Fitness and exercise is on everyone's minds now with New Year's resolutions in full swing. Within the northern hemisphere, New Year resolutions just happen to coincide with winter - a time when virtually everyone seems to possess the sniffles. Naturally exercise is associated with good health and well being, however is it possible that your workout or coaching program might actually increase your likelihood of obtaining sick? This article briefly explains the immune system, its response to exercise and offers some helpful tips about how to avoid getting sick if you exercise regularly.
What is the immune system?
Not like our cardio-respiratory or digestive systems which are made of specific body components physically linked along, the immune system is a diverse collection of cells within the blood and other tissues linked together with ingenious biochemical messengers.
The workhorses of the immune system are cells called leukocytes or white blood cells. When the immune system is working effectively, the leukocytes establish viruses and bacteria that enter the body and destroy them before they'll cause damage and build you sick.
How does exercise have an effect on the immune system?
Moderate exercise - that is most recreational exercise and fitness improvement programs could actually boost immune levels and increase leukocyte activity. So if you exercise say 3 -five days per week and allow for sufficient rest and recovery between sessions, you may have increased immune levels over your "couch potato" counterparts.
When exercise becomes habitual and training workloads become heavier but, there is an increased risk for what's known as exercise induced immunosuppression (EII) or a decrease in immunity levels. Repeated bouts of sickness such as colds and flu might be an indication of overreaching or overtraining where the quantity (quantity) and/or intensity of the exercise is simply too high.
It's thought that intense exercise and high volumes of training that do not permit for enough recovery and rest add cumulative "stress" on the body and the immune system. Just as not obtaining enough sleep at the hours of darkness negatively affects your immunity, thus does excess exercise stress and fatigue.
How can I avoid obtaining sick if I exercise frequently?
The best approach to confirm the integrity of your immune system is to create certain you get enough rest and recover sufficiently from each of your exercise sessions. If you are a competitive athlete or if you're training for an occurrence you may wish to confirm that your training program is periodized - that's the exercise intensity and volume are fastidiously matched to ensure performance success.
Additional ways of making certain your immune levels stay high is to use the following tips:
1.) Supplement with Glutamine
Glutamine is an amino acid (building blocks of protein) that's known to be a primary energy supply for leukocytes. Studies show that blood glutamine levels drop throughout exercise and during the post exercise recovery process. During exercise glutamine is used as an energy supply (leukocytes, kidney cells) and during recovery it is needed to repair broken tissue and restore blood glucose levels.
By supplementing your diet with extra glutamine right once an exercise session you will help to keep up blood glutamine levels, ensuring muscle and connective tissue repair, adequate recovery and most importantly, immune system integrity.
Author Resource:
Adam has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Can Exercise Make You Sick?
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