A regular Yoga practice can help to lower stress hormones that compromise our immune system and also strengthen lung and respiratory capacity. Yoga asanas stimulate lymphatic system to clear toxins from the body and certain poses also massage the internal organs, replenishing them with fresh oxygenated blood.
We all know that our immune system needs to be strong to prevent us from external infections and also internally from states of autoimmunity or inflammation.
Taking supplements to strengthen our immune system is a ‘normal’ thing to do and you get this advice frequently. But if your lifestyle (aka stress!) is working against a healthy balanced state, then all those supplements are just a drop on a hot stone.
source: biorender
What exactly is your immune system?
Immunology is such a comprehensive scientific area and hard to summarize, but I will try by keeping it short and simple. I am an immunologist myself and have studied the facets of the human immune system for years working in autoimmunity (type 1 diabetes), cancer (melanoma) research and now in food allergy research.
Your immune system does an amazing job
The immune system is a network of cells that work together to defend the body against foreign pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi. These pathogens are having different strategies of infecting the human body and that means that different immune cells will respond to an infection. Basically, anything that can trigger an immune response is called antigen.
Our immune cells are trained early in life to distinguish self from non-self – to know what belongs to your body and what not. For example, we need tolerance towards food but in case we encounter foreign and harmful pathogens, we need the immune system to act. Tolerance plays a very important part to not attack your own cells but unfortunately happens in autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis.
The immune system is basically divided into innate and adaptive immune system and cells. Patrolling immune cells will mount a first immune response in case an antigen has entered the body. This first encounter is then presented to cells of the adaptive arm, B and T lymphocytes, that will specifically fight the antigen and clear it from the system. A few of these adaptive cells become memory cells and will act quickly once the same invader is entering the body again- this is how basically immunisations work (Marshall 2018).
Different parts of our immune system
On which routes can potential pathogens enter the body? Our body needs to make sure those routes are equipped with a defence system. The main routes are the respiratory system, the skin and our gastrointestinal system.
Our respiratory system houses mucosal immune cells. We breathe constantly and that also brings the danger of inhaling pathogens. That’s why our nasal passages are built the way they are to filter out particles and our windpipe and lungs have a special lining with immune cells that constantly check if they need to fight off pathogens that entered via breathing. It does not always have to be a pathogen: if someone is allergic to an airborne allergen such as rye grass for example, immune cells in the respiratory/mucosal system will trigger an allergic response to the allergen (swelling, sneezing, itchiness etc).
Another route that pathogens can enter our body is through the mouth: eating contaminated food or touching something infectious and sticking your finger in your mouth- pathogens are swallowed and most of them will get killed in our very acidic stomach. The gut is lined in mucosal tissue as well, similar to our lungs and also here we speak of the mucosal immune system.
The immune cells of the gastrointestinal immune system even interact with the resident microbes of our gut (gut microbiota). If gut bacteria are of a benefical sort, then we have positive effects for our immune system. If we have an interaction with pathogenic or harmful bacteria or the ratio of beneficial to harmful bacteria changes, the immune system is triggered and this can cause inflammation- something is just not quite right and the immune cells roll out a response in form of soluble inflammatory mediators. A lot of today’s gut issues like irritable bowel syndrome are in part related to this. A simple way of establishing a healthy gut microbiota is eating a healthy diet.
Our skin is a great barrier when it comes to infections. If skin is damaged though, pathogens can enter and get into the blood stream. In our blood we have particular cells that can sense these microbial patterns and then call for their colleagues- the police force! Police (=immune cells) are then coming to eradicate the pathogen. The skin is our largest organ and ecosystem: it houses a wide range of microorganisms (microbiota). This diverse collection of microorganisms communicates with the underlying immune cells in the skin and protects us against invasion of pathogenic microorganisms.
Immune cells are needed in various areas of the body and are present in our blood, lungs, gut lining and many more places.
What weakens our immune system?
Immune cells need energy to mount an immune response or for their surveillance.
Energy that supports immune function can be low because of
poor sleep
poor diet/ not enough nutritious food, not enough fibre
low Vitamin D
certain medications
too much alcohol and smoking
no exercise
stress and extreme hygiene
High age is another factor that slowly decreases a functional immune system as well as an overall unhealthy lifestyle.
Research data on Yoga and immunity
Several clinical trials were examining the effects of yoga practice on immune system functioning and found that a regular and long term Yoga practice can down-regulate pro-inflammatory markers in the body (Interleukin-1b and -6, TNFalpha).
Beyond this, observations led to the assumption that yoga practice may exert beneficial effects by enhancing cell-mediated and mucosal immunity.
Overall, the collection of research trials indicates yoga has a promising anti-inflammatory effect in the body. The yoga programs lasted from eight to 12 weeks with a frequency between once weekly to daily.
Apart from those rather scientific parameters, what a regular Yoga practice does it trains us to be more mindful- we make healthy choices.
So take care of our body and from time to time remember what an amazing system of health supporting cells it is!
May you be well,
Simone X
References:
Marshall, J.S., Warrington, R., Watson, W. et al. An introduction to immunology and immunopathology. Allergy Asthma Clin Immunol 14, 49 (2018).
Yoga and immune system functioning: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. J Behav Med. 2018 Feb 10.
Effect of integrated yoga practices on immune responses in examination stress - a preliminary study. Int J Yoga. 2011 Jan-Jun; 4(1): 26–32.