Sweat your cold away.

Have you ever noticed that some people never need to take time off work because of illness? It doesn’t matter what time of year it is, they are always well.

I got to thinking about it, to see if I could do what they do so that I too would always be well. What I realised was that those people were never overweight or unfit.

I did a small, quite unscientific survey about illness and fitness. I discovered that the people who hardly ever caught a cold or other illness were also the ones who were into keeping a trim figure or were training for some sport or other.

I decided to investigate further. This is what I found.

Not only is exercise good for your shape and how your outside looks to the world, but it is also good for your insides too. Running, walking or swimming (see below*) on a regular basis will help to protect you from catching colds and more severe seasonal diseases.

A study I found concerning the effect of exercise on people’s health compared those doing exercise with a control group who did not. Those who worked up a sweat for about 20 minutes or so, 5 times a week spent less time being sick. When they did succumb, any cold symptoms were less severe.

I discovered that the reason this happens is because aerobic exercise ramps up your levels of natural disease-fighting killer cells, your white blood cells, which are critical to your immune system.

*Now aerobic exercise is not for everyone, even though the benefits are undisputed. But don’t worry. There are many activities that you can substitute for walking, etc.

To find out how an activity qualifies as an aerobic exercise see my post, Aerobic Exercise.

My suggestion is that you should find an activity that you are comfortable with which qualifies as an aerobic activity. Then you should make it a part of your normal lifestyle. You’ll be killing two birds with one stone, as the old saying goes.

Not only will you stay healthier, but you’ll get trimmer and lose weight. Just by simply fitting more of an activity which you’re comfortable with doing anyway into your normal week.