The pandemic situation in India is grim. Of course we need to focus on emergency treatment and requirements for the same, but we should also not ignore trying to make the vaccines more effective and reduce the severity of COVID-19 symptoms.

For the longest time we folks in the space of Sports-Exercise Medicine and Science have researched the role of physical activities, exercises and sports in Non-Communicable Diseases (Lifestyle Diseases) like Heart Diseases, Respiratory Diseases, Diabetes, most Cancers, Chronic Kidney Diseases, Osteoarthritis etc. Most of us assumed that physical fitness wouldn’t have a role to play in Communicable (Infectious) Diseases, hence we’ve ignored it all along. And then came Covid-19. Leave alone medical fraternity, the whole of humanity has been making an all out effort to defeat it.

Role of physical activities - exercises - sports in Covid

Lot of high quality research is coming out in our field and what is suggested below is just not based on gut feel. It’s backed by science.

A study conducted at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, US (1) involved 48,440 adult patients with a COVID-19 diagnosis (i.e. Covid-19 test positive and symptoms) from 1 January 2020 to 21 October 2020. Researchers looked at how physically active had these patients been for two years, from 19 March 2018 to 18 March 2020. Brisk walk like activity was ample to meet their criteria. They had three categories:

• consistently inactive (0–10 min/week)

• some activity (11–149 min/week)

• consistently active (150+ min/week): 30 minutes of physical activities 5 days a week, these are US Physical Activity Guidelines (2) recommendations that everyone should be exercising for

Those who had been consistently inactive, i.e. those who didn’t even clock 10 min of physical activity or exercise in a week, had a 2.26 times greater risk of hospitalisation, 1.73 times greater risk of ICU admission and 2.49 greater risk of death due to COVID-19 than those who were active for 150 minutes in a week.

No, this isn’t fool proof, just that it improves your chances even more. It’s like studying hard in school and college improves your chances of doing well in life. But then there is no guarantee.

Most who want to become physically active, stop even before they get started because they assume that they will never become as fit as their ‘role models’. But there is no need to be like them. Just get started. In any case, most of our role models (actors, players etc.) have gone missing when even a short message could have come in handy.

Another study (3, 4) published on 20th April 2021 in Sports Medicine looked at 16,833 scientific studies done from January 1980 until 14 April 2020 and shortlisted only 54 of them that met their stringent high quality criteria. It found that regular physical activity, besides strengthening the human immune system, reduces the risk of falling ill and dying from infectious disease by more than a third, it also significantly increases the effectiveness of vaccination campaigns.

This study didn’t look at COVID-19 as it was conducted too early in the pandemic, but the findings are highly relevant to the current scenario.

We don’t have concrete evidence yet to back up this thought specifically when it comes to COVID, but if there is a chance that being physically active could improve your chances to fight COVID, we all need to get moving today. Even while we wait to be vaccinated, let’s be more physically active and exercise regularly.

Now that has been my stand throughout. I simply don’t have the patience to debate about this approach with anyone. Trolls, please have a field day. We want to keep everyone engaged in these tough times as this disease is having a far bigger psychological impact than physical alone.

Me, Run & Bee gang and La Ultra Team team have been putting daily exercise session. You can join on YouTubeLive http://www.youtube.com/c/RajatChauhanRun/live or watch videos later http://www.youtube.com/c/RajatChauhanRun

References:

1. Sallis R, et al. Physical inactivity is associated with a higher risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes: a study in 48 440 adult patients. Br J Sports Med 2021;0:1–8. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2021-104080

2. Piercy KL, Troiano RP, Ballard RM, et al. The physical activity guidelines for Americans. JAMA 2018;320:2020–8.

3. Chastin S. F. M. et al. Effects of Regular Physical Activity on the Immune System, Vaccination and Risk of Community‐Acquired Infectious Disease in the General Population: Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis. Sports Medicine 2021; doi.org/10.1007/s40279-021-01466-1

4. Chastin S. F. M. Exercise makes you 50% more likely to have higher antibodies after a vaccine. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/04/exercise-boosts-immunity-vaccines-effective-study-glasgow-covid-coronavirus. World Economic Forum. Article in collaboration with The Conversation. 26 April 2021.