| ...
| Now, Bob and a Kaiser research team have additional
| evidence for the benefits of physical activity, based on a
| statistical analysis of 48,440 Kaiser Permanente patients
| who had been infected with COVID-19 and had at least three
| measurements of their physical activity level during the
| two-year period prior to their infection.
|
| The US Physical Activity Guidelines recommend an average of
| 150 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous physical
| activity (like a brisk walk). That's just a 30-minute walk
| five days a week, yet only 6.4% of these patients (3,118)
| met this guideline prior to their infection. An astonishing
| 14.4% of patients (6,984) reported 0 to 10 minutes a week
| of moderate to vigorous physical activity! Most of these
| consistently inactive patients had no exercise at all. The
| remaining 79.1% of patients (38,338) were in-between the
| extremes of consistently inactive and meeting the
| guidelines.
|
| Bob and his research team found that, controlling for
| dozens of possible confounding factors, the patients who
| met the physical activity guidelines were far less likely
| to be hospitalized, admitted to intensive care units, or
| die. Physical inactivity was a larger risk factor for death
| than were cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other
| chronic diseases--and physical inactivity is something we
| have control over. Some physical activity was better than
| none at all, but best of all is meeting the guidelines of
| 150 minutes a week.
|
| In their forthcoming paper in the British Journal of Sports
| Medicine, the world's leading peer-reviewed journal in
| sports medicine, they conclude that
|
| Physical inactivity is the strongest modifiable risk
| factor... We recommend that public health authorities
| inform all populations that short of vaccination and
| following CDC guidelines, engaging in regular physical
| activity may be the single most important action they can
| take to prevent severe COVID-19 and its complications,
| including death.
|...
<https://mindmatters.ai/2021/04/exercise-is-medicine-the-power-of-regular-physical-activity/>

The paper:
<https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/55/19/1099>

--bks