Survived Omicron?
From when you can do sports again - heart specialists make recommendations
Created: 08/19/2022, 10:10 am
By: Juliane Gutmann
If you overexert yourself too soon after an infection, you risk heart muscle inflammation.
The US Cardiology Association provides information on how long you should rest after Corona.
Reports of heart muscle inflammation after a corona infection keep doing the rounds.
A common cause of myocarditis is a previous infection that has not completely healed – this can be a corona virus infection, but it can also be an influenza virus infection.
Therefore:
Take care of yourself after any type of viral disease
.
It is very important that you do not immediately start your stressful everyday life again at the first sign of improvement.
Strenuous sport should also be avoided for the time being.
But how long?
Are a few days enough or is it better to skip the workout for a few weeks?
The American Association of Cardiologists - American College of Cardiology, or ACC for short - recently published a
recommendation
paper that is intended to provide physicians with uniform guidance on such questions.
survey on the topic
After Covid-19 you should not immediately start training again.
© Sus Pons via www.imago-images.de
Refrain from sport after Corona: Refraining from training depends on the course of the disease
In their recommendation, the heart specialists at the ACC differentiate between an asymptomatic course of the corona virus, mild symptoms and a severe course of the disease with heart involvement.
The
sports waiver
should be adjusted accordingly as follows:
You are corona positive, but have no symptoms:
The ACC recommends a sports break of three days - for competitive athletes.
Are you an amateur athlete and symptom-free?
The health insurance company IKK classic recommends taking a break from training for a week, even if you have few or no symptoms.
Start with easy units that you slowly increase, according to the IKK.
Even with a mild course, one should avoid intensive stress for about two weeks.
The corona infection is mild without heart and lung problems:
Only start exercising again when you are completely free of symptoms and have not had a fever for five days - according to the IKK.
The Klinikum Rechts der Isar in Munich recommends a sports break of two to four weeks if there are signs of illness such as coughing or fever.
This is the only way to effectively prevent dangerous complications such as heart muscle inflammation (myocarditis), cardiac arrhythmia, scarring of the lungs (fibrosis) or vascular occlusions (embolism, thrombosis).
“We recommend a sports fitness check including a resting ECG even if the course is symptom-free, because Covid-19 also leads to inflammation of the blood vessels.
(...) Intensive exercise during an inflammation can have serious consequences, up to cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death."
There is a corona infection and a diagnosed myocarditis
: In this case, according to the ACC recommendation, athletes should take a break for three to six months and only start training again when there are no longer any cardiopulmonary problems.
Before resuming training, the heart's performance should have normalized and no arrhythmias should occur in the stress test, according to a press release from the German Heart Foundation.
"Intense sporting activities should be avoided for about six months after a myocarditis that can be assumed with certainty and should only be resumed after a cardiological check-up with normal findings," says Professor Thomas Voigtländer, Chairman of the Board of the German Heart Foundation.
The above information does not replace a doctor's visit. If you have chest pain, shortness of breath and heart palpitations/palpitations in connection with a corona infection, you should see your family doctor, who will refer you to a cardiologist if necessary.