Study Explains How Exercise Could Protect Against Deadly Coronavirus Complications

Regular exercise can lessen the severity of COVID-19 and help prevent some of the disease’s deadly complications, according to a recent study.

University of Virginia School of Medicine’s Dr. Zhen Yan, a leading researcher on the benefits of exercise, says working out can significantly increase one’s ability to ward off the worst effects of the coronavirus by producing a powerful antioxidant.

“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 in a press release. “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.”

During exercise, muscles release an antioxidant called extracellular superoxide dismutase. The chemical aids the body in fighting off disease and can ward of one of the worst effects of the coronavirus, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS. Between 3% and 17% of COVID-19 patients develop ARDS.

About 45% of patients that develop ARDS die, according to studies done before the coronavirus outbreak.

The study comes as many states in the U.S. have placed heavy restrictions on residents, shutting down businesses and locking up public areas such as parks and playgrounds to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Most states have issued stay-at-home orders forbidding people from leaving their houses except for sanctioned activities, such as picking up groceries and medicine or exercise.

Eight states so far have resisted implementing stay-at-home orders: Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“We cannot live in isolation forever,” Yan said. “Regular exercise has far more health benefits than we know. The protection against this severe respiratory disease condition is just one of the many examples.”

A handful of states are moving to scale back their emergency regulations before the end of April. Georgia is making the most aggressive rollback of states with stay-at-home orders in place, and Gov. Brian Kemp is facing much criticism for doing so, including from President Trump. Kemp plans to open up Georgia on Friday.

“I think it’s too soon, and I love the people,” Trump said at a coronavirus task force briefing on Wednesday. “I love those people that use all of those things, the spas, the beauty parlors, the barbershops, tattoo parlors, I love them. But they can wait a little bit longer, just a little bit — not much — because safety has to predominate.”

Kemp plans to open many of Georgia’s businesses back up a day after fresh Labor Department data showed 4.4 million Americans applied for unemployment insurance last week, bringing the total number of jobs lost since lockdowns began to roughly 26 million.