MILWAUKEE— What can COVID-19 do to your body long term? A group at Marquette University is hoping to find an answer to that question through their research.
For the past year and a half, staff and students at Marquette University have been studying the long term effects of COVID-19. Their research has brought them over 100 candidates to study.
Running tests and collecting data is all apart of the work a team of staff and students at Marquette University have been doing throughout the pandemic. Graduate student Lindsey Mirkes is helping to collect data from participants who have had COVID-19 and from those who have not.
“People with COVID-19 are reporting fatigue and weakness in their muscles and their bodies, so we are targeting a very large muscle group to see what the differences might be between controls and COVID-19 survivors,” Lindsey Mirkes said.
The group takes people through a questionnaire before bringing them in for a series of five different types of tests to measure how their bodies respond. It takes around three hours, but is only done one time.
Some of the biggest long-term effects they have found were that many suffer from fatigue, brain fog, and a handful of other symptoms.
“Our initial analysis is showing even eight months out people are reporting fatigue, loss of taste, anxiety, pain in the chest at rest,” Director of the Athletic and Human Performance Research Center at Marquette University, Sandra Hunter said.
The group also found that COVID-19 affects more women long term.
“We’ve seen some of our results are showing that pain at rest is much more effected at women than men but both men and women are showing greater fatigue and greater weakness in their leg muscles,” Hunter said.
So, as people go through this wide variety of testing, they are getting a small glimpse of what COVID-19 is doing to their body. They are hoping it provides a better insight on how to care for themselves.
The goal is to provide answers by publishing their research sometime this year.
The group is looking for more people to enroll in testing to see what COVID-19 is doing to their body long term. Interesting in joining? You can reach out to the team:
Email - vol4researchexsc@marquette.edu
Phone - (414) 288-2110