September 9, 2020
COVID-19 seems to be pretty random about whom it affects. It isn’t, of course—we just haven’t figured out the common denominator that makes some people susceptible to a gamut of issues, while other people can get infected and have not even minimal discomfort.
At first it was deemed to strike mostly the elderly and people with underlying health conditions. But then I read that even people who live healthy lifestyles, i.e. go running, etc., are getting struck down. And I started wondering if anybody’s considered stress levels as an indicator of susceptibility. I always imagine that athletes are pretty high-stress in other aspects of their lives, although I don’t know any runners or other athletic sorts to check this theory with. Maybe some stress-related effect on the body makes people more vulnerable.
On the face of it, since the elderly in nursing homes are getting clobbered in droves, it doesn’t seem likely that stress is a factor; but who knows what their personal stress levels are? (Nursing home life, contrary to what you might expect, is not always a piece of cake. Read the papers.) And then, of course, there are those underlying conditions.
So if you’re going nuts trying to live one of those over-scheduled lifestyles that involves working late, or running the kids to and from activities on top of trying to work full-time and still maintain the family home and do Zumba or hit the gym, you might want to dial it back.
Or at least take up meditation for a few minutes a day. Even
if I’m wrong about the COVID connection, it can’t hurt.
January 25, 2021
I saw an article on Yahoo! today, originally published on Insider that recommends that people with COVID avoid exercise, even if they're asymptomatic. The article says that anything more than a brisk walk could make the infection worse, “as higher-intensity exercise can temporarily reduce immune function.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/people-covid-19-avoid-exercise-215546507.html
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