How exactly does physical exercise make our immune system stronger?
In: Biology
Never heard of this, do you have a citation?
Basically, stronger is stronger. No one part of the body improves without dragging the rest along with it. Run alot and your legs get stronger, but so does your heart, lungs, and blood vessels. Also your holding your arms up while you run so they are getting stronger, too. The reverse is also true. Gain fifty pounds of lard. Your knees are carrying more weight, heart is being strained, etc.
No one is exactly sure and you are only half true in your assumption: Extreme exertion will actually compromise your immune system, worse than being sedentary, but moderate exercise boosts your immune system.
This could be because liesurely exercise reduces stress, which hurts your immune system. Extreme exercise actually causes a stress response.
Blood flow and oxygen intake is improved during exercise which could help circulate your immune cells. With extreme exercise these are needed to deal with cell damage from the workout, but a leisurely workout won’t have as much.
You also raise your body temp, which is exactly what a fever does to try to kill some infections, but by exercising this happens before the illness gets a foothold, so in theory it’s more effective.
Then of course, in general being fit makes your whole body better at just about everything. Exercise maintains fitness.
It doesn’t make your immune system stronger, it makes your body more resilient. More efficient heart, lungs, muscles, stronger bones etc will all help you to function despite illness and mean that your body has more energy to fight the disease.
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