This is how you eliminate the risk of catching COVID-19

Physical activity prevents COVID-19 infection. Photo gallery.picture: TT

Transmission is A and O. even in the midst of a burning pandemic. Not only for public health, but also to protect oneself from serious illness and death due to COVID-19.

This is what Ellen Eckblum Buck, Associate Professor at the School of Gymnastics and Sports (GIH) said in Stockholm.

It’s never too late to start, no matter where you are in life or your situation. You usually have more to gain if you haven’t done much before.

Because according to American research, there is a lot to be gained from maintaining body shape.

In a recent study, now presented in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers analyzed the results of 48,440 adults in Southern California who suffered from Covid-19 last year. The thing they all have in common is that they previously provided information about the extent of their physical activity, up to two years before the pandemic.

After adjusting for age, gender, and certain underlying diseases, it was found that the risk of hospitalization was twice as high for those who were physically inactive, compared to those who engage in 150 minutes of physical activity per week, or more. They also have a 73 percent higher risk for intensive care and a 2.5 times higher risk of dying from disease, compared to the physically active.

In this way, according to the researchers, physical activity ends up being the third – after aging and a previous organ transplant – among the factors that increase the risk of contracting severe Covid-19 virus.

We’re doing a similar study, even if we look at fitness and some other lifestyles. Ellen Ecblum Back says these results are in full agreement with the data we’re now producing.

Over the past year, research has pointed to a number of factors that increase the risk of developing a serious illness due to COVID-19.

There has been a lot of focus on weakness, overweight and obesity, but it’s also important to shed light on this type of lifestyle as well, because there are other things (besides weakness and obesity) that can also affect risk, says Eileen. Ecblom Pack.

For example, there is a lot of research showing that socioeconomic factors matter to a risk of serious illness, perhaps because this type of information is so easy to get, says Ellen Ecblum Back.

But then, it gets a little wrong when you read the headlines, that income is one of the strongest risk factors, but this is not the case. Because in this case, I’ll ask for a raise. But it is about the way we live our lives, the conditions in which we lead a healthy life, and where physical activity is an important player.

Most likely, she says, exercise will protect against the emerging coronavirus in two different ways.

Exercising regularly reduces the risk of diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, which by itself increase the risk of infection with severe Covid-19 virus. This effect is completely immediate, if you look at blood sugar and blood pressure, for example, which are really improving after a workout. Additionally, exercise improves the immune system. It may not reduce the risk of infection, but we will become more resilient.