Muffin Top-Less

Exercise and Prevention of Colds

“Exercise and physical activities are important parts of a personal action plan to stay healthy and prevent chronic illness. Regular exercise allows you to improve your overall fitness, which can help to boost your immune system — the body’s defense against infections.

Regular exercise appears to have the advantage of being able to jump-start the immune system, and that can help reduce the number of colds you get. With exercise, the number and aggressiveness of certain immune cells, such as the ones called natural killer cells, increase by as much as 50% to 300%. If you exercise regularly, this temporary increase can help make the immune system more efficient at destroying intruders that cause illness such as colds.

Some findings report that moderate intensity exercise — daily 20 to 30 minute walks, going to the gym every other day, or biking with kids a few times a week — may reduce the number of colds you get.

In one study reported in the American Journal of Medicine, women who walked for a half-hour every day for one year had half the number of colds as women who did not exercise. In this study, researchers associated regular walking with increasing levels of infection-fighting white blood cells. In another study, researchers found that the number of T-cells — a specific type of white blood cell — in 65-year-olds who exercised regularly was as high as those of people in their 30s.” - WebMD