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Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director)
According to a new study, practicing regular physical activity while you are vaccinated would further reduce the risk of hospitalization. Another good reason to put on your sneakers!
If it has already been proven that vaccination, like the practice of physical activity, both have beneficial effects on health, and the risk of contracting a serious form of covid, a new study today goes further. According to a team of scientists from the University of Johannesburg, the practice of regular physical activity would directly improve the effectiveness of the vaccine. And the higher the intensity of the activity, the better the protection would be. The study can be found in the British Medical Journal.
2h30 of physical activity per week provides better protection
Thus, South African scientists analyzed medical data from 196,000 healthcare professionals, collected between February and October 2021. All were classified according to their level of physical activity: 53,771 participants with low levels of activity physical (less than 60 minutes per week), 62,721 with medium levels (between 60 and 150 minutes per week) and 79,952 with high levels (150 minutes and more).
According to their calculations, the researchers found that participants who received a complete vaccination schedule and who were considered to be athletic (i.e. 2.5 hours of physical activity or more per week) were three times less likely to be hospitalized than vaccinated participants, but who have less than one hour of practice per week.
Sport would “potentiate” the covid vaccine
It is not known how physical activity improves vaccination but scientists hypothesize thata “combination of increased antibody levels, improved T-cell immunosurveillance and psychosocial factors”. Further studies are still needed to explore this finding further.
Research has above all the advantage of advocating a little more for more regular physical activity.
“Activity is good for everyone” confirms Dr. Kierzek, medical director of Doctissimo. “Does it boost the vaccine? Anyway, it boosts the immune system, releases a number of substances good for immunity and that can only potentiate the vaccine and its action. In In this context, since the two actions go in the same direction, that of optimizing the immune system, combining physical activity and a vaccine can only be a good idea.
For the South African researchers, this argument should be put forward more concretely in public health messages: “Our research confirms WHO recommendations that advocate for regular physical activity of 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week. Public health messages should encourage physical activity as a simple and cost-effective way to improve the effectiveness of vaccines to mitigate the risk of severe Covid requiring hospitalization”they conclude.