Beneficios de la práctica regular de actividad física y sus efectos sobre la salud para enfrentar la pandemia por Covid-19: una revisión sistemática

The aim of this study was to determine the importance of the practice of physical activity (PA) during the time of social isolation and confinement, and its positive effects on physical and mental health consequences caused by COVID-19. For this purpose, a systematic review of the literature available in specialized databases PUBMED, SCIELO, EBSCO and OVID was carried out, which was adjusted to the guidelines framed in the PRISMA methodology. Search equations were defined under the terms MESH: physical activity, exercise, sport, covid 19, sars cov 2 and using Boolean characters AND and OR. With these equations we searched for articles published between February and May 2020, retrieving 53 records in total and including in the final review 16 of them that met all the defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results suggest that the regular practice of PA could be an important tool to combat the adverse effects caused on the organism by COVID-19 infection because: a) it improves the immune system response to a possible COVID-19 infection; b) it increases the action of the ECA2-Ang.1,7- Rec.Mas. axis, which favors anti-inflammatory and antithrombotic stages and decreases oxidative stress; c) decreases the incidence or helps in the control of the main comorbidities that predispose to the development of more severe symptoms and increase the risk of mortality in the face of COVID-19 infection. With these findings we conclude that the regular practice of PA is necessary to face the current pandemic situation, since it not only helps to maintain good physical and mental health during the period of social isolation and confinement, but also seems to offer a better response to COVID-19 infection, reducing the risk of mortality.