Doing a few push-ups before getting your flu shot could boost the number of antibodies you make against the virus — and if you’re already physically active, that effect could be even greater.
Key points:
- Physically active people tend to generate a better immune response to vaccines
- Analysis shows exercise just before vaccination can boost antibody levels against a type of flu virus
- Further studies are needed to determine which exercises are most effective in improving antibody production.
This is the result of an analysis by researchers from the University of Sydney and UNSW, which was the first to compare the effects of a workout before receiving a seasonal flu shot. in physically active people, compared to their inactive counterparts.
The report, published today in the journal PLoS ONE, did not track whether the participants eventually caught the flu, but it did suggest that exercise could benefit one part of the population in particular – the elderly.
The researchers found that young adults between the ages of 18 and 35 generated high antibody levels, regardless of their baseline physical activity levels or whether they had exercised prior to vaccination.
But with each passing birthday, our immune system tends to slow down and be less responsive to vaccines.
We produce fewer antibodies, which protects us against the real disease, if we encounter it.
And while we can’t stop the inexorable march of time, we can put ourselves in motion to give our immune systems a helping hand, said the study’s lead author, Erika Bohn-Goldbaum.
“Being physically active throughout your life is a good thing, and, in fact, we’ve seen a suggestion that physical activity and [a bout of] intense exercise was more beneficial for older people.
How does exercise affect our response to vaccines?
When the pandemic put a pin in her doctoral experiments, Bohn-Goldbaum and her colleagues pooled data from seven exercise studies, each measuring antibody levels about a month after flu vaccination.
They ended up with data from 550 people between the ages of 18 and 87.
Those who met the Amount of weekly physical activity recommended by the World Health Organization were more likely to quadruple their blood antibody levels, compared to pre-vaccination levels, than inactive people.
But Ms. Bohn-Goldbaum and her team also found an added benefit of strength training or resistance training just before vaccination, which elicited a stronger immune response than 45 minutes on an exercise bike.
So how does a workout, or even just the use of resistance bands, boost our immune response to vaccines?
There are a bunch of different theories. One comes down to the fact that weight training slightly damages our muscles.
If we lift a dumbbell into a bicep curl and our arm muscles are stressed enough, their cells suffer minor damage, especially if we are not used to the movement.
This triggers our muscle cells to send “danger signals” to our immune system, which attracts a type of immune cell, called dendritic cells, to the damaged areas.
Dendritic cells help build muscle, but – importantly – are also an essential part of our antibody production chain.
So if you then inject a vaccine into that same muscle afterwards, a whole bunch of dendritic cells are already there, ready to start producing antibodies.
That was the most likely explanation for what the researchers found, Bohn-Goldbaum said.
“The reason we think this is because we saw more effect in people who had done upper extremity exercise.”
Not all strains (and studies) are created equal
The annual flu shot is designed to protect us against four flu viruses, and the new analysis found that exercise boosts antibodies against one of them – H1N1 – but not necessarily the others.
Why that was was a mystery, Ms. Bohn-Goldbaum said, but different flu viruses caused different levels of immune response.
The participants in the study did not represent a true segment of the population, in terms of age. They were either younger – 18 to 35 – or older – over 65.
And because the studies varied their exercise sessions based on type and intensity, it’s impossible to pinpoint the most effective antibody-generating workout — or even when to do so, Ms. Bohn-Goldberg said.
“There is nothing that says [exercise] must be two hours before or within 24 hours of getting a shot, and nothing that says you have to exercise the arm you’re getting shot in versus your legs.
“There are a lot of unknowns because studies tend to be quite small.
Jonathan Peake, an exercise physiologist at Queensland University of Technology, who was not involved in the study, agreed.
“The article shows that there are benefits to regular physical activity, whether resistance exercise, strength training or aerobic exercise, for improving immune responses to vaccinations.
“The benefits of regular exercise are particularly important for older people – if older people can maintain regular levels of physical activity, they will benefit even more from this vaccination than they otherwise would.”
The next step, he said, was to find the optimal form of exercise to boost the immune response to vaccination.
And there are other ways to keep our immune system in its best possible shape, regardless of age.
Our immune system is not a standalone entity; it is interconnected with all of our other bodily systems.
“Nutrition and sleep are definitely things within our control,” Dr. Peake said.
“Sleep influences our level of stress, and I believe that chronic stress levels, mental health disorders and nutrition are, in combination with exercise, the main physical factors that influence how the immune system responds to vaccinations.
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