News Article

A Review by Dr. Zhen Yan Shows Support that Exercise can Prevent or Reduce the Severity of ARDS from COVID-19

A review by Zhen Yan of the University of Virginia School of Medicine showed that medical research findings strongly support the possibility that exercise can prevent or at least reduce the severity of ARDS, which affects between 3% and 17% of all patients with COVID-19.

Dr. Yan, the director of the Center for Skeletal Muscle Research at UVA`s Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center, compiled an in-depth review of existing medical research, including his own, looking at an antioxidant known as extracellular superoxide dismutase, or EcSOD. This potent antioxidant hunts down harmful free radicals, protecting our tissues and helping to prevent disease. Our muscles naturally make EcSOD, secreting it into the circulation to allow binding to other vital organs, but its production is enhanced by cardiovascular exercise.

Dr. Zhen Yan of the CVRC (Photo by Dan Addison, University Communications)