Since I have been speaking to many athletes through Biestmilch about their health problems, it was alarming to find out how many athletes suffer from various symptoms that point towards incompetence of and strain on the immune system. Many of the symptoms increase during the strain of intensive training or competitions, with the result that even athletes between the ages of 15 and 20 suffer from unclarified symptoms of pain or after having hardly moved out of the area of basic endurance, they develop some infection or another.
In many cases, they have consulted doctors of various specialist doctors without success. Here is a short list of the problems that indicate that one is just about to fall off the narrow ridge of balance and alarm signals are cropping up, which should prompt oneself to be careful not to fall into the valley, out of which it is difficult to get out: severe respiratory infections and infections of the sinuses, herpes infections, gastrointestinal disorders or irritable bowel disorders, sudden injuries, pains typically in the groin, knee, back or Achilles tendon that bear no relation to what the x-ray shows, for example, stress-induced asthma, spreading of an existing allergy to other organs ( hay fever suddenly accompanies asthma), springing up of neurodermatitis..... the list could go on and on.
   Most illnesses or the performance of impairing problems athletes suffer from are either related to stress situations or are the result of long lasting chronic strain. The sequelae are reversible and disappear fast after corresponding regeneration. It is different in the case of complications that result from chronic stress situations, which have existed over years, like when being injury-prone, whereby the healing process is slow, over-training, chronic viral infections, burn-out syndrome, chronic fatigue or increased worsening or reactivation of existing illnesses. Many an athlete has told me that in times of not training, which were necessary for professional or family reasons, all of a sudden there were no symptoms of allergies, asthma or neurodermatitis. On starting up training again, the problems returned; sometimes they were even worse than at the beginning of their athletic career.

What is happening, what is going wrong?
A short reflection from a biological point of view.

Every influence on our organism that threatens its balance is a stressor activating an answer to stress. Stressors can be physical as well as psychological factors. As a rule, the answer to stress proceeds without being influenced by the consciousness. Usually the consciousness turns on afterwards, when it would be too late for a reaction.
   For your body to do what you want it to do, the biological answer to stress must proceed optimally. It is initiated, maintained and controlled by the immune system, the central nervous system (CNS) with its senso-motoric part, the autonomous nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system) and the system of hormones with the various central and peripheral cortisol and catecholamine regulatory circuits (adrenalin, noradrenalin).
This whole system of complex regulatory circuits is modulated by perceptions and their interpretations (see article on >>Motivation<<), by the flow of antigens that constantly puts pressure on the immune system via the mucous membranes in the intestines and the lungs and through a number of other stimuli like the blood pressure, body temperature or the blood sugar level, etc..
The headmost meter and coordinator for the basic activities of our body and the process of answering to stress are the various centers in the CNS. Integrated in this predefined individual basic rhythm is the immune system and the regulatory circuits around the various derivatives of the cortisol and catecholamines. The immune system is damped by an overactive autonomous nervous system. The cortisol regulatory loops contribute towards this damping. The cortisol system is always highly active during phases of stress.
   Due to its immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory effect, cortisone is readily applied as a therapeutic solution. Many of you will have already experienced the soothing and anti-inflammatory effects of cortisone. Within the limits of an answer to stress, all systems endeavor to, after a short active phase, keep the answer to stress under control, or else the centers of inflammation that constantly appear via the intestines, lungs and muscle activities will spread throughout the body. Depending on the genetic disposition, the floodgates are opened to diseases.
   The body can usually cope well with stress situations; should stress become chronic, the stress situation does not ease off as should be the case for you, as a tri-athlete who is working, who wants/has to train a sufficient number of hours a week and who still wants to have enough time for the family. In this case, it comes to a dissimulation of the regulatory circuits and thus to misregulations within the stress system with the most diverse complications. The initial results are functional disorders, which no organic substrate (organic diagnosis) underlies. Visits to the doctor are often frustrating. You receive no diagnosis, yet are still not healthy. Yet, if you trivialize functional disorders and carry on pushing yourself, then you can experience a crash landing, from which it can be hard to recover. Too much control under permanent stress weakens the immune system.
   So that not the whole of the body's immune system is not activated via the mucous membranes of the intestines and lungs above all, so that the immuno-answer remains locally limited, an inflammatory process cannot expand unhindered, the immune system activates the control systems via the cytokines, which slow down its activities, namely the autonomous nervous system and the cortisol regulatory circuits. In the case of chronic stress, an already activated system no longer comes to rest. Depending on which pattern of activity emerge in the immune system, that means in what relation the activating and damping processes are, allergies break out, infections or wound healing disorders are triggered or neurodermatitis worsens.

Stress control processes induced by permanent stress weaken the immune system

By releasing cytokines the immune system activates control systems that avoid that universal activation of the immune system via the mucosal lining of the gut and the lungs. These control loops limit the immune response, and prevent the spreading of inflammatory processes. Cortisol circuits and the autonomous nervous system are integral part of these control mechanisms. In case of chronic stress this already activated system cannot calm down anymore. Depending on the activation patterns of the immune system, the relation of activating and suppressing processes within the system, allergies are induced, infections or failure of wound healing occurs, or an atopic excema becomes worse.
The basis for all of these illnesses is a imbalance within the immune system or interplay of the systems that boost the answer to stress. Sportive stress can arise from an activation of all three components, from being especially prone to stress in one of the three regulatory systems or from an abnormal cooperation of all three. There are abnormalities, which are genetic, others have to do with our lifestyle, and yet others that we ignore as being warning signals of the organism.

For this reason, the following passable rules apply:

Stick to phases of regeneration, not only for the muscles but also for the head. Take warning signals the body sends out seriously and put together a good and balanced diet if possible. An ascetic lifestyle and doing without everything that tastes good and is good fun, is not really the right kind of advice to be successful. The immune system should be taken into consideration when planning training. Maybe the one or other of you will consider including mental training in your training plan, for the sake of your immune system.