Exercise Decreases Inflammation
Throughout my career as a physical therapist, professor, radio and event speaker, and the author of six books on various health topics, I’ve spent a great deal of time trying to convince my patients, students, listeners, and readers that most everything which ails them would be improved by incorporating a moderate level exercise routine into their lives.
Exercise keeps the body strong and flexible, both physically and mentally. It can ward off obesity, regulate blood sugars, prompt new brain cell production, and ease the progression and discomfort of arthritis, just to name some of its many benefits. But are you ready for this? Recently, scientists have discovered that regular exercise can actually have beneficial changes within the microcosm of our digestive tract.
This may come as a surprise to some of you, but there’s an entire world of organisms living within your gut This microbiome consists of trillions—yes, trillions—of individual bacteria, without which we could not properly digest food or ward off infection. In fact, many studies have shown the particular strains of bacteria a person has living within their gut can alter their metabolism and resistance to disease.
In a research paper published in Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign conducted a two-stage study, first on rats, and then on humans, which revealed the demographics of one’s gut bacteria was altered for the better when non-exercising people began a regular exercise routine. Most notable was the widespread increase in bacteria which manufacture short-chain fatty acids, believed to reduce inflammation both in the gut and throughout the entire body.
Unfortunately, once exercise was discontinued, the positive gut bacteria changes reverted back to pre-exercise status within six weeks’ time. Also, noted was that the rise in inflammation fighting bacteria, which was demonstrated to occur, was more dramatic in those study participants who were not obese* at the beginning of the study.
*Defining Obesity: BMI of >30.0. Curious as to where your body weight lands you: Healthy, Overweight, or Obese? Check out my Body Mass Index Calculator. Though losing popularity to the Waist-Hip Ratio method, it is still, for most people, a good predictor of disease.