindfold and ear protectors. Many have fluctuating cognitive slowing (&quot;brain fog&quot;).<p>New insights into the metabolic derangements are being gained. Recently[1] evaluation of urine metabolomics demonstrated that healthy sedentary controls excrete many metabolites at 4 and 24 hours following an exercise challenge, while ME&#x2F;CFS patients do not.<p>Apart from the devastating effects on patients and the economic impacts of losing so many from the workforce[2], I believe that understanding the immune and metabolic derangements underlying this condition will lead to major insights across many health domains.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mdpi.com&#x2F;1422-0067&#x2F;24&#x2F;4&#x2F;3685" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mdpi.com&#x2F;1422-0067&#x2F;24&#x2F;4&#x2F;3685</a>
[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41579-022-00846-2" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41579-022-00846-2</a>