If you suffer from allergies, you’re not alone. There are millions of people fighting that battle with you, but this piece will give you an edge. A secret advantage you can use to make dealing with the symptoms a whole lot easier.
The secret? Exercise. No, you don’t have to become a “gym rat,” and spend every waking moment pumping iron, but the research is pretty conclusive. Spending just thirty minutes working up a sweat can reduce your allergy symptoms by as much as 70%! Even better, whereas a number of the medications you can take to control your symptoms will make you sleepy, a good, brisk workout will leave you feeling more awake, alert, and positively crackling with energy.
The science is unclear about exactly what exercise has such a big impact, but one of the leading theories is that by increasing your blood flow, it simply moves the allergens through your body and into your kidneys more quickly, where they can be purged. Another theory is that cardio-intensive workouts help to calm the inflammatory proteins in your nasal passages, although the exact mechanism is unclear.
A nice side benefit of regular workouts (in addition to the weight loss that will inevitably follow) is the fact that it can act to counter those feelings of fatigue and irritability you often feel when you’ve spent the better part of a day sneezing and feeling miserable.
So what exercises tend to be the most impactful?
Any cardio-centered workout will do wonders, as will activities like swimming. In fact, if the town or city where you live has an aquatic center, you can often sign up for classes that see you performing various exercises in the pool, where the drag created by the water gives you a better, more thorough workout than if you were to do those same exercises in an exercise room. Just be sure to take an antihistamine if you’re having difficulty breathing before you begin, otherwise, you could wind up making yourself feel worse, not better!
