Here are the seven most common long COVID symptoms, study finds

Despite the numerous symptoms that patients with long COVID report, a recent study identifies just seven as being particular to the condition.

In order to distinguish long COVID symptoms from those of other common respiratory viruses, like the flu or the common cold, the study was looking for long COVID symptoms that appeared or persisted more than a month after the initial infection.

Researchers did this by using Cerner Real-World Data, a database that contains details taken from 122 U.S. health systems’ electronic medical records.

According to a report published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, researchers came to the conclusion that some symptoms typically connected with long COVID do not appear more frequently after a COVID infection than they do with other respiratory viruses.

Compared to other viral respiratory illnesses, long COVID was most associated with:

Heart palpitations (fast beating)

Hair loss

Fatigue

Chest pain

Dyspnea (difficulty breathing)

Joint pain

Obesity in the post-infectious period