Exercise And Inflammation: What Is The Link And What Does It Mean For Your Health?
Inflammation is a term that you have probably heard before and you might have a general sense of what it means. However, a lot of people don’t realize the central role that inflammation plays in disease and how chronic inflammation can impact your health. They also don’t know about the strong link between exercise and inflammation and how important it is.
Usually, people exercise because they are looking for a way to lose weight quickly. But they don’t necessarily consider how they could be reducing inflammation in the body or, in some cases, increasing it, and what this means for their health. Read on to find out what inflammation is, how it relates to exercise, and how that impacts your overall health.
What Is Inflammation?
Inflammation is your body’s way of repairing itself from physical damage or infection. Whenever cells are damaged for any reason, they release a number of chemicals that cause blood vessels to leak white blood cells into the affected area and repair the damage. That’s why you experience swelling when you injure yourself or have an infection somewhere. This form of inflammation is known as acute inflammation.
However, some people experience chronic inflammation, which often happens in response to harmful chemicals from smoking or alcohol but can also happen due to immune disorders. Chronic inflammation consistently attacks healthy cells and has been linked to a number of serious health conditions.
Does Exercise Cause Inflammation?
The short answer is, yes, exercise does cause inflammation. However, that doesn’t mean you should stop exercising because physical activity impacts acute and chronic inflammation in different ways. When you exercise, your muscles are damaged and they need to be repaired, so you experience acute inflammation and that’s why your muscles may ache after a tough workout. Using athletic tape is a good way to prevent this and you can find kt therapeutic tape for sale online. Wearing this while you exercise will help manage inflammation and avoid injury. Stretching and warming up correctly is very important too. As long as you treat your muscles well, acute inflammation caused by exercise shouldn’t be a problem. But what about chronic inflammation?
How Exercise Reduces Chronic Inflammation
The good news is, exercise has the opposite effect on chronic inflammation and it has actually been shown to reduce it. It all has to do with a protein called TNF alpha, which triggers chronic inflammation in the body. When we exercise, our muscles release a different protein called IL-6, and this inhibits TNF alpha, thereby reducing chronic inflammation in the body. The studies suggest that the longer you exercise for, the more IL-6 your muscles produce and the bigger the impact on chronic inflammation. So, regular exercise can protect you from a range of health conditions, including heart disease and strokes, by reducing inflammation.
Even though exercise does increase acute inflammation in the body, this is not a risk to your health as long as you rest properly and give your body everything it needs so your muscles can recover. Regular exercise sessions will also drastically reduce chronic inflammation, making you much healthier in the future.
