American researchers have analyzed several studies on the impact of the long Covid on physical performance. According to them, the reduction of physical abilities could be part of the symptoms.
- Brain fog, fatigue, headaches, abdominal discomfort, diarrhea… the symptoms of long Covid, which have not yet been fully clarified, are numerous and differ depending on the case.
- A new study points to another lingering symptom: diminished exercise capacity.
If, following a Covid, you feel much more breathless than usual after your sports training, you may be suffering from a long Covid. Indeed, the reduction of physical abilities would be part of the various symptoms of long Covid, this chronic version of Covid which occurs in some patients and which intrigues researchers, according to a new study published on October 12 in JAMA Network Open.
A “study of studies” on the effects of long Covid
Researchers from UC San Francisco and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital analyzed 38 previous studies that tracked the physical performance of more than 2,000 participants who had previously had Covid-19, including those who likely had long-term Covid. . The researchers narrowed down their analysis to nine studies in which the physical performance of 359 volunteers who had recovered from the disease was compared with that of 464 participants who had symptoms consistent with long Covid. The age of the volunteers varied between 39 and 56 years.
The stress tests were carried out at least three months after infection with Sras-CoV-2, the virus causing Covid. They included cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET), in which oxygen and carbon dioxide were measured, along with other heart and lung functions, while participants used a treadmill or bicycle. of gym.
Long Covid: a reduction in physical abilities for some
The results suggest that long Covid may have caused the volunteers to have a lower level of oxygen extraction by the muscles, irregular breathing patterns and a diminished ability to increase heart rate during exercise. Additionally, signs of deconditioning, which occur to some degree after most physical problems leading to inactivity, have been observed by researchers.
However, the researchers point out that these results are an average. Some people experience a profound reduction in their physical abilities, but many others affected by the long Covid have not experienced these symptoms. In their analysis of the studies, the authors said that although they found evidence “modest but coherent” suggesting that exercise capacity is reduced in participants with long Covid, there was “low confidence in the magnitude of the effect”. They attributed this to small study sizes, oversampling of hospitalized participants, and varying definitions across studies.