Originally Posted by
Ygduf
so if a fever helps the immune system function, does elevating body temp via exercise work the same way? when doing threshold my body temp climbs to about 102, does that help fight infection like having a short-duration fever?
Threshold intensity exercise is likely to temporarily weaken the immune system. The way I understand it is that the heat/fever helps fight infections by creating an environment that is hotter than ideal for the bacteria or virus. Rhinoviruses in particular like the cooler environment found in the nose. It's been a while since I looked any of this stuff up but I do remember that artificially heating post-surgical patients drastically reduces infection rates etc. I believe warming helps - when I have a cold I will often ride the trainer at low intensity with little to no fan and may even wear a toque.