This is why you need to be careful about your heart after Covid

In a significant study conducted in the United States, it has been found that the risk of heart conditions remains significantly high in people even a year after they recovered from Covid-19 infection.

Even a mild case of Covid-19 can increase a person’s risk of cardiovascular problems for at least a year after diagnosis, the study showed.

Those complications include disruptive heart rhythms, inflammation of the heart, blood clots, stroke, coronary artery disease, heart attack, heart failure or even death, said the study. The researchers said that healthy people and young people were among those who had developed such heart problems.

The study revealed that a heart failure and stroke, were substantially higher in people who had recovered from Covid-19 than in similar people who were not affected by the infection. And what’s more alarming is that the risk was elevated even for those who were under 65 years of age and lacked risk factors, such as obesity or diabetes and also those who did not require to be admitted to the hospital with Covid.

This study reiterates the Delhi doctors who reported that those who were infected during the second wave of the pandemic are coming back with inflammation of heart muscles, heart attacks and irregular beating of the heart. The study by the US researchers was recently published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Doctors suggest that those who have recovered from Covid, even those with milder disease, should undergo a cardiac check-up around six months after the infection.

What else the study says

People who had recovered from Covid showed stark increases in 20 cardiovascular problems over the year after infection.

For example, they were 52% more likely to have had a stroke than the contemporary control group, the study revealed.

For every 1,000 people, there were around 4 more people in Covid group than in the control group who experienced stroke.

The risk of heart failure increased by 72% or around 12 more people in the Covid19 group per 1,000 studied.

Hospitalisation during Covid-19 infection increased the likelihood of future cardiovascular complications, a year later.

Even those people who were not hospitalised during Covid-19 infection were at higher risk for many conditions.