Physical therapy could protect COVID-19 patients from pneumonia, researchers find

[ffr]

Yakima, WA - Exercise sounds like the last thing someone should do after testing positive for COVID-19, but physical therapists at UW Medicine say moving is critical to prevent one of the deadliest side effects of the disease.

The team worked on short exercise videos specifically for COVID-19 patients for use for several weeks. Most are simple movements like using a straw to blow on a cup and move it across a table, leg stretches at the end of the bed or chest-opening exercises.

"Once they get the diagnosis, often times, they’ve already had symptoms for 5-days so they’re hitting that critical window," says physical therapist Hilary Pentz.

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Moving in moderation, even coughing with control, can stop the virus from taking hold in the lungs.

One of the greatest fears from COVID-19 is it will develop into pneumonia.

“You will cough with these exercises, but it’s OK as long as that cough feels like it’s productive moving mucus,” says physical therapist Adrienne Kishimoto.

Exercising is the opposite of what we saw in hospitals in the early weeks of the outbreak, when many people were isolated in their hospital beds and homes. YIMA

[Hoyt]

1. Fortunately, we are learning how to treat CV19. Incentive spirometry has been used

for decades to help prevent pneumonia. They’ve also found lying on one’s stomach tends to help. Hopefully, clinicians will keep getting better.

[Midnight Writer]

2. My Dad had congestive heart failure, and his lungs would fill with fluid, making it hard to breathe.

One of the things we learned was keep him sitting up, let him sleep in a recliner with his chest higher than his feet, or even to walk around a little. It made it easier for him to breathe.

I was surprised to see these Covid patients in the hospital lying flat on their backs. We were told that is the worst position for someone with fluid in their lungs.

[Baked Potato]

3. When I had the appendix removed, the therapists were really pushing

me to do the deep breathing exercises with a plastic device. The device had a little ball in a tube you had to bring up by breathing in. It was all to open the lungs and prevent fluid buildup in the lungs after surgery. I can see that helping prevent pneumonia.