Minimize Inflammation Through Stretching and Exercise

Inflammation, the age-old trigger word. The symptom that seems to cause everything and what we try desperately to Google and try and find remedies for. Inflammation is practically under every cause on WebMD, making this almost a thing everyone has. Exercise and stretching have been known for quite a while as being great for reducing inflammation, but I feel as though people read that statement and don't quite know how that works. They just know that working out and stretching is good for you. But in this article I want to over all of the factual reasons and explanations for why this great thing occurs. Giving you more of a reason to go out there and move your body or to stretch for better blood flow.

Let's start with sitting and injuries/trauma. They might not look alike but they do the exact same detrimental thing. They make you stagnant and cause certain parts of your body to have more spots of inflammation than others. Especially with repeated motions. As in if you sit in the same posture in the same chair over and over or if you keep injuring the same area over and over. Both of these actions will cause red blood cells to rush to the site and stay there. Inflammation basically means red blood cells that haven't moved in a long time. The injury or act of sitting itself didn't cause the inflammation, but over time the red blood cells not being able to move or oxygenate the rest of your body causes the inflammation.

So, what happens if the red blood cells stay long enough past the inflammation process? You get diseases. I know that sounds very dramatic, but that is why inflammation is listed under so many causes and diseases and even cancers. Once your blood becomes less oxygenated, a.k.a. not moving enough, your other functions begin to fail. Your immune system counts on your blood flow to get rid of toxins and clean you up all of the time. No clean blood, no way to protect yourself. The most notorious and most deadly form of chronic inflammation is cancer. There have now been proven studies in which people who do not stretch enough will develop cancer cells in the parts of the body where the individual was tight or stiff. They tested it actually with mice and then repeated the theory on humans. The results were fascinating and alarming. Just think, one of the best preventions for such a terrible disease is for you to stretch more. The results were published in the Journal for Stretching and Exercise.

If you want to get less dramatic, shoulder pain and issues almost always stem from stiff shoulders. Stiff shoulders that try and move but can't or stiff shoulders that have never been stretched. Shoulders, neck, and back is where we most tend to hold on to inflammation. So many expensive and unnecessary shoulder surgeries could be avoided if we were to prevent them in the first place. Yes, you need to exercise more, but most importantly if you are tight ANYWHERE, stretch! Move that blood around so your body can breathe and get rid of all of the bad cells. Helping you to function. Help yourself to help your body.