Ladies who adopted most facets of a wholesome way of life, together with wholesome physique weight, not smoking, common train, ample sleep, prime quality weight loss program, and reasonable alcohol consumption, had about half the chance of lengthy COVID in contrast with girls with none wholesome way of life elements, in line with a research led by Harvard T.H. Chan College of Public Well being.

With ongoing waves of COVID-19, lengthy COVID has created a severe public well being burden. Our findings increase the chance that adopting extra wholesome behaviors could scale back the chance of creating lengthy COVID.”

Andrea Roberts, senior analysis scientist within the Division of Environmental Well being and senior creator of the research

The research seems on-line February 6, 2023, in JAMA Inside Drugs.

It is estimated that 8-23 million People endure from lengthy COVID, which is outlined as having COVID-19 signs 4 weeks or extra after preliminary SARS-CoV-2 an infection. Signs can embody fatigue, fever, and a wide range of respiratory, coronary heart, neurological, and digestive signs.

The researchers analyzed information from greater than 32,000 feminine nurses within the Nurses’ Well being Research II, who reported on way of life in 2015 and 2017 and reported historical past of SARS-CoV-2 an infection from April 2020 to November 2021.

Throughout that point, greater than 1,900 contributors contracted COVID-19. Amongst these, 44% developed lengthy COVID. In comparison with girls with none wholesome way of life elements, these with 5 or 6 had 49% decrease danger of lengthy COVID. Among the many six way of life elements, sustaining a wholesome physique weight and getting ample sleep (seven to 9 hours each day) have been those most strongly related to decrease danger of lengthy COVID. The outcomes additionally confirmed that, even amongst girls who developed lengthy COVID, these with a more healthy pre-infection way of life had 30% decrease danger of getting signs that interfered with their each day life.

The authors famous that one doable rationalization for the associations they noticed is that, based mostly on prior analysis, an unhealthy way of life is related to elevated danger of continual irritation and immune dysregulation, which have been linked with elevated danger of lengthy COVID.

“Prior to now a long time, scientists have collected proof that wholesome way of life is nice for total well being. Nonetheless, within the U.S. for instance, 70% of the inhabitants don’t have a wholesome physique weight and 30% don’t sleep sufficient. Findings from this research counsel that easy way of life modifications, resembling having ample sleep, could also be useful for the prevention of lengthy COVID,” stated lead creator Siwen Wang, analysis fellow within the Division of Diet.

Different Harvard Chan College authors included Yanping Li, Yiyang Yue, Changzhen Yuan, Jorge Chavarro, and Shilpa Bhupathiraju.