Exercise is known to boost the immune system, and new research suggests that you might see these benefits after just 15 minutes.
The World Health Organization recommends adults include at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity every week or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity. Not only is this amount of exercise helpful for weight loss, but it can also benefit our hearts, reduce our risk of cancer, and support our mental health.
"Regular physical activity is increasingly recognized as a vital contributor to the optimization of immune function," University of Houston Ph.D. candidate, Rebekah Hunt, told Newsweek. "Acutely, exercise mobilizes immune cells into the bloodstream, enabling them to circulate throughout the body to perform their functions, such as killing pathogens and cancer cells."
Specifically, exercise has been shown to increase concentrations of a particular type of white blood cell called Natural Killer (NK) cells. The job of these cells is simple: seek out and destroy any cells around the body that look dodgy. This includes both disease-causing microbes and our body's own cells if they are at risk of becoming cancerous.
The problem is that some people find it difficult to fit in long sessions at the gym every day. But according to new research, you might be able to see these benefits with just a quick workout.
In a study from the University of Houston, researchers investigated how much time was needed on a stationary bike before significant increases in NK cell levels were seen in the blood, and whether longer exercise sessions resulted in higher cell populations.
To perform their investigation, the team, led by Hunt, recruited ten volunteers between the ages of 18 and 40 to exercise on a stationary bike for 30 minutes at moderate intensity. The researchers then took blood samples at 15 minutes and 30 minutes to test their NK cell concentrations.
They found that NK cell concentrations increased significantly in the first 15 minutes, with no further increases seen at the 30-minute mark.
"Our results don't point to a clear advantage in terms of increasing NK cells in the bloodstream by exercising for longer than 15 minutes at a moderate intensity," Hint said.
Due to the small sample size used for this study, further research is needed to confirm these results, but the results strongly suggest that exercise's benefits on the immune system can be seen in just 15 minutes.
Hunt will present these results at the American Physiology Summit in Long Beach, California, which will be held from April 4 to 7.
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