Strengthening Your Immune System With Exercise
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IRSHAD SYED
Exercise is important at every age. But I think after 50, it is more important because generally, people are not as physically active at that age. It stimulates the cellular immunity. Once you exercise your circulation, your blood is pumped better, your circulation increases. And the immune cells in your body, they circulate all through the body. And it helps prepare your body to safeguard against infections that you may encounter in the community. It also raises body temperature, which is beneficial to the immune system. It helps you sleep better. So part of the sleep hygiene is exercise. And better sleep, also it helps with the production of inflammatory cytokines, which are vital cells for infections. Then it also decrease the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other diseases.
Now, when you exercise, that has a positive impact as far as your cholesterol goes, your diabetes goes. So it's a positive impact on the metabolic health. There's a dramatic effect of exercise on depression and anxiety. Many people around 50 or after 50 are having some chronic health conditions, and their physical conditions and psychological conditions or inflammatory conditions. So there's a bigger need for your knees to feel healthy, for your heart to be healthy, for your mind to feel healthier. So best way to interact with, to counteract that would be a healthy lifestyle. A big chunk of a healthy lifestyle is exercise.
So it's a good idea to mix cardiac as well as resistance training. Cardio runs 60% to 75%, and the rest of the time, you can do resistance training in the form of weights or machines that you find the gym. All these benefits for people more than 50 years of age, and I think it intensifies that, it multiplies. Because they already have a need to improve their health in each of those parameters. So exercise have a huge impact on improving those conditions and then live a healthier, a more comfortable lifestyle with less pain and less suffering.