Rehab programs can improve quality of life for patients struggling with long COVID: research – CBC

Exercise shown to help those with fatigue, shortness of breath walk farther and faster

Sep 22, 2023

People struggling with long COVID tend to be able to walk longer and farther when they do individualized exercises, a new review suggests.

When symptoms such as fatigue, headache and shortness of breath last for at least two months, with no other explanation, they meet part of the definition of what the World Health Organization now calls post COVID-19 condition.

Part of the challenge is that symptoms can fluctuate unpredictably. Previous research suggests that the wide range of symptoms and their severity, as well as different time frames, make it harder to study long COVID in a systematic way to guide treatment.

This new research helps fill in that picture on how exercise helps people walk further and faster, given that those with long COVID commonly say they have a hard time handling long or strenuous walks, which in turn hampers their quality of life.

To that end, researchers pooled findings from 14 randomized clinical trials — the gold standard to evaluate medical studies and reduce bias. That way, doctors will have more information when choosing treatments like exercise for adults with long COVID.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/post-covid-condition-exercise-review-1.6974189