Anti-inflammatory Effects of Exercise

Abstract

Chronic low-level inflammation is associated with obesity and increased incidence of cancer and chronic disease states. Regular exercise reduces the risk of some cancers as well as chronic metabolic and cardiorespiratory diseases, in part because exercise exerts anti-inflammatory effects. The anti-inflammatory effects of regular exercise may be mediated via both a reduction in visceral fat mass (with a subsequent decreased release of adipokines) and the induction of an anti-inflammatory environment with each bout of exercise via the release of IL-6 from working skeletal muscle, reduced expression of TLRs on monocytes/macrophages, inhibition of monocyte/macrophage infiltration into adipose tissue, phenotypic switching of macrophages within adipose tissue, a reduction in the circulating numbers of pro-inflammatory monocytes and an increase in the circulating numbers of regulatory T cells.