A new study shows that just 3 months of aerobic exercise decreased body fat and calorie intake in overweight and obese people, and researchers this is due to a basic change in the central nervous system. Exercise can even help you stave off colon cancer. Many experts now consider colon cancer a largely preventable disease, but a new study finds most doctors neglect to tell their patients about one important step they can take to reduce their risk: exercise! But there’s one time when it’s UNHEALTHY to exercise: if you’re coming down with the flu!

When researchers analyzed quizzed almost 2,000 adults about colon cancer risks, only 15% thought physical activity was a way to reduce their risk. Yet a sedentary lifestyle accounts for as many as 14% of all colon cancer cases in the US. Highly active people have a 30 to 40% lower risk of developing colon cancer.

Researcher Edward Giovannucci says, “While many people are vaguely aware that exercise is good, the idea that exercise specifically prevents a large proportion of a common cancer may make an impact on the patient.” He thinks that inactivity could be a factor in over 14% of the estimated 112,000 cases of colon cancer diagnosed each year in the US.

Not everyone knows that if you feel yourself coming down with the flu, you should go to red?or at least avoid exercise?because that only makes it worse. A new study shows that a substance found in fruits and vegetables may cancel out the negative effect of exercise.

Mice given quercetin, a naturally occurring substance found in fruits and vegetables are less likely to contract the flu. This study also found that stressful exercise increased the susceptibility of mice to the flu, but quercetin canceled out that negative effect. Quercetin is present in a variety of fruits and vegetables, including red onions, grapes, blueberries, tea, broccoli and red wine, and has been shown to have anti-viral properties in some animal studies, but before this, none of these studies has looked specifically at the flu.

Although this study was done with mice, a recent human study found that people who took quercetin suffered fewer illnesses following three days of exhaustive exercise compared to those who did not.

Researcher Mark Davis says, “Quercetin feeding was an effective preventive strategy to offset the increase in susceptibility to infection that was associated with stressful exercise.”

Trying to reap the health benefits of exercise? Forget treadmills and spin classes, researchers have found a way around the sweat and pain. They identified two signaling pathways that are activated in response to exercise and converge to dramatically increase endurance?and put them in a pill!

Did you know that simple walking is the BEST exercise? You would if you?d read the FREE diet book that?s right here on our website. To read it, click here and scroll down to What I Learned From the Fat Years. Anne Strieber, who used to be a diabetic, devised this diet herself, using scientific principles, and lost 100 pounds by following it?and you can too! If you love Anne’s diaries and our extraordinary radio shows, support this site: Subscribe today!

Art credit: freeimages.co.uk

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