Perhaps you remember the old aphorism “Exercise is the best medicine.” For at least the past 40 years, regular exercise has been universally recognized as being a healthful thing. Many people such as the late Jack LaLanne, who died at age 96, have been promoting exercise much longer than that. It’s clear that regular exercise protects people from many of the impairments that otherwise seem to be an inevitable consequence of aging.

So far, exercise has not completely protected anyone from those impairments, but, as in Mr. LaLanne’s case, it has postponed functional decline by years, or even decades. Might exercise also have a protective effect against COVID-19? Recent research conducted at the University of Virginia suggests that it does.

What is the mechanism by which exercise postpones the debility that comes with aging? A recent paper by Yan and Spaulding of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, describes how exercise affects the production of extra-cellular superoxide dismutase (EcSOD) a powerful antioxidant. Exercise, specifically endurance exercise, increases your body’s production of EcSOD.

Oxidative stress is at the root of many maladies that affect all living things, including lab mice, lab rats, and human beings. Many experiments, carried out by many different researchers, have shown the physical decline of organisms, as chemical compounds known as free radicals or reactive oxygen species (ROS) build up in the body. EcSOD is your body’s first line of defense against ROS, and its production is increased by endurance exercise. This makes sense because endurance exercise produces ROS. In response, your body produces EcSOD, and it produces an excess beyond what is needed to deal with the ROS generated by your exercise. The excess EcSOD goes to work sopping up the ROS that you have generated just by the normal metabolism of staying alive.

The reduction in oxidative stress caused by increased levels of EcSOD improves health in a multitude of ways:

• It reduces the muscle wasting that accompanies many chronic diseases, such as cancer, sepsis, diabetes, and COPD
• It ameliorates hypertension, atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, pulmonary disease, and chronic heart failure
• It ameliorates acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). ARDS has a mortality rate of about 40%, and, among other causes, can be brought on by a SARS-CoV-2 infection
• Oxidative stress in the lungs can bring on COPD, which can be moderated by EcSOD
• Kidney injury and kidney disease are more likely and more severe in subjects with reduced levels of EcSOD
• Osteoarthritis of joints has been found to be associated with reduced levels of EcSOD in the joint fluid and cartilage of patients

EcSOD may be effective as a preventative or a therapy for any of the above-named conditions. Clearly more work is needed to determine dosage and method of application. However, what can be done right away, without any questions about efficacy or possible side effects, is to institute a program of regular endurance exercise, to produce EcSOD naturally. As a bonus, you might even enter the zone known as the runner’s high.

BIO:

Allen G. Taylor is a 40-year veteran of the computer industry and the author of over 40 books, including Develop Microsoft HoloLens Apps Now, Get Fit with Apple Watch, Cruise for Free, SQL For Dummies, 9th Edition, Crystal Reports 2008 For Dummies, Database Development For Dummies, Access Power Programming with VBA, and SQL All-In-One For Dummies, Third Edition. He lectures internationally on astronomy, databases, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He also teaches database development and Crystal Reports through a leading online education provider. For the latest news on Allen’s activities, check out his blog at wwwallengtaylor.com or contact him at allen.taylor@ieee.org.