2023-05-18 22:00:39
Now that a corona infection is often a lot less severe, a sports fanatic wonders what medical science thinks about sports with or after corona. The athlete wants to know what the medical risks and long-term consequences are if you, infected with corona, still start exercising vigorously. “When corona had just broken out, it was strictly advised not to exercise, even if you had no or hardly any complaints,” he recalls. “This is because some top athletes contracted myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and even died after a corona infection that they sometimes did not even notice themselves. I have also heard that exercising too early or too intensively during or after an infection could lead to lung covid.”
Sports cardiologist Harald Jorstad of Amsterdam UMC can be brief about this: “Are you really sick due to corona – so don’t sniffle a bit, but do you have complaints such as fever, muscle pain all over your body and joint pain – then, just like with all other viruses, don’t go to play sports.” According to Jorstad, people probably do exercise with corona, because they simply do not know that they are infected if there are no complaints. “There is no signal from science that this causes problems. With mild complaints, so you have a cold and you have a sore throat, things get complicated. Can you start exercising then? Probably yes, but we don’t know that very well yet.”
People are better able to withstand new corona variants
There have indeed been (top) athletes who have contracted myocarditis after covid, but there have not been many studies on this yet, says Jorstad. “We did research into this in the first two corona waves, which showed that there are indications of myocarditis in 2 to 3 percent after an infection. We are now two years further: people have been vaccinated and are better able to withstand the new corona variants. So the question is whether the figures are still valid.”
Jorstad cannot say whether intensive sports with or after corona increase your risk of lung covid. “The books are not yet closed about long covid, we actually don’t know enough what it is exactly. Some people go back to work immediately after an infection and are not bothered by anything, others do have the post-covid syndrome.”
‘Sweat out an infection is the last thing you should do’
It is also sometimes advised to sweat out an illness or a cold, for example by exercising. “Sweating out an infection is the last thing you should do. We think that you have a higher risk of inflammation, for example an increased risk of myocarditis.” This inflammation of the heart muscle is life-threatening and should not be underestimated. Your heart can become scarred, you can develop arrhythmias and the disease can even be fatal, Jorstad said.
What the sports cardiologist especially wants to emphasize: give your body time to recover if you feel sick, to prevent potentially serious consequences. “Take the infection seriously. How bad is it to take a sick day for two or three days? Not only do you run the risk of infecting others if you go to the gym with covid or train with your running club. You also do your body more harm than good with it. When you’re sick, don’t push boundaries, when in doubt, take the easy road and never sweat it out.”
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