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Tag: Immunity

  • To improve your immune response after a vaccine, exercise!

    To improve your immune response after a vaccine, exercise!

    Sometimes, it seems as if exercise is a cure-all. Walking is important to speed your recovery in the hospital, among other reasons, and aerobic exercise has many other benefits. Gretchen Reynolds reports for The New York Times on a new study that finds exercise could improve the efficacy of a vaccine, be it a Covid-19 vaccine or a flu vaccine.

    All kinds of exercise could help improve your immunity after a vaccine. For example, walking, biking and jogging are all helpful for raising people’s antibodies after having a vaccine.

    The study measured people’s antibodies after engaging in a range of different aerobic activity for 90 minutes following a vaccine. People who exercised produced a higher degree of interferon alpha, which increases your antibodies. The researchers believe that these additional antibodies from exercising reduces people’s risk of getting really sick after a flu shot or Covid-19 vaccine. Notably, exercise did not appear to bring more side effects or reduce side effects.

    The study was conducted on 70 people and needs to be expanded to a much larger cohort to learn more. Still, it appears that physical fitness and daily exercise helps strengthen our bodies to ward off illness. Exercise transforms the way immune cells in our bodies operate, for the better.

    To date, data show that physical activity protects people against all sorts of mild respiratory infections. And, when people in good shape fall ill, being physically fit can reduce the seriousness of the illness.

    A recent study of nearly 50,000 people with Covid-19 in California determined that the Californians who were not physically fit and had not been exercising before getting Covid-19 were around twice as likely to be hospitalized as their counterparts who were fit and active.

    Don’t feel like exercising after getting a vaccine? Try moving your arm a lot before getting the shot. One recent study found that moving your arm before a vaccine also increased antibody levels and specialized immune cells.

    What’s the right amount of exercise? We don’t yet know.The researchers found that 45 minutes was not enough to boost antibodies to a statistically significant degree. But, 90 minutes of exercise was. They did not measure the effects of 60 minutes of exercise.

    However, it’s not clear that excessive exercise is beneficial. Some data suggest it could undermine immunity. But, we’re talking marathoners, so most of us have no need to worry about excess.

    How long will exercise help with antibody levels and stronger immune responses? More research is needed. This study only measured people’s responses after one month.

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  • Coronavirus: How it most often spreads and the immunity it offers

    Coronavirus: How it most often spreads and the immunity it offers

    Scientists are learning more about the novel coronavirus–how it most often spreads, why it affects people differently, and the immunity it offers to future infection. Here’s the latest:

    Who’s most likely to spread the virus? What’s particularly dangerous about the novel coronavirus is that, more often than not, people who have no symptoms, spread it. The latest data suggest that nearly six in ten COVID-19 cases stem from people who were asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic. That is why you need to practice social distancing, wear a mask and wash your hands frequently, even when you are around others who appear completely healthy.

    Who is most likely to have mild symptoms? The Journal of Internal Medicine found that the vast majority of mild COVID-19 cases caused people to lose their sense of taste and smell, “anosmia.” Mild cases are those in which people do not contract pneumonia or lose oxygen. Some scientists posit that people with mild symptoms might have more antibodies targeted at stopping the spread of the novel coronavirus than people who have more serious symptoms. People with more serious symptoms tend not to lose their sense of taste or smell. And, happily, about eight in ten people who lose their sense of taste and smell regain it within eight weeks of getting the virus. All but one in 20 people regain these senses within six months.

    Immunity and the vaccine: If you do get COVID-19, new research, published in Science, finds that you should have strong immunity for at least eight months and likely for many years. Moreover, once you get the vaccine, you should not require multiple booster shots.

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  • Coronavirus: Four ways to develop immunity

    Coronavirus: Four ways to develop immunity

    We have now learned that people can get COVID-19 more than once. And, we have a lot of questions about what the future holds in store for us, including how well a vaccine will work. Helen Branswell reports for Stat News on four ways we could develop immunity to the novel coronavirus.

    We probably have some time before we can escape social isolation, but many experts believe that it won’t go on in perpetuity. In the next few years, we likely won’t be wearing masks. Experts are thinking, based on what they know about the virus and our immune systems, that immunity could have different characteristics for different people, depending upon the circumstances.

    People are most likely to have functional immunity to the novel coronavirus. With functional immunity, you could get the virus or a vaccine and then still get the virus again. But, if you got the virus again, it would be milder and shorter-lived. You might not have symptoms, and you would be much less likely to spread it.

    The man in Hong Kong who got the virus a second time but had no symptoms the second time would be typical of people who end up getting the virus more than once. The question is how long the functional immunity would last.

    If people have waning immunity to the novel coronavirus, over time, you would lose protection against it. Still, if you did get it again, you would be less sick. Scientists see this pattern with certain cold viruses.

    With waning immunity, you would have full protection for at least six months and possibly as long as 12 or more months. And, if you were reinfected, you might not know it.

    With lost immunity, you could be infected a second time and have as bad or worse symptoms. In effect, you would lose all your immune protections. That would be hell. Fortunately, no expert with whom Branswell spoke thought that people would have lost immunity.

    In the best of all worlds, you would have sterilizing immunity. You would be protected from future infection once you had the virus or its antibodies. You have this type of immunity from measles. You don’t get it twice.

    Sterilizing immunity is not a likely scenario, however, because people contract the novel coronavirus through the nose and throat. And viruses of this type usually are not one and done. For this reason, a vaccine is not likely to protect us in perpetuity either.

    But, it is possible that some people will have sterilizing immunity, some people will have functional immunity, and some people will have waning immunity. It’s also possible that, when it comes to immunity, a lot depends on the degree to which people are exposed to the virus. No one yet knows for sure.

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  • Coronavirus: Who’s immune?

    Coronavirus: Who’s immune?

    It’s not at all clear yet when the need for social isolation will end and life will return to normal. For many people, two questions are top of mind. What does it take to be immune to the coronavirus and how would you know if you are immune? Andrew Joseph reports for Stat News on what we know about immunity.

    If you have tested positive for the virus or have had the symptoms, you are likely to have the Covid-19 antibodies. And, because at least some people have Covid-19 without experiencing any symptoms, even if you have had no symptoms, you might have the antibodies.

    A number of tests are being developed that can determine whether you have Covid-19 antibodies. Unfortunately, they are not 100 percent accurate. What’s worse is that many experts believe that the antibody test could show that you have the antibodies and you could still contract the virus again. To repeat, the antibody test cannot show with complete certainty that people are immune and cannot be reinfected.

    Right now, top scientists cannot say for sure that having the virus or having the antibodies protects you against reinfection. Most likely you will be protected against reinfection if you’ve had the virus because your body develops antibodies to fight off the virus; the problem is that those antibodies might not be strong enough to ward off a more powerful strain of the virus.

    Some experts believe that even if you have the antibodies and are not reinfected, you could still spread the virus to others. Yes, just because you’ve had Covid-19 and have the antibodies does not mean that you cannot spread the virus at some later date.

    To complicate matters further, even if the antibodies protect you against getting the virus again, no one knows how long that protection will last. In the case of other coronaviruses, the antibodies have offered people some protection against reinfection for at least a year. For Covid-19, scientists still don’t know what level of antibodies is needed for longer or better protection.

    Some evidence suggests that if you had a mild case or were asymptomatic, you might have only a low level of antibodies making you more susceptible to reinfection. Other evidence suggests that some people develop lower levels of antibodies than other people, increasing their likelihood of reinfection. And, still other evidence indicates that some people have immune cells, separate and apart from antibodies, that could protect them from reinfection even if they don’t have antibodies.

    For all these reasons, many experts believe that President Trump’s plan to reopen the country in states that are seeing a reduced number of Covid-19 cases is foolhardy. Similarly, the idea that some people could have “immunity passports” sounds good in theory, but could be a big mistake. While we wait, here are some tips for boosting your immune system.

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