With winter still in full force, the chances of you catching a cold are fairly good. And if and when you do, you may wonder if it’s a good idea to work out or use it as an excuse to take it easy.
The American College of Sports Medicine recently released its recommendations for exercising when you have a cold. Here are the do’s and don’ts.
Do
Exercise with moderate intensity. If your cold symptoms are confined to your head (runny nose or sore throat). You can return to exercising at a higher intensity a few days after cold symptoms subside.
Ease back into your workout slowly if you’re recovering from a more serious bout of a cold or flu.
Don’t
“Sweat out” your illness. There’s no data to support that exercising during an illness helps cure it.
Work out is your illness is systemic (spread beyond your head – respiratory infections, fever, swollen glands, and extreme aches and pains).
Health Tip of the Day
Coffee and Tea Reduce Brain-Tumor Risk
If you’ve put away your coffee pot because you thought it was bad for you, bring it back out. A good cup of joe has been shown to enhance DNA repair, an effect that may partly explain its ability to protect against types of cancer and dementia.
Even more striking is a recent finding from a study of half a million people in the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer & Nutrition that showed those who drank the most coffee or tea had the lowest rates of brain tumors. Fire up the java.
