Immune System Health: Transitioning from Winter to Summer
posted in Common Sense, Immune System, Physical Fitness |As spring approaches, thoughts turn to spending more time outdoors. Maybe that involves biking, hiking, swimming, or possibly just lying on a sunny beach. The dreary days of winter are finally behind and we can get outside and get moving again.
In making the transition from indoors to outdoors, we tend to forget about the illnesses that we stereotypically think of only coming in winter. For some reason, we tend to slack off a bit in taking care of our immune system since it seems that all of the colds and flu have gone away for the winter.
Unfortunately, illness does not fly south for the winter and, depending on how we get back into shape, we can actually become more at risk for catching whatever bug or germ may be around. This can come from two directions.
First, since we are out in the public more, doing more traveling, etc., we are being exposed to different kinds of challenges to the immune system than we are used to. Since they may be new to us, the body has not had a chance to prepare and defend against the invader.
The other aspect may be counter-intuitive.
Generally, exercising is considered good for overall health as it can help relieve stress and promote cardiovascular health. But there is the possibility of overdoing it which can actually be detrimental to the functioning of the immune system.
I’ve seen this with elite level cyclists. You would think that this group of individuals would have great overall health and not have to worry about getting sick.
Quite the contrary.
Staying healthy is one of their bigger challenges, because if your respiratory system is not able to work at 100% (from congestion due to a cold or other illness) then training or racing at a competitive level becomes quite difficult. Since most of us do not train at an elite level, does this apply to us?
Most certainly.
If we are making the transition from being inactive in the winter to increasing activity in the spring and summer, our bodies can have a similar reaction if we do not increase our workloads gradually. Going from sitting on the couch watching TV every evening to instead going out and running long distance is not only going to make you really sore the next day, but it will have negative affects on the rest of your body.
So as the weather improves, be smart about the activities you’re restarting after the winter break and add duration and intensity gradually.
Also keep in mind that there are still threats to the immune system out there, even though we don’t think about them as much as we do in the winter time. For more tips on how to keep the immune system healthy, visit this site to download a free immune system health report: boost immune system
