A total of 27 patients were included for evaluation of psychiatric morbidities. The study found that:
“Given that the remaining half cohort consists largely of patients with a poor oxygenation index, the majority of the 27 patients should have a less optimal oxygenation index. As it turned out, up to 26 of the 27 additional patients presented with long-lasting psychiatric symptoms. In a way, this phenomenon implies that patients with a poor oxygenation index would end up with long-term psychiatric morbidities, verifying the authors’ inference that hypoxemia predicts long-term neuropsychological impairment among ARDS.”
In effect, this confirmed that anyone who already has compromised respiratory health will be most likely to suffer brain injury from regular mask wearing.
What about the impacts on learning and memory? We looked at ‘Effect of chronic hypoxia and hypercapnia on learning and memory function in mice and the expression of NT and CGRP in brain’ from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2058739218818956
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of hypoxia and hypercapnia on learning and memory function of mice.
Airway blockage, such as impedance from prolonged mask wearing may lead to Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a frequently occurring disease of the respiratory system, with high morbidity and mortality rates. The authors affirming that the most important cause of COPD is hypoxia (low O2) and hypercapnia (elevated CO2). This was previously established by Liu CY, Parikh M, Bluemke DA et al. (2017) Pulmonary artery stiffness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) COPD Study. Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance 13(1): 1–2.
Disturbingly, the laboratory test results from mice were damning. It showed:
“Our study found that chronic hypoxia and hypercapnia impaired memory function, increased the quantity of brain tissue lipid oxidation products MDA and DNA oxidation products 8-OHdG, decreased SOD activity, destroyed the stability of hippocampal structure, and reduced the number of Nissl bodies and increased apoptotic cells in mice. These indicated that hypoxia and hypercapnia enhanced oxidative stress response, destroyed tissue structure, and increased neuronal apoptosis, thus affecting its neurological function and learning and memory ability.”
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2058739218818956
Brain cell damage shown under the microscope