March 8, 2023 – People who’ve had COVID-19 are at higher risk of developing recent, long-term digestive problems, in line with a study published Tuesday within the journal Nature communication.
In the study of greater than 11 million people, COVID patients were 36% more more likely to develop a gastrointestinal upset than individuals who never had the virus. New gastrointestinal problems included irritable bowel syndrome, acid reflux disease, ulcers, constipation, diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloating or vomiting.
“Gastrointestinal problems were among the first to be reported by the patient community,” says researcher Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis who has extensively studied the long-term effects of COVID infection, in a opinion“It is becoming increasingly clear that the gastrointestinal tract serves as a reservoir for the virus.”
The digestive system produces enzymes that aid within the digestion of food and liquids. The system includes the liver, pancreas, mouth, throat, esophagus, stomach, small and huge intestines, rectum and anus. The most typical complaints ranged from mild stomach problems to life-threatening events resembling liver failure and acute pancreatitis. The increased risk endured for at the least a yr after COVID infection.
For the studyThe researchers used health data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Data from 154,068 people diagnosed with COVID-19 from the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 to January 2021 were compared with data from individuals who didn’t develop COVID.
Both individuals with mild cases and people with severe cases requiring hospitalization were more more likely to have gastrointestinal problems after COVID infection.
There were some limitations to interpreting the study's results. The data got here primarily from older white men, few people had been vaccinated so early within the pandemic, and the infections didn’t include later variants of COVID resembling delta and omicron. The authors indicate that other research has shown that vaccines offer some protection against long COVID, which is the term used to explain COVID symptoms that persist long after the initial infection.
According to the researchers, their findings may mean that gastrointestinal monitoring and special care are needed after a COVID infection.
“The risks and burdens are not insignificant – which suggests that post-acute Covid treatment strategies should also take gastrointestinal disease into account,” they write.