Covid-19 most harmful to the heart: what changes for athletes

• track and field

A research conducted by Ziyad Al-Aly, an epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, focused on the effects of Covid on the circulatory system after the acute phase of the virus. Based on 150,000 people recovered from Covid-19 in relation to the uninfected and a pre-pandemic control group, those who contracted the disease faced greater risks for 20 cardiovascular conditions in the year following the infection.

According to Al-Aly, the findings suggest Covid-19 could permanently alter the health of some people. Researcher Sarah Wulf Hanson of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation of the University of Washington in Seattle also used data from the Al-Aly study, noting that in 2020, complications after the disease caused 12,000 strokes and 44,000.

more heart attacks in the United States: numbers increased to 18,000 and 66,000 in 2021. Complications that could also occur in people who appear to have fully recovered from a mild infection, as well as in people hospitalized with coronavirus, where an increased risk of many conditions has been observed: + 8% heart attack rate and + 247% of that of cardiac inflammation.

Covid-19 most harmful to the heart: what changes for athletes

Another research conducted on data from the British health system showed that people who had been hospitalized with Covid-19 were about three times more likely than non-infected people to face serious cardiovascular problems.

Clearly in subjects who undergo prolonged exertion such as athletes, this situation will need to be monitored to see the long-term effects on athletes who have contracted the virus. In the last two years there have been many premature deaths of athletes, often very young, almost always due to diseases that have affected the cardiovascular system.

Athletes who contract the covid will undergo cardiovascular screening, which is already very thorough in many countries, to avert any possible repercussions for those who have contracted the virus. In the coming months will come firther research to evaluate the trend.