CAN RUNNING STRENGTHEN YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM? YES!!

Exercise is a science backed way to strengthen your immune system. Many studies have shown that people who exercise regularly are less likely to experience seasonal flu’s and colds. When you run your muscles contract, and this increases blood flow which mobilize immune cells. These potent immune cells defend against viruses that enter the body.

James Turner and John P Campbell at the University of Bath published a report on how exercise affects immune cells and debunking previous studies about the immune response in long endurance sports. Immune cells change when you run an exercise. During a run the number of immune cells increases, natural killer cells that attack infections increase tenfold. After you run the immune cells in your bloodstream decreases dramatically. These immune cells are not lost or destroyed but are actually moving to areas of your body that are likely to become infected. For example, the immune cells will travel to your lungs, you breath deeper and faster during a run and the chance that you may have inhaled something infectious increases. It had been thought by many scientists that this fall in immune cells in the bloodstream after running or exercising was immune suppression, but they now know that the immune cells are primed by exercise to seek and destroy potential infections in the body.

Although a strenuous exercise bout itself will not increase the likelihood of catching an infection, other factors might. First, attending any event where there is a large gathering of people, increases your chance of infection. Second, public transport, particularly airline travel over long distances, where sleep is disrupted, may also increase your infection risk. Other factors, like eating an inadequate diet, getting cold and wet, and psychological stress, have all been linked to a greater chance of developing infections.

It had been reported that long endurance running such as marathons increased the chance of catching the flu or common colds. It is now known that the activity itself will not increase the chance of infection but other situations around the event will. Attending any event with a large gathering of people, airline travel, poor diet, psychological stress has all been linked with increasing your chances of catching an infection. Minimize your risk by avoiding contact with people who may have an infection, wash your hands and avoid touching your mouth, eyes and nose and don’t share water bottles

There is a lot of research around the benefits of running/exercise on immunity. It has also been shown that exercise can help the immune system detect and kill cancer cells as well as viruses and other foreign invaders. Running does the immune system good!