Study: Risk of heart disease rises after COVID infections

[KARE11 News, March 18, 2022] Much about the COVID-19 disease, especially long-term, remains a mystery, but a new, massive study shows COVID infections can increase the risk of heart issues for up to a year after infection.

The St. Louis Veterans Affairs points to another major long-term COVID concern: the heart. The study from the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System looked at 153,760 COVID patients for a year and compared those results with more than 11 million veterans from before and during the pandemic who never had COVID. The results showed even a mild case of COVID can increase the risk of heart issues long after recovering from the virus.

“What they are seeing is just being exposed and having it, even without going to the hospital, increases your chance of getting a lot of various, different cardiac problems,” said Dr. John Lesser, director of advanced cardiac imaging at the Minneapolis Heart Institute.