Covid Toes to Nitric Oxide

The toes story talked about two symptoms.  One symptom was problems with the feet that resembled frostbite and the other was a condition called livedo reticularis.  The frostbite angle led me to search on "vasoconstriction and coronavirus."  

Vasoconstriction and vasodilation are two opposite states that our blood vessels assume, depending on the conditions.  If you break these words down, the meaning is easy to guess if you don't know them already.  Our blood vessels can either constrict or dilate.  

The more constricted the vessel is, the smaller the volume of blood that can flow through it.  Conversely, the more dilated the vessel is, the larger the volume the vessel can move.  When we are out in the cold, the vessels in our fingers and toes constrict to preserve heat.  On a hot day, they dilate so that our fingers and toes can radiate some of that heat back out into the air.  

I had never heard of livedo reticularis.  When you look it up, you see it is caused by blood clots.  So now we know that Covid-19 seems to be associated with both vasoconstriction and blood clots.  

My search turned up this story about Massachusetts General Hospital testing inhaled nitric oxide (NO) to see if it protects their staff from Covid-19.  Nitric oxide is a very interesting and important chemical the human body depends on for many different functions. 

Can Inhaling Nitric Oxide Treat - Or Prevent - Covid-19?