‘Fess Up

September 27th, 2011 by Amy Gonsalves Leave a reply »

How many of you have already gotten sick since school started back up?

Did you know that people who exercise five or more days a week spend 46% fewer days laid up with a cold or respiratory virus compared to those who work out only once a week or not at all?

I am starting to think we should get UNSICK pay. Sheesh.

The study found that aerobic exercise was best to fight the common cold because it activates the immune system and increases the activity of white blood cells and antibodies whose job it is to fight off infection.

How great is this information?!

The boost in immunity lasted for a while after the aerobic exercise ended… much like an elevated heart rate, I imagine.  You stay armed and ready for the next bout.

Of course, too much can be a bad thing and if you’re overtraining you end up having the opposite effect.  My rule of thumb when it comes to overtraining?  If you wonder “am I overtraining?” the answer is YES. 

We sometimes don’t do a very good job at listening to ourselves.  If something someplace happened in your body and you thought, even hours or days later, that you might be overtraining, what’s the harm in taking it easy for an extra day?

This is the type of place I think those of us with diabetes can excel over our non-glucose-checking counterparts.  Listening and respecting and responding to our bodies’ little teensy questions and signals and tweaks and blips really comes into play when it comes to taking care of ourselves.

Diabetes mandates that attention and respect.  We are trained for it already.

So when it comes to warding off an attack of a tuffy node, do yourself a favor in advance: Get out there and move yourself.

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