Regular exercise plays a major role in keeping you healthy and preventing illnesses. It strengthens your immune system and helps fight viral and bacterial infections.
The average adult has two to three respiratory infections each year.(1) Whether or not you get sick with a cold after being exposed to a virus depends on the many factors that affect your immune system. These factors include age, cigarette smoking, mental stress, poor nutrition and lack of sleep which impair immune function and increase risk of infection.
Let’s take a look at how we can keep your immune system strong throughout the year in hopes of warding off colds and the flu.
Benefits of Regular Exercise for your Immune System
The best way to stay well is to keep your immune system strong. When you exercise:
- Your white blood cells which are the ones that fight infections travel through your body faster and do their jobs better.(2)
- You boost the production of macrophages, the cells that attack bacteria. When moderate exercise is repeated on a near-daily basis there is a cumulative effect that leads to a long-term immune response. (2)
- Stress hormones, which can suppress immunity, are not elevated during moderate exercise.
- You can reduce stress and help you sleep better, which in turn help your immune system.
Research has shown that those who perform a moderate-intensity walk for 40 minutes per day had half as many sick days due to colds or sore throats as those who don’t exercise.(1)
Will exercise completely prevent the cold of flu?
Even if you are a frequent exerciser, you unfortunately still might get sick. So, can you exercise or should you rest? Most sports-medicine experts recommend that if you have symptoms of a common cold with no fever – symptoms are above the neck- moderate exercise such as walking is probably safe. (1) If it’s the flu, with symptoms that include fever, extreme tiredness, muscle aches, and swollen lymph glands, 2-4 weeks should probably be allowed before resumption of intensive training.
3 Tips for Exercise if you Get a Cold or Flu
Here are some things to remember if you do catch a cold or get the flu.
- Take it easy. Let your body have the chance to recover. If you push yourself, it will take longer to recover or worse you will wind up with a more serious illness.
- If you have a fever, skip the workout. People usually run one for 2 to 5 days when they have the flu. It means your body is battling the infection. A high temperature pulls moisture out of your body. So does a workout. If you get too dried out, it could delay your recovery. (2)
- Remember that the flu is contagious, so you shouldn’t be anywhere that you can risk passing along your germs. This includes the gym!
It’s important to remember that too much exercise can weaken the immune system. Find the right balance of exercise and rest and read up on a previous post about rest and recovery. Here are some things to remember to avoid overdoing it.
- Exercise moderately on most days of the week. This will improve the ability of the immune system to detect and destroy viruses. (3)
- Avoid overtraining and chronic fatigue. Heavy exertion causes immune dysfunction in multiple body compartments leading to an increased risk of illness. (3)
- Eat a well balanced diet
- Get adequate rest
Regular and moderate exercise lowers the risk for respiratory infections as well as increasing health and preventing disease. We hope you stay well this cold and flu season. To get started with your exercise program, contact us.
References:
- “Can Exercise Reduce Your Risk of Catching Cold?”. Accessed 14, December 2015. The American Council on Exercise. http://www.acefitness.org/acefit/fitness-fact-article/2613/can-exercise-reduce-your-risk-of/
- “Exercise and the Flu”. Accessed 14, December 2015. WebMD. http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/flu-guide/exercise-when-you-have-the-flu
- “How to Make the Common Cold Less Common”. Accessed 14, December 2015. American College of Sports Medicine. https://www.acsm.org/public-information/articles/2012/01/05/how-to-make-the-common-cold-less-common
- Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
