Immune system support for endurance athletes -
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When a runner begins to taper, what might happen to their immune system? Aside from eating plenty of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables, and taking vitamin C and zinc supplements , you should also consider… 1. The original paper can be found in the Journal of Sports Medicine New Zealand 2 , providing many insights into how the immune system may be affected by the level of activity in which an athlete is engaged.
Through several different mechanisms, the immune system may be depressed during intense endurance activity, resulting in a loss of superhuman abilities.
Some of the interesting observations the team found in analyzing the literature will be highlighted here, along with practical, research-based methods for minimizing illness during the thick of training, some of which may surprise you.
While the review article provides wonderful insight into what has been found through research, it only shows that part of the puzzle. Coaches, physiologists, and their athletes all see different degrees of empirical evidence that they may feel under the weather.
It appears that when we track athletes, the rate of illness in competition season is between 35 and 38 percent 3. I submit that even this is not good enough. This is especially true if you are an elite athlete reading this article whose livelihood depends upon your body.
Endurance athletes, by the nature of their training, put themselves in danger of a decreased immune response. According to one study, triathletes may show a decreased number of monocytes and white blood cells 5 WBCs, disease-fighting immune cells.
A drop in the number of leukocytes WBCs to below per microliter of blood is often tied to an infection. This infection could be otherwise undetectable and essential to combat if it lasts for too long, especially when compounded by other stressors. The research team also highlighted that an increase in intensity of running, even more than cycling, was correlated with an increase in upper respiratory tract infection URTI and increased congestion 6.
It also appears that decreased immune function occurs quite frequently in the window immediately after a competition 7 , increasing again the susceptibility to URTI.
What are we to do to maintain and even fine-tune our abilities? Methods to attenuate the negative impact on the immune system vary from increased monitoring of the body to nutritional interventions. More exciting methods will be continuously coming down the pike as more health-tracking devices enter the market.
The stress of training and competition has a great impact on our ability to fight infection. It appears that intense training depresses the immune system to a greater extent than does moderate training.
This is according to the position statement 9 published in in Exercise Immunology Review on the association of immune function with exercise. Those feelings of malaise and fatigue that occur after intense bouts might actually be related to increased levels of inflammation markers 10 , same as occur during URTIs A paper published in the Journal of Immunology Research looked at physiological and inflammatory responses to a strength training session that emphasized eccentric contraction during three lower body exercises.
Bloodwork showed that this short workout prompted an increase in neutrophils, similar to the endurance study. The activity of lymphocytes also went up post-exercise, as did the level of monocytes, which are involved in immunovigilance keeping a lookout for viruses and change into dendritic cells or macrophages when your immune system detects invading germs to neutralize the threat.
The authors highlighted arginine, glutamine, and cysteine — all of which are found in complete animal protein sources and those with a combo of plant sources like pea and rice that contain all nine essential aminos — as being particularly beneficial. Another study published in Nutrients seconded the glutamine recommendation, stating that increasing intake of this amino acid can help produce enough antibodies to keep viruses, bacterial infections, and more at bay.
It would be irresponsible to suggest that there are any measures that will prevent you from ever getting sick again. Cohen, S. et al.
Vitamin D exerts important extra-skeletal effects, exhibiting an spport Energy expenditure equation regulatory ability, Cognitive boost alertness both innate and adaptive immune responses through the Immune system support for endurance athletes of wthletes function and signaling. Remarkably, the immune athleyes of working skeletal muscle, which is fof recognized to behave as athlehes secretory organ with immune capacity, is under the tight control of vitamin D as well. When overexercise intersects with hypovitaminosis D, the overall effects on the immune system might converge into immune depression and higher vulnerability to diseases. This paper aims to provide an overview of how vitamin D shapes human immune responses, acting on the immune system and skeletal muscle cells; some aspects of exercise-related immune modifications are addressed, focusing on athletes. The crossroad where vitamin D and exercise meet can profile whole-body immune response and health.
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