Exercise more resources lower risk suffering coronavirus seriously, according to an engaging new study on physical activity and hospital admissions from the coronavirus. The study, which included nearly 50,000 Californians who had Covid, found those who had had been more active before he got sick they were least likely to be hospitalized or die as a result of the disease.
The data has been collected before Covid vaccines were available and they do not indicate that exercise can in any way replace immunization. But they do allow for the assumption that regular exercise – be it swimming, walking, running, or cycling – can significantly reduce our chances of becoming seriously ill if we become infected.
Scientists have long known that physically fit people are less chance of colds and other viral infections and recover faster than people who are not fit, in part because exercise can enhance the immune responseBetter fitness also increases antibody response to influenza and other disease vaccines.
But infections with the new coronavirus are so new that little is known about whether physical activity and fitness can affect the risk of contracting the disease. However, some recent studies seem encouraging.
In one such study, published in The International Journal of Obesity, fast walkers, an accepted indicator of aerobic fitness, developed severe Covid at much slower speeds than lazy walkers, even if fast walkers were obese, a known risk factor for serious illness. In another study in older adults in Europe, greater grip strength, an indicator of overall muscle health, was a sign of a lower risk of Covid hospitalization.
Exercising for 150 minutes a week can reduce the risks of Covid. Photo: Luciano Thieberger
However, these studies looked at indirect measures of people’s aerobic or muscle fitness and not their daily exercise habits, so they can’t tell us if getting up and moving – or staying still – alters the Covid risk calculation.
So in another study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers and doctors from Kaiser Permanente Southern California, the University of California, San Diego, and other institutions decided to share information about the how often people trained due to the fact that they ended up in the hospital last year because of Covid.
The Kaiser Permanente health system was suitable for this study because it has been using the practice as a ‘vital sign’ during patient visits. In practice, this means that doctors and nurses ask patients how many days a week they exercise, for example by walking briskly, and for how many minutes do they do it each time, and then they add that information to the patient’s medical record.
Now the researchers have the anonymous data from 48,440 adult males and females who used the Kaiser health care system, whose exercise habits had been checked at least three times in recent years and diagnosed with Covid-19 in 2020.
The researchers grouped the men and women according to their exercise routine. The least active group had trained 10 minutes the least most weeks; at least the most active had exercised 150 minutes per week, the equivalent of 20 minutes a dayAnd the somewhat active group was somewhere in between.
The researchers also collected data on the risk factors any person is known to have severe Covid, such as age, smoking, weight and history of cancer, diabetes, organ transplants, kidney problems, and other serious underlying diseases.
Amazing results
They then collected the numbers, with surprising results. People in the less-active group, who almost never exercised, ended up in a hospital for Covid at such a rate doubles that of the people in the most active group and then they were 2.5 times more likely to die. Even compared to people in the somewhat active group, they were hospitalized 20% more often and 30% more likely to die.
Of the other common risk factors for serious illness, the scientists found that only old age and organ transplants increased the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID more than inactivity.
“Being seated was the greatest risk factor“of a serious illness,” unless someone was elderly or an organ recipient, “said Robert Sallis, a sports and family medicine specialist at Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center, who led the new study. And although” nothing can be done about those other risks. , yes you can practice
The study, which is observational, does not show that exercise directly reduces the serious risks of Covid, but only that people who exercise frequently they are also people with a low risk of serious illnessThe study also did not address the question of whether exercise reduces the risk of the coronavirus at all.
But Sallis notes that the associations in the study were strong: “I think based on this data, we can tell people that brisk walking for half an hour five times a week it should help protect them from severe Covid. “
A walk – or five – can be especially beneficial for people who have they are waiting for the first vaccine, Add.
“I would never recommend to someone who exercises regularly consider not getting vaccinatedBut until you can get the vaccine, I think regular exercise is the single most important thing you can do to reduce your risk, ” says Sallis, concluding, “ Regular exercise is likely to protect against any new variant or the next new one. virus that appear “.
The New York Times. Special
Translation: Elisa Carnelli
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