The many benefits of exercise, breathing and cold exposure

A scientific approach to recovery

In my recent substack about hiking and reflections on recovery, I wrote superficially on the positive effects of rucking on the body, mine, and anyone engaging in the exercise, and how it can help recovery from many conditions. Since I spent months, and (from memory) wrote a few dozen articles on the specific molecular and inflammatory pathways the virus and vaccines can induce injury and dysfunction, I will now summarize quite a few articles that demonstrate the opposite.

Exercise acting on said pathways and “reversing” them. This shall act as an informing piece and an incentive for you to exercise. As a disclaimer or FYI, I am very aware certain groups of people, such as Long Covid/PASC, ME-CFS, and other conditions go through and experience what is described as “exercise intolerance”, and this is a very real condition, and while complex with many overlapping causes and pathways it often boils down to mitochondrial dysfunction. But first, you can positively modulate your immune system without exercise, a good first step towards recovery or optimization.

The Effects of Cold Exposure Training and a Breathing Exercise on the Inflammatory Response in Humans: A Pilot Study

Both breathing exercises were associated with an increase in plasma epinephrine levels, which did not vary as a function of length of training or the trainer (F(4,152) = 0.53, p = .71, and F(4,152) = 0.92, p = .46, respectively). In the second study, the breathing exercise also resulted in increased plasma epinephrine levels. Cold exposure training alone did not relevantly modulate the LPS-induced inflammatory response (F(8,37) = 0.60, p = .77), whereas the breathing exercise led to significantly enhanced anti-inflammatory and attenuated proinflammatory cytokine levels (F(8,37) = 3.80, p = .002). Cold exposure training significantly enhanced the immunomodulatory effects of the breathing exercise (F(8,37) = 2.57, p = .02).

Conclusions

The combination of cold exposure training and a breathing exercise most potently attenuates the in vivo inflammatory response in healthy young males. Our study demonstrates that the immunomodulatory effects of the intervention can be reproduced in a standardized manner, thereby paving the way for clinical trials.

The majority of scientific mentions of “Breathing exercise” refer to the Wim Hof Method, you are basically breathing really fast (hyperventilating) and holding your breath (hypoventilation). Doing this breathing technique will already lower your inflammation levels, especially in regards to LPS, the most common (and to us the most useful) method of researching inflammatory responses, and exposing yourself to cold enhances the breathing benefits to a substantial degree. An earlier study focused only on the breathing technique part.

Here is a randomized trial on the same method (Wim Hof+cold exposure) and its positive effects on perceived stress. Also find it interesting this was the first study I saw referring to the origins of the WFM (it is yoga breathing techniques).

From personal experience, and testing with doctor friends you can significantly increase the breathing modulatory effects by doing it while going through the Niacin Flush, but be forewarned, it intensifies the flush, but you will literally “feel” the inflammation leaving your cells/endothelium. This is not for everyone, since normal flush can already be unbearable for many, let alone a stronger version of it.

Besides fasting, this is the easiest, cheapest way for someone to start recovering from many immune-related conditions.

“Outliers” such as myself, and others such as ME-CFS/PASC-Long Covid will often benefit, immensely from exercise, but supplementation is almost a must, without therapeutic levels of certain nutrients and amino acids, recovery will take longer and you will “feel like shit”, no other way to describe it. And to that effect, depending on where you find yourself, start small, start slow, no use going hard, crashing, and getting bedridden for 6 weeks. Been there, done that, multiple times. Train smart, not just hard.

Your main goal is to make your exercise of choice a habit, sticking to it long-term, whatever it takes. For people with “exercise intolerance” :

• Your main focus on supplementation is mitochondrial function

• Followed by antioxidation, and lowering your inflammation levels

• Even if you progress fast, you have measurable recovery, do not, under no circumstances exercise above moderate levels for a good few years

The first thought of many would be “Why not exercise above moderate levels, and the answer in a simplified manner is: Acute/Strenuous/Competition/Elite levels of physical activity are known to modulate your immune system, to be actively inflammatory, and they often skew (tilt heavily towards) a specific side of the immune system that make you susceptible to allergies or allergic responses, and may contribute to autoimmunity.

Source, among all the papers cited, this is the one I would recommend you read in its entirety, very comprehensive =)

Not solely acting on one of the most important dual-role protein (IL-6 is both pro and anti-inflammatory) exercise elicit a positive effect, in a paper talking about exercise as an adjuvant treatment to regenerate cartilage, among the marker of interest to our context is Interferon-Gamma.

Exercise increases PBMC secretion and serum levels of antiosteoclastogenic cytokines, while reducing PBMC secretion and serum levels of osteoclastogenic cytokines. PBMC, peripheral blood mononuclear cell; IL, interleukin; TGF-β, transforming growth factor-β; TNF-α, tumor necrosis factor-α; IFN-γ, interferon-γ. IFN-γ is a pleotropic cytokine with both antiosteoclastogenic and osteoclastogenic activities which are context dependent.

Using a model to simulate and imitate human muscles they applied IFN-Gamma for 7 days (meaning chronic exposure, very important in the context of Long Covid) finding that IFN-Gamma exerts adverse, inflammatory effects and causes muscle weakness in this model, and electrical stimulation (a form of simulating and imitating physical exercise) prevents such effects. One of the ways it does this is by inhibiting the pathway Gamma acts on, JAK/STAT, one of the potential pathways IFN-Gamma affects energy metabolism and mitochondrial function.

One thing I’ve come to learn this year is that everything is context-dependent and too much of something is bad for you, the second being 2,000 years-old “popular knowledge”.

Combined with proper Vitamin D levels, exercise will also positively affect Natural Killer cell activity/function. A factor of major importance for older people, and for a myriad of immune dysfunctional states. Open for debate, but arguably one of the most important aspects of cellular responses are receptors, their abundance or lack of, and how they influence inflammation and disease. Here they found that resistance training, or moderate exercise lowers TLR2 and TLR4, both of significant importance for everything discussed in this substack.

• It is known that regular exercise acts as an anti-inflammatory agent by down-regulating TLR4 in immune cells. Paradoxically, acute, extended, or intense exercise can be harmful to the immune system.

• The molecular mechanisms by which various types of physical exercise modulate the TLR2 and TLR4 pathways are still not fully understood.

• Physical exercise reduced the expression of TLR2 and TLR4. However, aerobic exercise is potentially inflammatory when compared with resistance exercise.

Another source supporting for a training- or physical activity-induced lowering of TLR4 and inflammationMaternal exercise helps attenuate LPS/Endotoxin-induced sepsis in the offspring, by modulating the IFN-Gamma discussed a couple of paragraphs above. One of the most important aspects of cellular metabolism, and overly present in many diseases, especially septic state is the Warburg Effect.

Aerobic exercise improves LPS-induced sepsis via regulating the Warburg effect in mice

Aerobic exercise improved glucose control, and lactate levels, prevented lung injury, and attenuated neutrophil content in the lungs (context-dependent they will participate in damage, rather than “healing”), relieved kidney and liver injury, it prevented aortic injury, endotoxins are known to thicken the aorta and it prevented oxidative stress injury and lung injury by activatingSirt-1/Nrf-2 pathway, one of the pathways that often failed in severe/critical cases of SARS-CoV-2, and one that often does in sepsis.

Exercise enhances cardiac function by improving mitochondrial dysfunction and maintaining energy homoeostasis in the development of diabetic cardiomyopathy

Another aspect compromised in an untold amount of people, at different levels, but more present in Long-Covid and vaccinated people. Endothelial (Dys)Function.

Source

Here is a comprehensive paper on “Physical Exercise: A Novel Tool to Protect Mitochondrial Health”.

Exercise affects several phenotypes within the cell by activating different molecular mechanisms that orchestrate the adaptative responses of organ and tissues.

What about the nightmare of a portion of hyperconsumers of (covid) information, Amyloid ?

 Our preliminary results indicate that 3 months of exercise training may have significant effects on amyloid-like oligomers, and start hindering the formation of the larger ThT-positive aggregates among patients with heart failure

Greater physical activity and lower vascular risk independently attenuated the negative association of Aβ burden with cognitive decline and neurodegeneration in asymptomatic individuals. These findings suggest that engaging in physical activity and lowering vascular risk may have additive protective effects on delaying the progression of Alzheimer disease.

An easier to understand Harvard news article Exercise, fasting helps cells shed defective proteins.

While lacking in the novelty department, this article aims to connect most of the previous articles and demonstrate the overlapping and positive impact moderate exercise has on recovery and long-term health. From any perspective you wish to analyze, or part of my writing you are familiar with, exercise will have a positive effect and benefit you. While attributing my lack of any new Covid infection to supplementation, in retrospect, the largest contributing factor was likely exercise, allied with the rest.

This is the reason I can’t emphasize rucking enough, it is both resistance and aerobic exercise, it is “moderate”, and low-impact, and it improves your metabolism and cardiovascular health. I guess you only value something when you lose it, as they say. I hope this proves to be helpful to you.

Until the next one. All the best.