Taking an active role in your well-being and working hard to prioritize good sleep, keep your stress levels low, and eat anti-inflammatory foods (think: cruciferous veggies, berries, pulses, and omega-3-rich fish) can help keep inflammation at bay. And it also has the potential to add years to your life. Another great way to reduce inflammation and boost your immune system: regularly getting some good, old-fashioned exercise. “All acute exercise induces a low-grade inflammatory response that the body then adapts to, creating a longer-term, anti-inflammatory adaptation, says Stacy T. Sims, PhD, an exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist. “This is why the fitter you are, the less chronic inflammatory markers there are.” A systematic review of studies in Frontiers in Physiology backs this up, revealing that both moderate and vigorous exercise can elicit an inflammatory response. However, the research does note that “high-intensity exercise, especially when performed with reduced recovery periods, induces a persistent dysregulation of the immune system with increased susceptibility to illness.” This is why it’s so important to take adequate rest days and alternate between vigorous workouts (think: intense HIIT classes) and some lower-intensity, lower-impact movement (stretching, walking, light cycling, etc.). To reap the inflammatory benefits of exercise and start feeling better in general, try adding one—or all—of these anti-inflammatory exercises into your fitness routine. “[Yoga] reduces inflammation not only by improving circulation and steadying the breath, but also by stilling the mind and calming the nervous system, which can reduce triggers for stress-related eating,” Copeland adds. To truly reap the benefits, be intentional about your breath while practicing yoga. “Breathing in and out of the nose helps to kick in the parasympathetic nervous system, which aids in stress regulation and therefore inflammation in the body,” says yoga instructor Hope Elliot, who recommends spinal twists and the pose “legs up the wall” to help combat inflammation.
