Can exercise heal your body?

Exercise is the best thing you can do for yourself. Fitness is not about looking good, it's about feeling good. It's about living in a body that is a lasting source of productivity and enjoyment. Becoming and staying fit and healthy is a life-long process of experimenting with the types of movement that best nourish our bodies, minds and souls.
Any complete exercise program will always have three main components: aerobic/cardiovascular conditioning, flexibility training/stretching, and strength training. Aerobic conditioning is important for strengthening the muscles of the heart and lungs to burn fat and decrease the risks for chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Flexibility training is important for improving posture, minimizing chronic pain, and improving ease of movement. Strength training is important for decreasing the risks for osteoporosis, improving joint stability, and improving posture and balance, and boosting metabolism. So, regardless of your body type or level of fitness, you should seek out a combination of exercises that will give you the benefits from each of these three main categories.
As a person with an autoimmune disease myself, I can say that exercise is one of the best things that anyone can do to manage their disease. Its about taking control of ones life, by putting good foods in, maxamizing physical strength, meditating for emotional stability and loving others and ourselves for our "heart". It is all crucial to optimizing your life, whatever it brings.

Exercise also promotes the release of endogenous opioids and other "feel good" hormones and neurochemicals. I don't think anybody really knows exactly how this works, only that it does! I was suffering from crappy insomnia - just took forever to get to sleep and I'd wake up throughout the night and have trouble falling back asleep. Now that I've started brisk walking/jogging there has been a very significant improvement in the quality of sleep. It's amazing.

I remember reading somewhere that during the course of a day our bodies are experiencing multiple stressors and the production of stress hormones/chemicals. The only way that the body knows to "stabilize" itself and get rid of these stress hormones is through exercise. I know of many studies that show the positive effects of exercise on mental health - there are probably some out there that detail positive changes on physical health (aside from weight loss, reduced blood pressure, less risk of chronic disease, etc.). I'll have to check that out!

Quote:
Alana, you could be describing me in that post. I was dx with lymphoma when ds was a year old. I also "may" have fibromyalgia. I felt like I had aged 20 years after giving birth to ds. My body hurts all the time. Pre-marriage and baby, I worked out 5 days a week doing hardcore aerobics and was in great shape. I don't feel up for that again, but I joined Curves and it's pretty gentle on your body. It gives me more energy and boosts my mood. You will be sore at first (but heck I was sore anyway) but once you are doing it regularly it actually makes me feel less achy, and I've noticed I feel stronger.