Coronavirus – Lower Your Risk with Exercise

Advice I received this week from a medic with experience of dealing with the frail:

You will have read that the groups at risk from Covid-19 are those with a serious pre-existing condition (ie those with 'co-morbidity') and the over 70s. For those without a pre-existing condition (and the real danger seems to be diabetes or being 'pre-diabetic') the issue is not so much whether you are 70 as whether you are sedentary.

Sedentism as he termed it (or what one might also call 'the cult of non-exertion') is the danger, not age per se. The reason 70-year olds are identified as a group at risk is that many of them have not done any aerobic exercise in decades so they have poor lung function and weak cardiac muscle.  A physically active 75 year old (say, someone who jogs gently three times per week) has a better chance of surviving Covid-19 than an inactive or overweight 60-year old. It is for this exact same reason that flu-related pneumonia carries off many in care homes if it finds its way to them.  So - if you are an active and healthy 70-year old who is self-isolating, keep exercising.

There is strong evidence that a resting heart rate (RHR) of 90 beats per minute or higher is an indicator of physical frailty, whereas RHRs of 55 and below are associated with high cardiac function (and are seen in endurance athletes).  In fact, it may be a sensible precaution for those who have an RHR which is 90+ to self-isolate, even if they don't have a pre-existing condition.