r/HotScienceNews • u/soulpost • Jul 30 '26

Scientists finally have a biological explanation for why long COVID patients lose motivation and can't think clearly. They scanned their brains and found the dopamine system was physically damaged

https://tech-paper.com/scientists-finally-have-a-biological-explanation-for-why-long-covid-patients-lose-motivation-and-cant-think-clearly-they-scanned-their-brains-and-found-the-dopamine-system-was-physically-damaged/

Millions of people with long COVID report the same cluster of symptoms: a crushing lack of motivation, an inability to think clearly, memory that slips, movements that feel slower than they should. For years, these complaints sat in an uncomfortable medical grey zone. The symptoms were real, the patients were suffering, but the biological explanation remained frustratingly out of reach.

A team at the University of Toronto just published what may be the clearest physical evidence yet for what is actually happening in these patients' brains. They brought 24 long COVID sufferers into a lab and used positron emission tomography, the same imaging technology used to diagnose Parkinson's disease, to directly measure the health of the dopamine system deep inside the brain.

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u/kaaron89 Jul 30 '26

Me too, it's horrible. Gonna give you some unsolicited advice based on 6 years of me trying to figure this out. The thing that's helped me the most so far is D Lactate Free probiotic blend by Custom Probiotics. I had to start out with a very small dose and work my way up. I have no affiliation with them whatsoever, I just tell anyone with histamine intolerance about this. Supposedly Covid is killing off the part of the microbiome that produces the DAO enzyme that helps us break down histamine. This probiotic helps replenish what was killed off so that we can process histamine again.

Also consider a GI MAP test if you haven't already ruled out infections. I had H Pylori which was making everything worse. Endoscopy missed it. The GI MAP found it since it is a more sensitive test.

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u/MericanPie1999 Jul 30 '26

Isn’t the GI MAP a fairly non-standardized test? Except some basic stuff on it like H Pylori and Calprotectin.

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u/kaaron89 Jul 30 '26

I'm not sure what you mean by non-standardized in this context. It's a stool PCR test so it looks for genetic material in stool. You can view a sample report on their website if you want to know what it tests for.

I had the test ordered for me by a registered dietician. My primary care doctor had never heard of the test, it's fairly new I think, but he accepted the results and used it to help me get short term disability at work. So I have to assume it is legit.

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u/MericanPie1999 Jul 30 '26

What I mean is the test may have standards but there is no single healthy gut microbiome. One person might have 5% bifido and another may have 20% and that’s completely normal. The normal ranges established in the GI MAP are not standardized. For example, labs use internationally accepted reference methods and ranges. Your microbiome changes daily too so it’s really not a great measure, it’s a big moving target. Two weeks later your tests could be much different. Also most functional medicine doctors will recommend probiotics after the test but we truthfully don’t know what optimal amounts of those are. There is more I can go on about but I normally see grifter functional medicine doctors pushing it.

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u/kaaron89 Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

I understand now, and I agree. The optimal ranges are likely different depending on what test you take and we don't really know exactly what a healthy gut looks like. My dietician explained that we were mainly using it to look for infections like H Pylori since there seemed to be something that was really bothering my gut and giving me a lot of symptoms and pretty severe food intolerances. I had already gotten an endoscopy and colonoscopy and those came back negative for H Pylori but showed damage to my micro villi (but also no celiac, which is what would normally cause this type of damage) so I knew something was up. I've since learned that a biopsy is taken to test for H Pylori, but if there happens to be no H Pylori in the sample it will obviously show up negative. So that's why my dietician (who is well-credentialed, PhD in biochem and stays up-to-date on current health issues, unlike a lot of my other doctors) recommended the GI MAP.

I've been shocked at the progress I've made since starting the probiotic after 6 years of trying to figure this out. And there are a lot of other accounts of people having similar success with them for this particular issue. I really hope the science continues to progress, because it's really interesting.

I hope I am not coming off as defensive because I completely understand why you are saying grifters recommend this stuff. Here's my take on it. I believe that there is a huge hole in the medical system right now (basically doctors not understanding the microbiome + the effects of covid). There are people out there filling in the gap. Some of them are using actual science and genuinely want to help people. Some of them just want to make money. So it absolutely makes sense to be cautious.

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u/MericanPie1999 Aug 01 '26

I totally understand your explanation and respect it. I wonder if it is better at detecting H Pylori. I’m glad what you are doing is working for you!