Status: 03/21/2021 10:05 p.m.
Tens of thousands still suffer from the consequences weeks after a corona disease. Can athletes protect themselves from long covid? And what is essential for a safe return to training?
It almost sounds a little harmless: Long Covid. The long-term effects of an infection with the new type of coronavirus also affect supposedly fit and resilient athletes. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), a good 2.5 million people in Germany have been shown to have been infected with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic – and are generally considered to have recovered. But are they also healthy? The symptoms are varied, from latent fatigue and a lack of performance to serious organ damage. The lungs and heart are particularly affected, possibly over the long term, which can sometimes even end sporting careers abruptly. “Anyone who has a functional limitation is actually threatened with relegation from the Champions League to the regional league,” says Klaus Rabe, medical director of the lung clinic in Großhansdorf in Schleswig-Holstein.
Tens of thousands with long-term consequences
“We are fighting against a disease whose effects we know, but which we cannot make visible with our current methods,” says Tobias Welte, who is head of the post-Covid outpatient clinic at the Hannover Medical School, the NDR. The pulmonology professor estimates that one percent of those infected suffer from long-term effects. So at least 25,000 people in Germany alone. Other scientists reckon with up to ten percent. Women are more often affected than men, which is “worth mentioning because the overall risk of dying from Covid-19 is significantly higher for men than for women,” said Welte.
Warning of being overwhelmed
According to the Long Covid expert, the greatest danger for active people and amateur athletes is “that they try to improve their performance too quickly after the illness”. Because, unlike most top athletes, they are not regularly and intensively examined, which means that abnormalities can remain hidden. Welte: “In fact, we have seen the most severe relapses in the long-covid symptoms in those who overwhelmed themselves too early.” Everyone should be warned and get an intensive medical examination before the so-called “return to sport”.
Heart rate as an indicator
If they are not symptomatic, athletes could start again with light weight training. “But,” says Welte, “the emphasis is on structure.” If you have no symptoms at all, you should use the heart rate as a control parameter. “As long as the heart rate is still increased, increasing performance too quickly is not recommended.” An often underestimated warning signal for recreational athletes – actually a matter of course for professionals.
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