Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

Yachtold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.

.jp. That's Y-A-K-U-Lt.C-O.jp. When it comes to a guide for your Quickly, a scientific American podcast series.

On this show, we highlight the latest vital health news, discoveries that affect your body and your mind.

Every episode, we dive into one topic. We discuss diseases, treatments, and some controversies.

And we demystify the medical research in ways you can use to stay healthy.

I'm Tanya Lewis.

I'm Josh Fishman.

We're Scientific American's senior health editors.

Today, we're talking about new research on long COVID. It shows that this puzzling and disabling condition may have its roots in the brain.

I think the biggest long COVID challenge I did face was like having so much pain in my legs that I couldn't walk.

I used a wheelchair for a few weeks,

and it came for around a year and a half to two years. It really sucked. Like, I can't,

I used to run races and marathons, and now I have to have a stick to walk around.

That's Ibrahim Rashid. He's 23 years old and from Chicago. I met him at a conference a few weeks ago. You can hear some of the conference buzz in the background.

I got COVID in November 2020 and my life hasn't been the same since. In December of 2020, I noticed that I was still having trouble breathing. I was waking up at night with intense heart

palpitations, waking up very quickly, gasping for air. Man, that sounds really rough.

Seems like he's been through a lot. He's had a difficult time. And he's one of an estimated

16 million people in the U.S. who've had long COVID, with two to four million

being forced out of work. Generally, long COVID means that months to years after infection,

...