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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Regular exercise could protect against COVID, UVa researcher says |
| 2020-04-18 |
| [Roanoke Times] A walk a day may keep the coronavirus away, or at least keep it from killing you. A University of Virginia researcher who studies the protective effects of exercise said Wednesday that endurance exercises — running, brisk walking, swimming, jumping — prompt our muscles to make an antioxidant that travels through the blood to our hearts, lungs and kidneys. It then binds to organs, awaiting intruders. "I use an analogy they are like a Patriot missile stationed somewhere, waiting to defend," said Zhen Yan, a professor in UVa’s departments of medicine, pharmacology, and molecular physiology and biological physics. Yan said his research shows these antioxidants — known as extracellular superoxide dismutase, or EcSOD (pronounced by saying each letter) — can be transferred from a mouse genetically engineered to produce an abundance of the protein into a normal mouse, which can then withstand acute respiratory distress syndrome, a leading factor in COVID-19 deaths. "Exercise capacity is inversely related with all kinds of mortality. So if you can exercise better, run faster, jump higher, lift more weight, you are less likely to die. That is the best predictor for mortality, including, I think, COVID-19," he said. "run faster, jump higher" = get a pair of P.F. Flyers Yan is developing two different ways of getting more EcSOD antioxidants into people — one is through developing a medication, and the other is by extracting it from one person’s blood and sharing it with another. While these take time to develop and test, Yan said anyone can start today to build their own supply of antioxidants. They just need to get moving and stimulate their muscles to produce it. "At the gene level, a single bout of exercise, like you go running today, will start to stimulate the expression of this gene. It’s like taking medicine. One dose of medicine doesn’t mean you get enough protection," he said. "I would say it takes a few weeks to gear up this and get to the level that you can get a benefit from this." Yan is talking about any aerobic exercise that is equivalent to about a 30-minute run. He also recommends weight-lifting exercise, not because it produces EcSOD but because it helps to maintain and build muscle mass. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #3 My wife goes out with her walker every other day..she does 3-4 blocks. When it was raining she walked in place inside the house... She misses her rehab facility which is shut down... |
| Posted by: crazyhorse 2020-04-18 21:05 |
| #2 I've been jogging some to try to avoid gaining too much weight during the lockdown. One thing I can tell you is that you don't want a mask between you and the air when you're jogging. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2020-04-18 13:02 |
| #1 But you can't leave your house to do it... |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2020-04-18 10:18 |