Great article. It occurs to me that after "exercise" I feel better, positive, ready to do more. The release of endocanabinoids, changes in cortisol, and endocrine hormones, plus all the changes that no one knows about, have the effect of placebo (jmho) against depression, pain, stress, etc. Like I said in the last post, do it for it's fun aspect, and feels good, rather than having to work out
Ironically, it doesn't appear to be placebo and may be neurological in nature. As I mentioned in my previous post, many neurodegenerative and mental disorders rely on inflammation and there's a huge association between the two. Therefore, there's an assumption that moderate exercise may provide a net anti-inflammatory response, and if that were the case then it could certainly help. When it comes down to it any form of active movement is likely to help out and could provide some benefits.
This looks like an awesome and theory-heavy review! I will be sure to read it at my weekly beach break tomorrow.
Skimming it, I already read the part about IgA depletion. By coincidence I had just finished a 70 minute swimming session (non-continuous) so I have spent the rest of this evening in hypochondriac mode, obsessing over whether my throat feels scratchy, haha.
I have theories on this subject, naturally. Even though wouldn’t say it’s necessary to explain immune suppression from an evolutionary lens - it could just be a bug in the hardware - it’s definitely possible that it confers fitness to “lower the [innate] defenses” when not otherwise ill/weak (which usually precludes exertion) in order to court infection and generation of adaptive immunity. It is the host’s way of “feigning vulnerability” to microbes.
Uh oh, maybe it was all of the chlorine, or possibly salt water? But those have antimicrobial properties also... well, considering I'm responding late I'll assume it became super duper tonsillitis by now!
I'll be honest and say that it may not be either evolutionary or a bug, but just a hot mess of issues. It seems like the "open window" hypothesis was really validated by two studies; the Spence, et. al. study which was observational and measured illness and not infection, so there are problems with that study. The study that is cited the most in regards to salivary-IgA is a study Tomasi, et. al.
I'll admit I haven't read this study, but it looked at skiers and so there were concerns about how IgA was measured. To be honest, many of these people could have had dry mouth and that wasn't taken into account, with an assumption that less saliva may mean less IgA. The quote alluded to in the debunking review suggests that saliva may have decreased, but IgA levels may have went up. So instead of having sloshy, moist mouth these people may have had dry mouths pasted full of IgA antibodies.
I was going to go further into some remarks about oral health, since a few studies have suggested that mouth breathing may change the oral microbiome, which may account for differences in IgA levels as well but the review was already as long as is.
Great article. It occurs to me that after "exercise" I feel better, positive, ready to do more. The release of endocanabinoids, changes in cortisol, and endocrine hormones, plus all the changes that no one knows about, have the effect of placebo (jmho) against depression, pain, stress, etc. Like I said in the last post, do it for it's fun aspect, and feels good, rather than having to work out
Ironically, it doesn't appear to be placebo and may be neurological in nature. As I mentioned in my previous post, many neurodegenerative and mental disorders rely on inflammation and there's a huge association between the two. Therefore, there's an assumption that moderate exercise may provide a net anti-inflammatory response, and if that were the case then it could certainly help. When it comes down to it any form of active movement is likely to help out and could provide some benefits.
This looks like an awesome and theory-heavy review! I will be sure to read it at my weekly beach break tomorrow.
Skimming it, I already read the part about IgA depletion. By coincidence I had just finished a 70 minute swimming session (non-continuous) so I have spent the rest of this evening in hypochondriac mode, obsessing over whether my throat feels scratchy, haha.
I have theories on this subject, naturally. Even though wouldn’t say it’s necessary to explain immune suppression from an evolutionary lens - it could just be a bug in the hardware - it’s definitely possible that it confers fitness to “lower the [innate] defenses” when not otherwise ill/weak (which usually precludes exertion) in order to court infection and generation of adaptive immunity. It is the host’s way of “feigning vulnerability” to microbes.
Uh oh, maybe it was all of the chlorine, or possibly salt water? But those have antimicrobial properties also... well, considering I'm responding late I'll assume it became super duper tonsillitis by now!
I'll be honest and say that it may not be either evolutionary or a bug, but just a hot mess of issues. It seems like the "open window" hypothesis was really validated by two studies; the Spence, et. al. study which was observational and measured illness and not infection, so there are problems with that study. The study that is cited the most in regards to salivary-IgA is a study Tomasi, et. al.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6981653/
I'll admit I haven't read this study, but it looked at skiers and so there were concerns about how IgA was measured. To be honest, many of these people could have had dry mouth and that wasn't taken into account, with an assumption that less saliva may mean less IgA. The quote alluded to in the debunking review suggests that saliva may have decreased, but IgA levels may have went up. So instead of having sloshy, moist mouth these people may have had dry mouths pasted full of IgA antibodies.
I was going to go further into some remarks about oral health, since a few studies have suggested that mouth breathing may change the oral microbiome, which may account for differences in IgA levels as well but the review was already as long as is.
Excelllent! Thx
Thanks! Please let me know if there is anything you would like clarified since this topic is kind of confusing and really can be a hot mess.