Fitness is good for us - this we know. But did you ever think of it as an immunity booster for the cold and flu season?

We all want ways to keep healthy during the “sick months” especially with the little ones around. If you have school aged children or kids in daycare, you can use all the help you can get. So along with nutritional, emotional, herbal, and supplement tips that can help you in this seemingly uphill battle, you can also count exercise as a key component to the puzzle of good health.

One of the many factors involved in keeping a healthy immune system is taking care of the lymphatic system. The lymph system is a network of node, nodules, organs, and vessels that, among other things, carry nutrients to immune cells and help take toxins away. Unlike other circulatory systems, this one does not have pump its own pump to keep it going, so it is up to you to do this for it. How? You guessed it. Get the body moving.

Another way that exercise helps the body maintain optimal immunity is that exercise reduces stress in the body. When the body is stressed, it goes into fight of flight mode, slowing or shutting down other systems - one of the most important being the digestive system. When the digestive system slows, the bowels slow, bad bacteria multiply and this allows dangerous pathogens in and… you guessed it, you can get sick.

One of the last pieces to this is that vigorous exercise causes the body to sweat, detoxifying the system. Many traditional healing systems consider sweating to be a key component in keeping the body healthy. This one is usually the hardest to achieve in winter months unless you are an avid fitness fan.

How often to exercise or what type of exercise? I am not a big fan of generalized numbers on exercise or nutrition, so use your common sense. Move every day - move when you can, whenever you can. Move how you like! Some exercise is always better than none.

Do you find it hard to keep up your fitness routine as the days get colder and shorter? Tell us your challenges and how you remedy them.