A new study from Kaiser Permanente in SoCal has found that it’s not just preexisting conditions that leaves you vulnerable to a severe case of COVID-19, but also how physically active you are.
The report analyzed nearly 50,000 Californians and found that those who were inactive had nearly twice the chance of being hospitalized or dying from COVID-19 compared to those who followed recommendations for exercise.
In 2020, the World Health Organization outlined its guidance in The British Journal of Sports Medicine for exercise, suggesting that all adults should undertake 150–300 min of moderate-intensity, or 75–150 min of vigorous-intensity physical activity, or some equivalent combination of moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, per week.
“The main take home message from this study is that physical activity is the biggest modifiable risk factor for severe COVID outcomes, such as the chance of being hospitalized, being sent to the intensive care unit or dying,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Robert Sallis, a family medicine and sports medicine physician at Kaiser Permanente in Fontana, Calif., and a clinical professor of family medicine at the University of California, Riverside, School of Medicine tells TODAY.
According to TODAY, Sallis and his team looked at 48,440 of their Kaiser patients and followed their exercise regimes for two months. They were sectioned into groups of those who exercised more than 150 minutes per week, those who only exercised under 150 minutes per week and those who were only physically active about 10 minutes per week.
Factoring in race, gender, and general health, those who were inactive were determined to be 2.26 times more likely to be hospitalized, 1.73 times more likely to be admitted to the ICU and 2.49 times more likely to die, compared to patients who consistently met exercise guidelines.
In the end, Sallis makes the recommendation that people walk about 30 minutes a day five times a week to protect themselves from COVID-19.
He admits that other factors outside of activity play a role in how sick someone may get with COVID-19, but says, “I believe lifestyle is a very important factor.”
When asked by TODAY about those exercise enthusiasts who still get very ill from the virus, Salis says: “There is a lot of data to suggest that marathon runners — and others who engage in extreme endurance events — may actually have some inhibition of their immune function after training or competing at a high level,” he explained. “Studies show they are more at risk for colds and flus than those exercising at more moderate levels. For that reason, there has been some concern and recommendations suggesting that extreme endurance training and events should be avoided during the pandemic.”