The Ultimate Vaccine

We all know about vaccines. A vaccine is any preparation used to confer immunity against a specific disease.  It’s an amazing discovery of medical science and a very appealing concept indeed. You take the vaccine and you will be protected from the illness forever. As soon as a new born baby is born, parents are rushing to the doctor to get him/her vaccinated.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a vaccine for blood pressure or diabetes? Or a vaccine for knee arthritis or spondylitis?

What if I tell you that there is such a vaccine? And it’s not a new invention. It’s been around for some time. And better still, it’s free! Would you believe me?

Believe it or not, it’s true. Such a vaccine does exist! .... Unfortunately we have forgotten about it. This vaccine is EXERCISE!

Imagine that you have just bought a new expensive car or jewellery that you have been wanting for a long time. You will look after it well. The car will be cleaned and serviced regularly. The jewellery will be kept carefully in a box. Your body is a gift from God! Close your eyes and ask yourself, have you been good to your body? Have you looked after it? If you don’t maintain your car, it will give you trouble. It won’t run properly. But still most people will look after their cars far better than they will care about their own bodies. A bad car is an inconvenience, but a bad body means suffering!!

A healthy body is crucial to be able to enjoy life. All the money in the world is a waste, when you don’t have health. Without health, you cannot enjoy your new car or house or your vacation. And at times it is too late. You cannot even buy health. So how do you vaccinate your body against disease? How do you look after this beautiful gift?

Prevention is better than cure. If you don’t want to suffer with ill health and disease, you have to act now. Physical fitness with exercise is the best way to avoid lifestyle related illnesses like blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. And it only works if you do exercise regularly throughout life.

As young people we get busy with work. We want to work hard so that we earn and secure our future. Many of us get obsessed with work. We lose track of priorities and we lose perspective. What is the point of working so hard and abusing your body? You may or may not end up becoming very rich, but you definitely will end up with a lot of illnesses. So all the hard earned money is then spent to become better and many times in spite of the money spent, you remain ill.

So my sincere request to young people is to not lose the wonderful days of their youth in work. Everything should be in moderation which is true also for work. Work is important and everyone has to work but draw your limits. The human body is not designed to work 24/7. Earn a little less but enjoy it by remaining healthy. Extra money earned is useless as it is at the cost of health.

What type of exercise should we do? There are three basic types of exercise. The most important exercise is aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise is any activity that increases your heart rate (you can hear and feel your heart beating fast) and your breathing rate (panting). Regular aerobic exercise is the best vaccine against lifestyle disorders. Everybody cannot do aerobic exercise. Especially if you are a heart patient, you need to check with your doctor before starting aerobic exercises. Those who are not accustomed to aerobic exercise should start slowly. Eventually one should increase to the recommended 30 to 40 minutes of aerobic exercise daily. Some examples of aerobic exercise are brisk walking, jogging, running, cycling, swimming and rowing. Aerobic exercises have become famous as ‘cardio’ exercises in modern gyms. While doing exercise, it is important to remember to go to the next level of difficulty, just like a student progresses to the next grade or standard in school. Cycling is a safe exercise for those suffering from knee pain.

The next exercise is Yoga or stretching exercises. These exercises are good for the health of joints and they are a vaccine for arthritis and spondylitis. Yoga exercises ensure that all joints move through their complete natural range of motion.

The third type of exercise is individual muscle strengthening exercises. These are exercises which ‘body builders’ do. Strong muscles protect joints from damage. Most people do not need to use weights. Anti gravity muscle endurance exercises are sufficient.

Many patients ask me if yoga is enough. All three types of exercises are important. So yoga on its own is not enough. Yoga will complement aerobic exercise to give you a better result.

Many patients tell me that they are working in the office or the kitchen all day and that is enough exercise! Physical work is better than sleeping in bed but it is poor exercise. Work generally results in exertion and exhaustion rather than exercise. Those who exercise regularly develop enough stamina so they can work harder, faster and more efficiently without getting tired.

Moreover exercise comes with pleasant side effects! People who exercise feel a sense of pride and satisfaction like the proud owner of a new diamond set. This translates into a positive energy in their daily lives. So they work better, they maintain better relations with their loved ones and they are more happy.

If you are one of the people who says ‘I don’t have the time for exercise’ then I feel sorry for you. If there is time to eat, if there is time to sleep, if there is time to pray, if there is time to watch television or read a newspaper then there can be time for exercise. It is a question of priority and commitment.’ Where there is a will there is a way’  

The worst enemy of exercise is laziness. It is an enemy of many things. There is no glory in laziness. We have to fight this enemy in every living moment of our lives!

So my dear readers, if you want the gift of good health then you have to work for it. Get up and get going and grab that vaccine!

Update (11/04/2020)-

I had written this way back in 2012. Today the world is being threatened with the COVID19 pandemic. People are looking for immunity boosters. It’s not going to improve with some magical pill or supplement. My experience has taught me that exercise is crucial to build immunity to fight infections. It’s the disciplined people who pay attention to their nutrition and who exercise regularly that have the best chance to beat the corona virus!

In a review published in 2019 (Journal of Sport and Health Science 8 (2019) 201À217 - The compelling link between physical activity and the body’s defense system. David C. Nieman, Laurel M. Wentz), the authors concluded

With near daily exercise, the changes to the bodies white blood cells enhance immune defense activity and metabolic health.

Studies consistently support the inverse relationship between moderate exercise training and incidence of URTI. These data led to the development of the J-curve model that links URTI risk with the exercise workload continuum. Several studies also suggest that regular physical activity is associated with decreased mortality and incidence rates for influenza and pneumonia.

Regular exercise training has an overall anti-inflammatory influence mediated through multiple pathways. Studies consistently show decreased levels of inflammatory biomarkers in adults with higher levels of physical activity and fitness.

There is increasing evidence that the circulation surge in cells of the immune system with each exercise bout and the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effect of exercise training have a summation effect over time in modulating tumorigenesis, atherosclerosis, and other disease processes

Immunosenescence is defined as immune dysregulation with aging. Emergent data support that habitual exercise is capable of improving regulation of the immune system and
delaying the onset of immunosenescence.