Hello, my friends! Chris and Anthony here with something new we’ve never done on the site before. Today we’re doing a hybrid chat-article in response to the current worldwide hysteria regarding the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Anthony and I had a lively discussion via email that we wanted to publish for you to read through. It turned out to be a really informative discussion on how living an active lifestyle can actually help prevent against developing various illnesses and diseases.

I hope you enjoy it!

Check out Anthony’s first article to learn more about him, and give him a follow for more insight into health, fitness, and nutrition.

And away we go!

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Chris: As panic ensues regarding the Coronavirus (COVID-19), I can’t help but wonder how many people know about the preventative benefits of regular physical activity. As I monitored the reaction on social media, I noticed Anthony and I were saying some similar things…

“Wash your hands.”

“Don’t touch your face.”

“Relax, everyone!”

So we decided to put this chat together to talk about some basic elements of a healthy lifestyle that can actually lead to not only better physical fitness and health, but actually preventing against illness, virus, and disease. 

Anthony, thanks for joining me for this! I am very aware that there is evidence of physical activity improving immune response and overall health, but you’re certainly better positioned to speak on a topic like this than I am. I think this article will provide people with some great perspective!

I don’t want this article to get taken out of context, so let’s establish some things right off the bat. I’m not saying if you work out, you’ll avoid getting the Coronavirus. And I’m not saying if you have it and start working out, you’ll get better.

What I AM saying is that healthy lifestyle habits, such as engaging in physical activity on a normal, regular basis, can have long-lasting benefits that boost your immune response and lead to better long-term health.

Anthony, what thoughts do you have on this topic? What evidence exists to help us understand the preventative effects of physical activity?

Anthony: Hey Chris, it’s a pleasure to be here.

I hate jumping right into the thick of the matter, but I think it’s worth it with your first question. When we look at the statistics from the current Coronavirus, we can immediately see the benefits of health. The most publicized fact out there right now is the 3% mortality rate. Based on the data collected from the Chinese CDC fewer than 1% of all Coronavirus-related deaths occurred in people without preexisting conditions. There are four major preexisting conditions that the Chinese CDC noticed, and three of the top four (and an argument could be made for the fourth) can be fought off with good healthy lifestyle hygiene. The conditions were:

1. Heart disease (but not hypertension)
2. Respiratory disease
3. Diabetes
4. Hypertension

Cardiovascular issues, mainly congestive heart failure, are the leading associated condition and has a mortality rate of 11% when a patient also gets Coronavirus. The other comorbidities associated with increased mortality rates during this infection are Diabetes with a 7% mortality rate, and respiratory diseases such as COPD and hypertension both with a 6%.

Chris: OK, so we’re off to a good start. That data is awesome, and I think it helps put the current hysteria into context. With that said, many people in our society have one of those four conditions and can benefit from healthier lifestyle habits. And for those that don’t have an existing health condition, they can easily prevent against developing one by living actively, too.

I wrote a few weeks ago about a simple approach to losing weight, or maintaining a healthy weight. In that article, we went over the global recommendations on physical activity, which are:

• 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity (or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity).
• Muscle strengthening (weightlifting) activities on at least two days each week.

I made it even simpler by suggesting that individuals try and engage in 20-25 minutes of physical activity a day in whatever type of exercise they like. So walking, running, lifting weights, going for a bike ride… anything. Just get out there and be active, and do something you enjoy so it’s sustainable.

Can it be that simple? Is there anything else you’d add or recommend?

And what is it, specifically, about physical activity and healthy lifestyle habits that are so beneficial? What basic information can help us understand, “if I exercise regularly, it’s going to benefit me, and here’s why: ______”

Anthony: The thing people fail to grasp is it truly is that simple. Sometimes I feel like people hear these recommendations and think they are just colloquial like “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” but the 150 minutes of exercise recommendation comes straight from the American Heart Association and JAMA (Journal of American Medicine). These are the same resources that update physicians annually on important topics like how to treat high blood pressure and how to run codes during cardiac arrest.

It isn’t like this is some motivational Pinterest post. It’s a recommendation based on several worldwide studies that have proven to reduce the need for medicine and future medical complications. 

To answer your second question, I like to give the analogy of bicep curls. If you are a newcomer to the gym there’s a chance you can’t curl 25 pounds. Over time you build your muscles and three or four years later you are using 25-pound dumbbells as a warm-up set.

The weight didn’t change, you’re just better prepared to lift it. The same applies to the body, and especially your heart, as a whole.

Each time you work out and increase your heart rate you are making it adapt to new demands, just like your biceps did to the weight. After a few years of physical training, your heart has become more efficient.

When we are sick, multiple systems kick in place as part of the inflammatory response. One of these is an increase in heart rate to help get the proper inflammatory fighting cells where they need to be (among other things). The heart that has been trained through an active lifestyle to handle increased demands is better prepared for this situation than one that hasn’t. A heart of somebody who hasn’t lived an active lifestyle during an inflammatory response is analogous to asking someone who has never run on a treadmill before to do a 5K in 40 minutes. 

My favorite cardio recommendation is walking on an incline and in fact, is about 80% of the cardio I do throughout the week. It gets the heart rate up and doesn’t put too much stress on the knees. 

Chris: I completely agree with you regarding how people probably perceive the activity recommendations. I think I probably felt the same way 10 years ago when I didn’t live very healthy. I’d hear what physical activity can do for me, but since I didn’t see any immediate benefits on the outside, I failed to care about the significant positive impact it was having on me on the inside. I think that’s a barrier for a lot of people. We love to SEE progress and improvements. If we can’t see it, we have a hard time believing or conceiving the benefits involved.

And I love the comparison of the heart growing stronger to the bicep curls example, because that’s relating it to something we CAN see. We can strengthen our hearts, and we can improve our body’s immune response. While it may not be visible, it can be “seen” in other ways, such as having better health through flu season, higher overall energy levels on a daily basis, or actively choosing healthier foods.

This actually leads us well into probably the final point of our discussion. We’ve pretty well established why regular physical activity is beneficial when it comes to preventing against illness and disease. If we top it off with healthier eating habits and better sleep, we’ve probably got the trifecta of impact towards living and staying healthy, right? What are your thoughts on nutrition and sleep being part of this conversation? Obviously, our focus here is mostly on physical activity, but there’s more than one way — or, maybe it’s better put that we have several options in our “arsenal of health” — to generally live healthier and be less susceptible to illness and disease.

Anthony: I think the no-results-during-the-first-few-weeks-of-exercise thing is what leads most people to give up on a routine. We like things now, and since we can’t see all of the changes taking place on a chemical level it isn’t exciting. My best advice on that front is for people to realize that they didn’t gain the weight in two weeks, so they shouldn’t expect to lose it in two weeks, either.

As for nutrition, going to the gym while not eating properly is a losing proposition. If you think about it as building an actual building, the workout is the labor, but nutrition is the building blocks. I think you’ve done a great job on your site explaining why a well-balanced diet of protein, carbs and fats is a better method of losing weight than any fad diets (most recently in an article on the keto diet).

I will add, though, since this conversation started with the Coronavirus, that making sure you get a good amount of Vitamin C through oranges as well as other minerals like zinc and vitamin D go a long way in powering up your inflammatory system. Our body uses vitamins for several biochemical mechanisms, and it’s important to supply the body with the essentials for it to properly perform. Like you, I recommend people try to get their vitamins through eating healthy foods instead of through a tablet, but I don’t see any harm from taking a multi-vitamin if it’s one that a site like labdoor has approved.

When it comes to sleep, I think you and our mutual friend, Mike, have done a great job describing the importance. It’s an area we all need to improve, and I am a big proponent of proper sleep hygiene. Over time and with new study methods we’ve learned the benefits of proper sleep and how important it is to muscle recovery. There is a reason why so much research is going into sleep studies for high endurance athletes.

There’s also a reason a lot of celebrities will say they get at least eight hours of sleep a night as one of their tips to “staying young.” As a society we are awful with admitting we need sleep, and it’s even harder when there are television shows or sporting events that don’t end until 9:30 or 10:00. Add that in with the blue light from cell phones and we set ourselves up for some truly awful sleep.  

Chris: Anthony, thanks again for taking time to do this. I think we’ve gone over the total picture here pretty well.

Physical activity can has large and serious positive health benefits. While not all of those benefits can be seen, they are real and can not only help you get an improved level of fitness, but also fend or fight off other illnesses and/or diseases.

Combine that with proper nutrition and sleep, and you’re going to set yourself up well for a lifetime of being happy, healthy, and strong!