title: Psychosocial factors, exercise, and immunity: athletes, elderly persons, and AIDS patients.
abstract: Maximal bicycle ergometry exercise increases natural killer (NK) cell activity and numbers in both healthy old and young persons to equivalent degree but with greater variability in the old. Exercise-induced increase in NK activity, but not numbers, is blocked by the opioid antagonist naloxone. Lactating females do not show exercise-induced augmentation of NK cell activity. A predisposition to autoimmune disease, particularly rheumatoid arthritis, may exist among athletes, and disease may ensue when athleticism ceases. Long-term survivors with AIDS generally engage in physical fitness/exercise programs.
authors.affiliation: Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Sepulveda, CA.
authors.forename: G F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Solomon
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000276:immunology* / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015551:Autoimmunity; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000378:metabolism*; D013177:Sports