Covid-19 Pandemic Accelerated Aging In Our Brains
The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated our brain’s aging, regardless of if you were infected or not, according to a new study published recently in Nature Communications.
Researchers in the study looked at brain scans from 1,000 people during and before the pandemic. They then compared those to brain scans from other people taken during standard times as a model for typical brain aging.
Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad from the University of Nottingham School of Medicine in the U.K. led the study, and with his team of researchers they were able to measure brain function, gray and white matter volume, cognitive skills, and chronological age, according to reports.
The team emphasized the importance of looking at both gray and white matter in this study as gray matter is critical for our memory, emotions, and movement while white matter helps our nerves transmit electrical signals.
The data showed that the pandemic aged our brains about 5.5 months faster when compared to how our brains aged pre-pandemic. What was especially interesting was the fact that this accelerated aging was found in both people who ended up getting infected with Covid and those who didn’t.
This suggests that pandemic-factors outside of just viral infection impacted the way our bodies and brains functioned.
“This finding was interesting and rather unexpected, we found that participants who simply lived through the pandemic period, regardless of infection, also showed signs of slightly accelerated brain aging.” says Mohammadi-Nejad.
“This highlights that the broader experience of the pandemic—including disruptions to daily life, stress, reduced social interactions, reduced activity, etc.,—may have had a measurable impact on brain health.”
Certain demographics also experienced an even higher level of accelerated brain aging. The study wrote that elderly people, men, individuals with compromised health, lower educational status/income, or unstable housing were among those groups.
More specifically, individuals with less stable employment during the pandemic had an average of five more months of brain aging compared to those with higher/more stable employment.
Individuals with compromised immune systems/general health had an additional four months of increased brain aging.
While only individuals who were infected with Covid-19 showed a decrease in cognitive skills, the fact that those who were never infected showed an acceleration in brain aging shows that other factors of the pandemic impacted the way we all function.
“Brain health can be influenced by everyday life activities, and major societal disruptions—like those experienced during the pandemic—can leave a mark even in healthy individuals,” Mohammadi-Nejad says.
“This adds to our understanding of public health by reinforcing the importance of considering mental, cognitive, and social well-being alongside traditional physical health indicators during future crisis-response planning.”
Mohammadi-Nejad said a healthy diet, exercise, solid sleep schedule, and social interactions are important to help our brains function properly,
“Whether these can reverse the specific changes we observed remains to be studied,” he says.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
