Exercise May Boost Your Immune Response to Flu Shots

A new study Trusted Source out of Australia and the United Kingdom reports that exercise can boost a person’s immune response after they get a flu shot.

However, the benefits seem to be more pronounced in those who already exercise or exercise “acutely.” The benefits also appear to help older adults more than other age groups

Antibody response was measured before vaccination, immediately after vaccination, and at 4 to 6 weeks after vaccination, the time for peak antibody development.

Researchers examined data from six databases and two clinical registries. They identified nine studies, seven of which they used. In all, they examined data from 550 participants.

“Clinical measures of antibody response tended to be higher in the acute-exercised participants compared to rested controls and physically active compared to inactive,” the study authors wrote.

The periods of exercise comprised 15 to 50 minutes of resistance work or aerobic exercise. Most participants were monitored immediately before vaccination and immediately after.

Three potential moderators were included in the model: sex, body mass index (BMI), and age.

“Sex had no effect on outcomes for any strain. BMI had no effect on H1 or B strains, but in the H3 strain increasing BMI predicted smaller change in the titer,” the study authors said.

“Improved response with [physical activity] is more consistently identified among older populations. This suggests the young have the ability to respond well to vaccination regardless of sufficient (physical activity),” they added.

The study authors concluded: “Though we found some benefit from either acute exercise or [physical activity] on antibody titer levels, our finding did not support our hypothesis: there was no added benefit of acute exercise to inactive participants. Our findings point to new directions for exploration as subset analysis suggests acute exercise-PA interaction effects on immune response may be more pronounced in older populations. Such investigation has potential to identify means of improving antibody response for vaccines, particularly those for diseases which disproportionately affect older persons.”

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