Take Your Cold on a Walk

Sometimes it's great when what you think works, actually does. A few weeks ago I was beginning to get a cold but I went ahead with my plans to go snow shoeing in the hopes I could sweat out the cold.

Well, exercise does really help fight colds. A new study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine reports that people who logged at least 20 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise—such as jogging, biking, or swimming—on five or more days per week were sick with cold or flu symptoms for just five days, on average, compared to about 8.5 days among people who exercised one day per week or less.

Furthermore regular exercisers tended to have milder symptoms when they were ill.

Why? An article on health.com quotes David Nieman, a professor of health, leisure, and exercise science at Appalachian State University, in Boone, N.C. as saying that "exercise is thought to boost the circulation of the virus-fighting white blood cells known as natural killer cells. Exercise gets these cells out…to deal with the enemy."

Another reason might be due to the endorphins which are released during exercise that in turn cause a spike in immune cells.