subject: Another Easy Way to Prevent a Cold [print this page] Another Easy Way to Prevent a Cold Another Easy Way to Prevent a Cold
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Exercise burns calories, which can help you lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. It can help improve your circulation, too, especially in your arms and legs, where people can suffer nerve damage and other problems. Exercise can help reduce your cholesterol and high blood pressure. High cholesterol and high blood pressure can lead to the risk of a heart attack or stroke. Exercise helps reduce stress and stress is known to cause all kinds of health problems.
Regular exercise could help your body better respond to insulin. Exercise is known to be effective in managing blood glucose by lowering it. In fact, exercise is often effective enough in regulating blood sugar that diabetics may be able to reduce the amount of medication they need to treat diabetes, or even eliminate the need for medication altogether.
With such a track record, could exercise help during the cold and flu season? According to researchers in North Carolina yes. Though not a cure for the common cold, the U.S. research team has found that people who exercise regularly seem to have fewer and milder colds.
For the study, the researchers collected data on 1,002 men and women from ages 18 to 85. During 12 weeks in the autumn and winter of 2008, the researchers tracked the number of upper respiratory tract infections the participants suffered. The study participants also reported how much and what kinds of aerobic exercise they did weekly, and rated their fitness levels using a 10-point system.
The researchers found that the frequency of colds among people who exercised five or more days a week was up to 46% less than those who exercised only one day or less of the week. They also found that the number of days people suffered cold symptoms was 41% lower among those who were physically active on five or more days of the week, compared to the largely sedentary group. The group that felt the fittest also experienced 34% fewer days of cold symptoms than those were felt the least fit.
In general, colds also appeared to be less severe for those in better shape. Among those who felt the fittest, the severity of symptoms dropped by 32%, and they dropped by 41% among those who exercised most, the researchers added.
It is estimated that adults in the U.S. can expect to get a cold two to four times a year, with kids clocking in at six to 10 colds. The researchers hope that people will use exercise as an inexpensive way to put a dent in those statistics.
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