Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke Significantly Elevated - Cardiovascular Problems Post-COVID

March 15, 2022, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

We’ve been writing about long COVID several times in the last few months. The farther we get into COVID the more it seems to be a long-lasting and destructive virus for some people. Many long COVID survivors have begun to apply for disability benefits with mixed results.  Covid seems to have impacts on chronic pain, cognitive function and cardiovascular function.

NPR recently reported on a massive study undertaken by the Veteran’s Affairs of America published in Nature Medicine .

The study examined 150,000 patients of the VA who had been infected with COVID in the first year of the pandemic and compared their rate of cardiovascular problems to other VA patients who had not been infected. The results showed an increased risk of long-term cardiovascular disease of about 4% which does not initially seem very high. However, when you account for the millions of Americans and Canadians who contracted COVID it becomes a very significant number of individuals who now will have heart problems.

The increased risk was observed in both mild and severe cases and wasn’t limited to those with pre-existing risk of cardiovascular disease. Young, old, athletic, smokers, non-smokers, obese and normal weight, diabetic and non-diabetic all seemed were equally likely to develop heart problems.

Perhaps the most troublesome finding was that COVID-19 patients were 63% more likely to have a heart attack and 52% more likely to suffer a stroke than the control group was

The NPR report is attached here and you can refer to the Nature Medicine Journal here.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.