Running marathons and competing in endurance sports increases the human body’s ability to fight disease, a study by scientists at the University of Bath (England) revealed. The study debunks the persistent myth for nearly four decades that doing strenuous exercise reduces the body’s immune system and makes competitors more susceptible to disease, the scientists said.
This general belief was based on an investigation carried out in the 1980s in which competitors of marathons were asked if they had had symptoms of infections in the weeks after the race, to which many answered yes. Scientists at the University of Bath have reinterpreted these findings and have concluded that, far from worsening the immune system, this type of exercise is beneficial.
The experts reviewed these studies based on the fundamental principles of exercise immunology and physiology to clarify the “misconceptions” and “misconceptions” that have developed over the years. The authors explained in their study that endurance sports cause immune cells to change in two ways.
Thus, during exercise, the number of some of these cells in the bloodstream can increase “up to ten times,” while after exercise they decrease “substantially,” even to lower levels than before starting to play sports and this can last “several hours.”
However, scientists argue that does not mean that the cells have been “lost” or “destroyed,” but move to other sites in the body that are more likely to become infected, such as the lungs.
The Importance Of Running In Balance
If you want to have mechanical efficiency and pleasure in running, you need to have a flexible and robust body. That is, balanced.
Arms like oars, feet that work like springs, straight spine and trunk slightly projected forward are not enough.
If the stacking of body units is not balanced, performance will be impaired. The body is a web where everything is connected. We are living a great battle against gravity. In this respect, human beings do not differ from any other material body, and all are subject to the laws of mechanics.
We consist of stacking units: bones (position in space) and soft tissues (lift). When the soft tissues are flexible, well oriented, the bones will function freely. The structure will exhibit less resistance and gravity will “flow” through the body.