Fact Check: Can Exercise Reduce Inflammation?

Millions of people try to fight inflammation through exercise. Inflammation is a normal and necessary process the body uses to fight off infections and heal wounds. However, when inflammation becomes chronic, it can cause pain and lead to many health problems.

People with chronic inflammatory diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis or lupus, often experience flare-ups, as their immune system is overactive or doesn't work properly. So, can exercise help reduce inflammation? Read on to find out.

Can Exercise Reduce Inflammation?

Exercise is good for you. It might also be one of the healthiest ways to reduce inflammation in your body.

It can help prevent chronic diseases, like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. It can also help you live longer. In fact, a study found that people who exercise five times a week are 40% less likely to die from any cause than those who exercise just once a week or less. So it's not surprising that even when there's no time for an organised workout routine, regular physical activity can improve how you feel and even how well you sleep.

If all that sounds great but feels impossible don't worry: there are many easy ways to incorporate more movement into your daily life, like taking walking meetings instead of sitting in conference rooms all day long.

Evidence To Suggest Exercise Can Reduce Inflammation

You might be thinking, "But I already exercise. I'm not feeling any less pain than before."

That's a fair point, but it can take months or even years for your body to adapt to the physical demands of new exercise routines. However, there are immediate benefits as well: you'll feel happier and less stressed, for one thing. If you're able to stay consistent, you should be seeing positive changes in all sorts of other areas over time as well—your mood, energy levels and weight.

Whether directly or indirectly, exercise has a ton of benefits. Inflammation is often caused by immense stress on the joints. That could be down to several factors, like hereditary nature or even excessive weight.

What exercise can do, for sure, is help you bring down that number on the scale. Apart from feeling fabulous and confident, you now have one less thing to worry about: inflammation. The less you weigh, the less stress is borne by your joints. A lighter, leaner body can help prevent joint inflammation altogether.

Exercise Can Be Good For Arthritis

There's no doubt regular exercise can help improve your overall health and well-being, but there's also a lot of evidence to suggest it can help reduce inflammation. It's recommended that people with arthritis engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most days. This type of exercise could be as simple as walking or gardening. However, it should be done at a pace where you're breathing heavily after several minutes (but not exhausted).

Exercise helps improve muscle strength, flexibility, balance and cardiovascular health—all things that can positively impact the ability of muscles to move joints through their full range of motion without causing pain or stiffness.

Regular exercise also improves joint function by increasing the amount of synovial fluid around a joint, which lubricates the cartilage surfaces so they slide more smoothly during movement. That reduces friction inside joints and reduces pressure on painful areas caused by inflammed tissue when moving them from one position to another.

Furthermore, exercise has been shown to reduce pain levels in some people while improving mood in others who suffer from chronic pain conditions like arthritis.

It Doesn't Matter What You Do - Just Get Moving

Virtually any kind of exercise can reduce inflammation. So it doesn't matter if you do yoga, weightlifting or jogging - just get moving. The sooner you start moving, the better. Exercise is good for your brain and can help with depression.

So go out there, and get moving.

Is Exercise The Golden Ticket To An Inflammation-free Life?

While exercise does help, it's not the only thing you need to do to get rid of or reduce inflammation. Exercise is great, and it's the best way to stay healthy, but factors such as your diet, lifestyle, genetics, sleep, etc., are just as important.