Scientists are discovering that COVID-19 infections have a dramatic change on human anatomy, as a recent study says that those infected could suffer from "accelerated aging" of essential organs.
Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly is the director of the Clinical Epidemiology Center at Washington University in St. Louis and the chief of research and education service at Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System. Al-Aly helped gather data from millions of people for three studies on three vital organs.
The studies look at the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the kidney, brain, and heart, all of which showed similar results. The doctor shared that the virus has a more significant impact than previously thought.
"You can start thinking about getting COVID as almost as an accelerant to aging. The viral infection accelerates the aging process in people," Al-Aly shared with ABC.
The studies concluded that multiple human organs are aging faster in patients who had COVID-19, especially in those that were hospitalized.
"Almost by three to four years in the span of just one," Al-Aly said. "What we have seen is that people are losing about three to four percent kidney function in the year that follows that infection. That usually happens with aging. Three to four years of aging."
While the results from the studies are bleak, they aren't believed to last forever, as Al-Aly said he thinks the increased aging will eventually stop.
"My hunch from the data and also my hope that this would really eventually flatten out, and there are some early indications that this really may be the case that the risk or the kidney function decline really flattens out with time," Al-Aly said.
Al-Aly has also published numerous studies on the effects of long-COVID on a patient, which he calls "serious" and says must be "factored into public health policies."
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