Yoga and the Immune System

by Baxter

Chiara Guerrieri by Melina Meza

One of the effective ways you can foster healthy aging is to use yoga to support your immune system. A well-functioning immune system fights off common infections, promotes healing of bodily wounds and scavenges early cancer molecules from our bodies. So today I thought it worthwhile to review, consolidate and add to what we have shared with you over the past few years about yoga and the immune system. I’ll start by discussing how aging itself affects the immune system in general. Then I’ll provide information about how yoga can support a healthy immune system and what is the most effective way to practice.
How does Aging Affect the Immune System?

The National Institutes of Health website provides this overview of how aging affects the immune system: 

• "It is slower to respond. This increases risk of getting sick. Flu shots or other vaccines may not work as well or protect you for as long as expected. 
• An autoimmune disorder may develop. This is a disease in which the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy body tissues. 
• Healing is also slowed in older persons. There are fewer immune cells in the body to bring about healing. 
• The immune system's ability to detect and correct cell defects also declines. This can result in an increase in the risk of cancer." 

In addition, there is a relationship between inflammation, aging and immune system (see Chronic Inflammation and Yoga). A healthy immune system uses inflammation to the body’s advantage during acute illness or injury, but the presence of chronic inflammation is linked to all sorts of serious illness, such autoimmune diseases and heart disease. Stress (both physical and mental), environment, poor foods, high blood-insulin levels, hormonal imbalances, and obesity are just a few of the factors that promote chronic inflammation. And it turns out that aging itself is one of the biggest risk factors for chronic inflammation because as we age our bodies are less able to disarm the inflammatory process. As alluded to above, chronic stress has negative effects on our immune system. We have talked about the scientific evidence here at YFHA that indicates that stress can be a factor in life-threatening conditions from heart attacks to depression to hip fractures. In his post Stress, Your Health and Yoga, Timothy McCall notes the following about chronic stress and illness:“But scientific evidence is increasing indicating that stress can be a factor in life-threatening conditions from heart attacks to depression to hip fractures. …And while the immune system initially gets stronger during an acutely stressful event, it starts functioning less well if the stress goes on too long, raising the risk of serious infections and, as at least some evidence suggests, autoimmune diseases.”
How does Yoga Affect the Immune System?
The National Institutes of Health website provides the following recommendations for the prevention of aging changes to the immune system: 

• "Get the flu and pneumonia vaccines and any other vaccines recommended by your health care provider. 
• Get plenty of exercise. Exercise helps boost your immune system. 
• Eat health foods. Good nutrition keeps your immune system strong. 
• Do not smoke. Smoking weakens your immune system. 
• Limit your intake of alcohol. Ask your health care provider how much alcohol is safe for you. 
• Look into safety measures to prevent falls and injuries. A weak immune system can slow healing from falls and injuries."

Based on this list alone, we can find many ways that yoga directly or indirectly can support a healthy immune system. Practicing yoga asanas can fulfill some of your body’s needs for regular exercise. Yoga’s mindfulness practices can support healthy eating and healthy habits or assist in the changing of bad habits, such as smoking and excessive drinking. And, of course, yoga can help reduce falls by improving balance and agility, therefore taking some potential burden off the immune system.As for yoga’s affects on chronic stress, studies have demonstrated yoga to be an excellent way to combat the effects of chronic stress via its ability to shift our autonomic nervous system from Stress mode to Rest and Digest mode. Spending more time in Rest and Digest mode actually turns on our immune system!
According to some recent research that indicates yoga lowers stress hormones and other pro-inflammatory molecules in our bodies, yoga also helps with chronic inflammation, which can be caused by aging (see Chronic Inflammation and Yoga). Even newer studies suggest that yoga may turn on beneficial genes in some of our white blood cells, which may ultimately improve our overall immune function (although, as Nina sometimes recommends, it is appropriate to take these early study results with a healthy dose of salt!).

Future research will certainly reveal more about the underlying mechanisms that enable yoga to improve immune function, but the ways listed above are more than adequate to justify your regular practice of yoga to keep the immune system in tip-top shape.How to Use Yoga to Support Your Immune System
If you are presently in good health, I’d suggest you take a class appropriate for your level of experience and ability or develop a home practice that is a well-balanced mixture of active and restorative poses. This will provide both the benefits of exercises for your body and regular quieting of your mind and nervous system. For your practice to be the most influential for immune health, I’d suggest you practice 3-4 times a week, if you can work it into your schedule. Easy inversions would also be a good addition for their beneficial effects on your lymphatic system, which is part of the immune system. This could mean regular inclusion of Legs Up the Wall pose.

If you feel your immune system is compromised, you are out of shape physically, or you generally don’t feel very healthy at this time, you should start with much more gentle, beginning level practices with more emphasis initially on the restorative and quieting practices of yoga. As you start to feel more rested and refreshed, you can then begin to add in more challenges to your practice, in a gradual, step-wise fashion.
For further information on the immune system and yoga, see:

Got Salt? Yoga, the immune system, and the problem with some scientific studies

Chronic Inflammation and Yoga
Rapid Cellular Changes Triggered by Yoga
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