When we discuss health and diet these days, few subjects ever seem to be completely resolved. It's confuaing as studies will often seem to, or actually will, contradict earlier ones, until no one knows what to think. After all, if the experts cannot agree, how can we know what we are supposed to do?
Among all the confusion, however, one of the few areas that almost all researchers seem to agree on, is the importance of exercise for strengthening the immune system, or keeping the immune system strong.
While no reputable researcher will ever claim without doubt that exercise, particularly exercise alone, will repair a weakened or diseased immune system, a large number of studies do seem to confirm that regular moderate exercise can help sustain and strengthen it...even when the effects are more indirect rather than direct.
The role of exercise in helping to lower stress is one of these indirect effects. Better yet, this is one of the most widely studied areas. Despite the number of studies, however, the results, and the information extracted from them often seems unclear and contradictory. Even so, the general conclusion is the same: moderate, regular exercise helps the immune system by moderating the bad effects of stress...which at least one researcher has called the most dangerous risk factor for almost any age-related condition.
Over the last 30 years, study after study has fallen into line: A continually sustained high level of stress results in a number of rather harmful effects on health and longevity. People who experience high stress over an extended time will generally get more colds, suffer more digestive tract problems and have more frequent bouts of fatigue, for example. Part of this fatigue is yet another indirect result, as stress can lead to lowered amounts of restful sleep.
Without doubt, regular exercise helps relieve stress. It does this directly by providing an outlet for, and consuming much of, the nervous energy which is produced by stress, and by leveling out spikes in bodily functions. In an indirect manner, it also helps by shifting your focus away from the external factors producing the stress.
Exercise can also improve the operation and function of the entire cardiovascular system. In turn, this results in better blood flow, the reduction of accumulated toxins from muscles and organs (a daily detox effect), and helps to keep the kidneys and endocrine system working well. It also helps remove germs and circulate antibodies more efficiently throughout the body resulting in better natural functioning of the immune system.
All of these cumulative results, exercise tends to promote a healthy immune system by lessening the body's susceptibility to disease, while increasing the robustness of the immune system, and the body, itself.
Exercise also raises the temperature of the body a small amount. As anyone who has ever had a cold knows, this is the body's standard, natural, response to colds, flu and other diseases. An increased temperature helps to kill the infecting organisms.
The results of a study done at the University of Colorado, Boulder, suggested that moderate exercise helps to prevent colds as well.
Additionally, this particular study indicated that people are less likely to get sick as a result of stress situations when they had engaged in a regular program of moderate exercise. However, you must begin your exercise program at some time before the stressful situation as those who began their exercise program on the same day as the stressor didn't get the same benefits.
Exercise programs, when undertaken consistently and correctly, can help improve body image. In fact, that's actually one of most individual's primary goals in making the effort in the first place! That improved body image often leads to not only to higher levels of confidence and relaxation in social situations, which helps to reduce stress thus enhancing the immune system, but, also tends to lead to better, more effective exercise activities.
In the long run, whether the benefits of exercise on the immune system are direct or indirect, a regular exercise program can help support and enhance your immune system, which leads directly to better overall health, happiness, and longevity.