In a new study from Kaiser Permanente, researchers found that exercise does not only guard against chronic diseases that can plague people as they age, but also protect against severe cases of COVID-19.
They found that being physically active reduced COVID-19 patients’ risk of hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission and death, and even being just somewhat active provided some protection.
In the study, the team analyzed data from more than 48,000 Kaiser Permanente Southern California adult patients, median age 47, who were diagnosed with COVID-19 between January and October 2020.
The patients also had their physical activity levels assessed at least twice between March 2018 and March 2020.
Of those patients, just over 6% were consistently active, about 14% were consistently inactive and the remainder were inconsistently active.
The researchers found that nearly 9% of the patients were hospitalized, just over 2% were admitted to the ICU and 1.6% died.
Those who were consistently inactive were twice as likely to be hospitalized, 1.7 times more likely to be admitted to the ICU, and nearly 2.5 times more likely to die than those who were consistently active.
Other than being older than 60 or having a history of organ transplant, consistent inactivity was associated with the highest risk for death from COVID-19.
Even patients who were inconsistently active had a lower risk of severe COVID-19 than those who were consistently inactive, suggesting any amount of physical activity can be beneficial.
The team recommended that walking 30 minutes a day, five days a week at a moderate pace will give you a tremendous protective effect against COVID-19.
Walking at a moderate pace means you’re too winded to sing, but can still talk.
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The study is published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. One author of the study is Dr. Robert Sallis.
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