in the wake of COVID-19, everybody is suddenly more aware of the importance of the immune system and are finding and suggesting ways to build immunity. Even the healthcare ministries of various governments are suggesting measures in which one can strengthen their immunity. One blanket recommendation I have been reading and hearing from a lot of sources is the following:
“30 minutes of moderate exercise for better immunity”
This frankly raises more micro-questions than answer a very important and lingering question. So, I decided to delve into the specifics of this blanket recommendation and throw light on some critical gaps that need to be addressed before anybody tries to follow it.
1. FITNESS: The first critical component of immunity
On a general physiological level, fitness is directly proportional to immunity. Better your fitness, better the immunity. There are certain physiological changes that happen to the body whenever you do any level of fitness:
• The body temperature increases and helps fight infection better.
• The recovery of the wear and tear that the muscle endures from that fitness activity results in better cellular functioning and increases the body’s immunity.
• Any exercise improves the blood circulation in your body and that results in better circulation of antibodies and WBCs.
All these changes in your body directly affect your immunity levels.
Moving on to the recommendation of ’30 minutes of moderate exercise’ for immunity. There are the following aspects to decode:
MODERATE: How to define it for yourself?
First is the word ‘Moderate’ which needs to be personalised to every individual. It depends on your age, gender, profession (sedentary or non-sedentary), you weight, fitness level and also the exercise or activity that you will be doing.
Hence, your and my moderate cannot be the same. BUT the test to determine your and my moderate is the same - it is called the ‘song test’. Choose your activity or exercise, and start doing it at a comfortable pace and while you are doing it, sing your favourite song. If you are able to sing it easily then your intensity is low. if you can’t sing at all and are breathless, your intensity is high. However, if you can sing it but are frequently losing notes here and there, and you can breathe effortlessly then you are in that sweet spot called the ‘moderate zone’.
With this in mind, please note that if you are taking 2 hour walk while chatting with your friends as your ‘exercise of the day’, it does not qualify as exercise but is simply your joints undergoing pointless wear and tear.
30 MINUTES: one time fits all?
As regards to the 30 minute recommendation - keep in mind that it implies 30 minutes of SUSTAINED activity in the moderate zone. Hence, initially you may need to perform the song test every 5-10 minutes to determine whether you are still in the zone or not.
Also, 30 minutes is a minimum and a good time to begin with, but you must eventually increase your time. The most important thing to remember is to factor in the ‘rest’ time in between which is exclusive of the activity time. It is important not to not skip on it because, rest is critical for recovery and recovery is the only factor of exercise directly connected to immunity.
2. RECOVERY - the second critical component of immunity
I have said above that ‘recovery’ is the only factor of exercise connected to immunity. How? Because, recovery is the only way that your muscles, heart and the whole body can get fitter. This is called the load adaptation theory where a progressive load puts the body through wear and tear and it adapts to the increased load by building more muscle fibre during the process of recovery. For example, when you first climb a flight of stairs, it seems difficult, but the 3rd or 4th time, it becomes easier - simply because your body has adapted the muscles (the heart, the leg and other muscles involved in carrying out the activity) to that activity. This is also why it is necessary to take rest days in between good strength training days- for the muscles to recover and build more fibres. How do you determine how much rest to take? Always listen to your body for that answer. However, find the threshold between tired and lazy!
Another crucial question about recovery is HOW to recover? Well, the easiest answer is ‘good sleep’ - about 7-9 hours for ANY and ALL individuals. And the more important answer is NUTRITION! Appropriate nutrition is the most important way to good recovery!
3. NUTRITION - the third critical component of immunity
We have already established till now that the muscle quality decides the immunity in the body. So, the first thing to keep in mind in terms of nutrition is to eat something that at least retains the muscle mass of the body and ideally helps to increase the muscle mass. That wonder component of food is PROTEINS. So, for a moderately active person, 30% - 40% of your calorie intake should be protein. Second most important thing to watch about your nutrition is whether you are consuming enough micro-nutrients. B12-D3, magnesium calcium etc.are all micro-nutrients in which many people are being found to be deficient. Please understand that it todays world of food, it is virtually impossible to get these micro-nutrients from our daily meals for many reasons. So, talk to your doctor / physician or a nutritional consultant about profiling these essential micro-nutrients in your body and think seriously about supplementing it through other means - I for one take a multivitamin and D3 tablet and also B12 shots once a month after consultation with my physician. Feeding the body well-rounded nutritious meals is in fact the first step towards better immunity. In fact, in today’s work scenario where people are dealing with ‘work from home’ and ‘work of home’ both, it is not always possible to devote even 30 minutes to daily fitness. In such times, your immunity need not suffer. Simply take extra care of what you are eating throughout the day! Talk to your nutritional consultant.
Comments