Coronavirus: Has your exercise capacity reduced after COVID? Here's what new study says

Long COVID can strip people of their health, energy, enthusiasm and can affect the overall quality of life. Of all the symptoms, which are close to 50 as per a study, a new one has been seen recently.

Read: People with COVID are more likely to experience scratchiness than those with a cold

A new study titled Use of Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing to Evaluate Long COVID-19 Symptoms in Adults published in JAMA Network Open has found that exercise capacity is reduced after a COVID infection.

The study used Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) as the criterion standard to measure exercise capacity and identify patterns of exertional intolerance in people more than 3 months after the COVID infection.

The study found that people with long COVID experienced low tolerance to physical exercises in comparison to those who had COVID but had recovered. " The findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis study suggest that exercise capacity was reduced more than 3 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection among individuals with symptoms consistent with LC compared with individuals without LC symptoms, with low confidence," the study report says.

After measuring resting cardiopulmonary parameters, participants exercised on a cycle ergometer or a treadmill. The oxygen consumption was measured which determined the exercise capacity and anaerobic threshold.

CPET has been used earlier in determining dyspnea in people living with HIV, exercise intolerance in myalgic encephalitis and/or chronic fatigue syndrome and is used for dyspnea, heart failure, lung disease and for preoperative evaluations.

Long COVID has been bothering health agencies, researchers and the general public as everyone is aware that something wrong is happening to people after COVID but no one knows why.

Several symptoms of long COVID have been discussed. Cough, cold, fatigue, sleeplessness and others have been in discussion ever since global health agencies have taken long COVID into consideration.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines long COVID as a constellation of long-term symptoms that some people experience after they have had COVID-19 and terms these people as long haulers. The WHO lists fatigue, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, memory, concentration or sleep problems, persistent cough, chest pain, trouble speaking, muscle aches, loss of smell or taste, depression or anxiety, and fever as the common symptoms of long COVID.

This is the first time exercise intolerance is being seen as a sign of long COVID.

Inability to be active, known as exercise intolerance, generally has not been considered a formal symptom of long COVID, Matthew Durstenfeld, a cardiologist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and professor at the University of California at San Francisco Department of Medicine, who led the new study told The Washington Post.

The reason why exercise intolerance was not seen as a long COVID sign, Durstenfeld explains, researchers and health experts, felt that being bedridden with COVID the patients have lost the stamina and will regain it later.

Long COVID is highly prevalent. A recent study has shown that one in 20 people develop long COVID.

The Scottish study report, found that close to half of those infected reported no, or incomplete, recovery. The researchers said six and 18 months after infection, 1 in 20 people had not recovered and 42 percent reported partial recovery.

With such a high prevalence of long COVID, it is always advisable to consult a doctor if you do not feel normal especially after a COVID infection.