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The Covid-19 pandemic has increased interest in supplements that can help strengthen the immune system, but the reality is that maintaining proper living and eating habits should be the main thing. The defenses of our body depend on various organs, some of which we do not even suspect, as is the case with bones. Inside we find the ‘red marrow’, which generates 100% of white blood cells as well as platelets. I physical exercise that benefits these bones also encourages and enhances immune function within them.
The bone marrow is a “crowded” place, the researchers explain Mehmet Saçma and Hartmut Geiger of the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Ulm, Germany, in an article for the journal Nature. Stem cells, called mesenchymal or stromal, coexist inside, along with progenitor cells, including those of the immune system. How the two families interact is still an enigma to science, they write, but at least “part of the puzzle” has been solved in a trial with mice. the key would be in motion, which “stimulates communication between stromal cells and progenitors”.
“If you think about when you run, there’s a load that’s exerted on the bones of your legs,” explains Sean Morrison, director of the University of Texas Children’s Research Institute (USA) and one of the authors. “We know that when someone usually runs, these load-bearing bones become thicker and stronger. This is because, during the acts of loading, the bones themselves have been kept isolated from the soft marrow inside them. of these mechanical forces.However, in this study we found that one part of this force if transmitted internally“.
This transmission, as they have been able to determine, is part of the process by which the body makes new bone cells that will serve to strengthen the bone subjected to exercise. The body uses a type of blood cell to communicate these movement-induced mechanical forces to the progenitor cells that live inside the spinal cord, as they cluster precisely around the blood vessels. the exercise-induced signal causes cells to begin to divide to create more bone material.
So, load exercises – a series of routines that combine aerobic training with strength training– they would be suitable for different reasons. Not only are they recommended to maintain weight at any age as well as cardiovascular and bone health, but they would benefit from this new mechanism identified to boost immune system activity. “These cells also secrete factors which help create new lymphocytes, “explains Morrison.” Lymphocytes are T and B type cells that are part of the immune response to infections. “
These lymphocytes are regular protagonists of information about the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, as they are responsible for “remembering” past infections and making sure that the developed immunity is lasting. “What we’ve seen is that we could strengthen the immune system of mice by allowing them to exercise“Because in this specialized environment around the blood vessels lymphocytes were forming in addition to the expected bone cells”, continues the researcher.
In older mice, those that had reached at least 18 months, a smaller and slower formation of bone cells and the immune system was observed, which also happens to humans as they age. . But if they were provided with the opportunity to practice an exercise according to their age, that is, a wheel (“Mice love to run on the wheel!”, corroborates Morrison), the rate of cell reproduction increased.
According to the specialist, it is a situation similar to that of astronauts in zero gravity, who must perform at least two hours of exercise a day so as not to lose too much bone. “My prediction is that this benefit would extend into old age,” Morrison assesses. Therefore, the recommendation is that of adapt the loading exercises to the abilities of each one: From intensive training to moderate running, and if there is no other option, to walking. The important thing, he says, is to keep cell production active through movement.
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