(ORDO NEWS) — Regular exercise is good for your immune system – some research suggests it may even reduce your risk of getting upper respiratory infections like the common cold. Even 30 minutes of moderate exercise five times a week is enough to achieve positive results.
Because exercise is good for our immune system, some people might think that exercising when you’re sick can help you sweat. Unfortunately, when it comes to the common cold, there is no evidence that exercising while you are sick can shorten the duration of the illness or make it less severe.
There are several reasons why exercise is good for our immune system.
The first can be partly explained by the hormones that are released during exercise. They are called catecholamines – better known to people as adrenaline and norepinephrine.
These hormones play an important role in the functioning of our immune system, causing the rapid release of important immune cells that help detect the presence of viruses or other pathogens in the body.
They also increase the amount of movement of immune cells between the blood and tissues, which is important in helping immune cells detect and prevent diseases caused by viruses or other pathogens. Research shows that exercise is one way to increase the levels of these important hormones in our body.
When we exercise, it also increases blood flow to help our body cope with increased stress. This increased blood flow puts more stress on the blood vessels, which leads to the release of specific immune cells called natural killer cells and T cells, which can lie dormant on the walls of the blood vessels. Natural killer cells and T cells play an important role in the destruction of cells infected with the virus.
Exercise can help fight infection in other ways.
For example, older people who exercise regularly for a month have faster healing of skin wounds compared to a non-athletic control group. This rapid healing process reduces the risk of viruses and bacteria entering the body through skin wounds.
All of these mechanisms combined can improve our immune system and reduce our risk of contracting viral infections. You don’t have to be a regular at the gym to see the benefits.
Three studies found that when people who weren’t exercising began regularly brisk walking for 40-45 minutes five days a week, they had a 40-50 percent reduction in the number of days they had upper respiratory tract infections compared to with the control group.
Despite the benefits of exercise for the immune system, it’s hard to say whether exercising during a cold will help you get over the illness faster than if you didn’t exercise.
There are currently no studies that have examined this question, mainly because of how difficult it is to conduct such a study – mainly because some participants must be intentionally infected with the virus in order to compare whether exercise affects the body. This would not only be difficult to do, but also unethical.
So, since exercise is good for the immune system, why doesn’t exercise during illness improve the immune system’s response to infection?
It is important to remember that exercise can cause stress in the body. This stress, in turn, can make immune cells less able to respond to pathogens. In part, this may be due to the fact that during exercise, the body requires more oxygen and stored energy (in the form of glucose), which is also needed by immune cells to fight the virus.
If the body is fighting a pre-existing infection and then subjected to exercise-induced stress, it may not benefit the immune response.
But while there is currently no evidence that exercising during a cold can help you get over it faster, that doesn’t mean you can’t exercise if you want to.
If your symptoms are mostly above the neck (such as a runny nose or nasal congestion), start by exercising at a lower intensity than usual to see how you feel. If you feel normal, you can gradually increase the intensity.
If exercise makes you feel worse, take a break. It is also not recommended to exercise if you have a fever, aching muscles, or vomiting.
If you do want to exercise when you are sick, be careful, especially if you are working out around other people. Since colds are contagious, it is better not to go to the gym, but to work out in the fresh air or at home, so as not to spread the infection.
Regular exercise is a great way to prepare your immune system to fight off various types of infections, including the common cold and possibly even COVID-19. But don’t feel obligated to exercise if you’re sick.
Sometimes the best remedy for a cold is rest, drinking water, and taking pain medication if necessary. Conversation
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