Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Sep 05, 2025 13 hours, 44 minutes ago
Medical News: Understanding the Long COVID Puzzle
Long after recovering from the initial infection, millions of people around the world continue to struggle with a condition now commonly known as Long COVID, or medically as post-acute SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC). This condition can last for months or even years, bringing relentless fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, and emotional distress. Scientists are racing to uncover why some people fail to recover fully while others bounce back.
Catecholamines Behind Long COVID Fatigue, Anxiety and Memory Loss
A new study conducted by researchers from the Betty and Guy Beatty Center for Integrated Research at Inova Health System in Virginia, the Department of Medicine at Inova Health System, and George Mason University’s Department of Global and Community Health and School of Systems Biology is shedding light on the role of chemicals in the body known as catecholamines and how they may be driving many of these debilitating symptoms.
This
Medical News report brings forward evidence that stress hormones such as adrenaline, along with certain inflammatory proteins, could form a biological “fingerprint” of Long COVID and may even point the way toward new treatment strategies.
What Exactly Are Catecholamines
Catecholamines are a group of powerful chemicals made by the adrenal glands, which sit on top of the kidneys. They play a vital role in the body’s “fight-or-flight” stress response. The main catecholamines are:
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Epinephrine (Adrenaline): This hormone increases heart rate, blood pressure, and energy supply during stressful situations.
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Norepinephrine (Noradrenaline): Works alongside adrenaline to keep blood vessels tight and maintain alertness.
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Dopamine: Plays an essential role in motivation, pleasure, movement, and regulating blood flow.
In normal situations, these chemicals help us survive danger by preparing the body to react quickly. But when stress hormones remain high for too long—or when they become unbalanced—they can damage physical and emotional health. Symptoms like fatigue, anxiety, poor memory, and even cardiovascular issues can result from chronic catecholamine disruption.
Who Was Studied
The study included 79 people who had previously been infected with COVID-19. The group had an average age of 51 years, and just over half were women. Participants were racially diverse, with Caucasian, Hispanic, African American, and Asian individuals represented. Many were overweight, with a body mass index around 30, and several reported underlying health conditions such as high blood pressure, arthritis, asthma, or depression.
Importantly, participants were asked to attend in person, where researchers carefully measured not only their symptoms but also their blood levels of catecholamines and
inflammatory proteins. This allowed the team to directly connect what people were feeling with what was happening inside their bodies.
The Symptoms People Faced
Fatigue was the most common and most disabling complaint. Many participants said they felt drained of energy, often unable to carry out daily tasks without rest. Problems with memory and concentration—often described as “brain fog”—were another major issue, making it difficult for people to work or study. Shortness of breath also featured strongly, as did symptoms of anxiety and depression.
When compared to average population scores, people with Long COVID reported much lower levels of physical well-being, emotional health, and overall quality of life. Standard medical questionnaires showed higher levels of depression (using the PHQ-9 scale), anxiety (GAD-7 scale), and severe fatigue (measured by FACIT-F tests).
What the Blood Tests Revealed
The most striking finding was that epinephrine (adrenaline) levels were strongly linked to fatigue, emotional health, and functional well-being. People with higher adrenaline levels tended to report feeling more tired, more anxious, and generally less able to function.
At the same time, an inflammatory protein called interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) showed negative associations with well-being. Higher IL-1β was connected with worse emotional health, increased anxiety, and poorer cognitive function. In simple terms, these two markers—epinephrine and IL-1β—were biological red flags for Long COVID suffering.
The researchers also suggested that these changes might be linked to dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the system in the brain and glands that normally regulates stress hormones. When cortisol (the main stress hormone) is low, the body may try to compensate by producing excess catecholamines like adrenaline. This imbalance could explain why Long COVID sufferers feel constantly wired yet exhausted.
Why This Matters For Patients
These findings are important because they show that the symptoms of Long COVID are not just psychological or “in the mind.” Instead, they are connected to measurable biological changes in stress and immune systems. This helps validate patient experiences and provides a roadmap for possible blood-based tests to track the severity of the illness.
For patients, this could mean future treatments that specifically target stress hormone regulation or inflammation. Medications, lifestyle interventions such as exercise, or even stress management therapies might be tailored based on someone’s catecholamine and cytokine profile.
The Bigger Picture
The study adds to a growing body of research that suggests Long COVID involves not just lingering infection but also disruptions in the body’s immune and stress regulation systems. Similar hormone and cytokine abnormalities have been found in conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome and myalgic encephalomyelitis. This overlap could explain why the fatigue of Long COVID feels so overwhelming and persistent.
However, the researchers caution that their study was relatively small, with only 79 participants, and larger studies are needed to confirm these patterns. They also point out that different COVID-19 variants and even vaccination history may influence symptom patterns and biological markers.
Final Thoughts
This study gives critical insight into why Long COVID patients experience such crushing fatigue, memory problems, and emotional distress. By identifying catecholamines like epinephrine and inflammatory proteins like IL-1β as central players, the research provides a biological explanation for what patients already know: their suffering is real and measurable.
The conclusion is powerful—Long COVID is not just a cluster of vague complaints, but a condition tied to disruptions in the body’s most fundamental stress and immune systems. Understanding these mechanisms may pave the way for targeted therapies that restore balance to the body and finally bring relief to millions who remain trapped in post-COVID illness. For now, this work is an important step forward in unraveling one of the most pressing medical mysteries of our time.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed International Journal of General Medicine.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.2147/IJGM.S534539
For the latest on Long COVID, keep on logging to Thailand
Medical News.
Read Also:
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/study-shockingly-reveals-that-catecholamines-and-catecholaminergic-drugs-can-interfere-with-human-testicular-functions
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/coronavirus-news-tiredness-and-fatigue-in-the-covid-19-era-could-be-due-to-addison-s-disease-as-sars-cov-2-also-attacks-the-adrenal-glands
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-coronavirus-news-saudi-arabia-study-shows-that-dopamine-receptors-might-be-targeted-by-sars-cov-2-coronavirus
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