Exercise as a Moderator of Persistent Neuroendocrine Symptoms of COVID-19, 2022, Candida J Rebello et al

Abstract

Precipitated by chronic psychological stress, immune system dysregulation, and a hyperinflammatory state, the sequelae of post-acute COVID-19 (long COVID) include depression and new-onset diabetes. We hypothesize that exercise counters the neuropsychiatric and endocrine sequelae of long COVID by inducing the release of circulating factors that mediate the anti-inflammatory response, support brain homeostasis, and increase insulin sensitivity.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35019862/

“You don’t have to run a mile or even walk a mile at a brisk pace,” Dr. Rebello said. “Walking slowly is also exercising. Ideally, you would do a 30-minute session of exercise. But if you can only do 15 minutes at a time, try to do two 15-minute sessions. If you can only walk 15 minutes once a day, do that. The important thing is to try. It doesn’t matter where you begin. You can gradually build up to the recommended level of exercise.”

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/946091

 

Corresponding author

https://twitter.com/user/status/1502379048491798532


From the link in the above tweet.

"While no medically recognized treatment exists for Long COVID, exercise may break the vicious cycle of inflammation that can lead to developing diabetes and depression months after a person recovers from the virus.

“We know that Long COVID causes depression, and we know that it can increase blood glucose levels to the point where people develop diabetic ketoacidosis, a potentially life-threatening condition common among people with type 1 diabetes,” said Candida Rebello, Ph.D., a research scientist at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. “Exercise can help. Exercise takes care of the inflammation that leads to elevated blood glucose and the development and progression of diabetes and clinical depression.”"

https://www.pbrc.edu/news/media/2022/long-covid-and-exercise.aspx

 

How can someone be smart enough to get a medical degree but not be smart enough to understand how people who only have the capacity to do a few minutes of light exercise per day are supposed to handle the normal duties of everyday life, as if somehow those responsibilities disappeared, handled by the disability fairy? Do they think that cleaning, cooking, shopping and other things just get magically dealt with? The "sick role" fairy is not a thing and it certainly doesn't deal with kids or convince bosses to approve sick leave.

This is as foolish as saying that poor people can just buy more money and then they wouldn't be poor anymore. Incredibly myopic tunnel vision.

 

I'm guessing that the researcher hasn't had significant contact with patients with severe symptoms. If so, her paper should have a disclaimer regarding the severity of the patients in her study.

I've just recovered from a year of worse ME possibly due to some form of long-covid. I was physically active at different times, but only recently became much more active (lots of snow shovelling and tree limbing). I don't know whether the extra exertion helped get over whatever it was, or whether something else was responsible for feeling better, which led to feeling more like being more active.

I see that the abstract says that they hypothesize that exercise helps. I don't feel like finding the full article and reading it, but I wonder if they they simply selected long-covid victims who got better after exercise regimes ... that they may have started as they began to feel better.

 

This is an example of what we are up against because of the way ME has been considered part of the fatigue spectrum.

In their ignorance they take what is known about exercise in individuals with a healthy energy production system and recommend it for post viral disease. If the medical establishment had spent any time conveying the serious and complex nature of ME and disseminating the findings from biological research things like this would never happen.

If there is a sound bite description of ME it is "Cannot become fitter with repeated exercise"

Before they presume to present a hypothesis about longcovid or ME they would do well to look at all the literature.

Also it defies common sense to make sick people exercise. The fact it works for sedentary healthy adults says nothing about the effect it will have on the sick.

 

It is the fallacy of going from the specific to the general. It is the same process as arguing that because bats are mammals and can fly, all mammals can fly. Demanding people with ME exercise to get better is as rational as throwing a bunny rabbit out of an aeroplane and expecting it to fly.