What I've Learned About Long COVID: A Gut-First Framework — 4. Epigenetic Hijacking: The Virus Resets Your Cellular Code

This is where it gets elegant and terrifying. SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens don&#8217;t just infect&#8212;they hijack your epigenetic machinery. They manipulate histone deacetylases (HDACs) and DNA methylation pathways to silence genes that would normally mount an effective immune response or repair damage. Your own cellular signaling system is turned against you.