Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Stretching and Disease Control

What is the first thing you do when you find out you have some sort of health problem or by chance some disease? Your doctor will probably tell you to eat better, maybe start an "anti-inflammatory diet", and start going on walks or start an exercise routine. What they don't mention though is a stretching routine. No one ever thinks of that as being its own "thing." Maybe you think of it as something that's automatically in your workout routine but only five minutes of stretches to warm up at the beginning or five minutes at the end to cool down. That is totally not enough. There has been increasing studies shown more recently in the last decade how stretching can prevent or slow down the progress of an autoimmune disease. One study even covered the effects of stretching and certain types of cancer. Let me explain.

When you have a sore muscle, technically that spot is an area filled with blood. That increase in blood flow to a certain boy part makes it swell and makes it sore or painful, hence the inflammation word. When you stretch, you move the bad inflammatory blood away from that area, and if you stretch long enough, that blood will make its way around your body through your circulatory system and eventually expel your body. Just by stretching, you can get rid of "bad blood" and circulate areas with new, better, and nutrient rich blood.

This is important because if you have a health problem, cancer, or some autoimmune disease where inflammation is the soul root of the problem, stretching can potentially help circulate that bad blood and get rid of it. Studies have been done in mice where they were genetically born with a cancer and were put on a stretching regiment. Nothing else about their diet or exercise routine changed. They would let the mouse grab a small rod, its legs would stay put, and they would pull and stretch the mouse a little bit at a time. It held the stretch for as long as 30 seconds, and they would do this multiple times a day. The mice had scans of their inflammation and cancer areas done every day before and after training. And in as little as three months the cancer areas started looking like normal tissue again. Human trials are currently in the works, and we are awaiting the results.

That study is fascinating because it gives hope to people living with all sorts of problems and diseases. A non-expensive solution to a massive problem. Think about it this way, radiation kills any cell, whether good or bad. But stretching takes that bad blood and expels it naturally. Less invasive, less expensive, and less damaging to your body. If you are constantly giving your body new nutrient rich blood, then it will thank you. Now I am NOT saying that stretching cures anything. But it is a massive help to any medication you are taking for whatever problem you have.