COVID-19 and Flu Viruses Can Worsen Parkinson’s Symptoms

t’s flu season, my least favorite time of year. I always experience some flu-like reactions to the vaccine and get a mild viral infection anyway.

This year, after receiving two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, I experienced strong (not adverse) reactions. Given the association between viruses and the exacerbation of Parkinson’s symptoms, I thought for sure there would be numerous articles addressing the topic. There were very few.

Each year in the U.S., influenza and its related complications result in approximately 226,000 hospitalizations and nearly 24,000 deaths on average, according to the New York State Department of Health.

One of the earliest links between influenza and neural dysfunction was a correlation between the 1918 Spanish flu and increased Parkinson’s diagnoses in the 1940s and early ’50s. Diagnoses of Parkinson’s appeared to increase abruptly, from 1-2% of the U.S. population to 2.5-3%. Lead researcher and neurobiologist Richard Smeyne said, “Basically, 50 percent more people in those years got Parkinson’s.”

Leia mais …