tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071357103312480367.post6877727174561441963..comments2023-06-17T09:14:17.021-05:00Comments on Inkfish: How Much Exercise Harms Your Immune System?Elizabeth Prestonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991219617456983242noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071357103312480367.post-21737213406534550012011-09-19T20:08:44.492-05:002011-09-19T20:08:44.492-05:00Nice story. This reminds me of a recent series of ...Nice story. This reminds me of a recent series of studies concerning extended life expectancy being related to restricted caloric intake rather than chronic endurance exercise. I wonder if the increased caloric intake associated with exercise (exercise is only an appetite suppressant in the acute sense) could be associated with this effect.<br />I also wonder how caloric restriction (not starvation) relates to immune system function. Did the exercise study take caloric intake into account? <br /><br />I would invite readers to check a new blog, As Many Exceptions as Rules (http://biologicalexceptions.blogspot.com). Here there are stories using recent and classic studies to illustrate examples of organisms that seemingly break biological rules in order to survive and thrive. Recent stories have involved three rules broken by a photosynthetic sea slug, sound emissions from your ears and body symmetry in owls, and diffusion rules and giant bacteria.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00419768882341300420noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071357103312480367.post-51283330001579988612011-09-19T15:07:04.086-05:002011-09-19T15:07:04.086-05:00Thanks for your comments, Dr. Jen! I've writte...Thanks for your comments, Dr. Jen! I've written a follow-up post based on the comments that Guan-Da Syu sent me earlier. You can find it here:<br /><br />http://inkfish.fieldofscience.com/2011/09/exercise-and-your-immune-system.htmlElizabeth Prestonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01991219617456983242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071357103312480367.post-23360816285339901382011-09-19T03:05:27.121-05:002011-09-19T03:05:27.121-05:00Dear Inkfish:
We are so impressed with your rapi...Dear Inkfish: <br /><br />We are so impressed with your rapid and accurate comments about our recent paper published in PLoS ONE. For one thing, our acute severe exercise (ASE, about 0.5 hr bicycling to exhaustion) can not be directly compared to marathon running, which is a long and exhaustive type of exercise even for well-trained athletes. Therefore, our study mostly addresses the various exercise effects on the neutrophil life span in sedentary males (particularly applied to “couch potatoes”). Additionally, please be reminded that the CME neutrophils are relatively quiescent, even though they live longer. In our opinion, ASE agonizes neutrophils and thus shortens their life span. In contrast, CME makes neutrophils play low profiles at rest without changing their numbers (data not shown). However, CME neutrophils are relatively sensitive to foreign challenges (related results are included in a manuscript currently under review in another journal). Therefore, our body after CME should be more ready for combating possible invaders because of these well-prepared leukocytes.<br /><br />Here are a few additional pieces of evidence for your information. We have done a series of exercise studies using both male and female subjects more than a decade ago, focusing on various exercise effects on platelet functions instead (Wang et al., 1994, 1995, 1997a, 1997b). Of course, the platelet functions are closed related to blood clotting and vascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis, heart attack or stroke. Interestingly, a single bout of moderate exercise or severe exercise had opposite effects on platelet functions, i.e., the former suppresses them and yet the latter aggravates them, in healthy sedentary males. Moreover, the platelet-suppressive effects are also evident in patients with stable angina, indicating that those patients may be benefited by doing moderate exercise as well. Again, CME made sedentary subjects’ platelets behave like athletes’ platelets—relatively quiescent at rest and not easily disturbed by acute severe exercise. Finally, do the females respond to exercise like the males do? The answer is yes, but not exactly. Although young women have menstrual cycles, their exercise capacity as well as their platelet functions are the same in different phases of the cycle. To our surprise though, the exercise effects on their platelet functions are quite different when tested under different phases. Acute exercise affects female platelet function in an intensity-dependent manner in the mid-follicular phase, like in males, but not in the mid-luteal phase. The irresponsiveness of platelets to acute exercise in the luteal phase may partially explain why premenopausal women have a lower incidence of cardiovascular diseases than men. However, the beneficial effects of CME on platelet functions were not as long-lasting as those on neutrophil life span; they diminish to a large extent within 1 month of detraining.<br /><br />Best regards.<br />Chauying (Jack) Jen<br /><br />References:<br />1. Wang JS, Jen CJ, Kung HC, Lin LJ, Hsiue TR, and Chen HI. Different effects of strenuous exercise and moderate exercise on platelet function in males. Circulation 90, 2877-85 (1994).<br />2. Wang JS, Jen CJ, and Chen HI. Effects of exercise training and deconditioning on platelet function in men. Arterioscler Thromb Vas Biol 15, 1668-74 (1995).<br />3. Wang JS, Jen CJ, Lee HL, and Chen HI. Effects of short-term exercise on platelet function in females during different phases of menstrual cycle. Arterioscler Thromb Vas Biol 17, 1682-6 (1997 ).<br />4. Wang JS, Jen CJ, and Chen HI. Effects of chronic exercise and deconditioning on platelet function in women. J Appl Physiol 83, 2080-5 (1997)Jack Jennoreply@blogger.com