Potato sofa beware! Being sedentary more than doubles the risk of dying from COVID-19, according to new research.
A study on the effect of exercise on 48,440 patients diagnosed between January 1 and October 21, 2020 concluded that inactivity was the third largest risk factor for severe disease – worse than heart disease, diabetes or smoking, reports eurekalert. org
The results, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that coronavirus patients who were constantly inactive were 1.73 times more likely to be admitted to the ICU than those who were constantly active.
The chances of death were even higher – with constantly inactive patients 2.49 times more likely to die due to COVID-19 compared to patients who were constantly active.
“This is a wake-up call for the importance of healthy lifestyles and, in particular, physical activity,” said Dr. Robert Sallis, a physician at Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center.
Kaiser Permanente’s motivation is to keep people healthy, and this study really shows how important this is during this pandemic and beyond. People who exercise regularly have the best chance of beating COVID-19, while inactive people did much worse, ”he added.
The study, led by researchers at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, also found that even patients who were inconsistently active were less likely to become seriously ill – suggesting that any amount of activity is beneficial.
To reach their conclusions, the researchers collected data on how many days the students engaged in moderate to strenuous exercise each week and, on average, how many minutes they train at that level.
The subjects – 62 percent of them were women and whose average age was 47 – reflected the diversity of the racial structure of the Southern California population.
Of the total, 6.4 percent were constantly active and 14.4 percent were constantly inactive, with the rest falling into the mismatched active category.
Of all patients, 8.6 percent were hospitalized, 2.4 percent were hospitalized, and 1.6 percent died.
“What surprised me most about this study was the strength of the association between inactivity and poor results from COVID-19,” said co-author Deborah Rohm Young, PhD, of Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation .
“Even after including variables such as obesity and smoking in the analysis, we saw that inactivity was strongly associated with much higher chances of hospitalization, ICU admission and death compared to moderate physical activity or any activity,” he added. she.
Sallis offered a simple recipe.
“Go 30 minutes a day, five days a week at a moderate pace and this will give you a great protective effect against COVID-19,” he said.
“I still believe that exercise is the medicine that everyone should take – especially in this age of COVID-19.”
