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Immunity in athletes

L T Mackinnon1

  • 1Department of Human Movement Studies, University of Queensland, Australia.

International Journal of Sports Medicine
|March 1, 1997
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Intensive exercise and athletic training can temporarily suppress immune function, increasing susceptibility to infections like upper respiratory tract infections (URTI). Elite athletes may experience clinically relevant immune suppression due to training and psychological stress.

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Area of Science:

  • Sports Medicine
  • Immunology
  • Exercise Physiology

Background:

  • Athletes often perceive increased susceptibility to infections during intense training and competition.
  • Epidemiological data support this perception, highlighting a need to understand exercise's impact on immunity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how intensive exercise and training affect immune parameters in athletes.
  • To explore potential mechanisms linking exercise to infection resistance or susceptibility.

Main Methods:

  • Review of recent studies examining immune responses to exercise.
  • Analysis of alterations in leukocyte counts, cytokine levels, natural killer cell activity, secretory IgA, and neutrophil/macrophage function.
  • Comparison of athlete immune parameters with clinical norms.

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Main Results:

  • Intensive exercise causes transient changes in numerous immune parameters, persisting for hours to days.
  • Some athletes show lower resting or post-exercise immune values (e.g., complement, neutrophil activation).
  • Prolonged intensive training may lead to progressive declines in immune function (e.g., neutrophil function, immunoglobulin subclasses).

Conclusions:

  • Evidence suggests potential clinically relevant immune suppression in well-trained athletes.
  • Psychological stress from elite training and competition may exacerbate exercise-induced immune effects.