CAPE TOWN - Exercising while you just had coronavirus is a bad idea and could potentially lead to death.
New evidence is emerging that the virus can cause heart damage even in people who’ve had mild symptoms or none at all, especially if those people exercise while they’re infected.
According to the study published in
JAMA Cardiology
, exercising while suffering from Covid-19 can worsen the symptoms of the disease. It can also lead to complications such as myocarditis , inflammation of the heart muscle.
The study found that if a person rests while they are ill and during recovery, most of the time the inflammation recedes and the heart muscle heals on its own. But strenuous activity while the heart is weakened can cause swelling in the legs, dizziness, shortness of breath, and—in serious cases—irregular heartbeat, cardiac arrest, and sudden death.
A larger observational study conducted in Germany earlier this year followed 100 non-athlete Covid-19 patients and found lingering heart inflammation and other cardiac abnormalities in 78 of them.
Dr. Jordan D. Metzl
, a sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) said: “For people who have had cardiac, or heart, symptoms, the recommendation is to rest for around 2 to 3 weeks after the symptoms stop, while those who have myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, should wait as much as 3 to 6 months before returning to some form of an exercise regimen,”
“Those who have been living with the gastrointestinal effects of Covid-19 think vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, loss of appetite;they should keep tabs of their fluid and calorie intake while easing into their fitness patterns.”
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