Exercising more involves a lower risk to suffer coronavirus serious, according to a new and compelling study on physical and international activity by coronavirus. The study, which involved nearly 50,000 Californians who had Covid, found that those who they had been more active before they became ill they were the ones least likely to be hospitalized or die as a result of the disease.
Data were collected before Covid vaccines were available and do not indicate that exercise can in any way replace immunization. But they do suggest that regular exercise – whether swimming, walking, running or cycling – can reduce substantially our chances of getting seriously ill if we become infected.
Scientists have known for a long time that people in good physical condition are less prone to colds and other viral infections and they recover faster than people who are not in shape, in part because exercise can amplify the immune response. Better fitness also increases the response of antibodies to flu and other disease vaccines.
But new coronavirus infections are so new that little is known about whether physical activity and fitness can affect the risk of getting the disease. However, some recent studies seem encouraging.
In one of these works, published in The International Journal of Obesity, people who could walk quickly, an accepted indicator of aerobic fitness, developed severe Covid in much smaller proportions than lazy walkers, even if fast walkers were obese, A known risk factor for serious illness. In another study of older adults in Europe, greater grip strength, an indicator of overall muscle health, was a sign of a lower risk of internment by Covid.
Exercising 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 muscular fitness and not their daily exercise habits, so they can’t tell us whether getting up and moving — or staying still — changes. the calculation of Covid risks.
Therefore, in another study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers at Kaiser Permanent Southern California, the University of California at San Diego and other institutions decided to compare the information on how often people exercised with the fact that they ended up hospitalized last year because of the Covid.
The Kaiser Permanent health system was ideal for this research because, since 2009, it includes the exercise as a “vital sign” during patient consultations. In practice, this means that doctors and nurses ask patients how many days a week they exercise, for example walking at a brisk pace, and for how many minutes they do it each time, And then add this data to the patient’s medical history.
Now, investigators extracted anonymous records from 48,440 adult men and women who used Kaiser’s health care system, who had had their exercise habits reviewed at least three times in recent years and by 2020 had been diagnosed with Covid-19.
The researchers grouped the men and women according to their exercise routine. The less active group had exercised during At least 10 minutes most weeks; the most active had been exercised for the least 150 minutes per week, the equivalent of 20 minutes daily; and the somewhat active group stood in an intermediate place.
The researchers also collected data on the risk factors known to each person to suffer from severe Covid, such as age, smoking habit, weight and history of cancer, diabetes, organ transplants, kidney problems and other serious underlying diseases.
amazing results
They then compared the figures, with surprising results. People in the less active group, who almost never exercised, ended up hospitalized by Covid in a proportion that it doubled that of the people in the most active group and subsequently were 2.5 times more likely to die. Even compared to people in the somewhat active group, they were hospitalized 20% more often and were 30% more likely to die.
Of the other common risk factors for serious illness, scientists found that only old age and organ transplants they increased the likelihood of hospitalization and mortality from COVID more than inactivity.
“Being sedentary was the biggest risk factor“Of serious illness,” unless someone was elderly or an organ recipient, “said Robert Sallis, a specialist in family and sports medicine at Kaiser Permanent Fontana Medical Center, who led the new study. nothing can be done about these other risks, if exercise can be done“.
The study, being observational, does not show that exercise causes a direct decrease in the serious risks of Covid, but only that people who exercise frequently they are also people at low risk of serious illness. The study also did not delve into whether exercise reduces the risk of contracting coronavirus in the first place.
But Sallis notes that the partnerships in the study were strong: “I think based on that data we can tell people that walk briskly for half an hour five times a week it should help protect them from serious Covid. “
A walk – or five – could be especially beneficial for people who they are waiting for the first vaccine, Add.
“I would never suggest that someone who exercises regularly consider not vaccinating. But as long as you can get the vaccine, I think regular exercise is the most important thing you can do to reduce the risk, ”says Sallis and concludes,“ Exercising regularly is probably a protection against any new variant or the next new virus. to appear “.
The New York Times. Special
Translation: Elisa Carnelli
PD