Question
My friend, a fitness nut, tells me that regular exercise protects me from COVID and other diseases. Since I'm afraid of infections, I could be forced to exercise usually. Is he correct?
Oh Well, grab yourself some gym clothes and walking shoes, because your friend is nearly definitely right. There haven't been many studies done to see if exercise protects against infection, but there have been just a few, and so they all point in the identical direction.
Finally, the study determined how physically energetic people were: 69% were “fairly active,” meaning their weekly activity level was within the healthy range—no less than 150 minutes per week of moderate to moderate activity. Vigorous physical activity. For the remaining, 11% were “insufficiently active” and 20% were inactive.
The study conclusively showed that in comparison with inactive people, those that were sufficiently energetic were 10 percent less more likely to get COVID and 27 percent less more likely to be hospitalized for COVID. This was particularly distinguished amongst women. Unfortunately, those that were insufficiently energetic didn't do a lot better than those that were completely inactive: You really only need a “healthy” amount of physical activity each week to be protected against COVID. It happens. (Unsurprisingly, the study also showed that folks who received the covid vaccine were much less more likely to get covid and be hospitalized.)
Other studies have shown that regular exercise protects against other infections equivalent to influenza, so the outcomes of this study aren't really surprising. And, as we regularly report, regular exercise also protects you from heart disease, cancer, dementia, depression, and other major illnesses.
How does regular exercise achieve these health advantages? Science is just starting to learn the reply. Exercise increases the power of many forms of white blood cells to fight infection. It stimulates the body to provide antibodies in the liner of the nose, throat, respiration tubes and lungs, which fight infection. Also, regular exercise prevents the immune system from overreacting against infections and fighting a war that not only damages the invading germs, but additionally the body itself.
You've heard it in these pages before: No pill invented will protect your health as much as regular exercise.
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