Is there a link between exercise and immunity?
Do you guys listen to the Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone podcasts? I was first introduced to it through Perfect in our Imperfections and I am so happy I found it. I love to listen to it when I am working out. I get a lot of food for thought from it.
They have a segment called “Blogger News” where you can share anything that you find noteworthy. I actually shared some blogger news in their most recent podcast (it’s at the 39:10 mark).
And what was my blogger news? Well, admittedly, it’s not glamorous in nature, but something I am excited about – that I haven’t gotten sick at all this winter.
I know. What is the big deal and who cares? Well, this is the first winter I have eaten healthy and exercised consistently and not had one cold… so I have to imagine those three things are related!
I went to my go-to source, the Well blog on the New York Times, to look for information on how physical activity affects immunity and found some interesting information*:
- The risk of catching a cold or the flu drop if you exercise “moderately,” but if you exercise “intensely”** or for a prolonged period of time, the risk that you will catch a cold or the flu surpasses the risk of a sedentary person.
- Intense workouts and racing suppress the body’s immune response for a period of time immediately after you’ve finished exercising and that the longer the duration and the more intense the exercise, the longer the temporary period of immunosuppression lasts — anything from a few hours to a few days has been suggested.
- Once you’ve caught a bug, intense exercise can make the symptoms and severity worse. Viruses evoke an increase in T1-type helper immune cells which induce inflammation and are the body’s first line of defense against the virus. But if the inflammation continues for too long, the T1-helper cells become counterproductive and risk harming the host. The body’s immune system increases another type of immune cell, T2-helper cells, which produce mostly an anti-inflammatory immune response. In studies, moderate exercise suppressed T1 and increased T2 just a little bit, but intense or prolonged exercise may suppress T1 too much, which could shut down that line of defense before it has completed its work.
- Overall, you should listen to your body and be prudent in your exercise decisions. In general, moderate exercise, such as a leisurely jog or walk, may prop up your immune response and lessen the duration and severity of a mild infection, but be honest about your condition. If you don’t feel well, especially if you have fever or body aches, stop daily exercise until you are recovered. It is okay to exercise if you have a simple head cold or congestion — in fact, it may improve the he way you feel. Just would avoid heavy, prolonged exercise with a head cold, since it can unbalance that important T1 and T2-helper cell response.
In your personal experience, have you noticed any relationship between the amount and intensity of your exercise routine and immunity? Do you think more is involved? Or do you think it is completely random?
*Note, I hate that they test this stuff on mice. WTF? They mention studies done on both mice and humans. Can’t we just skip the mice studies? How similar are our immune systems? Ugh. This is just the vegan in me speaking out.
**Although definitions of intense exercise vary among researchers, most define it as a workout or race of an hour or more during which your heart rate and respiration soar and you feel as if you are working hard.
Themocracy
I’ve noticed since I’ve started running I rarely get sick. But when I do it knocks me out but I recover quicker (usually)!
And I know it’s tough to see studies done on mice and other animals but it’s a necessary evil. The bodies have similarities! Granted some trials are unfair but there are standards and without research on both animals and humans there would be no new medicine/discovery. I could go on but won’t 🙂
I wonder if most runners would say the same thing! 🙂
In my personal opinion, animal testing, for medicine or especially household items, and cosmetics will never be necessary but always be evil. They just do awful things to these animals. Even in the studies I linked to, they exhausted them then exposed them to a virus to see how many died. I just don’t think the animals lives are ours to play with. Especially for stuff like this, where I don’t think the research can really 100% correlate to a human. Of course, I second guess all studies though (the sampling is never large enough, etc).
Until a couple weeks ago when I STOPPED running due to injury, it had been 5+ years since I’d been sick. I do agree that intense exercise can suppress the immune system but overall I see my sedentary friends getting sick way more often.
I had a slight cold this winter but it was less severe and I recovered from it much faster than the person who gave it to me.
Also, my boyfriend had a horrible flu and I managed to not catch it even though I helped care for him. Not sure if my exercise had any impact on that one, but I believe it did in the case of my cold.
Until I had a lull in my running this winter, I did not get sick. Last year, when I was not working our religiously, I got sick SEVERAL TIMES!! I managed to avoid a variety of colds and flu up until very rcently!! Unfortunately, I got wallopped this go around, but its almost at the end!
You posted this at exactly the perfect time for me. The past few days I have skipped getting up and walking/running on the treadmill because I have this awful cold. I was feeling lazy and like I should be getting up anyway until I read this. So thank you!
I think the year I was training the hardest for my triathlons I got sick the most. EXCEPT I can not count that because that is also the year I ended up diagnosed with cancer. Who knows if it was the extra exercise or the cancer making me get sick more.
Tori, I hope you feel better soon! Rest! You need to!
It would be interesting to see a study done on triathletes to see their sickness rates!
Yes yes yes! The first time I noticed this was the winter cold season of 08-09. I had been working out steadily for about 6 months by that point and eating really well, no cold at all. Same for this year! Hooray! Occasionally I have been stuffed up but it honestly just lasted a day and didn’t keep me down. Whoo!
I workout just about everyday and usually pretty intensely (except now that pregnancy has me exhausted and winded!). I can not remember the last time I was sick. It’s been years! And up until this year, I worked in schools where I was exposed to all sorts of germs. If I could survive without getting sick in that environment, I think I am on to something!
This is the first year my sickness was only a week, not 3-6 weeks (yes, it seriously used to be that long). I attribute the decrease to a number of factors. (1) Taking a Vitamin D supplement during the winter months helps reduce risk of getting sick. (2) Once I got sick, I gave myself complete rest. No workouts. Staying home from work. Sleeping all day. (3) I also used Zycam once I got sick. I think these three factors definitely helped in containing how long I was sick.
This is actually the first winter I can remember where I have not been majorly sick too. I thought about attributing it to more regular workouts… but I also wasn’t going out to work November-February which is probably a more likely factor for me. Less exposure to germs 🙂
I agree though I got a cold this winter.. Does that mean that I’m not healthy enough ;)?
But why on earth did they test that on mice?? Those poor babies… 🙁
They are not the only ones testing on mice. I am pretty sure that mice are not counted in the US when they say how many animals are used for experiments so there are probably millions of them. What is research like over there?
I absolutely agree with this! I’m a triathlete and I eat extremely healthy with whole, natural foods and I rarely get sick. However, last JUNE I got the flu right after a triathlon at Lake Delevan. It was brutal – especially since it was summer time! I think the race stressed my body out and so I got sick! I’m more careful now…I start loading the Vit. C and other vitamins before races. I think that helps…
Hi Jen! Thanks for visiting! Are you a blogger as well?
I wonder what the difference is between the sickness rates of triathletes and marathoners! And people who do iron mans! It would be interesting to see a study on that and really find out how “intense” of exercise affects you!
I have to agree with the article. While I have fallen off the gym bandwagon, I’ve do walk the dogs at least three time a day. So I get some moderate exercise daily. I did get a nasty cold but noticed that the duration was a lot shorter. I took a day “off” one day and just rested and that does help.
I can’t imagine working out when I feel miserable though.
I don’t know what to make of that article; I’m very fortunate in that I rarely get sick. I was always like that, no matter how or what I eat and whether or not I exercise! Just like pretty much everything else, I suppose it depends on the individual.
<3 <3
I have definitely noticed that I get sick less now that I exercise consistently. I have some underlying conditions so I used to get sick about every 3 months. It is a really nice benefit of exercise.
YES! Thanks for posting this! I had been wondering if the two were related because every time I’ve felt like I might be coming down with something since I started exercising, I never got sick! I would take a day or two off from exercise to make sure I was giving my body time to heal but I definitely have seen a positive change in my immune system since I’ve started being more active. Love it! 🙂
I totally agree with that. Until I got sick the other week, I hadn’t been really truly sick sick in ages. The only problem was, it felt way WORSE being sick since it had been so long.
I think being healthy in general allows your body to fight off mild illnesses much quicker. I rarely catch colds and when I do I find that they are no where near as intense as other people’s. However, I also subscribe to the belief that if you think you’re getting a cold and you tell yourself you’re not going to get sick then you’re more likely to NOT get sick. A mind over matter kind of thing.
yeah i just read in a magazine that more exercise = fewer sick days. prolly hard to pin down and i’m sure it depends on the person and the exercise. just the thought of being in gyms all the time makes me think of germs. outdoor exercise is prolly the best!!!! but yeah LONGGGG runs like 2 hrs can def run you down and make your system weaker. water and vit c!!!!!
I am superstitious about saying (or writing) these things out loud, but I didn’t get sick at all this winter (I’m not counting the mild sinus infection I had because I always get them all times of the year). I think taking care of myself had a lot to do with it — not only eating well and exercising regularly, but getting enough sleep. I need a lot of sleep, always have, and I force myself to slow down if I feel something coming on. I almost always feel better the next day.
I think sleep is a HUGE factor as well. I am actually surprised I haven’t gotten sick, despite the things I mentioned, because I never get much sleep!
People who are physically more healthy and have better eating habits don’t get sick as often. My mother-in-law doesn’t exercise and has a desk job. She could catch a cold from someone a mile away. I don’t exercise as much as I should, but I wash my hands a million and seven times a day and have been lucky enough to not get sick this winter. [[knock on wood!]]
Ever since I was little, Ive been the one person in my family who never gets sick. Ive always credited the fact that Ive always eaten my vegetables. My brother ate crap, and he was always sick. So I dont see much difference, but thats just me. It makes perfect sense why exercising would make a difference though.
Hm, I think people who exercise are probably more likely to eat better, so their overall health may be better, which would help immunity. That was a long sentence. It’s kind of like that thing about how people who floss live longer. I don’t know if the link is causal. It’s probably that people who floss are more attentive to health in general. That said, I don’t see how exercise can really hurt, as long as there are no injuries and things. My immunity has always been really good. I think it’s genetic though. Nobody in my family really gets sick. Knock on wood!
I definitely see what Wellblog is talking about. This winter I definitely picked up the intensity of my workouts from the past and I got sick a lot more than usual. I think I was sick almost the entire winter (or it felt like it). However, in the past when I get sick I usually work out lightly and it goes away in a snap. This winter I was just so stuck on my training plan that I didn’t let up and I suffered because of it.
I haven’t paid much attention, I guess. I random pet pieve of mine is when people ask me, “I’m sick, should I workout?”. My response is always, “Do you FEEL like you want to workout? If so, go for it. If not, listen to your body and pass on the workout.” Just like feeling full, we have to put the trust in our bodies and what they communicate to us.
i have found if i workout too much i get sick. i have to be careful! but if i work out a medium amount and get lots of sleep i am good. 🙂
I was actually thinking this same thing (until this morning when I woke up with a scratchy throat) that either excercise or my drastic increase in Green Smoothies and the incorporation of lots of fruits and veggies into my diet is doing something for me. I have had NUMBEROUS opportunities to get sick this season as everyone in my family was suffering from just about everything but I managed to get through it without a sick day. I am going to keep doing what I am doing am hope I surpass another cold.
i hardly ever exercise when i’m sick, even with a cold. it’s not a thing of whether it’s good for me or not, really…just a matter of i don’t feel like exercising when i’m sick!
i think that if you exercise moderately, you are definitely a little resistant to colds and such.
I have ran before when I was feeling a bit under the weather and had different reactions. One time, my nose cleared right up and it actually made my congestion go away for a couple hours. Another time, I felt like I couldn’t breathe and I had to walk.
I think it just had to do with what type of sickness I had. With the first situation, it was more like just a cold. With the second, I had a sinus infection that had gotten so bad it was causing me eye pain. (I didn’t realize how sick I was until the eye doctor gave me a prescription for sinus infection medicine and it cleared everything up!)
ok the mice is sad but want to know something sadDER? probably not, but i’m going to telly ou anyway! in my clinical psych class our prof told us that scientists gave kittens zolpidem (ambien) and discovered that it prevented their visual cortexes from developing, so they were a bunch of blind doped up cats! awful! and the info isn’t even being used for the good of humans…my doc still prescribes it for me lol!
There are so many disgusting experiments being done on companion animals… it surprises me. What kind of person is able to do this to an animal? I suppose you become immune to it… kind of like how they train soldiers to kill. This comic kind of made me feel better. It is good to know people are fighting this unnecessary cruelty!
I definitely think working out helps prevent sickness! Although I think some of it is just our immune systems – you know those people that are sick, like 4 times a year?! I think I do have a good immune system (from being around kids a lot), but I really only get one or two colds a year, and that’s it. I think when I’ve overdone exercise in the past, my immune system has been compromised (combined with a lack of sleep) and I definitely am more likely to get sick then!
Since I started running, I rarely get sick and if I do, it clears up quickly. However, after training for a marathon and running it, I normally get sick within a couple days or a week. For the most part exercise helps my immune system, but with the intensity of a marathon, I think your body is depleted so much it has a hard time flighting anything off.
Matt Damon
I totally agree that exercise helps with immunity. However, I’ve actually found that a sudden decrease in activity leads to a drop in immunity as well.