"Preserving Immune Function In Athletes With Nutritional Yeast"
Moderate exercise improves immunity
and decreases illness rates.
By far, the most important finding
that has emerged from exercise immunology studies
over the past 2 decades is that positive immune changes
take place during each bout of moderate physical activity.
Over time, this translates to fewer days of sickness
with the common cold and other upper respiratory infections.
We're talking a 25% to 50% reduction in sick days.
Name one drug or supplement that can do that.
And it doesn't take much.
Let kids run around for just 6 minutes
and you can boost the numbers of immune cells circulating
in their blood stream by more than a third.
And at the other end of the life cycle
exercise may help prevent age-related immune decline.
Sedentary women in their 70s
may have a 50% chance of getting
an upper respiratory illness
during the fall season every year,
but walk a half-hour a day and your risk is down to 20%
and the runners in the group got it under 10.
That's like 5 times better than our immune system!
Now, while "regular physical activity improves immune function"
"and lowers URI (upper respiratory infection risk),"
sustained and intense exertion may have the opposite effect,
forming a so-called J-shaped curve relationship.
As you go from inactive to active, your infection risk declines,
but hardcore athletes that overtrain
may actually put excessive stress on their bodies
and increase their risk of infection.
Then you could lose training days,
your performance could suffer.
So what can you do?
Well, traditional sports medicine doesn't appear to have much to offer,
advising athletes to, ya know, don't pick your nose,
avoid sick people, get a flu shot.
A new study, though, found that one can better maintain
one's level of circulating white blood cells
after exhaustive exercise consuming a special type of fiber
found in baker's, brewer's, and nutritional yeast.
Brewer's yeast is bitter,
but nutritional yeast has a nice cheesy flavor.
I use it mostly to sprinkle on popcorn.
Anyway, normally 2 hours after cycling-your-brains-out
you can experience a dip in circulating monocytes,
one of our first line of defense white blood cells.
but those who had been eating the equivalent
of less than 3 quarters of a teaspoon a day of nutritional yeast
ended up even better than when they started after strenuous exercise.
But does this increase in immune cells translate into fewer illnesses?
Well, let's try it on some marathon runners.
In the weeks following the Carlsbad Marathon,
this is how many runners reported
experiencing upper respiratory tract
infection symptoms taking a placebo.
But if instead they had the equivalent of a daily spoonful
of nutritional yeast they cut their rates in half.
And what's even more remarkable is that they felt better.
They asked how they felt on a scale of 1-10.
People taking the sugar pills were like, eh...OK,
down around 4 or 5,
but those taking identical looking capsules of the fiber
found in nutritional yeast were up at like 6 or 7.
Evidently elite athletes tend to normally experience
deterioration in mood state during intense training periods,
and before and after a marathon race,
but, sprinkle a little spoonful of nutritional yeast,
and you may feel less tense, less fatigued, less confused—
even less angry, and my favorite, significantly more vigor!