Exercising several means lower risk to suffer coronavirus serious, according to a new convincing study on physical activity and coronavirus hospitalizations. The study, which included nearly 50,000 Californians who had Covid, found that those who had he had been more active before he became ill they were least likely to be hospitalized or die from the disease.
Data was collected before Covid vaccines are available and does not indicate that exercise may in any way replace immunization. But let me assume that regular exercise – whether swimming, walking, running or cycling – can substantially reduces our chances of getting seriously ill if we become infected.
Scientists have long known that fitness people are other viral infections are less likely to get sick and recover faster than people who are not in shape, in part because exercise can amplifies the immune response. Better fitness also increases the response of antibodies to vaccines against influenza and other diseases.
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 such study, published in the International Journal of Obesity, people who could walk fast, an accepted indicator of aerobic condition, developed severe Covid at much lower rates than the lazy, even if the brisk walk was obese, a known risk factor for severe disease. In another study of older adults in Europe, higher adhesion resistance, an indicator of overall muscle health, was a sign of a lower risk of hospitalization from Covid.
Exercising 150 minutes a week can reduce the risk of Covid. Photo: Luciano Thieberger
However, these studies looked at indirect measures of people’s aerobic or muscular capacity and not their daily exercise habits, so they can’t tell us whether lifting and moving – or staying still – changes Covid’s risk calculation.
So, in another study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers and doctors at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, the University of California, San Diego and other institutions decided to compare information about how often people exercised by being hospitalized last year because of Covid.
The Kaiser Permanente health system has been suitable for this research since, 2009, it includes exercise 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, walking fast and for how many minutes I do it every timeand then add this data to the patient’s medical record.
Now, researchers have extracted anonymous records of 48,440 adult men and women who have used the Kaiser health care system, whose exercise habits have been checked at least three times in recent years and in 2020 were diagnosed with Covid-19.
The researchers grouped men and women according to their exercise routine. The least active group exercised for At least 10 minutes most weeks; the most active had exercised for at least 150 minutes a week, the equivalent of 20 minutes daily; and the somewhat active group was somewhere in between.
The researchers also collected data about risk factors known to every person with severe Covid, such as age, smoking, weight and history of cancer, diabetes, organ transplants, kidney problems and other serious underlying diseases.
Amazing results
Then they picked up the numbers, with surprising results. People in the less active group, who almost never moved, ended up hospitalized for Covid at a rate that 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 30% more likely to die.
Among the other common risk factors for severe disease, scientists have found that only old age and organ transplants increased the likelihood of hospitalization and mortality from COVID more than inactivity.
“It simply came to our notice then the biggest risk factor“because of a serious illness,” unless someone was elderly or received an organ, “said Robert Sallis, a sports and family medicine specialist at Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center, who led the new study. And while “nothing can be done about the other risks, yes you can move“.
The study, being observational, does not show that exercise causes a direct reduction 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 catching coronavirus in the first place.
But Sallis notes that the associations in the study were strong: “I think based on these data we can tell people that lively walk for half an hour five times a week it should help protect them from severe Covid. “
One walk – or five – could be especially beneficial for people who wait for the first vaccine, Add.
“I would never suggest it as someone who exercises regularly consider not getting vaccinated. But until you can get the vaccine, I think regular exercise is the most important thing you can do to reduce your risk, “says Sallis, who concludes.” Regular exercise is probably a protection against any new variant or virus. new appearing “.
New York Times. Special
Translation: Elisa Carnelli
PS