Do you get sick more often when you are running? (Read 585 times)

It's been my experience that since I started running consistently a few years back I get sick a LOT less often.

same here

I get sick less frequently now, but have less contact with kids, so that may well be the reason. On the other matter, I get cold easily, but I can tolerate it better now that I'm running. Weight loss didn't play into it so much, though.

Hmmm, I've found the opposite..but I also quit smoking the same time I started running...and I seemed to always be sick before I started running and it lasted forever because of the smoking (I coughed for weeks...sometimes months after a cold or flu). I also eat 4 apples (or more) a day...so...if 1 keeps the doctor away...

 

I wash my hands pretty obsessively too

My experience is very similar. Been smoking till 3.5 years ago and used to fall sick at least twice a year. Started running 1.5 years ago. Last time I caught a cold was about 3 years ago. So, it doesn't look like it was running that made me healthier, but at least it made me no harm, that's for sure

Just curious if anyone else has had an experience like me.  Hard to pinpoint exactly, but it seems that I end up with more cold and sinus problems now that I'm running than back when I was pretty much a couch potato.

 

Not sure if it is just due to me being outside a couple hundred hours more than before, the fact that I go out an run sometimes when conditions aren't exactly ideal (dust, wind, cold, heat, etc.), or the alternative may be that I'm just getting old.

 

I used to go several years without any kind of being sick, now it seems like I'm one of the first ones to catch anything going around.  I caught the stomach bug a couple weeks ago from my nephew, but my wife and my son didn't and they were around him way more than me.  Sitting here right now struggling with some kind of cold/sinus/allergy deal and getting tired of it.  I think this is the 3rd or 4th time this year.

 

I don't think I'm running enough to really be wearing myself out or compromising my immune system or anything like that, just tired of being sick.

 

Any thoughts on the subject?

 

Thanks, Nathan

 

Should be the opposite.

Do you take recovery weeks and allow your body to recover from the previous 2-3 weeks of hard work?

Nathan:

There are several different reasons for getting sick (I'm assuming you're here talking about things like a common cold).  Being in the germ factory is definitely one; proper, or lack thereof, nutrients is another...  I got a terrible "cold" this past month (mid November and it took me about 3 or 4 weeks to finally get over it) but that was the first time I got sick in the past 7-8 years.  Lorraine introduced me to the liquid mineral and I take this a couple of times a day (several drops into juice) and I absolutely swear by this!  Of course, this is the time when my daughter has grown up and then left for college...  So, just like training, it's probably a multi-cause thing.

In terms of training (running), you're looking at two different scenarios.  In general, the more you run, and I'm talking about general AEROBIC type of training here, the stronger your immune system would become.  You start to get your body through some harsh condition, get more oxygen through your system, get your plumbing working (heart and lungs) and you'll have heck of a lot better plumbing through your entire body; you will be very fit and being fit means fight against various illness; in other words, better immune system.  This, of course, depends on taking care of your body between workouts--eating, sleeping...and also changing sweaty clothes right after the run, etc., all included.  When I go for a run with my wife around the lake (now we're empty-nesters), I ALWAYS bring change.  Summer or winter, it wouldn't matter; I'll go straight to the bathroom when we get to the coffee shop or restaurant for breakfast/brunch and change.  She always laughs about it because she doesn't sweat much at all and she never changes after the run (unless it's really hot or the run really long).

Now, that said; some of the hard-core COMPETITORS on this forum can chip in here; IF you're actually honing yourself for a RACE in a proper way (that is; spending some time to do some level of ANAEROBIC training in the final stages), you'll find a delicate balance of being very easy to get sick but also very quick to recover.  Once you start doing lots of hard, fast running, your immune system will go down--this is due to the vast production of hydrogen iron, causing lowering of blood pH level, associated with lots of exercise beyond your maximum oxygen consumption level (for the time-being, we call this ANAEROBIC training).  This is actually one of the reasons why most of today's elite marathon runners drop a full-cycle of carbo-loading.  Many marathon races were run in the winter and, when they sharpen and do more fast training and THEN not take much carbohydrate at all during the depletion phase, many get their immune system too low and caught cold--you don't want to do that 4 or 5 days before a major marathon race.  Many took extra vitamin C but it was simpler and easier to just drop the depletion phase; or make it not as extreme.  When you see a runner who constantly get cold or sick or even get hurt more easily all the time, invariably you'll find him/her training too fast to his/her own ability.

Looking at some of your detailed interval training report, I always felt that you are doing them way too fast (and I might have already mentioned that here and there).  I remember you always seem to say "but I feel comfortable" but, whenever I hears you say that, I couldn't help but remember the movie, "Super-Size Me".  Our body is so amazing that, if you keep eating garbage, it will adapt to survive eating garbage.  In other words, you may feel "comfortable" doing all those fast intervals but it may already be well into the red-zone.  I don't know; but it's just a simple mathematics.  If your oxygen consumption level is low and if you're running too fast, your metabolism will get screwed up.  One of the side-effects of this is lowering of the immune system = get sick easily.  I'm not saying this is the reason; but something to think about.

Just curious if anyone else has had an experience like me.  Hard to pinpoint exactly, but it seems that I end up with more cold and sinus problems now that I'm running than back when I was pretty much a couch potato.

 

Not sure if it is just due to me being outside a couple hundred hours more than before, the fact that I go out an run sometimes when conditions aren't exactly ideal (dust, wind, cold, heat, etc.), or the alternative may be that I'm just getting old.

 

I used to go several years without any kind of being sick, now it seems like I'm one of the first ones to catch anything going around.  I caught the stomach bug a couple weeks ago from my nephew, but my wife and my son didn't and they were around him way more than me.  Sitting here right now struggling with some kind of cold/sinus/allergy deal and getting tired of it.  I think this is the 3rd or 4th time this year.

 

I don't think I'm running enough to really be wearing myself out or compromising my immune system or anything like that, just tired of being sick.

 

Any thoughts on the subject?

 

Thanks, Nathan

Thanks for the input everyone.

I'm finally getting over this last cold, skiing hard in Colorado for 3 days while it was snowing probably didn't help matters much.

I have always had what I would consider to be minor allergies, and I think being outside so much more really does have something to do with aggravating them, especially since sometimes it is when conditions aren't great.  Dust and cotton debris seem to get me the most on my allergies and I primarily run out on dirt roads in the middle of bare cotton fields.

One thing I just did was switch from using Benydryl which I've always used as an antihistamine to using Allegra.  After 5 days of struggling with Benydryl, after switching to Allegra it kicked right in and dried me up.  Some of my family has mentioned that after using one antihistamine for an extended time, it finally quit working for them so maybe that's what has happened to me.  The Allegra seems to not make me near as drowsy or drained either.

Thinking things through, that may have been the issue as whenever I can't get my nose to stop running it always ends up coming back to get me.  I've gotten good at taking antihistamines to nip it in the bud, but thiinking back it seems that lately the Benydryl hasn't been working very well, I still end up with drainage and then I get sick.  Hopefully switching to Allegra will help.

I don't think I'm overdoing it with my running, I think I just need to keep my allergies in check better.

I did catch that last stomach bug, but hopefully that was an isolated instance, I do need to get better at washing my hands, especially with a 6 year old and his friends hanging out around the house. Thinking back on it, I did help clean up after my nephew when he threw up and don't remember washing my hands afterward.  I am for sure going to try to make that a habit, I've just never really focused on it before and very rarely ever got sick before, but I wasn't around the young germ factories either.

Thanks again.  Nathan