Want to steer clear of H1N1? Get off the couch

Mice that run regularly on a treadmill, like the svelte one above, develop less severe flu symptoms, scientists report.

(Credit: Iowa State University)

When my husband came down with H1N1 a few weeks back, I was certain I'd get it. As he sweat through a fever that climbed to almost 104 degrees, I took care of him, slept 10 hours a night, and didn't leave the house so as not to spread the virus. And yet the only fever I felt was of the cabin variety.

I thought I'd somehow avoided the highly contagious strain of influenza, but new research indicates that, thanks to my daily habit of biking and/or climbing, I may have gotten away with a barely symptomatic version.

Scientists at Iowa State University monitored mice that ran regularly on a treadmill over a 3.5-month period and mice that did not run at all; the moderate exercisers developed less severe symptoms from the influenza virus, including less inflammation in their lungs, than those that did not run.

"Perhaps the moderate stress from repeated exposure to moderate exercise might then improve your ability to respond to other stresses, such as influenza," says Marian Kohut, associate professor of kinesiology at Iowa State and lead researcher of the study published this week. "We're continuing to try and find out if that's true, then what are the mechanisms?"

Perhaps most surprisingly, the group of mice that ran on a treadmill only on the day they were exposed to the virus experienced a less severe case of the flu than those that didn't exercise at all. "The improvements in host defense resulting from a single session of exercise were quite surprising," Kohut says. "Just exercising one time had some benefit."

This data adds to previous ISU research conducted on humans immunized with the flu vaccine. Those who exercised moderately for one year had higher antibody levels in response to the influenza vaccine than those subjects who remained sedentary. Kohut says they used mice in the latest study because they wanted to use an active strain of the flu virus.

Two notes of caution: If you wait to exercise until you are symptomatic (in other words, well after contracting the virus), it appears to be too late to diminish those symptoms, and could even slow your recovery time; and if you exercise regularly but intensely, instead of moderately, previous studies show a higher incidence of infection.

"Too much exercise is probably not a good thing," Kohut says, and stresses: "I don't want to give anyone the idea to try and go out and exercise when they already have the flu. There is no evidence to indicate that has benefits in humans."

[vagarob]

tell that to Evan Frustaglio, the 13 year old Canadian kid who died within 48 hours of getting h1n1. he was a hockey player, in perfect health.

"Canadians shocked by swine flu death of healthy boy"
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5guELchxqvsGmoFDTKkgsXgFgpURg

[Hunnter2k3]

Most cases, it won't be bad for the person.
But in a few odd cases, the immune system is just not capable of attacking H1N1.

Even someone of "perfect health" could still be suffering some unknown irregularities in parts of the body that lowered the ability for his body to fight back.
Mood, for one, is known to have a major effect on people's general health and has been known to make a major difference in people recovering.
There are so many other factors too.

We'll probably never know.

[pentest]

And that proves what exactly?

[ikramerica--2008]

Did he workout to excess? That destroys your immune system. High fitness does not equal perfect health.

[inachu1]

People might start drinking silver imbued water again.....

[biffhenerson]

If the goal is to avoid catching H1N1, a better solution would be to avoid contact will all humans and stay on the couch and watch tv.

[Jamadan]

All of the deaths haven't been due to the flu virus itself, but due to a secondary infection that the flu activates that is already resident/dormant in the person or that they contracted shortly after getting the flu - like pneumonia or staph. And "in perfect health" is a very relative concept. Just because someone has no known health issues, doesn't mean they aren't present. How many times have we seen a high school or college athlete drop dead from a previously undetected heart condition? I'm just saying that they may be more involved in the deaths than are readily known now. Statistically, this flu has been linked to just 53 pediatric deaths in the U.S. for the entire year and we are now over a week past it's peak infection rate in 46 states.

The H1N1 flu season is over in Australia which experienced just 131 deaths out of a population of 22 million - that's far below pandemic levels and they had no vaccine available to them at all. Worldwide, there have only been 5,000 deaths reported according to the WHO. While it's tragic that people are dying from this and very sad when it hits children, there is far more panic out there than is justified by the facts. I've known lots of folks around me who've gotten it and were back to school/work within a few days. It very well good have swept through my house already, but since most doctors aren't testing for it, who don't know for sure, but we all had a flu-like thing for a few days and all recovered.

[blakestar]

Moderate exercise certainly sounds much better than a needle or nasal spray.

[vagarob]

"The H1N1 flu season is over in Australia"

To which the strain will mutate again in Americas and go back to hit Australia once again.

"It's possible the virus has mutated. In autumn the mutated form could spread to the northern hemisphere and back to Germany," Hacker told a news conference in Berlin.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE55M5EA20090623