MILLIONS of Brits have had Covid at some point during the past three years.
While the Covid vaccine has helped protect us and put an end to lockdowns, the virus is still circulating widely, according to recent reports.
New research has shown that you’re more likely to experience a host of gastrointestinal problems if you’ve been infected with the virus
In fact, as of March 3, cases of Covid-19 had climbed six per cent in the previous week, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed.
An estimated 1.5 million Brits had the bug in the week ending February 21 – the majority of cases do appear to be in care homes.
Although some people have experienced lingering symptoms from long-Covid – from loss of smell to ongoing fatigue – many of us have recovered within a few days.
Or so we thought.
New research has shown you’re actually more likely to experience a host of gastrointestinal problems if you’ve been infected with the virus.
This is the case even if your illness was pretty mild, according to clinical epidemiologists from Washington University in St. Louis, US.
The study compared medical records of 154,068 US veterans who’d had Covid with about 5.6 million people of similar age who hadn’t.
Of the veterans, 9,605 experienced issues with their digestive system, pancreas, or liver in the year after they were infected.
The veterans reported symptoms such as constipation, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, vomiting and bloating.
The most common stomach-related diagnoses were acid-related disorders, like gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and peptic ulcer disease, which affected more than 2,600 of the veterans.
On average, Covid patients were 36 per cent more likely to have long-term gastrointestinal problems, according to the New York Times.
The study additionally showed the risk of long-term stomach issues increased for those who were hospitalised with more severe Covid infections.
And long Covid patients were also at higher risk of gastrointestinal symptoms, according to researchers, with the most common being constipation, abdominal pain and diarrhoea.
The stomach issues people experienced after getting Covid “are not trivial” researchers noted.
And considering how many people have had Covid in the past three years – be that a mild or severe illness – it could mean large numbers of people might be suffering from uncomfortable stomach problems.
“This will have ramifications not only for the personal health of affected individuals, but also on health systems which will have to address the care needs of people with post-acute Covid-19 gastrointestinal disorders,” the researchers wrote.
They suggested that care strategies for people who’ve had the virus should address gastrointestinal disease.
Researchers studied people who got Covid in the earlier days of the pandemic, between March 1, 2020, and Jan 15, 2021.
This was before vaccines for the virus became widely available.
As a result, people infected more recently – and by newer, milder variants – might have different symptoms to later participants.
People who had the milder Omicron virus reported suffering with more stomach related issues.
The Sun reported last year that people who are fully jabbed are less likely to have long Covid.
The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
A separate study in the same journal found that coronavirus may interfere with the natural balance of good and bad bacteria in the gut, leaving patients at risk for secondary infections.
It’s possible that some viral fragments from Covid remain in the digestive tract after the initial infection, causing continued inflammation in the stomach and intestines, the researchers hypothesised.
But scientists are still trying to get to the bottom of why people have gastrointestinal issues after Covid.
Previous studies have linked stomach problems to the virus, with one showing that critically ill Covid patients also had gastrointestinal complications.
One also found that people who’d had the virus reported loss of appetite, nausea and acid three months after becoming infected.