Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Dec 03, 2025 44 minutes ago
Medical News: Persistent Gut Issues Still Affect Survivors
A major two-year study by Brazilian researchers at the University of the State of Amazonas, Fundação Hospitalar de Hematologia e Hemoterapia do Amazonas, and Fundação de Medicina Tropical Dr Heitor Vieira Dourado has found that many people hospitalized with severe COVID-19 continue to experience gastrointestinal troubles long after recovering from the initial infection. The investigators tracked 80 adults who were hospitalized in Manaus, Brazil, and discovered that more than one-third still suffered digestive symptoms two years later. This
Medical News report highlights the long-term changes in inflammation and immunity that may be driving these persistent problems.
A long-term Brazilian study reveals how lingering inflammation drives persistent gut symptoms in long COVID survivors
What Symptoms Lasted the Longest
At the two-year point, 37.5 percent of the participants continued to report frequent issues such as gastric reflux, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and even difficulty swallowing. Many patients were dealing with more than one symptom at the same time. The study also found that those suffering from digestive problems tended to experience other long COVID symptoms too, including palpitations, headaches, fatigue, and joint pains. These overlapping symptoms show that long COVID is not limited to one organ but affects the body in many ways.
Unique Biological Patterns Found in Affected Patients
To better understand why these gut problems, remain, the research team analyzed blood samples taken at multiple time points over the two-year period. They discovered that people with long-lasting gastrointestinal symptoms showed unusual patterns in their immune markers. For example, these patients had lower creatinine and ferritin levels and higher platelet counts than those without gut symptoms. Their levels of IL-6, a key inflammatory molecule, were low during the initial infection but rose sharply by the fourth month and remained altered long afterward. These changes suggest a delayed but persistent inflammatory response that could be linked to ongoing discomfort in the digestive system.
A Breakdown in Normal Immune Signaling
The study also examined how different inflammatory signals interacted over time. In healthy people, these signals connect in stable and predictable ways. But among long COVID patients with gastrointestinal complaints, these connections broke down over the two-year period. IL-6 appeared to remain a central driver, while other important immune regulators became disconnected. This unusual pattern further supports the idea that the digestive symptoms might stem from chronic immune system imbalance triggered by the original infection.
Why These Findings Matter
The research highlights that long COVID does not fade quickly for many survivors. Digestive problems can linger for years and may be linked to deeper immune disruptions happening inside the body. These immune changes could also explain
why many patients continue to feel unwell in several ways at once.
Understanding these patterns could help doctors identify long-COVID patients earlier and tailor their follow-up care.
Final Thoughts
These results show that long COVID can leave lasting effects on the gut and immune system well beyond the initial illness. The ongoing inflammation seen in this study suggests that the virus may trigger changes that take years to settle. As more evidence emerges, it becomes increasingly important to monitor patients over time, develop targeted treatments, and understand which biological changes predict long-term symptoms. This work strongly reinforces that long COVID is a chronic condition for many individuals and that persistent gut symptoms represent a significant part of this ongoing health challenge.
The study findings were published on a preprint server and are currently being peer reviewed.
https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-7375668/v1
For the latest on Long COVID, keep on logging to Thailand
Medical News.
Read Also:
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/long-covid
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/coronavirus
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