A patient experiencing chronic fatigue after infection from COVID-19 is seen at the Department of Rehabilitative Cardiology of ASL3 Genova in Italy, where they have implemented rehabilitation program for some patients who were hospitalized from the disease in 2020. A new longitudinal case-study of COVID patients enduring chronic fatigue documents changes in the blood and skeletal muscle.Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
Key changes they discovered were differences in the body’s ability to generate energy compared to healthy patients. This included lower levels of oxidative phosphorylation—a biochemical process that yields ATP, a molecule that the body uses for energy. They also observed that after exercise there was a decrease in the activity of mitochondria, cellular power stations that manufacture the ATP molecules.
For trained athletes, hitting the “wall” can come at the end of a marathon. For people with post-exertional malaise, hitting the “wall” can happen doing everyday activities, such as going for a walk around the block, taking a shower, or doing housework., a researcher at the University of the Pacific, whose research focuses on post-exertional malaise. You don’t function above your anaerobic threshold for very long or very well, he adds.
“We know that it is difficult to change fiber types in people, and that it doesn’t happen with inactivity,” Wüst says. “Something else is changing the fiber types.” This damage is thought to be the result of multiple bouts of post-exertional malaise, which is then compounded by an impaired ability to recover.