Over this past year we’ve all been concerned with staying healthy and strengthen our immune system. While washing your hands and not touching your face go a long way to keeping healthy. You can also keep your immune system strong by getting adequate sleep, eating nutritious food, regular exercise, and supplementation.
Today we are going to touch base on exercise and the immune system. Here are some of the ways that regular exercise promotes a healthy immune system.
- Exercise contributes to general good health and therefore promotes a healthy immune system.
- Exercise promotes good circulation allowing cells and substances of the immune system to move through the body and do their job.
- Exercise may help flush bacteria out of the lungs and airways. Thus, reducing your chance of getting a cold, flu, or other illness.
- Exercise causes changes in antibodies and white blood cells, which are the body’s immune system cells that fight disease.
- Exercise increases a rise in body temperature during and right after exercise which may prevent bacteria from growing. This is similar to what happens when you have a fever.
- Exercise slows down the release of stress hormones.
- However, at the other end of the spectrum too much exercise can actually lower your immune system. How much is too much? Anything longer than 90 minutes.
We recommend three strength workouts per week and a 20 to 30 minute walk most days of the week.
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