Coronavirus: they discover that in the absence of vaccines, 20 minutes of daily exercise can protect against severe Covid

Gretchen reynolds

04/20/2021 6:00 AM

• Clarín.com

• Society

Updated 04/20/2021 6:00 AM

Exercising more means

a lower risk

of

 severe

coronavirus

, according to a compelling new study on physical activity and coronavirus hospitalizations. The study, which included nearly 50,000 Californians who had Covid, found that those who

had been most active before becoming ill

were the least likely to be hospitalized or die from the disease.

The data was collected

before Covid vaccines were available

and does not indicate that exercise can in any way replace immunization. But they do allow the assumption that regular exercise - be it swimming, walking, running or cycling - can

substantially reduce

our chances of becoming seriously ill if we become infected.

Scientists have long known that physically fit people are

less likely to get colds and other viral infections

and recover faster than unfit people, in part because exercise can

amplify the immune response

.

Better physical condition also increases the antibody response to vaccines against flu and other diseases.

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, people who could walk quickly, an accepted indicator of aerobic fitness, developed severe Covid at much lower rates than lazy walkers,

even if the fast walkers were obese

, a known risk factor for severe disease.

In another study of older adults in Europe, greater grip strength, an indicator of general muscle health, was a sign of a lower risk of hospitalization from Covid.

Exercising 150 minutes per 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 cannot tell us whether getting up and moving - or staying still - modifies the calculation of Covid risks.

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 on how

often people they were exercising with the fact that they ended up hospitalized

last year due to Covid.

The Kaiser Permanente healthcare system was ideal for this research because, since 2009, it has included

exercise as a "vital sign"

during patient visits.

In practice, this means that doctors and nurses ask patients how many days per week they exercise, for example brisk walking, and

for how many minutes at a time

, and then add that data to the patient's medical record. .

Now, the researchers extracted the anonymous records of

48,440 adult men and women

using Kaiser's healthcare system, who had had their exercise habits checked at least three times in recent years and in 2020 had been diagnosed with Covid. -19.

The researchers grouped the men and women according to their exercise routine.

The least active group had exercised for

10 minutes or less

most weeks;

the most active had exercised for at least

150 minutes per week,

the equivalent of

20 minutes a day

;

and the somewhat active group was somewhere in between.

The researchers also collected data on

each person's known

risk factors

for severe Covid, such as age, smoking, weight, and a history of cancer, diabetes, organ transplants, kidney problems, and other serious underlying diseases.

Amazing results

They then collated the figures, with surprising results.

People in the least active group, who almost never exercised, ended up hospitalized for Covid at a rate that was

twice that of people in the most active group

and were subsequently 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 severe disease, scientists found that

only advanced age and organ transplants

increased the likelihood of hospitalization and mortality from COVID more than inactivity.

"Being sedentary was

the biggest risk factor

" for severe disease, "unless someone was elderly or organ recipient," said Robert Sallis, a sports and family medicine specialist at Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center, who led the new study.

And although "you can not do anything against these other risks,

you can exercise

."

The study, being observational, does not show that exercise causes a direct decrease in serious risks of Covid, but only that people who exercise frequently

are also people at low risk of serious disease

.

The study also didn't delve into whether exercise reduces the risk of catching the coronavirus in the first place.

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

should help protect them from severe Covid."

A walk - or five - could be especially beneficial for people who

are waiting for the first shot

, he adds.

"I would never suggest that someone who exercises regularly

consider not getting vaccinated

. But 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, and concludes: "Exercise regularly. it is probably a protection against any new variant or the next new virus to appear. "

The New York Times.

Special

Translation: Elisa Carnelli

PS

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