Vegan-Powered Immune System -- Log
I've noticed a weird thing since i've started training significant amounts of time.. My immune system is now quite strong.
For example -- i don't know when i'm sick. I may have a bug of some kind, but i have *no* symptoms of it....until i start to do a hard effort. My day-to-day activities go along normally, as if i weren't even sick...but when i get on the bike and get my HR up, *then* i start to feel it.
How strange is that..?
Anyway, i was 'sick' for a few days last week, and i didn't even really realize it until Friday...heh.. I just thought i was pushing myself a bit too much, or was suffering from some sort of energy low. How strange.
Anyway, here's what i've been up to:
Tue - my second ITT! I felt i rode much 'harder', my HR was in the 180's, and i averaged 180bpm, but i came in 6 seconds slower than my previous time - 26:09. My split was 13:03 or so...so i was pretty consistant both laps. I think i must have been under the effects of my cold, i could hardly believe my HR..i was riding at 184, and wasn't breathing too heavily..which is quite weird for me. It wasn't particularly hot either. (Was wearing knee-warmers, actually.)The next few days will be pretty specific.. Tomorrow (Sun) going to practice standing starts, and do a bunch of sprints.. Gotta get my sprint legs kickin'. More sprints on Monday. Tues, will be the ITT. Wed will likely be an off day, and Thu will go to the track, and take it easy in the races.
Kevin came out too, and he came in a full minute faster than me! He started behind me, and caught me a couple hundred meters from the finish. Good job, dude! I'll most likely head out for the final TT of the year next Tuesday...give it one more shot. That should be lots of time to recover for the Provincials.
Wed - rest day, oh yeah!
Thu - Sprints at the track, didn't do very well at all. Started with the Miss'n'Out, came in about 8th, got boxed in......unfortunately i was actually feeling pretty good for this race, and was about to make a move when i was canned!
Chariot wasn't anything special...can't compete with sprinters..heh.. And didn't have any pep for the Keirin. I got in a good position, but i couldn't stay on the wheel in front of me and got dropped. Chad and i were bumping elbows, pretty funny.
Fri - did six Ob repeats - first ones in a while! They felt really good, i missed that workout. On the way out there, i started to feel a tickle in my throat, and my HR jumped too quickly on hills...that was the final clue to the presence of my bug.
I considered turning around, and just going home to rest, but i was just about there, and thought i'd do one just to see how i felt. Glad i did!
I do a very specific workout on the Observatory hill -- very low cadence (40-55rpm), and keep my HR lower as well (aim for 162-166bpm) - the idea is to stress the legs, not my cardio. It isn't supposed to be an 'intensity' workout. I find that despite being somewhat sick, if i keep the intensity level down, i can ride just fine, so that's what i did, and had a fine workout. Rode an extra hour afterwards, felt great the rest of the day.
Sat - over 3hr EM ride with a few trackies. Felt great, bug feels like it might be gone..had some pep back again! I was starting to worry that i might have been in some sort of slump, and right before Provincials, but i'm feeling pretty good now, and feeling much more positive.
Friday is the first day of Provincials, more info here. Wish me luck! The schedule will look something like this:
Fri: Individual Pursuit, Kilo, Miss'n'OutNot too bad... Saturday will be a bit harsh, i'm prolly insane for doing the Madison, but what the hey! I've signed up for all events.. The Kilo, Pursuit and Keirin are near-pointless for me and the training i've been doing, but it'll be fun to get some experience.. My times will suck, relatively speaking however. Looking forward to the longer races tho....woohoo!
Sat: 200m, Matched Sprints semi's, 20km Scratch, Sprint Finals (yeah right!), Team Sprint, 40km Madison (ouch)
Sun: Keirin Qualifiers (will unlikely pass), 30km Points Race (my most likely successful race..)
Posted by: Dave Shishkoff @ 10:51 PM
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I think veganism really does inmprove a person's immune system. Last semester I had to do a bunch of research for a paper/ presentation on veganism and severeal papers on the immune system said vegans have lower amounts of some marker (i forget which), but it doesn't really play into the immune system. vegans do have higher levels of killer T cells tho... :o) the conclusions were that vegan immunity is equal if not better than omni immunity.
just started biking again today out on the road... :P and here you are getting stronger and stronger ;)
Killer T's - woohoo! Lemme know if you find any more info on this..i'd believe it, especially considering that we'd typically eat waaay more anti-oxidants, and other beneficial compounds.
Glad you're back on the bike, hope it's feeling good!!
Haven't really felt like i've gotten stronger in the last few weeks, but i haven't been doing much specifically for growth... I haven't been doing any upper-body work, which actually seems to decrease my overall gains....i think they're actually connected!
Searching to find it... did find one interestign study that says due to the difference in vegan fat intake (basically, more unsaturateds than non-), means that neoplastic cells (cancer cells) have shitty membranes and don't survive so well.
Did find the article on immunity- here's the excerpt:
"The vegan group had significantly higher mean serum albumin and lower blood urea nitrogen concentrations. The lower blood urea nitrogen reflects the lower dietary protein intake of vegans. Although serum albumin may not be a sensitive indicator of protein nutriture, the higher concentrations suggest that the diets of the vegan participants were adequate in protein. A dietary intervention study of young men before and after 12 wk of a low-fat diet resulted in an increase in natural killer cell activity (40). Even though the dietary fat intake of vegans in this study was substantially lower, their natural killer cell activity was not different from that of nonvegetarians.
The question was raised as to whether the immune status results observed in this study are a consequence of the relatively low body weights of the vegans. Multiple regression analysis of the data did not show that BMI had an effect independent of diet. Further research is needed to elucidate the associations between diet, body weight, and immune function measures in healthy, lean individuals.
In summary, we observed that vegans had lower numbers of circulating white cells and less complement factor 3. There were no reductions in functional measures such as mitogen stimulation and natural killer cell activity. It is not possible to determine from these finding whether the immune status of vegans is compromised or enhanced compared with other groups."
So I was wrong about their conclusion on immunity; but from what I learned about human biology, your white blood cell count can get lower if there aren't as many things to fight off in your body (which is why they count the white blood cells in your urine if you think you have an infection- more cells = infection)
Interesting stuff...lemme know if you find any more of this stuff.
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