Covid's damage lingers in the heart
I went to cardiologists for a mild burning sensation in my chest area, post recovery of my first & only covid infection, in early 2022. They dismissed my concerns. A year after recovery, I resumed my routine strenuous exercises, and I noticed I had elevated resting and walking heart-rate and my apple watch would alert me of abnormal heart rates. I went to cardiologists again and they dismissed my concerns again. Both times, they did all the usual battery of tests (Echo, TMT/EKG, cholesterol, blood markers etc) and they all came "normal". They basically told me stop googling things and to throw away my smart watch. Anyway, another thing my watch was telling was that I wasn't getting enough sleep and I focused on fixing that. A few months after that, my resting heart rate started to trend down and has come back to pre-covid levels. I don't know what to make of it all. One expensive doctor explained it to me this way – historically medical community don't have enough data about how post-infection recovery has been in large populations w.r.t heart rates. Only recently, with smart watches etc such data is available. Until that smart wearable data is scientifically studied, analyzed and concluded, the doctors won't change their diagnostics and treatment protocols, for good reason. While I understand that, I felt that their current protocols are for suited for well-advanced and well-presenting cardiac diseases that occur in old people.