Regular exercise reduces risk of severe covid illness

Oxford, UK - Covid is associated with increased risks of neurological and psychiatric conditions in the weeks and months after initial infection, according to a new observational study that is one of the largest yet to examine the impact of long covid.

Regular physical activity or exercise routines is associated with a lower risk of severe covid illness or hospitalisation, according to a new study published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The researchers at Oxford University in the UK reviewed more than a million patient cases and found that, two years after infection, patients who had recovered from covid were at a higher risk of psychosis, dementia, epilepsy or seizures and brain fog compared with patients who recovered from other respiratory diseases.

Brain fog from covid usually encompasses short-term memory loss, confusion and difficulty concentrating to varying degrees.

How long these risks remain, whether they affect children and adults similarly, and whether variants differ in their risk profiles remains unclear, the researchers state. The study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, found that even the omicron variant also posed similar long-term risks.

The findings shed new light on the longer-term mental and brain health consequences for people following covid infection lead researcher Paul Harrison, a professor of psychiatry at Oxford University.

The results have implications for patients and health services and highlight the need for more research to understand why this happens after covid, and what can be done to prevent these disorders from occurring, or treat them when they do.”

Researchers found that the increased risk of anxiety and depression subsides within two months following initial covid and, over a two-year period, are no more likely to occur than after other respiratory infections.

In contrast, diagnoses of many neurological disorders such as dementia and seizures), and psychotic disorders and brain fog continue to be made more often after covid throughout the two years.

The findings were derived from 16 previous studies involving more than 1.8 million adults, 53 percent were women, with a mean age of 53 years. Individuals who included regular physical activity in their weekly routine had an 11 percent lower risk for infection with covid.

Moreover, regular exercise provided much more robust protection against sickness. The physically active adults in the studies also had a 36 percent lower risk of being hospitalized from covid, and a 44 percent lower risk of developing severe illness from covid.

Overall, the physically active had a 43 percent lower risk of dying from covid, compared to the sedentary peers.

Researchers based their findings on data from the Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET), which calculates the number of calories burned per minute of activity. The most effective amount of exercise, the researchers said, comes to 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week.

That coincides with minimal exercise guidelines of at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes per week of vigorous aerobic activity, or a combination of both.

Brisk walking and biking slower than 16km an hour are examples of moderate-intensity activities. Examples of vigorous-intensity exercises include running, swimming laps, hiking uphill, or cycling 16km an hour or faster.