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Excessive physical activity does not impair immunity
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
For a long time, physicians believed that too intense physical exertion - for example, debilitating exercise - worsens the quality of the immune defense, which can lead to frequent infectious diseases.
However, scientists were able to debunk this myth: excessive physical stress does not affect immunity in any way.
British specialists explained: training has an effect on human immunity in the following areas:
- after the initial load, the number of leukocytes rises by a factor of 10 (especially for immune cells);
- after the main load, the number of certain cells decreases - this period can indirectly be called immunosuppression, which lasts several hours.
The last stage of medicine was associated with the suppression of immune defense. But the information obtained during the experiments allowed to prove: the white blood cells do not die and do not disappear in an unknown direction, but only accumulate in other tissues - for example, in lung tissue.
Cells return to their original location for a couple of hours - this time would not be enough to ripen new leukocytes. Such structures as scouts "travel" through the body, searching for potential threats. Scientists specially marked leukocytes, which allowed to determine: cells accumulate in separate organs, looking for infectious agents. One can make a conclusion from this: a temporary decrease in the number of killer cells is not a proof of immunosuppression. Simply concentrated immunocytes are distributed throughout the body.
"It becomes clear that excessive physical exertion does not cause the body to be unprotected before the infectious process. Even more: modern science allows us to assert about the activation of immune defense against the background of intensive training, "explains Professor John Campbell, a member of the medical faculty of Bath University.
So, before the doctors were wrong. This misconception arose in the 1980s when research was conducted in the United States: experts interviewed athletes who participated in the marathon race in Los Angeles. The main question was: did participants have symptoms of infectious diseases after the marathon? Since many athletes responded positively, then from this, erroneous conclusions were drawn. Since that time doctors began to warn athletes about the dangers of too intense physical activity.
To date, scientists have managed to dispel all doubts about this: they have analyzed the information for several decades and proved the opposite. Experts are sure: much more harm to immunity is caused by such factors as bad habits, disturbed nutrition and stressful situations. And the degree of physical activity here is completely irrelevant.
Details of the scientific work can be found on the pages of Frontiers in Immunology.
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