How Exercise May Reduce Your Risk of Death From COVID-19 by Dr. Joseph Mercola for Mercola
If the COVID-19 pandemic is teaching us anything, it’s the importance of being healthy and having a robust immune response. Aside from old age, people with underlying health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease are at increased risk of complications from the disease, and obesity has been found to be the biggest determinant — after old age — for whether a patient will require hospitalization.1,2
Obesity Is a Risk Factor for Severe COVID-19 Disease
Obese COVID-19 patients are even at greater risk than those with cardiovascular disease or heart disease, according to NYU Grossman School researchers.3 This shouldn’t come as a tremendous surprise, considering previous studies4,5,6,7,8,9 have linked obesity to lowered immune function and increased risk of infection.
As noted in one such study,10 “there is a positive feedback loop between local inflammation in adipose tissue and altered immune response in obesity.” Yet another scientific review11 pointed out “There is strong evidence indicating that excess adiposity negatively impacts immune function and host defense in obese individuals,” and a 2018 review article explained:12
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“Adipose tissue is now considered an extremely active endocrine organ that secretes cytokine-like hormones, called adipokines, either pro- or anti-inflammatory factors bridging metabolism to the immune system.
Leptin is historically one of most relevant adipokines, with important physiological roles in the central control of energy metabolism and in the regulation of metabolism-immune system interplay, being a cornerstone of the emerging field of immunometabolism.
Indeed, leptin receptor is expressed throughout the immune system and leptin has been shown to regulate both innate and adaptive immune responses.”
The good news, of course, is that you have a lot of control over your own health. Obesity, insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease are all reversible, and if you want to prepare for the next pandemic (which is already being promised), you’d be wise to start improving your health rather than simply masking or “managing” your symptoms with drugs.
Exercise May Lower COVID-19 Mortality Risk
Aside from eating a healthy whole food (ideally organic) diet and implementing time-restricted eating, exercise is a foundational health strategy that will strengthen your immune function.13,14
According to recent research15,16,17 published in the March 19, 2020, issue of Redox Biology, exercising regularly may also help prevent acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a lethal complication and major cause of death among patients with COVID-19. As reported by the University of Virginia Health System:18
“A review by Zhen Yan, Ph.D., of the School of Medicine, showed that medical research findings ‘strongly support’ the possibility that exercise can prevent or at least reduce the severity of ARDS, which affects between 3% and 17% of all patients with COVID-19.
Based on available information, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 20% to 42% of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 will develop ARDS. The range for patients admitted to intensive care is estimated at 67% to 85%.
Research conducted prior to the pandemic suggested that approximately 45 percent of patients who develop severe ARDS will die. ‘All you hear now is either social distancing or ventilator, as if all we can do is either avoiding exposure or relying on a ventilator to survive if we get infected,’ Yan said.
‘The flip side of the story is that approximately 80% of confirmed COVID-19 patients have mild symptoms with no need of respiratory support. The question is why. Our findings about an endogenous antioxidant enzyme provide important clues and have intrigued us to develop a novel therapeutic for ARDS caused by COVID-19.”
The endogenous antioxidant (meaning it’s made inside your body) in question is extracellular superoxide dismutase (EcSOD), which is made in and excreted from your muscles into your blood circulation. EcSOD protects tissues and prevents disease by eliminating harmful free radicals, and the way you enhance EcSOD secretion is by exercising.
Yan’s research shows a decrease in EcSOD is seen in many diseases, including acute lung disease, ischemic heart disease and kidney failure. Even a single exercise session has been shown to increase production of this valuable antioxidant, so Yan urges people to “find ways to exercise even while maintaining social distancing,” the University of Virginia writes.19
“We often say that exercise is medicine. EcSOD set a perfect example that we can learn from the biological process of exercise to advance medicine. While we strive to learn more about the mysteries about the superb benefits of regular exercise, we do not have to wait until we know everything,” Yan says.
