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aFri, 05.01.2024 12:20:00 +0100 b5.01.2024 12:20 c
Updated: May 1, 2024 12:20 p.m. Issued: May 1, 2024 12:20 p.m
Illustrative photo – Nurse in the ward for patients with severe Covid-19 disease (pictured on March 9, 2021). CTK/Petrašek Radek
London – A number of people with long-term health complications from Covid-19 are feeling tired and sore after exercise. Scientists now say they have figured out why. Biological changes such as severe muscle damage, mitochondrial problems and the presence of microthrombi in the body, which are associated with the so-called long Covid, are to blame, The Guardian reported.
“It really confirms that there is something bad going on in the body with this disease,” said study author Rob Wüst of Vrije University Amsterdam.
It is estimated that around two million people in the UK alone are suffering from what is known as long Covid infection, with many of them experiencing worsening symptoms over several weeks after a single exercise session.
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, involved 25 long-term Covid patients who reported feeling unwell after exercise and 21 people who also developed the disease but made a full recovery. None of the participants were hospitalized with the disease and all were fit, healthy and of working age before contracting the disease.
Each of the participants spent about ten to 15 minutes on the exercise bike, blood samples and skeletal muscle biopsies were taken a week before and a day after. Although there were significant differences between individual patients, those with prolonged Covid illness had, on average, lower physical performance than healthy participants.
When researchers analyzed tissue samples taken before exercise, they found that those with long-Covid had a greater proportion of white fibers in their muscles than healthy participants. These fibers contain fewer energy-producing structures called mitochondria and fewer capillaries. The team also found evidence that mitochondria in people with prolonged Covid-19 illness did not function as well as in healthy participants.
These results partly explain why people with prolonged Covid-19 disease have a poorer ability to exercise, said Wüst.
A comparison of samples taken before and after cycling found that the participants with Long-Covid had impaired mitochondrial function after exercise and that these participants had much more tissue damage and signs that the body was trying to recover after exercise. to repair yourself.
“This could, for example, explain the muscle pain that these patients feel after exercise,” said Wüst. These results underscore, he said, that people with prolonged Covid-19 illness should not engage in vigorous exercise. “It damages muscles, it affects metabolism and it could explain why you feel muscle soreness and fatigue for several weeks after exercise,” he added.
Mitochondrial dysfunction may play a role in fatigue in some people with long-term Covid experience, said Betty Raman of the University of Oxford, who was not involved in the study, citing her own research. “While it is likely that fatigue is related to these metabolic disorders, other factors may also play a role, such as persistent inflammation,” she added.
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