The important connection between Long COVID, exercise, and post‑exertional malaise
Dr Caroline Dalton, of the School of Biosciences and Chemistry, has spoken to New Scientist about Long COVID, exercise, and post‑exertional malaise.
Since Long COVID emerged as a recognised condition following the COVID‑19 pandemic, a growing body of research has explored how exercise may influence recovery. However, many studies do not sufficiently differentiate between groups based on the severity or subtype of Long COVID.
This distinction is particularly important when assessing post‑exertional malaise – a worsening of symptoms such as fatigue following physical exertion that is disproportionate to the level of activity. Post‑exertional malaise is thought to affect up to 80% of people with Long COVID, although its severity can vary depending on subtype. People with post-exertional malaise often find that exercise makes them feel worse not better so it is very important not to prescribe exercise as a treatment for this subgroup.
Caroline emphasises that Long Covid is an umbrella term, meaning that approaches which benefit one subgroup could be ineffective – or potentially harmful – for another, , “I think there can be no excuse for doing further trials on exercise that don’t make it explicitly clear that if it works, it only works for a subgroup of people and they need to be really carefully defined, and that any results that are presented should not generalise across the entire Long Covid population”