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I've noticed a cognitive decline in myself the past couple years. I'm in my mid 30's though so I assume it's more related to long covid. One of the biggest si

• agloe_dreams 3y ago
  Also, get checked up for Sleep Apnea. It is a truly life-ruining condition whose primary side effect is lost memory and cognitive function.
  • jpcfl 3y ago
    Holy shit this. I went years undiagnosed. Saw a dozen doctors. Couldn’t get an clear explanation for why I was always tired, brain fog, vision problems, joint pain, memory issues. The list goes on. Then my _dentist_ of all people ordered a Watch-PAT take-home sleep test (took a lab sleep test, but it was useless) which finally revealed I was having more than 10 events per hour. The dentist made me a Herbst appliance to hold my airways open during sleep. My life is 100x better now.
    • DANmode 3y ago
      What region is this? Excellent catch.
      • jpcfl 3y ago
        Mountain View, CA. I should say that my health issue weren't all magically solved by the Herbst appliance, but addressing my sleep apnea was a major improvement.
  • deprecative 3y ago
    This is one of the most frustrating things about the US. This shit is expensive. Sure, for a lot of us making bank in the software field we tend to lose sight of that. I got laid off (yay hyper-capitalist bonus chasing management). I'm reading this thread and seeing plenty of things that would be great from a health perspective but let's be real. They're all out of reach for me. Fortunately, that's temporary for myself. I'm sure I'll be back to making bank within a year or two. Most folks however? This advice will permanently be out of reach.
• PrimeMcFly 3y ago
  > I'm in my mid 30's though so I assume it's more related to long covid. Much more likely to just be aging. You're not too old for it.
  • decremental 3y ago
    [dead]
• pja 3y ago
  Quality of sleep makes a huge difference to your mental faculties. If you could bottle it, the effect would be a multi, multi $billion drug.
  • nottorp 3y ago
    Exercise tends to help.
    • morelisp 3y ago
      Unless you also got PEM with your long COVID, then exercise makes it a lot worse. Bro science is dangerous.
      • nottorp 3y ago
        Don't think the sleep quality pill comment was aimed at long covid specifically. Just because some people have conditions that prevent them from exercising it doesn't mean it isn't the healthy choice overall.
      • CodeSgt 3y ago
        “Exercise is healthy” is very, very far from “Bro science”.
        • morelisp 3y ago
          "Exercise helps post-COVID cognitive decline and insomnia" is absolutely bro science, and especially since it can make the whole situation much, much worse.
          • CodeSgt 3y ago
            That was never the claim. The claim was that it helps with brain fog and mental clarity in general, not specifically that caused by long-COVID, which had been proven to be true. And a cursory look at the literature for PEM[1] will show you that the recommended path to recovery isn’t “avoid physical exertion at all costs”, but to do what you’re capable of and slowly ramp up the intensity, in which case small amounts of exercise could play a vital role. [1] http://www.phsa.ca/health-info-site/Documents/post_covid-19_Post-Exertional_Malaise.pdf http://www.phsa.ca/health-info-site/Documents/post_covid-19_...
• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
• rapsey 3y ago
  Are you taking vitamin d? If not you absolutely should. Magnesium at the same time as D3 and then glycine and another dose of magnesium before bed. This is the magic formula for me.
  • swalsh 3y ago
    I've tried a variety of supplements, the only thing i've tried with any noticable effect is ashwagandha.
  • amelius 3y ago
    If you take a lot of vitamin d, make sure you also take vitamin k. Just a random source here because I'm too lazy: https://www.balancedwellbeinghealthcare.com/are-you-taking-vitamin-d3-dont-forget-vitamin-k/ https://www.balancedwellbeinghealthcare.com/are-you-taking-v... > Because vitamin D is so good at improving calcium levels, by taking it alone you could be working to increase the calcification of your arteries instead of strengthening your bones so make sure to include K2 in your vitamin D supplement regimen!
    • prox 3y ago
      Please note that overtaking vitamin D is unhealthy as well. It’s a hormone and I believe taking too much is damaging to the liver. But supplemental and when having a lack of Sun is probably a good balance. But if you can be in the sun your skin can make vitamin D.
      • LoganDark 3y ago
        Note that windows typically block the majority of the radiation that allows you to make vitamin D, so even if the sun hits you every day through your window, it's still not a good substitute for a sunny walk every once in a while. My doctor told me to go out at noon every day, but anything is better than nothing.
        • prox 3y ago
          Yes, walking is super healthy, my lunch breaks are always a walk outside.
• bendbro 3y ago
  After my startup failed and I broke up with my girlfriend, my cognition massively changed: I was less creative, less quick, and I could see it reduce my ability to code. Otherwise, I lost libido, had paranoia in social interaction, and alcohol or marijuana would cause me paranoia. When I would ride my motorcycle on curvy roads, or when I would play a racing game or read a book, I couldn't get into a flow anymore. Thinking about activities would stress me to the point that I would avoid doing anything. After a number of years I feel normal, and I think it was due primarily to finding and sticking to a routine. The routine involves little things like watering plants and making coffee, and I just do them every day without thinking. Otherwise it includes exercise, sleep, chores, work, and procrastination.
  • grumblehound 3y ago
    I recently quit my dev job because it was too stressful and I was burning out. I seemed to almost instantly get better at thrashing my motorbike in the twisties... I'm not sure why exactly but it feels like a weight was lifted and it just allowed me to focus and enjoy being in the moment a bit more.
  • painted-now 3y ago
    I had to finish up my PhD while already working at a FAANG. My professor would keep stacking more stuff that he wanted to have in my thesis. It was a horrible time and I think I was very close to a burnout. One thing that I later noticed was that I e.g. couldn't enjoy any music anymore. I always used to be able to be absolutely amazed by some tracks and dance to it at home - but during that time there was just nothing.
  • Tycho 3y ago
    That sounds like textbook depression (although you didn’t mention feeling down explicitly). During that time, is there any chance you weren’t eating enough? Did you lose weight?
    • bendbro 3y ago
      Yeah, I found too I wasn't eating enough. I estimates I was eating around 1500-2000 calories regularly and I never really felt hungry. Once I started forcing myself to eat larger meals I felt a lot better and started feeling hunger again.
• retSava 3y ago
  Have a blood work checkup. Ensure you'll check vitamin and mineral levels, perhaps most notably vit D and iron. Also check ferritin and transferrin saturation (aids in pinpointing hemochromatosis ie iron overload, which for many leads to brain fog and fatigue and often shows up your age). Exercise regularly.
• criddell 3y ago
  You might want to research Nicotinamide Riboside. I started taking it to see if it would help with painful inflammation in my hands, wrists, and knees and noticed that when I take it, not only is inflammation improved, but my sleep improved (I track with an Oura ring) and I can concentrate for longer periods of time. Might all be placebo effect, but I’m okay with that. My doctor seems to think that’s probably the case. FWIW, I’m 20 years older than you.
  • copperx 3y ago
    It is a shame that NR is quite an expensive placebo, though. I've found similar results, but I have zero faith in it being some sort of anti aging agent in humans.
    • criddell 3y ago
      I think it is costing me less than $2 / day. In the world of supplements, it's not that much.
      • banq 3y ago
        NMN is cheaper, and better than NR
• matwood 3y ago
  > I've noticed a cognitive decline in myself the past couple years. How have you measured? I know people do decline cognitively in old age, but 30s is still young. I wonder if people only think they were sharper when younger. I knew much less in my 20s and made tons of mistakes. The mind has a peculiar way of highlighting good memories and downplaying the bad. The person I was in my 20s would not be able to do my current job.
  • hgsgm 3y ago
    It is an extraordinary claim to say that people think as fast in their 30s as 30s. Billions of people have direct experience over thousands of years. Yes, accumulated knowledge and wisdom can make you more successful with age. It doesn't mean your fluid intelligence and ability to learn new things is keeping up.
  • jwells89 3y ago
    My 30s self also runs circles around my 20s self when it comes to work (writing code), but I’m confident that’s thanks to the knowledge, experience, and wisdom that’s accumulated in that time. If it were somehow possible to grant my 20s self these advantages, he’d run circles around me. Not just because he’s cognitively faster, but because he’s able to work for longer periods without feeling fatigued and can focus more deeply thanks to having fewer mental background tasks constantly running and not yet feeling the various time-related pressures that come with age. Giving my teenage self current knowledge would also be interesting. Even though people aren’t cognitively complete yet at that point, at that age I had the ability to get lost in a project on a dime which was was amazing.
  • ccleve 3y ago
    How do you measure?
• dsego 3y ago
  Some supplements that seem to improve my cognition (based on my subjective experience) are vitamin B complex, lecitone jeune, omega 3 & mct oil.
• bluepod4 3y ago
  In what ways have you noticed the cognitive decline? Just curious. Don’t feel the need to share if too personal.
• codethief 3y ago
  Have you noticed a change in your breathing due to covid?
  • xtracto 3y ago
    Not OP but I had terrible covid at 38y old around march 2020. My chest xray showed one of my lungs was really bad , and during 3 months I was feeling like crap (includingthe brain fog and all the stuff people mention). Fast forward 3 years, I go swimming thrice a week, and it sucks that STILL my breathing hasn't recovered. If I try to take a lot of air for several times, I'll start coughing. I get out of air quickly... even though I have strength to keep swimming.
• herval 3y ago
  I had the same after COVID. Took me many months to start feeling functional again. Any time I tried to think about something, it'd just... noise out? First 2-3 months were just awful I went to a neurologist who said there's tons of people coming in with the same complaint after COVID, and since there's no literature on that yet, he couldn't really do anything. It gets better.
  • ddmf 3y ago
    I remember sitting trying to solve a problem to do with parent/child codes and modifiers, and I'd never had nothing come out, that was absolutely scary. 8 months later and I looked at it again and solved it so easily. The big problem was that I'd always been able to hide my adhd symptoms, or at least 'clever' my way around them, and long covid / covid brain just laid them all bare. Over 3 years after my first covid infection - still can't really taste or smell - I'm medicated for adhd, and I feel almost like how I was in March 2020.
  • koheripbal 3y ago
    I wonder how many people just fell into alcohol, isolation induced depression, sedentary lifestyle, weight gain, etc... and that their health decline had nothing to do with COVID. That's the issue with these anecdotes
    • dd36 3y ago
      OP did not claim their comment wasn’t an anecdote…
    • swalsh 3y ago
      For me personally, I've been working from home for years. While the world around me changed, my life stayed the same.
    • thisguyfox 3y ago
      When the pandemic hit I went the opposite. Focused on a healthy mind and body, was able to study a bunch and finally broken through a few mental plateaus. But then I _got_ COVID and I can tell you COVID brain is real. Even after I had recovered physically there were a few weeks of obvious cognitive degradation. One of my first days testing negative I was trying to implement some pretty basic pagination logic but when it came time to writing the algos for it, it was like my body flipped a switch and I would get impossibly drowsy and have to go lie down. I've had covid twice since then without the same problem but it is very real and wild.
• xkbarkar 3y ago
  How did this go to the top vote? Brings nothing about the article just dubious personal long covid claims. HN please stop upvoting this nonsense. Already the second and third answers are HN quality. This is r/covid commentary. Does not belong here.
  • simonjgreen 3y ago
    And yet the volume of replies, advice, and questions, against this suggests it's brought enjoyable conversation. On-topic is shades of grey.
    • koheripbal 3y ago
      Popularity is not a proxy for quality. ...and just like Reddit, chasing popular posts and comments is a race to the bottom as it attracts an ever-more juvenile crowd of participants. Nuanced opinions and expert commentary are more boring but attract a more intellectually curious crowd - and that is what sets HN apart from reddit.
      • williamtrask 3y ago
        True in the limit yet democracy and free markets both imply popularity has something to it.
      • johnnyanmac 3y ago
        It isn't, but at the same time pop culture isn't automatically low quality either. I think blind call to actions based on gut feelings without understand WHY those gut feelings exist are exactly the kinds of things we should discourage here. I use the collorary for evaluating stuff like this. I care less about a high polished acedemic answer than I do about the resulting discussion not diving into a dumpster afterwrds. For here, I don't see a de-evolution into COVID denailism and anti-vaxxers or even random anecdotes of an off the hinge relative who died and the OP has to be like "I told him but he wouldn't listen", like I would on reddit. I see interesting discussion on a topic that is still a very hotly researched topic even in academia. Ways to potentially get checked or self help to mitigate effects. No one is an expert on "long COVID" yet, so it's interesting to see experiences (and IMO, see how they age as we learn more about such phenomenon).
• phkahler 3y ago
  I've found that going to the gym and lifting weights will clear my head. That wasn't necessary pre-covid though.
  • CodeSgt 3y ago
    Agreed! Similarly, ice baths/cold plunges are a great way for me to mentally “reset” and clear up a little brain fog. Minimizing carbs has, for me, also helped. Not eliminating them mind you, but reeling my consumption of them in to a healthy level and focusing on proteins, fruits, veggies, etc for most of my caloric intake.
• pmorici 3y ago
  I doubt it is much to do with COVID. Mid 30’s is about the time when you have to start paying closer attention to things like sleep and exercise or everything starts to go to shit.
  • MrYellowP 3y ago
    I'm in my early 40s, and do nothing specifically for my physical health. I don't have cognitive decline, I don't suffer from little issues at all, (someone once said that'll happen once past 40), some days I skip sleep entirely. I also learn new stuff and program on projects, which are cognitively demanding, almost every single day. I don't regularly watch TV shows. On occasion I binge-watch something, only to stop it again for many months. I don't drink alcohol at all, but I consume small amounts of THC. Your "mid 30s" claim might be true for people who are doing it wrong, which probably/likely is the vast majority, but there's absolutely no fair and objective way of putting an age on the beginning of cognitive or physical decline as if it was outside of ones personality responsibility/abilities to prevent it from happening until a much, much later age. But ... to be the exception that agrees with the rule: If I lived how most people around seem to be living, I'd likely suffer from decline as well.
    • pmorici 3y ago
      Obviously it’s different for everyone. Count yourself lucky I guess!
• datavirtue 3y ago
  I think a lot of problems are related to people thinking their sleep is good when it is not.
• naasking 3y ago
  Poor sleep causes significant cognitive impairments in memory, processing speed, etc. Restoring good sleep usually restores most cognitive function, depending on the extent of the sleep deficit. Get a sleep watch or device to track both duration and depth of sleep.