‘Taking a deep breath’ is not just a simple act for calming yourself and your nerves but can also help you take your immunity a notch higher, and yes this is true! Taking deep breaths, breathing heavily during a workout can help your body fight diseases in a much better way because the heart and lungs play an important role in powering the pathways of immunity. The lungs move oxygen-rich blood to the heart through capillaries and the heart extracts oxygen from the bloodstream to pump it to the entire body. The improvement in muscle movement and flow of oxygen sparks the increased circulation of immunity cells. Exercise prepares the heart and lungs to pump oxygen-rich blood more efficiently to all parts of the body and thus more immunity cells launch themselves into action.
Sitting
Even when you sit to breathe in and breathe out slowly, you activate your parasympathetic system- which calms down the nervous system and similarly when we breathe heavily, the sympathetic nervous system is deactivated which triggers the flight or fight response that pumps stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.
Stress hormones for immunity
Even though stress is bad and its consequences are mostly negative, and cortisol and adrenaline can find their way to our lymphoid tissue which is located in the thymus gland- the site for maturation of the immune cells. If the maturing immune cells are exposed to these hormones, they damage cell development which is why it is advisable to spare the developing immune cells from exposure so that they develop into efficiently-functioning immune cells.
The power of exercise
The heart-lung action is activated by exercise and initiates the circulation of immune cells that are mostly resting in the lymphoid tissue. However, when a person breathes deeply and more quickly, the heart rate increases and muscle movement improves to activate immune cells to patrol the body for up to three hours afterwards. This gradually has long-lasting effects that protect the body from diseases in the long run and leads to fewer sick days when compared to a person who does not exercise.
What to do
Ten minutes of any kind of belly breathing that works on the lungs by expanding their base can help you and make little but beneficial changes. One such exercise is a simple pranayama technique in which you breathe in through your nose slowly and deeply, gently and fully exhale through your nose. The pulling and pushing of breath should be continued at a regulated place for maximum benefit. Practising this regularly will help build a more stable and stronger immunity.
