BREAKING! Thailand Medical News Finds That SARS-CoV-2 Infections Increases Risk Of Isolated Diastolic Hypertension! Urgent Studies Warranted!

COVID-19 News: In the last few months, based on data that we have been collating from various Long COVID clinics and also small research groups involved in Post COVID medical issues, it has been found that many post-COVID patients tend to be displaying a unique condition that is termed as Isolated Diastolic Hypertension or IDH.


 
Isolated diastolic hypertension (IDH) is defined as diastolic blood pressure in the hypertensive range but systolic blood pressure not in the hypertensive range.
 
This was previously a not uncommon occurrence (<20%) among adults with hypertension but of late is becoming fairly common among post COVID individuals without any prior health issues.
 
As IDH typically often manifests in concurrence with other cardiovascular risk factors, it can also be a contributing factor to future heart issues.

Worryingly, isolated diastolic hypertension (IDH) has been linked to heart arrhythmia and also heart failures.

To date, physicians do not understand why an individual may develop diastolic hypertension. They suggest the narrowing of arterioles causes it due to hormones in the body.
 
Some presumed common causes of isolated diastolic hypertension are:
-endocrine disorders
-renovascular disorders
-sleep apnea
 
What is triggering the cause of Isolated diastolic hypertension (IDH) in post COVID patients at the moment or even the detailed mechanism of its cause is at the moment is unknown but urgent studies are warranted.
 
Most of the post- COVID individuals with identified Isolated diastolic hypertension (IDH) also frequently have the following accompanying symptoms.
 
-headaches
-tiredness
-vision blurriness
-sudden weakness of legs
-chest pains or feeling of stiffness
-gastrointestinal issues
 
Some past studies have already suggested that SARS-CoV-2 infections can lead to onset of hypertension.
 
One recent study in Turkey showed that about 12% of SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals without prior health issues developed new onset of hypertension.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34889662/
 
Chinese researchers from Wuhan as early as April 2021 already warned that hypertension was a sequela in individuals with SARS-CoV-2.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0250815
 
While it is already known that hypertension increase the risk for COVID-19 severity, it was never really covered by any COVID-19 News coverages that SARS-CoV-2 infections can also cause hypertension in those who were previously healthy or worse it could increase the risk for Isolated diastolic hypertension (IDH).

In many cases, these IDH ocurrences can be short term, periodic and often accompanied by high heart beat rates with many feeling experincing slight dizziness, nausea or light thro bbings in the head.
 
Although the relationship between hypertension and COVID-19 outcomes remains somewhat cloudy, there is seemingly some scientific evidence that the virus is causing some odd changes in the way the body regulates its blood pressure, especially for those dealing with long COVID.
 
Dr Jordana Cohen, an assistant professor of medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania who is part of a massive five-year study  that follows individuals who had contracted COVID-19 said, “So far, we’ve observed that in COVID-19, and that in long COVID, especially, it seems that there are quite a lot of people who’ve been at risk for such for issues with their blood vessels related to COVID, probably related to the mechanisms of how COVID impacts our body and some of the inflammation that’s caused by COVID and other factors too. So, it can affect our blood vessels, which may cause worse hypertension and worse heart disease long term. And we’ll only know that by watching people longer to really understand.”
 
Interestingly, another area that long COVID researchers like Dr Cohen are seeing as a cause for concern in the brain of COVID long haulers is known as autonomic dysfunction, which is an issue with the nerves that regulate bodily functions, such as sweating, heart rate and blood pressure.
 
It was found that those with long COVID who have this issue can often have “wildly fluctuating” blood pressures in short time intervals, Dr Cohen said. They lack the normal controls to be able to tell the body when to slightly raise or lower blood pressure.
 
Dr Cohen used stress or just the act of changing positions from standing to sitting as examples of moments when this dysfunction can be “devastating” for people.
 
She explained, “For instance, just trying to stand up from sitting, your blood pressure can plummet and you can potentially faint very quickly. Things like that are some of the differences that are being seen with long COVID. And the work is now underway, but we’re only starting to understand why that’s happening and how to potentially treat and prevent it.”
 
She concluded that “there’s no question that there is a link long term with COVID and factors related to blood pressure.
 
Dr Luke Laffin, a preventative cardiologist and the co-director of the Center for Blood Pressure Disorders at the Cleveland Clinic has also found an interesting link between COVID-19 and blood pressure.
 
He also served as the principal investigator in a study of an employer-sponsored wellness program administered by Quest Diagnostics that looked at a group of about 500,000 adults to assess whether the early part of the pandemic produced any significant changes in blood pressure.
 
The study findings published in the peer reviewed journal: Circulation (A Journal of the American Heart Association), found that there was an increase in te onset of hypertension among many individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic but the reasons were varied.
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.057075

An interesting Indian study suggested that SARS-CoV-2 causes what is termed as neurogenic hypertension among those infected with the virus, providing a clue to possible mechanisms involved.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41440-021-00800-4
 
While we already known that SARS-CoV-2 induces a variety of coagulopathies and clotting issues as well as heart issues, there are not many studies related to onset of hypertension as a result of SARS-CoV-2 infections and also the mechanisms involved.
 
Worse, in terms of Isolated diastolic hypertension (IDH), there are no studies done yet on the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infections and IDH. We at Thailand Medical News are the first to report on this growing occurrence and we hope more studies will be conducted on this urgently.
 
We at Thailand Medical News also strongly feel that there is a possible correlation between isolated diastolic hypertension (IDH) and the specific type of SARS-CoV-2 variants involved in particularly the newer Omicron variants and sub-lineages that emerged in the last 7 months. Again, detailed studies are needed to validate this.
 
For the latest COVID-19 News, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.