I know someone who recently recovered from a bout with the Coronavirus. He had moderate symptoms such as fatigue, chills, difficulty breathing, etc. He’s in his early 20’s an was an athlete in high school and has kept on working out with strength training, some running, and basketball. It’s been a couple of weeks since most of his symptoms went away but he still has some shortness of breath.
Would you have any tips other than the common sense advice of easing back into it. I advised him to do Dr. McGuff’s Big 5 protocol but to use your 30-10-30 method and go pretty light at first.
In all politeness. This is a medical question aimed for professionals. You can’t expect Dr Darden to take responsibility and provide a proper answer to your question.
Being a MD, seeing both actual disease and prolonged symtoms, as well as having had it myself along with my family - My first recommendation is to avoid heavier excercise than walking, until the shortness of breath has normalized. The 30-10-30 routine is out of the question. When in doubt, consult a physician again (to rule out asthma for example). Covid-19 is to be taken seriously.
With yourself as a doctor, I have a general question for you about this virus: I have seen several (non-peer reviewed) studies out of Europe indicating how the vast majority of people who contracted Covid-19 even if they were asymptomatic or light symptoms showed inflammation in their heart - in some cases lungs and even brains. I recall one study where something like nearly 80 out of 100 people showed “stuff” on scans. I saw one pro sports Dr. say he is seeing 10-20% of athletes who contract Covid-19 getting Cardiomyopathy. This happened to a Major League baseball pitcher this year who contracted it.
What are your thoughts on the long term implications of this? Is this something likely to heal over time? Thanks.
I’m sorry for leaving the legit boundaries of excercise in this reply.
The short answer as far as my knowledge and experience goes - We do not know this yet, as we haven’t followed these cases over an adequate timespan. The collegue supposedly referring to athletes getting cardiomyopathy - I really wonder if this is a long term result or not? Sounds a bit too drastic to draw a conclusion. My guess is that enlarged heart is a short term finding due to the stress Covid-19 is affiliated with.
Doctors in general have a tendendency to focus on what’s in their interest, which of course make a specific finding within their field of profession a sensation. Forgive me if I may sound cynical, this is just my personal opinion.
It seems some people are getting a more difficult disease than others - Why? There is lots and lots associated with Covid-19 that we don’t have a single clue about, just theories. Time will tell though through forthcoming studies. That being said, it’s reassuring a good vaccine is in the works.
Hey man, that’s cool but if you want to disregard that professional opinion then you should expect to be on your own and you should take that responsibility
on. Can’tt expect another professional to take the reigns for you on something like that.
I knew I crossed a line commenting medical issues in this thread, as well as adding a personal opinion. There will always be different views on this, and I don’t intend to criticize collegues presenting their findings, who are not here to defend themselves, thus my attempt of making a generalization.
The question was, and is, what the actual finding means in the long term? Covid-19 has not been around for long enough to draw any conclusions, but I do find it interesting that a large group of people suffer from post-Covid symtoms.
Feel free to comment upon this. I will continue to follow other excercise related threads.
I think you qualified your answers very well. Nothing to apologize for. LSS: that it’s too early to tell on the subject of ‘Long Term Effects’ should be easily evident for even non-medical people of at least average intelligence.