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2007/03/02, 07:51 AM
Does fitness make your immune system more efficient against colds? When i was a lot younger i was overweight and i got sick very often. But around age 13 and 14 i started exercising and i noticed that up to this age i get sick very rarely now. During this entire winter I only got sick once and when i do catch a cold, it never lasts long, usually the day after i feel much better. Im just wondering does Fitness affect your immune system as well?
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\"Gold medals aren\'t really made of gold. They\'re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.\" - Dan Gable
brachii
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2007/03/02, 08:29 AM
Yes it does! I will find a good article and paste it in here for you....
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If you doubt you can accomplish something, then you can\'t accomplish it. You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.
Rosalyn Carter
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2007/03/02, 08:32 AM
here is one part of an article on rehabilitation and oncology...
EXERCISE IMMUNOLOGY
The effect of physical activity and exercise (aerobic, endurance, and resistance) on the immune system and neuroimmune system has been an area of research interest. A brief summary of the results is presented here but a more detailed accounting of exercise and the immune system and future direction for studies is available.13,15
Depending on the intensity, activity, or exercise can enhance or suppress immune function. In essence, the immune system is enhanced during moderate exercise. Moreover, regular, moderate physical activity can prevent the neuroendocrine and detrimental immunologic effects of stress.4
In contrast to the beneficial effects of moderate exercise on the immune system, strenuous/intense exercise, or long-duration exercise, like marathon running is followed by impairment of the immune system. Intense exercise can suppress the concentration of lymphocytes, suppress natural killer cell activity, and leave the host open to microbial agents, especially viruses that can invade during this open window of opportunity and may lead to infections. Extreme and long-duration strenuous exercise appears to lead to deleterious oxidation of cellular macromolecules. The oxidation of DNA is important because the oxidative modifications of DNA bases are mutagenic and have been implicated in a variety of diseases including aging and cancer.18
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2007/03/02, 08:34 AM
From Medline plus - an online medical encyclopedia:
Suffering from yet another cold? Feeling fatigued all the time? The answer may be as easy as taking a daily walk or following a simple exercise routine a few times a week. Exercise not only helps your immune system fight off simple bacterial and viral infections, but it may actually decrease the incidence of illnesses such as heart disease, osteoporosis, and cancer.
How does exercise cause a boost in your immune system? There are several theories. First, physical activity may help by flushing bacteria out from the lungs (thus decreasing the chance of a cold, flu, or other airborne illness) and may flush out carcinogens (cancer-causing cells) by increasing waste output, such as urine and sweat.
Another possible reason is that exercise is responsible for sending antibodies and white blood cells (the body's defense cells) through the body at a quicker rate. As these antibodies or white blood cells circulate more rapidly, they could detect illnesses earlier than they might normally. The increased rate of circulating blood may also trigger the release of hormones that "warn" immune cells of intruding bacteria or viruses.
Furthermore, the temporary elevation of body temperature may inhibit bacterial growth, allowing the body to fight the infection more effectively. (This is similar to what happens when the body has a fever.) Finally, exercise slows down the release of stress-related hormones. Stress increases the chance of illness, so physical activity could reverse this factor.
While all this is good news for those who already exercise, do not "over-do" physical activity. People who already exercise regularly are cautioned not to develop too vigorous a workout program in the hopes of increasing the immunity benefits. Heavy, long-term exercise (such as marathon running and intense gym training) could actually decrease the amount of white blood cells circulating through the body and increase the presence of stress-related hormones.
Studies have shown that the people who benefit most from starting (and sticking to) an exercise program are those who go from a sedentary ("couch potato") lifestyle to a moderately energetic lifestyle. A moderate program can consist of daily 20 to 30 minute walks, going to the gym every other day, playing golf regularly, or bicycling with the children a few times a week.
So, while we don't know exactly how and why exercise increases your immunity to certain illnesses, we do know that exercise helps. It decreases our chances of developing heart disease and osteoporosis and may help us avoid those nagging coughs and colds. Exercise can help us feel better about ourselves, just by making us feel more energetic and healthier. So go ahead, take that aerobics class or go for that walk - and feel better and healthier for it.
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2007/03/02, 08:36 AM
Show menu | ScienceDaily home pageRSS feeds | Free newsletterSource: University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
Date: July 7, 2003
More on: Fitness, Immune System, Diseases and Conditions, Elder Care, Healthy Aging, Men's Health
Scientists Focusing On How Exercise Raises Immunity
Science Daily ? CHAMPAIGN, Ill.
-- An increasing number of doctors and other health experts have been encouraging older adults to rise from their recliners and go for a walk, a bike ride, a swim, or engage in just about any other form of physical activity as a defense against the potentially harmful health consequences of a sedentary lifestyle.
"Exercise is touted as a panacea for older adults," said Jeffrey Woods, a kinesiology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who noted that fitness programs are routinely recommended for people with various health problems -- from diabetes to heart disease.
Health experts generally recognize that this population benefits from physical fitness, he said. What they don't know is why exercise appears to have certain preventive and restorative health effects. Also unknown is what -- if any -- relationship exists between exercise and immune functioning.
"Despite the numerous benefits of exercise -- for example, improving cardiovascular and muscular fitness -- we know very little about how exercise affects the immune systems of older adults," Woods said. "Good, bad or indifferent, this information could have important public health consequences for our aging population." For that reason, Woods and colleagues in the university's kinesiology department are conducting research that seeks to establish the link between exercise training and immune function. The field, he said, is still in its infancy, with Illinois researchers among those who are defining it.
"Our laboratory is using both animal and human models to address the extent to which exercise affects immune functioning and susceptibility to infectious disease in older populations," Woods said. "We have obtained some exciting preliminary data in mice that suggest that moderate exercise or training may boost some immune function measures and reduce mortality caused by influenza. While we don't have corollary evidence yet in people, we are in the midst of conducting a large clinical exercise trial in older adults, funded by the National Institute on Aging, that will provide definitive evidence as to whether moderate exercise training influences immune function."
In the meantime, results of one study conducted in Woods' lab, published in the current online edition of the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, indicates that exercise training increases the ratio of naïve T cells to memory T cells in the spleens of older mice. The finding is potentially significant, he said, because, on this measure, "we turn old mice into young mice." When people and animals age, he explained, the thymus, which produces naïve T lymphocytes, shrinks, thus producing fewer naïve cells. "This is one reason that older people/animals have trouble responding to new environmental pathogens."
And with the recent appearance of so many new environmental pathogens -- from West Nile Virus to SARS and monkeypox -- Woods said the ability to boost the immune systems of the elderly, who are among the populations most at risk from infection, is a worthy goal.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign.
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2007/03/02, 09:40 AM
Thank you asimmer, this article is very informative.
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\"Gold medals aren\'t really made of gold. They\'re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.\" - Dan Gable
brachii
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2007/10/04, 10:15 AM
:dumbbell: I have Systemic Lupus and one of the best things that I did for myself and my family was to get a trainer and get serious about working out. I started out really slow not knowing how everything would go but it has been a wonderful journey. I suffer from extreme fatigue and this has been very helpful. Hardest part was when I first began I was even more tired but as all the bad stuff was leaving my body the better I felt and feel. I still have issues and will always with SLE but I at least have a fighting chance with taking better care of my body and it sets a good example for my daughter. As a matter of fact she is 10 yrs. old and has a membership at the gym my husband and I belong to and she goes with us and takes the clasess, so it has become a family thing. BTW not every 10 yr is ready nor is every gym receptive. My daughter is an athlete and there are precautions taken.
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