Exercising While Sick: Self-Preservation or Self-Sabotage?
You don’t feel well. Should you maintain your regular exercise regimen or head to bed? How to decide…
Effects of Exercise on the Immune System
Contrary to popular belief, moderate and even brief vigorous exercise does not suppress the immune system. Instead, moderate and short durations of vigorous intensity exercise boosts immunity via increased natural killer (NK) cells that protect the body from harmful invaders. As such, people who exercise regularly generally have higher immunity than people who are inactive. Exercisers build an immune system that is better equipped to fight off invaders that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold, tonsillitis, influenza, to even terminal diseases including some cancers.
However, as with most things, just because some is good does not mean that more is always better. In fact, prolonged vigorous exercise has been shown to depress the adaptive immune system.
How long is prolonged?
Vigorous exercise longer than two hours can lower specialized white blood cells that fight off every day “germs.” This means if you’ve decided to train for a marathon, it will be beneficial to wash your hands more often as your defenses against bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites will be relatively lower. To be clear, prolonged vigorous exercise does not make you sick. Instead, it has been shown to lower immunity which puts you at higher risk of incurring illnesses should you encounter such germs.
Guidelines for Exercising While Sick
The general guideline for exercising while sick is that for above the neck symptoms (sore throat, coughing, runny nose) it’s okay and even beneficial to continue exercise at a moderate intensity. If you keep the intensity moderate, you will feel better during the activity. Also, moderate intensity will likely stimulate your immune system and may even speed up your recovery. Even if you don’t speed up your recovery (which you’ll never really know how long you would have been sick for…), people report that they feel better when they move. This is commonly know as the exercise feel good effect.
When your symptoms include muscle/joint pain and weakness, fever, fatigue, diarrhea, vomiting, or respiratory infection, rest is best. These are symptoms of a more serious illness and intense physical exertion can make it worse and delay recovery.
When deciding whether or not to exercise when sick: let your symptoms be your guide.
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