Ōtepoti – Exercise may be the key to treating the sequelae of long covid by supporting brain homeostasis, increasing insulin sensitivity, and mediating the inflammatory response, according to a new study.
US researchers from Pennington Biomedical Research Centre and the University of Pittsburgh have published their hypothesis on exercise as a moderator of persistent neuroendocrine symptoms of covid.
They detailed how exercise could help counteract the detrimental inflammatory effects of long covid that cause sequelae such as depression and new-onset diabetes.
There is currently no medical treatment for long covid, so a holistic approach to treatment may be crucial to preventing the potential side effects of the illness.
Although it is unknown exactly how many people are living with long covid, it is estimated that 15 to 80 percent of those infected go on to experience long covid.
The Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta describes long covid as a constellation of other debilitating symptoms including brain fog, muscle pain, and fatigue that may persist for months after recovery from the initial viral infection.
For example, a person may not get very sick from covid, but six months later, long after the cough or fever is gone, they develop diabetes, the researchers say.
This is linked to the cycle of inflammation induced by the initial infection, which disrupts the immune metabolic homeostasis.
Hyperglycaemia can arise from psychological stress, lingering inflammation, and immune dysfunction that then causes downstream effects on the b-cell microenvironment, inhibiting insulin secretion.
Long covid causes depression, and that it can increase blood glucose levels to the point where people develop diabetic ketoacidosis, a potentially life-threatening condition common among people with type 1 diabetes.
Researchers found exercise can help because it takes care of the inflammation that leads to elevated blood glucose and the development and progression of diabetes and clinical depression.
People didn’t have to run a mile or even walk a mile at a brisk pace, they says. Walking slowly is also exercising over a 30-minute session.
But if people can only do 15 minutes at a time, try to do two 15-minute sessions. If they can only walk 15 minutes once a day, do that. The important thing is to try. People can gradually build up to the recommended level of exercise.
The team concluded that exercise helps key lingering features of a covid infection that contribute to the risk of depression and diabetes.
By controlling the elevated blood glucose levels increased by inflammation and stress, exercise can help break this inflammation–hyperglycaemia cycle to prevent the development of diabetes.
Exercise may also help prevent the progression of pre-existing type 2 diabetes in long covid patients, a vulnerable group in which severe infection and mortality rates are among the highest.
