The "blow it out" theory

Today's theory is one that I've been bouncing back on forth on (from "this is among the stupidest concepts I've ever entertained" (and let me just say, I've entertained some whoppers) to "I'm sure The Lancet is going to love my scholarly contribution on this").

The subject is present for me today because I've had a cold or some kind of similar viral affliction for the past week, and I'm getting near the end of it. Like many people, I'm a very impatient patient, not to mention one who feels that every little thing is an affront, something that should happen to someone else, regardless of a long list of behaviours that my mother told me 50 years ago would expose me to getting sick. "If you let yourself get run down, you'll get sick." The trouble with this very good information was that at the time, as an eight year old, "get run down" was not even a vague concept.

The theory is that if you're just coming down with a cold, or just at the tail end of one, you can either avoid it or speed up its finish by elevating your respiration with exercise. You'll blow it out, cook the virus by raising your body temperature and clear out all your respiratory passages by breathing really hard. 

The counter theory is that you will deprive your body of precious disease-fighting energy and either come down with a more severe cold than you would otherwise have had or prolong the recovery you're trying to get through.

My oldest brother just last night declared his allegiance to the theory. He might be the source of this idea for me, I'm not sure. I'm reserving judgment (and blame...credit seems unlikely no matter what happens) pending outcome of my upcoming experiment. My sister, without having been specifically asked, sounds like she's on the side of the counter theory, and feels that it's foolish to not just rest. There's probably yet another study in here about whether the theory you support predicts anything about your general makeup and approach to problems (and I'm thinking about the dominance of the inner 15 year old here).

The beauty part of the theory is it's probably impossible to prove or disprove, because outcomes depend on each individual set of circumstances: where was each person in a virus-fighting process whose outcome might have been no different regardless of exercise, how exhausted did each person become with exercise, how susceptible to extinction by heat is every different virus, does your body temperature even rise when you exercise, how is the body's energy deployed (ie., would your body always make disease fighting a higher priority than casual exercise? If you got all excited about your exercise, would that suppress the immune activity temporarily?  Is all you're accomplishing with this theory a temporary suppression of symptoms with really no change to viral status?), etc.

So cast your votes.  I'm going out for a run today and if that seems to have been okay, spin tomorrow. Will I relapse and continue to schnorgel and hack for days longer than necessary, or will I emerge a new man, fresh and minty, on Wednesday?  Will exercise have made any difference at all?  And as thy used to say on Sesame Street, What about Naomi?

Stay tuned....