Trying to “detox” after the holidays? Feeling bloated, stiff and achy? Daily exercise is absolutely essential for keeping your whole body in good working order, and physical activity stimulates your body’s major detoxification organs, including your intestines, urinary tract, sweat glands, circulatory system, and lymphatics. New research shows that as little as 20 minutes of exercise could have anti-inflammatory effects on the gut and the entire body.
Exercise improves the body’s anti-inflammatory response by activating the sympathetic nervous system. This boosts your heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate. As a result, your body releases hormones including epinephrine and norepinephrine into the bloodstream, which have the job of activating the adrenal receptors of immune cells. In a recent study, researchers examined the effects of a single 20-minute session of exercise on immune system activation. They found that even this small amount of exercise was enough to suppress the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines by 5%.
Inflammation is a necessary part of the body’s immune response, but too much inflammation can lead to disease. Chronic inflammation may contribute to diabetes, obesity, celiac disease, arthritis, fibromyalgia, or bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. It seems that even short periods of exercise can reduce the body’s inflammatory response, which may lead to exercise being recommended as a part of future treatment plans for inflammatory conditions.
Exercise also forces fresh blood to your tissues, which reduces inflammation by helping flush away metabolic debris. It provides nutrients to inflamed or damaged tissues, which facilitates repair and restoration. And, working out works hand in hand with hydration, keeping your digestive system moving and promoting good digestive health, further reducing the inflammatory response to your organs.
Here’s Your Exercise RX: If you lead a sedentary lifestyle, it’s vital that you make a plan to walk, jog, swim, or stretch for at least 30 minutes every day. Use a FitBit, or most smart phones can access a bunch of different activity tracker apps. Try going for 10,000 steps per day, which is a very healthy goal to have. Try to avoid sitting for extended periods of time. Sitting is the new smoking! If you work long hours, set a timer to get yourself up and moving on a regular basis, at least every hour.
And be sure to hydrate adequately before, during and after your workouts!
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