Geriatric syndromes, including sarcopenia and frailty, are necessarily on the agenda - as the mortality rate of COVID-19 is higher in the elderly [1]. Herein, sarcopenia is defined as age-related loss of muscle mass and function, and frailty as multi-system impairment related with increased vulnerability to stressors [2]. Of note, sarcopenia is an essential component of physical frailty; therefore they are like the two sides of the same coin [2]. Both are associated with hospitalization, increased disability, and even mortality. Yet, frail patients are at increased risk of infectious diseases due to the increased inflammatory condition and significant immune system changes e.g. impaired proliferation of peripheral mononuclear cells and upregulated monocyte expression [3]. Likewise, the cytokine storm in COVID-19 patients is known to have poor prognosis due to the increased inflammatory response [4].
In short, we simply underscore that preventive measures for frailty/sarcopenia i.e. exercise, nutrition and vitamin (D) supplementation can fortify the fight against COVID-19 as well [5].
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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