Exercise and the immune system.
From time to time, humanity faces biological threats. Throughout history, it has faced pandemics from various viruses and bacteria, such as influenza, plague, typhus, smallpox and others. In all of these, nature applies the merciless rule “the strongest and most adaptable survive”. Our immune system will determine the strength and adaptability of our species. This is a network of cells, tissues and organs that work together to deal with whatever harmful invades our body. There are scientific studies that show that exercise helps stimulate the immune system.
The American College of Exercise Medicine and the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that adults should have moderate-intensity aerobic exercise for at least 30 minutes 5 times a week or vigorous aerobic exercise for 20 minutes 3 times a week. Every adult should also perform strength training (intermittent with moderate intensity and short breaks) at least 2 times a week. The intensity in this training can come from weights/external resistance or from our own body weight, e.g. pilates, calisthenics, power yoga, aerial, poledancing.
Any training with these characteristics activates the army of immune cells to seek out and deal with invaders in our body. Cardiorespiratory exercise particularly helps this defense of the body as it increases the rate of movement of immune cells. In addition, it has been shown that regular exercise improves the immune response to vaccination, chronic inflammation and helps improve various types of cancer, HIV, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cognitive disabilities (e.g. dementia). This does not mean that exercise guarantees the destruction of invaders! However, it increases the chances of this.
The more, the merrier? Of course not! The interval is an important part of the workout. The body needs rest to achieve the necessary adjustments to the stimulus (i.e., exercise) that was given to it. Research shows that frequent intense exercise can weaken the immune system. We may often need to “let it go” in the gym, but if we do this often, we will end up with a weakened body prone to injuries and infections.
Exercise in every case? Not so! When the body is dealing with a simple cold or an infection, forcing exercise on it is not a good idea. Each of our health conditions is unique and each time we face one we may need to ask our doctor whether he advises us to exercise or not. A simple rule is that you do not exercise when you have a fever or high blood pressure. In a simple cold, everything shows in the first 10 minutes of mild exercise – in the warm-up. If we start to feel better, we continue, if it “doesn’t work” at all, we stop.
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