The mortality rate is approximately 5% of reported cases and over half of patients require mechanical ventilation for respiratory failure.
The ketogenic diet is a high fat, low carbohydrate, adequate-protein diet that promotes metabolic ketosis (ketone body production) through hepatic metabolism of fatty acids. High fat, low carbohydrate diets have been shown to reduce duration of ventilator support and partial pressure carbon dioxide in patients with acute respiratory failure. In addition, metabolic ketosis reduces systemic inflammation. This mechanism could be leveraged to halt the cytokine storm characteristic of COVID-19 infection.
A new study highlights the most common neurological and psychological complications that arise as a result of coronavirus infection. The most common brain complication was stroke, reported in 77 of 125 patients studied. Of those, 57 patients had a stroke caused by a blood clot in the brain. Behavioural changes, confusion, and altered mental state were also reported in a significant number of patients. Depression and anxiety were also commonly reported. Ten patients developed psychosis as a result of COVID-19, and six developed a dementia-like syndrome.
Early behavioural signs predict seizures in autistic children, according to a new study. Previous work has shown that 5 to 46 percent of people with autism experience seizures. And autistic adults with epilepsy have, on average, less cognitive ability and weaker daily living skills than their autistic peers who do not have seizures.
