Immune System and Exercise

Emotions are deeply linked to the body’s immunity. Medical texts are being rewritten as more is discovered about this facet of health. Joy and happiness are potent immune protection. Loving relationships and the power of prayer cannot be understated for health. Do not dismiss the power of prayer or laughter. The human immune system/nervous system is hardwired to our emotional health.

From personal experience I can tell you that I cannot exercise regularly and be depressed. Moderate exercise can boost your body’s immune system naturally, but you do have to be careful not to over do things. If you exercise too much, or for too long, you can actually lower your body’s natural immunity for short periods of time.

When you exercise, your body’s blood starts pumping through your veins faster and stronger. This exercises the heart, and carries nutrition to all the areas of your body. This increased blood flow also helps pick up toxins, wastes, germs and other harmful bacteria from your muscles and organs. And the body’s immune cells circulate more freely through the blood system too, which helps them kill the potentially harmful bacteria.

If you exercise too much though, your body’s immune cells will leave the blood stream and go into the muscles to work on repairing them. Muscles are built by first damaging them with tiny micro tears as they’re used. These tears are then repaired, and they become stronger each time the cycle is repeated. Exercising too hard can create many more tears and damage than normal, and this causes your body’s immune cells to have to go into the muscles to help repair them. This leaves the body weaker than normal for about 8-12 hours after an intense workout.

Exercising for long periods of time can cause the same problem. When the body exercises for too long at once, there is evidence which shows it reduces massive amounts of a hormone called Cortisol. This hormone is also released during severe periods of stress too, and this hormone lowers the body’s immune levels.

People who have an already weakened immune system can also create more problems if they exercise too much, so they should consult with their doctors first, and start exercise programs slowly.

For healthy people though, moderate exercise can help boost the body’s immune system nicely. The primary reasons this works is thought to be because of the increased overall fitness levels. Most people who get moderate exercise also tend to try and eat a bit better than more sendentary people, but the increased blood flow and circulation of immune cells mentioned earlier are part of the overall effect too.

Good forms of moderate exercise which can help boost the immune system include walking, bicycling, gardening and swimming for about a half hour on most days. Interval exercising is fine too though, where you work in the garden for instance for about ten minutes, then break and come back again later.

How about you, what do you think?