Just like long Covid, you can have a ‘long cold’, study finds

Got a cold that seems to be dragging on? It may not be all in your head, so to say.

A study in The Lancet’s eClinicalMedicine claims a “long cold” syndrome exists after people get the common cold and the flu—similar to how long Covid can happen in people after they battle SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid).

The researchers surveyed 10,171 adults in the UK. They found that some long-lasting symptoms of Covid and other respiratory viruses are similar. Lingering symptoms that overlap with Covid and other respiratory ailments can include fatigue, cough, dizziness, trouble focusing, gastrointestinal issues, sweating and hair loss (to name a few). 

Long colds and chronic fatigue syndrome

People with long Covid were more likely to experience lightheadedness, dizziness and issues with taste and smell. But with long colds, you may be more apt to have ongoing coughing, stomach pain and diarrhea. The study could shed more light on how sometimes, long-lasting symptoms can linger after recovering from a viral illness, and may explain why some see an onset of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), an under-studied condition.

Marked by profound fatigue that’s not improved by sleep or rest and that  may be worsened by physical or mental activity, chronic fatigue syndrome is a complex and debilitating chronic illness. The exact cause is unknown, and it may be the result of multiple factors.

“These syndromes are not a new phenomenon, but existing research has largely focused on people who survived a severe infection, often having been hospitalized,” Giulia Vivaldi, a statistician and epidemiologist at Queen Mary University in London, and lead author, said to NBC News. Based on the study’s findings, it’s clear to see that in some cases, CFS can set in after a common cold or flu, as well—even if it’s not severe. 

“The emergence of long Covid has shown us that people can be burdened with long-lasting symptoms regardless of the severity of their own infection, and our findings suggest that this may not be unique to SARS-CoV-2,” she added.

“These ‘long’ infections are so difficult to diagnose and treat primarily because of a lack of diagnostic tests and there being so many possible symptoms,” Vivaldi said.

Another study out this year found that the percentage of patients who developed a “long flu” syndrome after they had the flu was similar to that of patients who developed long Covid after being infected with SARS-CoV-2.

What causes long colds?

It’s not well understood why some people are likely to get long colds or long Covid. Post-infection syndromes were more likely to set in if people had more severe symptoms during their first infections. Put simply, severity of an illness may increase a person’s risk of developing a long illness later—but the long-lasting symptoms also appeared in milder cases, the study found. 

“We know that [severity] isn’t the only driver of risk in long Covid, and so may not be the only driver of ‘long colds’ either,” Vivaldi tells NBC News.  

Ultimately, the large study is a positive step forward for helping to uncover the cause behind these post-infection syndromes like chronic fatigue syndrome, but more research is needed. “No viral culprit has been identified yet as a cause for chronic fatigue syndrome, but I have high hopes we will learn something useful,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. “People are looking for inflammatory markers that might indicate an immune response overreaction. Find those and then you can work back to see how a virus triggers that response.”