Original title: Debunking the Myth of Exercise-Induced Immune Suppression: Redefining the Impact of Exercise on Immunological Health Across the Lifespan
Some people believe hard exercise opens a short period when infections can take hold more easily. This review says the evidence for that idea is limited. After exercise, fewer immune cells may show up in blood because they move to other tissues, where they can help monitor for threats. The review also describes evidence that frequent exercise can improve responses to vaccines and may slow age-related changes in the immune system.
Imagine a busy kitchen where cooks leave the counter and head to different rooms. It might look as if the kitchen has fewer cooks, but they have not vanished; they are working elsewhere. In this paper, the cooks are immune cells, and their movement out of the blood after exercise may reflect a shift to other tissues rather than weakened defenses.
People may avoid vigorous exercise because they fear it briefly weakens their defenses. This review argues that the drop in immune cells measured in blood after exercise can reflect cells moving into other tissues, not a weakened immune system, and that frequent exercise may support immune health as people age.
The abstract describes a review and does not give details about how evidence was selected or assessed. It does not establish that exercise prevents infections, quantify the effects of different exercise routines, or show that every person responds the same way. It concludes that exercise most likely improves immune competency, rather than proving that conclusion for every form of exercise or across all circumstances.
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Debunking the Myth of Exercise-Induced Immune Suppression: Redefining the Impact of Exercise on Immunological Health Across the Lifespan — John P. Campbell, James E. Turner — Frontiers in Immunology — doi:10.3389/fimmu.2018.00648
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.