Exercise and colds

It’s that time of year? You know, the cold/flu season. All our friends, kids, significant others and strangers are really in the sharing mood. You can’t seem to wash your hands enough. Plenty of sleep, eating right, and keeping up our vitamin levels will help with our immune system.

There was an interesting article in the American Journal of Medicine in November of 2006 entitled “Moderate-intensity exercise reduces the incidence of colds among postmenopausal women.” The study was done at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA.

They studied a total of 115 overweight and obese, sedentary, postmenopausal women in the Seattle area to assess the effect of a moderate-intensity, year-long exercise program on the risk of colds and other upper respiratory tract infections in postmenopausal women.

The program of the moderate-intensity exercise group consisted of 45 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise 5 days per week for 12 months. Control participants attended once-weekly, 45-minute stretching sessions. Over 12 months, they found that the risk of colds decreased in the “exercisers” relative to the “stretchers”. In the final 3 months of the study, the risk of colds in stretchers was more than threefold that of exercisers.

So the conclusion was that one year of moderate exercise can be a powerful tool to protect ourselves and boost our immune systems. Don’t let the season get you on your back, get up and fight!

louAnn Good
Fitness Together Fort Myers