Regeneration
Herd Immunity And How It Prevents Disease
Well done for making it this far! Now we’ve covered how our amazing immune system works, let's look at the topic of “Herd immunity,” a term being thrown around on the regular at the moment by those in the know and those in the hysteria. I’m going to keep it simple and try to explain how it works. It describes a phenomenon when at-risk individuals are protected from infection as immune individuals surround them. This minimises the spread of infection. Immunity can have been gained via two ways, vaccination or infection.
Adaptive Immunity: The Immune System’s Memory
Article 2 covered the innate immune system, the boy’s frontline defence. Now we move onto the immune system’s memory. The adaptive (acquired) response is the second line of attack. It takes longer to organise and initiate (kicking in at around day 4-7) but its attack is targeted to the specific pathogen and acts as a long lasting memory. If the same pathogen is identified a second time, the immune response can be quicker and in some cases, “immunity” will have been gained so the pathogen will have no clinical consequence. The adaptive response is different depending on if the pathogen is in the blood and fluids (antibodies are made) or inside the tissue (a cell mediated response is necessary). T cells are responsible for the cell-mediated response. They recognise infected cells and destroy them.
Innate Immunity: The Body’s Frontline Army
Welcome to article 2! I hope that my COVID summary has helped arm you with facts and alleviate some of that anxiety. I’ll now move on to the immune system itself and how it works to protect us. When the body is exposed to a bacterium, virus, or other microorganism that can cause a disease (termed a pathogen), an immune response is initiated. This can be further split into the innate and the adaptive responses. Before we go onto this, I just want to explain two terms for clarity. An antigen is a foreign body or part of a foreign body that will stimulate the immune system (i.e. a virus or a part of a virus). An antibody is what the body produces in response to this to allow detection of the antigen and therefore destruction of the foreign body. They fit together like a lock and key. Okay, here goes, bear with me.
COVID-19 Covered
In light of current events, as a Medical Doctor with a cheeky Biochemistry degree under my belt too, I thought I would share some knowledge on our incredible immune system. It’s a (very) complex system and so I will break it down into a few topics, as it would be doing it a real injustice if I tried to cram it all into one. The articles within the series will be as follows:
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COVID-19 Covered
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Innate Immunity: The Body’s Frontline Army
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Adaptive Immunity: The Immune System’s Memory
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Herd Immunity And How It Prevents Disease
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Keep Our Immune System Healthy
How to optimise your recovery
Over the past few years I have seen a growing interest into the importance of recovery and training.
When I first started training (like many of you reading this I assume) I thought that more was better in the gym. If I do more reps, more sets and train twice a day then surely I must be building more muscle right? I wasn’t sleeping that bad and I was eating a tonne of calories so surely, surely I am gaining muscle? Well, guess what, in hindsight, I wasn’t and my physique hardly changed, but why? I wasn’t optimising my recovery properly. Sure, I had heard that saying ‘you grow when you rest’ but I didn’t really take note of how important it was.
Time off. What really happens?
Time off, it happens to all of us. Whether it be because of an injury, holiday or an unforeseen circumstance, we all end up having it at some point in our life.
Time away from the weights used to be my worst nightmare. I had worked so hard to get to where I was, all the hours, sessions planned, meals prepped. Getting injured or going on holiday just felt like I had wasted all that effort and let’s be honest, our bodies lose what we have a lot faster than the time it takes to get it. Thankfully though, it’s not actually as fast as you may think.
Reasons to get a sports massage
No doubt that if you have been an avid gym goer for a while now that you have heard of a sports massage and the potential benefits of getting one. In this article I will talk you through the proven benefits of getting a sports massage, the difference between a deep tissue massage and sports massage and also how to tell when you need one.
Training with Joint Hypermobility
Many of us will remember that child at primary school who claimed that they were ‘double jointed’ before performing a strange movement with their wrists or elbows. Aside from being an unusual party trick, it could be a sign of something more. For some people, joint hypermobility is a genuine condition which can result in more serious complications. Very simply, hypermobility means that your joints are more flexible and extend further than other people’s. However, when this hypermobility results in pain and discomfort, it could be a sign of ‘joint hypermobility syndrome’. This is more serious as it can result in: chronic pain, joint dislocations, sprains and even digestive problems. It can even lead to osteoarthritis in later life.
Sleep to perform
This is probably one of the most overlooked aspects in terms of making progress not only in the gym, but also for general health.
I'm going to dive right in and ask you to be honest with yourself before reading this article. How much sleep do you really get? Is it enough and can it be improved? Also ask yourself if you feel like you are performing to the best of your ability not only inside the gym, but in your career as well.
What are Amino Acids? Benefits and Usage
First of all, let's understand what we're talking about when we say Amino Acids. An Amino Acid is a monomer which makes up a protein. You may have heard of BCAAs and maybe even EAAs around the health and fitness scene, but perhaps you're not yet familiar with these terms? There are 20 different Amino Acids in total, but as we're speaking in terms of Health and fitness, we'll be discussing Nine. In the fitness industry, there are two types of Amino Acids, Branched Chain Amino Acids, (BCAAs) and Essential Amino Acids (EAAs). If you're a regular gym goer and/or supplement taker, then you may well have heard of both, but what is the difference between them?