How physical activity can make 60 the new 40 – and beat Covid-19

In this podcast, BizNews editor-in-chief Alec Hogg talks to Gareth Friedlander, deputy CEO of Discovery Life, and Dr Maritha van der Walt, Discovery Life's chief medical officer. Based on data starting to come in about claims related to Covid-19, Friedlander and Van der Walt share insights about the categories of people who are more likely to suffer severe symptoms if infected with Covid-19, and they share lifestyle advice to minimise the chances of suffering severe Covid-19 symptoms should you be infected. It turns out that high physical activity can be a critical factor in preparing your body to deal with the coronavirus. It's known that the older you are, the more at risk you are, but, says Friedlander, "if you take a 40 year old who's doing no physical activity and a 60 year old who's doing high physical activity – we actually see the exact same probability of admission". And people should not be fooled into thinking that it's only the people with underlying conditions who are dying from this disease. – Nadya Swart

Gareth Friedlander is the deputy CEO of Discovery Life and also on the call is Maritha van der Walt who's the chief medical officer of Discovery Life. Good to have the two of you here together. With Covid-19 having hit the country, are you seeing excess deaths coming as a consequence of this? 

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