New York, Aug 23 : If you exercise regularly, there is a chance that you have a lower chance of Covid-19-related infections and their severity, which includes hospitalization and death in a new study.The study, which was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that a weekly count of 150 minutes of moderate intensity or 75 minutes of intense intensity, physical activity is the most effective protection.
“Our research highlights the beneficial benefits of engaging in regular physical exercise as a public health method, with potential benefits to reduce the risk of severe Covid-19,” said researchers including Yasmin Ezzatvar of the Universitat of Valencia in Spain.
The team scoured three major research databases to find relevant studies that were published between November 2019 between March 2022 and November 2019.
from an initial collection of 291, they pooled the findings of 16.
The study involved 1,853,610 people with just more than half of which (54 percent) comprised women.The mean age of participants was 53.
The majority of the research studies were observational, and were conducted in South Korea, England, Iran, Canada, the UK, Spain, Brazil, Palestine, South Africa and Sweden.
The analysis of pooled data revealed that, in general those who included regular physical exercise in their daily routine had an 11 percent lower risk of being infected with SARS-CoV-2, which is the virus responsible for Covid-19.
Also, they also had a 36 percent lower risk of hospitalization as well as a 44 percent less risk of severe Covid-19-related illness and a 43 percent lower chance of death due to Covid-19 than their physically active peers.
The greatest protective effect was observed at about 500 Metabolic equivalent of Task (MET) minutes per week, and after that there was no further improvement.
The researchers point out that the analysis was based on observational studies, different designs of studies, personal assessments of physical levels of physical activity, and centered only with the Beta and Delta variants of SARS-CoV-2 and not Omicron which is the other variant, all of which could undermine the results.
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