COVID-19 is the illness that started in 2020 and caused lots of trouble around the world.
It attacks our lungs, but scientists in Brazil have found something new. They’ve discovered that this virus can also sneak into our livers.
One of the liver’s jobs is controlling blood sugar levels. If the virus gets into our liver, it can mess up these sugar levels. This can happen even if we were perfectly healthy before getting the virus.
Normally, the COVID-19 virus gets into our bodies through a special door called ACE2. This door is found in many places in our bodies, including our lungs.
What the scientists in Brazil found is that this same door is also found in our liver cells. That means the virus can use it to sneak into our liver.
Once inside our liver, the virus starts making more of itself. But that’s not all. It also makes our liver produce more sugar.
This can make us very sick, like what happens in diabetes. Even if we didn’t have diabetes before catching the virus, we could end up with too much sugar in our blood.
This can cause many health problems. For people already in hospital because of COVID-19, it can make them even sicker. It’s a bit like pouring gasoline on a fire. This is a major problem, and we need to figure out how to stop it.
One good thing is that there’s already a medicine that might help. It’s called metformin, and it’s usually used by people with type 2 diabetes.
Metformin could help COVID-19 patients by stopping the liver from making too much sugar. However, more research is needed to know for sure.
Scientists are still learning about the virus and how it affects our bodies.
Even though the World Health Organization (WHO) recently said that COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency, it’s still a big problem. It’s important for us to understand it as much as we can.
This new finding is like a piece of a puzzle. The more pieces we have, the clearer the picture becomes. So, keep your ears open for new information, and remember to stay safe and healthy.
COVID-19 first appeared in 2020 and quickly spread across the world, causing a global pandemic. Millions of people have been infected, and unfortunately, many have lost their lives.
Although most people with COVID-19 experience mild symptoms, some can become very sick and need to go to the hospital. COVID-19 can also affect many parts of our bodies, not just the lungs.
As we continue to fight this disease, scientists are learning more and more about how it works. Their research helps us understand how to protect ourselves and how to treat people who are sick.
If you care about COVID, please read studies about Vitamin D deficiency linked to severe COVID-19, and how diets could help manage post-COVID syndrome.
For more information about COVID, please see recent studies about new evidence on rare blood clots after COVID-19 vaccination, and results showing zinc could help reduce COVID-19 infection risk.
The study was published in PNAS. Follow us on Twitter for more articles about this topic.
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