El Nino weakening doesn't mean cooler temperatures this summer, forecasters say
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
Cognitive impairment -- described as brain fog -- can persist for months in COVID-19 patients, even for some who were not hospitalized, according to a new study.
The research, published Friday in the journal JAMA Network Open, found that nearly a quarter of COVID-19 patients in a Mount Sinai Health System registry experienced some issues with their memory -- and although hospitalized patients were more likely to have such brain fog after a coronavirus infection, some outpatients had cognitive impairment too.
"In this study, we found a relatively high frequency of cognitive impairment several months after patients contracted COVID-19. Impairments in executive functioning, processing speed, category fluency, memory encoding, and recall were predominant among hospitalized patients," Jacqueline Becker and her colleagues at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, wrote in the study.
"This pattern is consistent with early reports describing a dysexecutive syndrome after COVID-19 and has considerable implications for occupational, psychological, and functional outcomes," the researchers wrote. Separate research, published in April in the journal Lancet Psychiatry, found that as many as 1 in 3 people with Covid-19 had longer term mental health or neurological symptoms.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention includes difficulty thinking or concentrating -- sometimes referred to as "brain fog" -- on its list of post-Covid conditions.
"Although most people with COVID-19 get better within weeks of illness, some people experience post-COVID conditions," the CDC notes on its website. "Post-COVID conditions are a wide range of new, returning, or ongoing health problems people can experience four or more weeks after first being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19."
The new study included data, from April 2020 through May 2021, on 740 COVID-19 patients with no history of dementia. The average age of patients was 49. Cognitive functioning was assessed for each patient and the researchers analyzed the frequency of cognitive impairment among the patients.
Among all the patients, the researchers found that 15% showed deficits in phonemic fluency in their speaking; 16% in a set of mental skills called their executive functioning; 18% showed deficits in their cognitive processing speed; 20% in their ability to process categories or lists; 23% in memory recall and 24% in memory encoding, among other impairments.
The researchers noted that hospitalized patients were more likely to have impairments in attention, executive functioning, category fluency and memory.
For instance, when it came to memory recall, the researchers found 39% of hospitalized patients had impairment in that area compared with 12% of outpatients. When it came to memory encoding, the data showed that 37% of hospitalized patients had impairment compared with 16% of outpatients.
The authors noted the possibility for bias in the sample because patients came to Mount Sinai Health System because they were experiencing symptoms.
"The association of COVID-19 with executive functioning raises key questions regarding patients' long-term treatment," the researchers wrote. "Future studies are needed to identify the risk factors and mechanisms underlying cognitive dysfunction as well as options for rehabilitation."
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
A 15-year old boy who was critically injured after a stabbing in Nepean on Thursday has died of his injuries, Ottawa's English public school board said Sunday.
Police say it’s fortunate no one was injured or killed in a collision at North Vancouver’s Park and Tilford shopping centre Saturday evening that sent one vehicle careening into a flower shop and another into a set of concrete barriers outside a Winners store.
The Maple Leafs battled back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Boston Bruins with consecutive 2-1 victories - including one that required extra time - in their first-round playoff series to push the club's Original Six rival to the limit before suffering a devastating Game 7 overtime loss.
Amid scientists' warnings that nations need to transition away from fossil fuels to limit climate change, Canadians are still lukewarm on electric vehicles, according to a study conducted by Nanos Research for CTV News.
Three people have died and two have been hospitalized after a speeding car struck a tree and landed on another vehicle in Fredericton Sunday morning.
A Montreal man is warning Tesla drivers about using the Smart Summon feature after his vehicle hit another in a parking lot.
Madonna put on a free concert on Copacabana beach Saturday night, turning Rio de Janeiro's vast stretch of sand into an enormous dance floor teeming with a multitude of her fans.
Thieves killed two Australians and an American on a surfing trip to Mexico in order to steal their truck, particularly because they wanted the tires, authorities said Sunday.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.