Exercise has many demonstrated health benefits, from lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease to increasing your mood — and even a tougher immune system. There are many theories about how exercise boosts the immune system.
The idea of boosting your immunity is very enticing. However, the ability to do so has proved to be elusive for a number of different reasons.
The immune system is just that. It is a system and not a single entity. In order to function well, it requires balance and harmony. There is still a lot more that researchers don’t know about the intricacies as well as connections of the immune response. For now, there are no scientifically established direct links between lifestyle and improved immune function.
However, that doesn’t mean the consequences of lifestyle on the immune system aren’t interesting and shouldn’t be studied. Researchers are studying the impacts of diet, exercise, age, psychological stress in addition to other issues on the immune response, both in animals as well as in humans.
In the meantime, overall healthy-living strategies make sense as they likely help immune function and they come with other proven health benefits.
Exercise Boosts Immunity And Helps To Fight Off Infections
Exercise benefits your immune system in many different ways. It can do the following:
- Boost blood flow,
- Assist with clearing bacteria out of your airways,
- Cause a brief elevation in body temperature which may be protective,
- Strengthen antibodies in order to help fight infection, as well as
- Lessen stress
Exercise also results in immune cells being more effective. Regular exercise lowers inflammation, so allowing the immune system in order to perform better. While acute inflammation – in response to an injury – is part of a healthy immune system, chronic inflammation may slow down the immune system.
Regular exercise improves the immune response and, in addition, improves immune markers. For instance, these improved markers include Interleukin 6, a protein that helps the body respond to injury.
What’s The Best Kind Of Exercise To Boost Your Immunity?
In order to gain the immune-boosting benefits, it’s recommended to push the pace a bit when walking. For most individuals, we’re talking about a 15-minute mile. This is enough stimulus to recruit immune cells into circulation. For other different forms of exercise, aim to reach about 60% of your VO2max or – approximately – 70% of your maximum heart rate.
There’s less science about high-intensity interval training workouts (or HIIT, a popular type of exercise) and if they help your immunity. The same goes for strength training—it likely helps your immune system, but there’s less research and recent studies backing up its benefits on immunity.
Regular exercise is one of the strong mainstays of healthy living. It enhances cardiovascular health, lowers blood pressure, assists with controlling body weight. In addition, regular exercise protects against a variety of diseases. However, does it assist with boosting your immune system naturally and keeping it healthy? Just like a healthy diet, exercise may contribute to general good health and therefore to a healthy immune system.
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