Hematologic Response to Exercise

Moderate to intensive physical exercise generates different types of response in an individual. These responses depend upon the type of exercise and the duration of it, and they can be acute or chronic. Exercise affects different corporal system, among those is the hematological system. Literature describes changes in the blood volume, changes in the activity and population of white blood cells, as well as modifications in the humoral and cellular immunity, and in the count and shape of blood platelets. Also and as a result of those changes, it has been determined too, that exercise modifies in a negative way the life time of red blood cells, generating an apparent anemia, that has been widely discuss and that might be, among many factors, associated to hemolysis. This hemolysis might be associated with osmotic mechanisms or oxidative stress. The true is that all those events are strongly related and may cause a low performance in the practice of any physical activity, including that of sportsmen.