The research was carried out with 1,095 volunteers and those who remained physically active presented better response to the immunizing

Staying physically active may be a strategy to boost the immune response induced by vaccines against covid-19. This is the conclusion of a study done with 1,095 volunteers by USP researchers and collaborators. The data was released on August 9, 2021, on the Research Square platform, still without peer review.

The benefit provided by physical activity was observed mainly among participants who remained active for at least 150 minutes a week and did not present sedentary behavior, that is, who did not spend more than eight hours a day sitting or lying down. “Active time” is considered both that dedicated to exercise and other leisure activities (walking, running, dancing, swimming, walking the dog, etc.), as well as domestic activities (cleaning the house, taking care of the garden, washing clothes in hand), to work (carrying weights, carrying out repairs) and to routine commuting (walking or cycling to work, the supermarket or school, for example). The level of physical activity was measured through phone calls. Volunteers who reported at least 150 minutes of semantic activities were considered “active”, adding up the various necessary domains.

“A person who runs for an hour every day and spends the rest of the time sitting in front of a screen is considered and sedentary at the same time. We combined these two different concepts in our analysis”, explains Bruno Gualano, Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at USP and first author of the article. “When we look at the data, we clearly see that they form a 'staircase': at the top, with the best vaccine response, are the non-sedentary assets. Following, sworn active and sedentary requirements. Lastly, the inactive and also sedentary ones”, he says.

All research participants were immunized with CoronaVac between February and March 2021. Blood samples for analysis were collected soon after the application of the second dose, as well as 28 and 69 days later. The quality of the vaccine response was evaluated through several laboratory tests, the main ones being those that measure the total production of against sars-cov-2 (total IgG) and the specific amount of neutralizing agents (NAb) - that adequate to prevent entry of virus in human cell.

Read on at: https://jornal.usp.br/ciencias/pessoas-ativas-respondem-melhor-a-vacina-contra-a-covid-19/