Exercising regularly could boost the effect of COVID-19 vaccines, study finds 

Exercising regularly could book the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, a new study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found. 

According to the study, increasing the amount of regular physical activity can increase the level of protection an individual received against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19. 

The study also found that exercising regularly can help “consequences of serious COVID-19 infection, reducing the risk of hospital admission, intensive care, assisted ventilation, or death.”

To conduct the study, researchers reviewed anonymous medical records from 200,000 individuals in South Africa and data obtained from wearable-activity-trackers between February and October 2021. 

Researchers found that participants that were fully vaccinated and exercised 150 minutes or more per week were 25% less likely to be admitted to hospitals than participants who were vaccinated but did less than 60 minutes of exercise a week. 

“The findings suggest a possible dose-response where high levels of physical activity were associated with higher vaccine effectiveness,” researchers write in the study. 

“This substantiates the WHO [World Health Organization] recommendations for regular physical activity—namely, that 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week have meaningful health benefits in preventing severe disease, in this context against a communicable viral infection,” the researchers added. 

Past studies have also shown a relationship between being active and the risk of hospitalization from COVID-19. For example, a study of almost 50,000 Californians who tested positive for Coronavirus before vaccines were available showed that those who walked or exercised regularly were less likely to need hospitalization. 

However, past studies had not yet studied whether people who have been vaccinated gain additional benefits from exercising. 

“I think this study adds to the growing evidence that, along with vaccination, daily physical activity is the single most important thing you can do to prevent severe COVID-19 outcomes,” said Robert Sallis, a family, and sports medicine doctor at the Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center in California