Everyone knows that exercise is good for us, but what does that actually mean? Exercise can help us in a multitude of ways, too many to list. To highlight a few, exercise decreases our chances of heart disease, improves our mood, boosts energy, creates better sleep habits, and even can improve our mental health dramatically. The list goes on and on, but one theme stays true – Exercise will improve your quality of life if done regularly.
We live in a world where our immune system is constantly being put to the test, especially since the start of the pandemic. Exercise can help the immune system in a number of ways. Before we get into how it helps, we must first understand what our immune system is. The immune system is a collection of special organs and cells that fight off infections. Parts of the immune system include your white blood cells, antibodies, your spleen, the lymphatic system, and bone marrow to name a few. These all work together with the body to make sure you don’t have any foreign cells to the body affecting it in any way.
Exercise supports the immune system in order to make it function better. One of the most important things that exercise does for our body is increase the number of white blood cells that your body produces. By doing this, you have more cells that are fighting any infection that may find its way into your body. Exercise kickstarts our immune response, deploying some white blood cells into our body to fight anything that might be there. By doing this and also increasing body temperature (exercise does this) you can better fight off anything that may be in your body.
Exercise and the immune system have an intricate relationship. Exercise can help us sleep better and longer, which helps our immune system recharge and fight off anything that it needs to. Exercise is also shown to boost what the body produces to fight off infections. This happens during exercise by increasing circulation. Higher circulation helps the body survey for any foreign substance that might be inside of it. This helps the body identify where the immune system should focus its energy.
When your body does find something that it needs to fight off, a fever is a common side effect. This happens because the body is working hard to fight off infection, while also helping kill infections that cannot stand the heat. Exercise can increase body temperature, which in turn would help your body fight anything that it currently has going on. Now this doesn’t mean that a hard cardio session is going to cure your sickness, make sure to see a doctor if you are sick to make sure you have the best plan of attack!
All in all, exercise is shown to help you fight off any infection or infectious disease. While this doesn’t automatically grant you immunity from infections, your body will be better at fighting them off. Exercise has endless benefits, and immune function is one of them!
