DEFEATING THE VIRAL ENEMY
Press-ups. Push-ups. Pullups. Handstands. Resistance bands. Whichever way you want to work your arms, do it before getting your Covid shots, says Dr Michael Mosley, the UK-based author of books about improving health through diet. “I did some press-ups before each of my jabs. Yes, really! A study shows that people who exercised their arms before a flu jab developed a stronger immune response.”
Mosley, a trained medical doctor, and his GP wife Clare Bailey recently had the second of their two Oxford-AstraZeneca jabs (a vaccine not used so far in New Zealand). “I had no side effects,” Mosley says. “Some people say AstraZeneca side effects can be a bit rough, but I know plenty of people who haven’t experienced any.”
With the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine – the only one currently being used in New Zealand – about one in 10 people will suffer some of the following short-term, mild to moderate side effects: tenderness or swelling where the injection has been administered, headache, muscle ache, joint pain, fatigue, a slight fever and diarrhoea. Yep, we all want to be one of the 90%.
Mosley, whose two adult sons contracted Covid and recovered well, has some advice that won’t reduce your risk of contracting Covid should there be an outbreak,
