The Potential of Exerkines in Women's COVID-19: A New Idea for a Better and More Accurate Understanding of the Mechanisms behind Physical Exercise

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Nov 24;19(23):15645. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192315645.

Abstract

The benefits of physical exercise are well-known, but there are still many questions regarding COVID-19. Chow et al.'s 2022 study, titled Exerkines and Disease, showed that a special focus on exerkines can help to better understand the underlying mechanisms of physical exercise and disease. Exerkines are a group of promising molecules that may underlie the beneficial effects of physical exercise in diseases. The idea of exerkines is to understand the effects of physical exercise on diseases better. Exerkines have a high potential for the treatment of diseases and, considering that, there is still no study of the importance of exerkines on the most dangerous disease in the world in recent years, COVID-19. This raises the fundamental question of whether exerkines have the potential to manage COVID-19. Most of the studies focused on the general changes in physical exercise in patients with COVID-19, both during the illness and after discharge from the hospital, and did not investigate the basic differences. A unique look at the management of COVID-19 by exerkines, especially in obese and overweight women who experience high severity of COVID-19 and whose recovery period is long after discharge from the hospital, can help to understand the basic mechanisms. In this review, we explore the potential of exerkines in COVID-19 by practicing physical exercise to provide compelling practice recommendations with new insights.

Keywords: Omicron; SARS-CoV-2 virus; aerobic exercise; coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); exerkines; females; physical activity; physical exercise; resistance training; women health.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19*
  • Exercise
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Obesity

Grants and funding

This research has received no external funding.